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I love how simple things are such great accomplishments! Congrats on your towel covering up all of you! That's awesome. I'm waiting to see if I will have a three week stall (I'm at 2 weeks tomorrow post op). If there is a stall, your post has relieved me. Thank you!

Hi Maddie, A three week stall is a long time. I know you're frustrated! You're just now six weeks out, so you are starting on 'everything'. Carbs can bring you to a halt fast depending on what you are eating. To kick start a plateau, I'd always up my Protein and Water, do a little exercise and it worked like a charm every time. Protein for me was normally 60 - 65 and I'd go to 70 - 80. My calories when I was where you are were between 500 and 650 per day...and I did good to get that much in. During my losing period I averaged 675 per day. I had great restriction, I still do. I call cottage cheese, the Breakfast of champions, I love it. 1% of course. Eggs; steamed shrimp (i keep a bag on hand for lunch), tuna, I measure 2 TB of lite mayo for a can; whatever meat you want at night; stay away from bread, rice, Pasta, all sweets, nothing until you reach goal; chips; if it's in a bag or a box....chances are, you shouldn't have it!!! The exception, Special K Crackers, a few with tuna rather than bread are ok - recommended by my dietitian. They even have a little Fiber. I have two glasses of skim milk per day. I get liquid and 16 grams of protein, killing two birds with one stone, so to speak!! Greek yogurt, the plain, has TONS of protein in it, add Stivia or some other artificial sweetener to it, or sugar free jelly....a little fruit, be creative, just nothing you shouldn't. Great source of protein. I hope these suggestions help!!! Three weeks is a long time, you can overcome this, I promise you!!! Good luck, this tool works, just work with it!!! Also, I still weight and measure EVERYTHING....and keep an on line food log, it's good to know exactly how much you are eating and to keep track of your protein and calories!!! Just a suggestion!!

Stay the course- following the diet as directed by your dietician or surgeon, and the scale will move on its own. The three week stall is just your body's way of adjusting. Too early to require changes in diet. The cool thing is that even though the scale gets stubborn at 3 or 4 weeks, your body is still transforming, for the better. If you take your waist measurements at the beginning and end of the dreaded stall, you will see a change. Your pants are going to be a little looser, despite the same wight. hang in there! We've all been there and came out great!! (I understand the frustration. My stall at 3 weeks was about a week or so).

I'm 3 weeks and two days out and have lost 16 pounds thus far. I weighed 248 on the date of surgery. I too was concerned about my rate of loss in comparison to others, but I'm grateful that the scale is moving in the RIGHT direction, albeit slower than I'd like. You hear about the dreaded three week stall all over the place, and I figure that it'll all work itself out as long as I keep doing the right things. You got this!

I was having the same dilemma and asked the same question. Do a search for three week stall and you'll find that it's perfectly normal. Your body is readjusting itself and in a little while you'll be losing weight again. Be strong

almost everyone has their first stall within 4-6 weeks after surgery. We call it "the three week stall", even though it's not always on the third week post-op. But do a search for it - you'll find thousands of threads on it. It happens to almost everybody.

There isn't much that is almost completely universally experienced after sleeve surgery but stalling at three weeks out is one of those things. Don't believe me? Use the search function on this site -- or just do a general Google -- for "three week stall" or "vsg third week stall" or anything like that. Stay away from the scale for a few weeks and keep following your program. You may want to take measurements instead of weighing yourself for a bit. Good luck!

Sounds like you are in the three week stall that lot of people experience for up to two to three weeks. As we go through the food stages and probably increase our calorie intake a little, our bodies take time to adjust. If you are concerned speak to your dietician, make sure you are keeping a food journal and are eating the food volumes and type of foods in your guidelines. Also make sure you are getting sufficient non calorie fluids. Keep calm, it will come.

Milk of magnesia has helped me deal with any bathroom issues. (If you use it, just take a sip or two and not a complete dose. I learned that lesson the hard way the first time...) And the "three week stall" is quite real. I hit it, on schedule, right at the beginning of week 3. I lost about 2 pounds total over the next 2 weeks, and then it started to pick up again. I've lost about 10 pounds in the last 10-11 days, so it doesn't last forever. Feel better.

it's the infamous three-week stall. You just got it a little early. Almost everyone experiences that - if you do a search for it on this site, you'll find over 17,000 posts on it (and no, I am NOT kidding...). Mine was weeks 2 and 3. During week 4, it broke and I dropped something like 6-8 lbs in about two days. Just stick to your program and stay off the scale for a few days if you need to. It WILL break - they always do - and then you'll be on your way again.

it's the infamous three week stall. Almost all of us go through it. It's not always the third week (but it is for most of us) - but at some point within the first 4-6 weeks after surgery, almost all of us go through our first major stall. Mine was weeks 2 & 3. Didn't lose a lb. Then during week 4, the stall finally broke and I lost like 6-8 lbs within a couple of days. Just continue to follow your program and stay off the scale for a few days if you need to - and know that it WILL break! And also know that you'll likely hit these several times during your journey. It's all part of the game...

I just hot the three week stall. I'm down 29 lbs and couldn't wait to say I am down 30! Well, that may not happen right away. But I am so relieved to know that a "3 week stall" is actually a thing that others go through too. If I didn't know about this ahead of time I'm sure I would be really hard on myself...and I don't want that kind of negativity when I'm working so hard at this!

I am four weeks out. I made my husband hide my scale because it didnt move in four days and I freaked out. I googled and it seems lots of people talk about a three week stall. Did any else experience this? I am going to the gym 5 times a week and trying to get all my protien in. I am just not sure what to do?

My scale isn't moving either. I'm just silently screaming at it knowing I shouldn't be paying attention to the scale right now.I feel like I am a fairly even-tempered guy, but I was about to throw our scale off of the terrace by the end of the second week of my "three week stall." But, it finally passed, and I have been in a free-fall ever since. I bet that's going to happen for both of you before too long as well! Now, if I can just get to my next milestone before the stall rears its ugly head again!! :-) Hang in there! I'm with you. Good thing there aren't any neighbors behind our house! One day I'm going to toss that thing in the lake! Not really, but I know exactly how it feels.

Having not lost weight for nearly two weeks after surgery, I was starting to stress even thought I had heard of the three week stall. I then read this article and discussed it with my husband who's a meat science who confirmed its accuracy. A breath of relief and kept doing what I was supposed to and weight started dropping quickly again. Thought I'd share if someone else was experience and wondering what was going on. Here's the link: The article I read

It's a common thread I see running around this forum.. people asking why they didn't do this years ago. I'm even young and I'm finding myself asking the same thing. Though I'm only 25.. I wish I would have done it at 18 or 20.. admittedly, maybe I wasn't ready then.. maybe I still needed time.. especially because part of my story is finding out at 24 that I had bipolar II without the usual "standard" symptoms of women docs normally see in their 20's so I was very hard to diagnose and went through a period of about three years where I alienated everyone but my very closest friends because I was so hard to be around -- with a low of winding up needing to be admitted to a psych ward to get it all figured out. I definitely learned who my friends were (and who, surprisingly, weren't...) I am also social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and depression.. so I spent the last year and a half in counseling trying to get my mental self to match the well-put together self I present to the world thanks to years of being on stage growing up. I learned to show myself as put together - graduating magna cum laude and being responsible even if I was falling apart inside. So I needed to deal with all of that first before I felt ready to confront my weight. But finally I was ready. It started about 1 year ago. I had been feeling bad about my weight for a while. I was overweight during my childhood. My grandmothers both grew up during the Great Depression.. so for them.. giving me food was the same as giving me love.. especially high calorie foods. For them eating wasn't about hunger.. it was about enjoyment and thankfulness to have food to eat. (One was thin, one was overweight). But from them I learned to love all the wrong types of food and to love them in gigantic portions.. My stomach was already way stretched by the time I was 7 or 8. I remember weighing 85 pounds in 2nd grade because we did a math thing where we all weighed in front of the class. There was only one student, a boy, who weighed more.. during school I dealt with a lot, I mean a LOT of bullying because I was mature and just different - I'd rather read a book or write a story than go out for recess and I was reading Romeo and Juliet while they were reading Junie B Jones (For the Record I like her too even though she's a huge spoiled brat). Basically I had a generation gap with my peers since my parents were born in the late forties and early fifties and their parents were much younger.. so I was already -extremely- bullied. I didn't make my first non-internet friends until college.. and those were some of the people I found out weren't true blue friends when I went through my emotional break down a couple of years ago... So yeah.. and it didn't help that I was overweight.. that was just something else to give them to make fun of me about. As it turned out.. even though I wasn't doing even as good as I am now in therapy one year ago.. I was doing better than I had been in years and that gave me time and energy to turn my thoughts to the weight I'd been unhappy to be carrying around for years. Before college it bothered me.. but I didn't think about it a lot.. it was in early college when I hit 200 and started having trouble finding clothes that would fit me in your typical stores both like Macy's but also stores that people my age like - Aeropostale, Am. Eagle etc.. that I started to have a personal crisis about my weight and be super unhappy with it. Shopping became my least favorite thing because it was an exercise in taking whatever would fit rather than whatever I liked. And by a year ago I had started to notice I couldn't do or keep up with the same types of activities most people my age do. I love showing my dog Riff in conformation and was learning that I couldn't keep up with her jogging on our down and back (jogging beside the dog so the judge can see his or her movement properly) and that getting on my knees to present her not only hurt but was nearly impossible. I started to be even more unhappy because I couldn't do the hobbies I loved that people my age are doing. And in the meantime for the past 5-10 years I'd been trying every diet known to man.. I didn't feel like any of them were sustainable for a life time because I was unhappy with them. And rather than yo-yoing I just didn't lose. Didn't matter how well I stuck to a diet, I'd find myself losing maybe 5 pounds in 7 or 8 months of hard work.. and finally I gave up.. I was near the point of accepting I was just going to be overweight forever and that was how it was going to be. I knew my issues - I don't eat for emotional reasons, I don't eat when I'm not hungry.. but my stomach was super stretched from years of eating too much and I like big portions and the wrong kinds of things. I could go and polish off a huge plate of food enough for three meals and feel "Just about right" and I didn't have the self control to starve while I waited on my stomach to shrink naturally.. I just couldn't do it. I had heard things about gastric bypass that made me say no way never.. things like "You'll never be able to have any sugar again." or "You'll never be able to have fried foods again." While I'm happy to make lifestyle changes, things like "Never again" aren't something I'm capable of. So I ruled out surgery for a long while. Finally, a year ago I looked into it again and read about gastric sleeve for the first time.. and it was a fit.. not as serious as gastric bypass.. less prone to things like dumping syndrome.. and all about moderation rather than "never agains" more healthy choices.. less bad ones.. but I didn't have to promise I was never eating Pasta or never having a fried chicken leg again - which was something I knew I couldn't agree to. There was less risk of serious complications and it was a plan I thought I could actually live with and be happy and it went right to the root of my issue - shrink my stomach so I can get used to a normal portion size again without having to starve. Something I haven't had since I was 6-7 years old. Within two days of researching I was ready to commit. But of course getting my medicaid to pay for the surgery wasn't as easy as deciding I wanted it - even though I looked over the qualifications and knew I met them - I still had a lot of hoops to jump through. In October I started my 6 month phys supervised diet which only convinced my doctor and I that I needed the surgery even more. I ate 1500 calories a day and walked my dog most days for 30+ minutes (which was a significant step down from what I had been eating and step up from my sedentary lifestyle) and lost only 11 pounds in all that time. And part of it came back! Getting cleared psychologically was a battle too. They wanted a psychiatrist who didn't know me to evaluate me even though my own had already sent a letter of approval.. and the psychiatrist who I did see didn't really want to clear someone who was bipolar.. it was a battle, but finally I got cleared. That by itself took over two months and delayed my surgery which should have been in March 2016. I also had to have blood work, a number of physician check ups by my program's docs and so on. But finally all the hard work paid off.. on the first submission to insurance, I was approved within a week! How excited was I! And my surgery was set for May 31st 2016. However, the roller coaster wasn't over.. I had little contact with my bariatric program from the get go... they share a department, nurses, etc with general surgery.. so calling to talk to someone there is always a nightmare.. it's a 30 minute wait to get a human on the phone, calling to talk to a nurse means a 5 hour or more wait for a call back.. and it also means a very unpersonalized approach.. they're so busy and have so many people through their program that they want everyone to be a cookie cutter mold and don't want to offer people any individualized advice because "others in the program might want the same advice." Well number one - others in the program shouldn't know what -I- discuss with my doctors so how could they want it and number two healthcare isn't supposed to be about squeezing people into a mold and making the exact same treatment work for everyone... so I began to be unhappy with my program from early on.. especially when their psychiatrist and my psychiatrist got into a fight over the phone about whether I was going to get cleared. Their psychiatrist had met me only once and knew nothing about my case history while my own psychiatrist has been working with me for about a year and half.. who do you think was more qualified to say if I was stable or not? But aparently their program couldn't understand that.. However.. I was stuck.. Medicaid wanted me in state and this program was the closest to me and already an hour and a half away.. the only other options were double or triple that commute time (Chicago). So I just kinda had to stick with it.. I've gone on to be further disappointed by them at numerous occasions - namely when my surgeon said that Water aerobics is a joke of an exercise program and only for people who can't do anything else and that I couldn't hit my weight loss goal of 130 pounds doing water exercise of any kind (there's a thread floating around about that). Clearly he's never taken a hard core water exercise class or he would know that is so not true. I took my first one Friday and I was sweating in the water! Finally I did get to have my surgery though! Before surgery I had an 800 calorie diet for two weeks focusing on Protein and lean meats and veggies and reasonable on carbs. It wasn't too hard of a diet to follow beyond getting hungry because my stomach was huge. Surgery day came but I was excited rather than nervous. especially because all of us May 31st sleevers from the forum (there was about 10 of us) made a facebook group so we could keep in touch and that really helps to have other people who are exactly where I'm at in the recovery stage. I didn't have much trouble recovering from surgery. I never had any gas pain and even though I was in pain in general the first three days they gave me lots of morphine and kept me very comfortable. While my program as a whole is somewhat disappointing - I do have to say that the nurses who took care of me in the hospital couldn't have been better. They helped me walk. They helped me get up to go to the bathroom and helped me adjust positions in bed since I needed help doing all that for the first 2-3 days. I brought my laptop to the hospital with me and spent time here on the forums and doing other stuff I like -- even played some Sims. My recovery was uncomplicated and three days later I was able to go home. My internal swelling went down fast and by a week out I was so sick of liquids that I couldn't help but try a little puree and it worked just fine to help supplement and keep me from going nuts. One thing that's been very helpful to me is Fairlife Milk. it's heightened protein milk with 13 grams of protein for a cup. I drink it straight and also add it to my Soups. It helps a lot in getting in my 64 oz of liquid and my 60 grams of protein. I've been using an app called Plant Nanny which lets you grow plants based on how much Fluid you consume then you can plant them in your garden and harvest their seeds to get more diverse plants.. it makes drinking at least slightly more fun. I also wear a fitbit flex and it's synced with My Fitness Pal. I log my calories on MFP and my exercise syncs there from my fitbit automatically and tells me if I've earned extra calories from exercise (though I rarely use those). I was never given a calorie goal to shoot for but I set a goal of 800 for myself based on the pre-opp diet and what I can eat and get in 60 grams of protein without feeling too stuffed/ too deprived. I'm on my own for a lot of it because I've only met with the NUT once for 30 minutes pre-opp about 2 months and I won't see her again until in July so... I just read and do the best I can. So yeah I'm 3 full weeks out from surgery on Tuesday and also down 20 pounds since May 18th (the start of my pre-opp liver diet). I faced the three week stall at about week 2 instead of three and I was down to a new low for the first time in a week today so I'm hoping that it's broken and I'll have a bit of smooth sailing for a while from here. So.. that's my story so far. I don't know if people post in these to update but.. every once in a while I'll post back and let you guys know how I'm doing.

Very typical. It's called the three week stall, the average time people experience their first weight loss stall. You need to eat more calories though.

I would not worry about it to much your body is in a state of shok and yes your weight will fluctuate up and day every day all day long so maybe you should be one of the people who only weigh once a week. as for the three week stall that is perfectally normal and I promise you as long as you are following your dr's guidelines you will begin to loose again.

that lovely three week stall that lasts sometimes 2-4 weeks. that scale will move....dont worry! you will get there! stay possitive

it's the infamous "three week stall". Almost all of us experience that. In fact, if you do a search on this site of the three week stall, you will find about 17,000 posts on it (and no, I am NOT kidding!). Just stick to your program and stay off the scale for a few days. It'll break and you'll be on your way again. It usually last a week or two - but for a few people (a minority) it last for three. And just so you're prepared, you're likely to hit a few of these on your journey. It's a common part of weight loss...

In going on week five and can attest to the three week stall. I started upping my protein and added in walking and by the middle of week four I was losing again.

go up to the search box and type in "three week stall". It happens to pretty much everybody! I think your body just need to recalibrate or something. Just stick to your plan and the stall will break. I stalled for two weeks, but then I dropped like 6 or 8 lbs within a couple of days after it broke

almost everyone has their first major stall within the first month or so of surgery. We call it the "three week stall", but it's not always the third week. Do a search on it on this site - you'll find over 15,000 posts on it. It'll last about 1-3 weeks. Just stick to your program and stay off the scale if you have to. As long as you stick to your program, your weight loss WILL start up again...

So I had my sleeve done 11/6. I am on a liquid stage right now. Had to go out to any event to Celebrate my son's birthday and were around family that did not know I had surgery. I had Soup and then tried to eat a few bites of mashed potatoes so that it appeared I was eating like everyone else. I was only able to eat three bites of mashed potato. I'm just wondering once I get to real food next month. Is there going to be a point where I'm going to be able to eat an amount that is not so noticeable that everyone's gonna ask why only take five bites of food ? I'm just wondering if it's always only going to be a few bites of food or what? I want to eventually be able to go out and have normal social life without all the questions or why I'm not eating? So that's my only concern. For now obviously just being on shakes and yogurt etc. i'm already down 20 pounds since my surgery date. Still doesn't really feel good to eat yogurt even then I do better with just liquids. I go back to work this week and I feel fine other than that. I've been able to get up and walk around and be active almost since the first few days I've been home. So no complaints here. More just questions about the future. Happy that I will never be able to sit down with a huge plate of food And eat til my stomach hurts. Just knowing that makes me much more sure about my future. Making better choices and this tool helping for portion size it's really a win-win. Now I'm approaching this three-week stall keep hearing about but I have no complaints 20 pounds even for one month it's nothing to complain about. So far every day still more and more weight is gone. My doctor told me last Friday that that weight loss would slow down but I've lost another 3 pounds since then. Cheers to that!

Yes, it is the dreaded three week stall (or third week, since it doesn't necessarily last for three weeks!) Here is a good article explaining the physiology of what's happening now - http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.html As noted in the article, there is around ten pounds of Water and glycogen in play here, so it is not unusual for there to be some small amount of gain happening while you restore your glycogen reserves and switch into fat burning mode, so don't beat yourself up over any perceived dietary sins - it's just nature at work and can happens to most when they go thru this phase.