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By approximation in theory but in practice I don't need to. There is no weight I could be, where eating 1000 Calories per day wouldn't cause weight loss. The other problem with weighing oneself is seen on this forum which is replete with hand wringing regarding the "three week stall" and many other issues which aren't issues at all with regard to fat loss. They are scale related aberrations.

Crystal light won't affect the stall. The stall is your body's way of adjusting. Mine lasted two and a half weeks and some have lasted up to several months for others. You want to up protein and be patient. I drank Crystal Light and still do but alternate between that and plain water, with plain water being my main source of liquid. You shouldn't have any restriction on liquid at all. I did cut out the protein shake, which helped me, not sure how much meat you eat so feel unsure you want to cut that out. Walking more now helps, and I'm losing a pound a day. I have no issues, even eating one small scoop of ice cream with a cookie last night, and waking up a pound and a half lighter. (First and last time eating ice cream for a long time, I had no dumping syndrome.) The stalls are hard but normal. There is no dreaded "three week stall", it's just one of several plateaus you will hit. I will say you may wish to not drink crystal light due to fake sweetener that's in it, still having said that I drink it once in a while when water is too redundant. I personally don't think you ought to return to all fluids - you need to eat every three or so hours to keep your metabolism working. It's the yo-yo dieting that ruined the ability to lose to begin with. Just stick with 1-2 oz of food. Measure out 4oz, put half away and eat when you feel hungry. My doctor told me to expect a severe stall after I started solid food and that's exactly what I got. I'm down 53 pounds since May 1st. Good luck.

I'm 5'3" and started at 263.8, so I wasn't far off from you. I was a snug size 20 pants and a 2x top with 44DDD boobs. I am still 5'3" and down to 184.2 as of this morming. I am now a tight 12 or a loose 14 with a loose L top and 38DD boobs (the reason why I can't wear M tops). I am almost 5 months out and only 24 pounds away from my original goal before I decided to push myself to 150. That makes me 34 pounds away which feels oh so obtainable. I went through the three week "stall" which lasted almost two weeks and then the three month stall that lasted a month and I am now losing again. When I get to 150, I will see what I look like and reevaluate. I am an hourglass shape and I've not been that small since my sophomore year in college so who knows, twenty two years and two kids later. I teach kickboxing now, I can log in 20 miles over a weekend and feel great on Monday, I WANT to exercise every day and get frustrated when I can't. I never forget my pedometer when I used to on "accident". I do martial arts and when I do a jumping kick, I can actually get off the ground and my balance is so much better. Best of all? I FEEL GREAT ABOUT ME!! I've always had a healthy sense of self and I've always been very confident (in my opinion), but I am just now realizing how much of myself I actually lost now that I am getting ME back. If I didn't lose another pound, I'd be OK. I've gained so much more already. Best journey of my life so far and it's only going to get better.

Three week stall is normal. Search on the forum under stall and you will find a zillion posts on it. Your body is readjusting to the weight loss and to your new calorie intake, it's spent three weeks being just constantly confused and now it's rearranging stuff. It probably is retaining water. It probably is pulling inches off your body - have you measured? Just because you do not see scale movement doesn't mean your body is not still losing or on track. Stick with it, the stall will end, even if it takes a few weeks. Just make sure you're still keeping yourself hydrated and keeping your protein up. Stalls do not last forever =) Hang in there.

first week is from the IV fluids they gave you in the hospital. Some people gain as much as 10 lbs from that (I can't remember how much I "gained" - maybe 4 or 5 lbs). It can take up to a week for it to work its way out. Also, almost everyone has their first stall within the first 4-6 weeks after surgery. It's usually the third week (thus, the "three-week stall"), but not always. Mine was weeks 2 & 3. During week 4, it broke and I dropped like 6-8 lbs practically overnight.

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

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

LOL! That's exactly what "they" do call it: the dreaded three week stall. You can google it: dreaded three week stall You can also use this board's search function to find posts about the dreaded three week stall. People have been doing WLS a long time. Eventually, most of us all discover the same things.

I too was sleeved 10/21 and I too have only lost 14lbs. I was stalled for several days. I am pretty sure I know some of the reasons. First, I have had trouble getting enough calories in. I believe between 600-800 is good, but I have been lucky to be hitting 500. I am trying to boost it a little, but I truly am not hungry or get full fast. But this weekend I did increase by a little and dropped a pound. Second, I think I just stalled early, didn't wait for the "three week stall". That's ok, hopefully I will get past it early too! Pre op I started changing my diet in August, at my own discretion. So I dropped almost 33lbs before surgery, so my body has already been in a "losing" mode for a while now. And finally is my activity level. I haven't been cleared to exercise yet, but I know I could be doing more. (walking) But working 8-5 and raising a 5 year old makes it hard. Plus I am in Ohio and it is dark by 5:30, when I get home. Not much for walking in the dark and cold. Could walk at a mall or the Y, but my daughter has to come with me and that is just a whole other set of issues... Ok, the last thing is truly an excuse. I need to get more exercise, period. Anyway, I am exactly at the same point as you and I am not worried or giving up. Just keep on keepin' on ( with the plan) and things will start happening again.

You are losing on average 5 lbs a week. It may seem excrutiatingly slow, but my surgeon would tell you that it is an excellent pace. (I know, because he told me the same thing when I complained that I thought I was losing too slowly after a three week stall. I lost an average of 3 lbs a week in six weeks) Remember, it is a marathon and not a sprint. Hang in there, before you know it, months will pass and you will be posting great before and after photos!

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

I saw a quote in my daughter's school this weekend: "The kindest word in all the world is the unkind word, unsaid". That being said, I am tired too, PMSing, and in another damned three week stall so I may be slightly iritable. Honesty and kindness are not always mutually exclusive; they just don't always fit together neatly. I totally agree with you Laura (as I often do). To each their own. And certainly, anyone trying to profit by lying or omission is just plain wrong. I have no desire to argue with anyone - just to inform people that may not intend to be offensive that it is. If the intent is to offend or people don't care - they should feel free to offend away. If the intent is not to offend or they do care - perhaps they may want to rethink the language used. I have no idea why this thing is underlining everything I say but I can't make it stop!!!

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.

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 just got done with a three week stall so I understand your frustration. Keep eating right and exercising and the weight will come off. I also increased my calories by a hundred and that seemed to help

I understand about the stalls. I was in a three week stall 4 weeks post op and I am happy to report that over the last two days the scale is finally moving down again! I had been off my blood pressure meds since the surgery and it had been normal. Then all of a sudden my blood pressure went up again. I took my BP meds two days in a row and that seemed to have kick started the weight loss. I am sure I was retaining fluids of some sort. My BP is back to normal again and the scale is moving. I also upped my Protein and exercise; that probably had a lot to do with it too. Hang in there. I understand about the frustration. I had convinced myself that I was doing something wrong and that I was going to fail at this too. It's all a head game. Your body is adjusting and will move when it's time. Good luck and stay positive.

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!

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

Hi! I had surgery on the 13th and a few days ago I made a post called "I hate the scale" lol. I have sort of been all over the place, too. Actually in the past few days since I upped my calories, I am having a more consistent downward weight trend. I think mine was a mixture of body fluids and constipation for the first 10 days after surgery. Today I had my two week appointment and I was down a total of 9 lbs, which doesn't seem like a lot especially compared to those people who lose like 22 or 25 lb in 2 weeks, but I'm following the plan, so there's not much else I can do. I was happy to find out that that loss finally put me under a 35 BMI, so little losses are adding up. I know that people usually talk about the three-week stall on here, but the second week was really chaotic for me weight-wise. Hopefully we will both be slow but steady to meet our goals. Ps I just realized this is the bypass forum, and I had sleeve, but I don't think it makes that much difference in the first few weeks.

you're going through the three-week stall a little early. Almost everyone goes through that early stall. If you do a search for it on this site, you'll fine 17,501 posts on it (and no, I am NOT kidding - there literally are 17,501 posts on it). Just stick to your plan and your weight loss will start up again - I promise! My stall lasted for two weeks (weeks 2 and 3 post-surgery), and my weight loss started up again during week 4. I dropped like 6-8 lbs within a couple of days that week. So just hang tight and stay off the scale if you have to...

I use the term 'three week stall' because that tends to be when that first stall happens but for some it does so earlier or later.. as long as you follow your program it will drop pretty dramatically when it ends.

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

You are in the most common stall that there is... the "three week stall" that happens to almost all of us. Go up to the top of the vst page, in the search bar and look up three week stall. Also, you will go through a "surge" of hormones. I don't remember when nor how long it lasts, just that omg I am so f'n hormonal, I felt like I was crazy. Just know this - it too shall pass. Change your perspective. Concentrate on your "levels" .. by that I mean protein, how many oz of water you get in, etc. You will have many ups and downs in this journey and through out each trial, you will learn how to best equip yourself for the next hurdle. You CAN do it! And the weight's going to start zooming off... watch. If I could, I'd bet money on that. And I'm not a betting woman... Hang in there sweetie! OH and I (for a while) only allowed myself to weigh every Monday morning. Otherwise, it drove me nuts. Now, I don't care what the scale says as much. It varies (for me) up to 5 lbs a day depending on the time of the day. Limit scale time to once a week if you can!

look up "three week stall". Almost everyone gets it, and it's not *always* at exactly the three-week mark. Sometimes it's the second week, sometimes fourth or fifth. But always shortly after surgery. Mine lasted two weeks - weeks 2 and 3. Then I dropped like 6 or 8 lbs the fourth week.