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I'm so proud of you. This will be a great "before" to your amazing "after." After your surgery when you are having trouble getting down all your fluids and you're having buyer's remorse, or when you hit the three-week stall, you can look back and draw motivation from this. You are a very strong woman and YOU GOT THIS.

Quite possibly more than calories, is what those calories are (what is your average calorie count these days?) Since you are already taking B12, that's not likely it (B12 is more of an RNY thing than a VSG thing, but some can be intrinsically low it irrespective, or just diet is low in it for now, though most multivitamins have enough to do the job.) Overly low carbohydrates are frequently a cause of low energy in the absence of other anemia indicators, as that is where our quick energy comes from. It is what helps us chase down that antelope for dinner, or quickly climb a tree to avoid being a lion's dinner (hoping it's not a leopard chasing us!) We typically burn off our glycogen reserves (basically stored carb, held mostly in the muscle tissues) and the water that keeps it in solution first,, usually in the first couple of weeks or so, and then pause while we start to access our fat reserves to rebuild the glycogen back to a functional level - hence the typical rapid weight loss followed by the "three week stall". You may well still be trying to rebuild your glycogen stores to get you that everyday energy that you are expecting. I have seen some programs that specifically want their patients to do a bit of lightweight "carb loading" after surgery to counter this problem - things like oatmeal, cream of wheat, sloppy mashed potatoes, unsweetened apple sauce, watered down fruit juice, etc. I never had consistent energy problems as you describe, though I did run out of gas more quickly for a while - afternoon naps in the first 2-3 weeks were common and my bedtime shifted an hour or so earlier (my circadian rhythm has stayed shifted by an hour or so ever since - about an hour earlier to bed and hour earlier to get up,) but even within the first week I was outpacing my wife on our walks (granted, not a real high bar, but still....) I was back at the gym within the first 2-3 weeks, mostly to keep my wife in the habit, I basically just walked on the treadmill or did some gentle bike or elliptical work to explore range of motion, but moderate energy was there. I was up into the 900-1000 calorie range within the first couple of weeks, and the doc was adding more veg to the diet as my protein was satisfactory at 90+. I wasn't specifically carb loading, but neither was I avoiding them - just eating as healthy as possible within the limitations. Later, however, after about four months I was running into an energy wall after about an hour in the pool, and after consulting with the RD on it and added some complex carb ahead of my gym time, I found that a simple piece of toast made all the difference in breaking through that wall. So simple things can make a difference.

pretty much everyone has their first stall within the first month after surgery. It's so common it has a name - the three week stall (although it's not always the third week). Search the three week stall - you'll find hundreds of posts about it. Just stick to your plan, and the weight loss will start up again.

I too purchased way too many Protein drinks, packs of pudding, Soup broth and Jello. Tossed a lot of it. What I didn't realize was I could only consume 1 oz at a time the day after surgery. We buy for our tumors before surgery, but we can't eat that much after. I'm about 5 wks post op and STILL forget and dish up an old serving size. Then I giggle like I'd actually be able to eat even half of that amount! The three week stall was awful! Throw your scale away. Just wait for your post op visits to weigh. It's a mind game and it sucked for me. Getting up and moving as quickly as I could was hands down the best decision I made. No surgery gas pains (I'd had them from a previous laparoscopic surgery and they were awful! Dr said walking right away probably helped.) Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

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.

I had a bmi of 35 on the day of surgery which was a month ago. I have lost 25lbs so far including pre op and 18lbs since surgery. I am now in the three week stall which is soooo frustrating! I am hoping things will start moving this week! I also didn't feel any restriction when I was on the liquid phase...I have just started softs and I can definitely feel it now! Well done everyone on all the lbs lost!! X

Even on the purée phase if you stick to the portions on your plan you will only be consuming VERY low amount of calories. Your body can’t help but to lose weight. You may coincidentally have the three week stall but it will pass and you will continue to lose. Trust the process.

Dont get upset when you hit the three week stall. Sent from my SM-G930P using the BariatricPal App

Currently experiencing a three week stall...but, I am staying on top of my fluid and protein. I am walking as much as I can. Hoping to see the scale move a little bit this week. I'm feeling more normal than I have in the past month. Today marks the 1 month mark since I started my preop diet. WOW how time flies! Definitely excited to go home and have my soft meal of some salmon and mashed sweet potato with carrots!

If there were any vets left on this board they would tell you about the Three Week Stall. But there aren't. So.

@whitesale Sounds like you are doing all the right things. Im going on three months post op and have had no less than 4/FOUR crazy long stalls. That's crazy, right! It happens. Trust me it will get better. I did the Keto diet starting at about a month ago to jumpstart weight loss again after an almost three week stall. It's not for everyone but it works for me. I was hungry as hell everyday until last week now I've suddenly lost all hunger. The one thing I've learned is that your body will react to this sleeve differently from week to week. If you stay on your plan you will progress eventually! I promise. I'm going to start working out on Tuesday and can't wait!! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

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.

The infamous three week stall. Mine lasted three weeks. Just keep doing exactly what your doing, it will pass.

Oh, honey. You've just gone through another major operation! That's big stuff! You don't want to be beating yourself up so soon! Your body is probably saying 'what in the world?!' 'I'm hanging onto my calories, thank you very much!' Sounds like the common three week stall. Just keep doing what you know to be right and all will be well. One thing I will say - is food 'passing through' okay? As long as it is and you 'feel okay'.. Hang on in there. If, by another 4 weeks, things haven't 'levelled out', go back to your quack and have a chat. Hang in there, honey. It's too soon to be down and you'll be rocking your sleeve in no time. It's probably just your body's way of saying 'I'm grumpy, I've been fannied about with again.. Leave me alone!'

I was on a three-week stall and when I went in for my 1-month post-op check-in I was down an additional 5 pounds from my stall weight (which I hadn't checked in almost a week). I found the checking every day really messed with my head and led to unhealthy thoughts ie. maybe I should be eating even less, maybe this whole thing was for nothing, etc. So my advice would be no more looking at the scale, stick to the plan and I promise it'll start coming off again. You got this!

Check out the link in my signature. It explains the three-week stall. It sounds like you're dead in the middle of it. Don't be sad or depressed, it happens to most everyone.

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.

And here I was self-flagellating because I thought I must be either eating too much or too little or just generally have a body that doesn't want to lose weight. I'd never heard of the three week stall, but I'm in the midst of it. I'm 4wks post op tomorrow and I've fluctuated between losing and gaining a kilo in the last fortnight. That said, I do notice tiny changes in my body ie my sports crop top that was once nearly cutting me in two is now comfortable bordering on being too loose. I'm glad I kept scrolling through this and thank you to the original poster for posting this!!! I just hope my body gets a grip on itself and starts to pull the finger out. I've ramped up my cardio and plan to start weights this weekend (baby weights, not Arnie weights!!!). You all have given me hope that I'm not going to stay this weight. Yay! Cheers RozzieJ

The three week stall is so common. I am sure there are threads on this forum and others devoted to nothing else. I did not have it (and I was expecting to), but based on what I have seen, I might be in the minority. Folks say to simply stay on track with your program and it will break. You are so early post-op it is not anything anything you did or didn't do. It is your body adjusting.

Hello kteacher, I was doing just fine until Dec.23. I woke up with some chest pains that continued throughout that day and I could not get to sleep. I called 911 at 3:30AM on Dec.24 and had to go to the ER. I was concerned about my heart or a blood clot in my lungs. They took some blood tests and one (D-DIMAR) came back positive so they had to do a CT skan. My heart test all came back OK and there was NO blood clot in my lungs. But they did find a large Hematoma on my spleen. I had to stay in the hospital until christmas day about noon. They said it could be causing the pain in my chest area. The spleen could have been bumped and bruised during surgery, but I am going to be ok as far as I know. It will be absorbed by the body. The only time it usually causes problems is when it is infected or if it bursts inside the body. The doctor said that it doesn't appear to be infected. I had plans to leave on christmas day, to go out of state to visit family for Christmas. I ask the surgeon if it was OK to travel and he said it would be OK. So I went to visit Family and I just now arrived back home from the visit. Other than that, I am doing Ok. I am on my three week stall or either things got messed up from me being in the hospital. Dr. Husted told me that I would only have 1 incision instead of 5. I found out that I was the 2nd patient that he had performed the one incision surgery on. You must have been his first one because you had surgery on 11/20 and I had surgery on Dec.2. I am so thankful that I only had one that had to heal. I do not regret having had the sleeve done. I am hoping that after this stall, I will get back to losing so I will be on my way to my goal weight. I hope that you had a Merry Christmas and that you are doing ok from your surgery. I only have lost 16 pounds since Dec.2. I am going to go back to the Y soon so that it will help to burn some calories. I went to the support group on Dec.14 and I hope I get to go in Jan. I hope to meet you at one of the support group meetings. I will be posting more in a few days after I rest up from my trip. Thank you for your reply and have a nice day!!

it's the three week stall. Almost everyone goes through that. Although you're right, keeping up with your fluids is always important...

I just did a search on this site for you. There are literally 17,501 posts on this early stall. Pretty much everyone has it. I really think bariatric clinics ought to warn people about this because it happens to almost everyone, and people really freak out about it. Just stick to your plan and your weight loss will start up again. Stay off the scale if you have to. It usually lasts 1-2 weeks. Here are all the posts on it. Really - over 17,000 of them. https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three-week stall

Google "three week stall." That is what is happening. Just stick to your plan and the weight will come off. Nothing about post-op weight loss is linear. It is full of periods of loss, followed by longer periods of stall. That is just part of the process. Also, it is slow. I started my six month insurance-required diet program at 397 pounds, and weighed 298 pounds on surgery day. Even at that size, my loss in the first four weeks post-op was far from "dramatic." But I have followed my plan religiously every single day, kept my carbs below 20 every single day, tracked everything I put in my body every single day, and even with the countless stalls, I have lost 205 pounds and am 12 pounds from goal at 9 months post-op. Put the scale away if it bothers you and keep focused on what is important. Good luck!

Look up the "three week stall" Many get it. Mine lasted for over 3 weeks at started about 2 1/2 weeks out. Just do what your doing, and your body will start to let go again.

I am officially 3 weeks post op, and have not lost any weight for the past week, whereas I was losing a couple of pounds consistently each day for the first week. The first two or three days of this stall I experienced in complete denial. It's water weight, I would think to myself. Day six and seven of my stall brought me to google searches for answers. I've read countless reasons as to why I am possibly stalling, the following being more believable (at least to me) than others: It is a normal bodily response to drastic water loss and decreased caloric intake Your body is storing every bit of calorie you take in to burn for the healing process for your surgery, instead of burning actual fat itself My searches also brought me various methods, or "tricks" people used to break them from the vicious three week stall: Take in 200 more calories a day Increase physical activity Get one more hour of sleep each night Make sure you are drinking 2 liters of water every day, and 70-120 g of protein I have yet to be cleared safe by my surgeon to hit the gym just yet because at this point, I am taking in so little calories each day (300 to 500) that I would be so dangerously exhausted. As for increasing my caloric intake, I will have to do it in the form of protein shakes. I am still on a full liquid diet (thick liquids), so solids are out of the question for me. I also finally brought myself to sign up for a gym membership for the first time in three years. I work three days a week which leaves me 4 days of nothing but free time. Hopefully this will allow me to get back into a steady routine for the next year. At least I'd better get in there regularly! For one year of membership, it cost me $459 total but with no monthly payments. I'd be lying if I said I'm not excited about going to the gym. I vaguely remember the feeling of my body after a seriously intense workout. How I somehow just felt "light", and my limbs ached and felt like jell-o because I pushed myself harder than the last time. I also felt stronger. Anyways, I hope this week three stall breaks soon.