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I am experiencing the “three week stall” right now. Rest assured though, you can’t eat what we are eating and not lose weight. I think our bodies just fight it cause they literally Think we are trying to die.

Yes, it is as common as a full moon. Look up the "three week stall" or "third week stall." This infamous stall happens to many bariatric surgery patients sometime between the second and fourth postoperative weeks. It usually occurs around week 3; hence, it is called the "three week stall."

You lost over 30 pounds in two weeks, Celebrate that! It is early on in the game and as long as you are following rules you will be ok. The first month going from clears to full liquids to mushies etc poses a lot of changes to your body so give it time to adjust. I stalled after week two for over a week as well and thought, oh well, getting the three week stall out of the way early. Nope, hit another big stall a few weeks later. But things got moving again. I am now stuck at a previous set point and trying to just wait it out. I am doing what I need to be doing and have to trust that.

Just over eight months out. I’ve lost 132 pounds. 117 since surgery, 15 on liquid diet pre op. I lost nothing during July, having a three week stall.

Hello there! Thank you and Congratulations on your surgery date! You are going to be sooo happy!! I remember pre-op, I was on the liquid diet for 7 days, and it was hard at first, but by day 5 I was getting excited that my surgery was almost here and wasn't hungry any more. I am doing really well post-op - thank goodness. I am a little sore now and then, or if I move too quick in an odd position then I feel a little pinch, but other then that I am good. I am waiting to see if I experience the dreaded three week stall, but the truth I am not really dreading it if I do. I already feel so much better, and have lost 32 lbs in the last 26 days, that if I have to wait a minute for my body to catch up, then it's worth it. Are you excited? Are you nervous? Temecula is really nice - Wine Country!!

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 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!

Dragonsmate, good for you! Now, when you hit the three week stall, don't get into a tizzy.....

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

I'm 8 mths post op. I never had the three week stall. I'm having an 8 th month stall, almost 2 weeks. Frustrating!!!

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.

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.

Yep, it's the dreaded three week stall, which commonly occurs 2-3 weeks after the start of most any serious weight loss effort. This article http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.html provides a great explanation of what's happening and why. You will also probably notice that after you break this initial stall, that your weight loss will be somewhat slower as well - and this really is good news. The initial weight loss comes from your quick access energy reserves of glycogen (basically carbs,) which burn at a rate of around 2000 calories per pound, while your longer term energy reserves of fat that you will be drawing from after the glycogen stores are depleted, burn at a slower rate of around 3500 calories per pound - but it's the fat that we're trying to get rid of so that slowdown means that we're really doing what we are here to do! I never really stalled at this point, or any other for that matter, possibly because I never went seriously low carb on my diet as many do, so I never went as seriously into the glycogen deprevation mode as some (tho that is somewhat speculative,) but my loss certainly slowed down at that three week mark. Good luck and happy losing!

The stalls SUCK! Just got out of a three week stall myself, and nothing anyone said really made me feel better

Hi Wondering1- I was also able to eat a larger amount of calories than others post-op. I remember being really concerned that the surgery had failed, that I was overdoing it, etc. On my doctors plan I was on a liquid diet the first two weeks and then could incorporate soft meats and foods starting week 3. On my plan, a grilled leg and mashed potatoes would have been allowed at day 15 as well. What I learned is that some us don't deal with as much swelling as others and therefore can eat more and some of us have longer stomachs which equal longer sleeves and the ability to eat slightly more (especially if you are tall). Of course, the bougie size can vary as well. I feel I have had great success and I have eaten from 800-1200 calories a day since the third week post-op.Of course those are generally "quality" calories and Protein dense foods. I would encourage you to follow all of your doctor's orders and when eating take your time, eat small quanities and really try to find that sense of "satisfied" rather than full. But, also know that there isn't anything wrong with you or your sleeve just because you appear able to consume more calories. I think you will also find that it is more difficult to consume a lot when you eat more dense foods like meats. You're doing great! Amanda PS I lost 14 the first three days and then didn't lose another pound until day 25. It's probably the dreaded three week stall that we all had to deal with. Just keep doing what you are supposed to and it will all work out. Promise.

Don't forget to track how much and what you are eating. I like using My Fitness Pal. It really helped me in the beginning because it made me more aware of what nutrients I was getting in. My focus has always been to try to hit at least 80 grams of Protein. And, I had a three week stall that started week 3. They happen. I know it can be discouraging to NOT see the weight come off, but it will. I also learned early on to not weigh myself daily. Our bodies will fluctuate in weight day to day, even morning compared to night. Why? The food and fluids we eat/drink that is still in the system will increase our weight temporarily (and don't forget the other bodily functions). Pick a day and time to weigh yourself once a week. I swear it will help keep your sanity intact.

yes. Do a search on this site for the three week stall. There are over 17,000 posts on it (and no, I am NOT kidding...). Happens to almost all of us... Just stick to your program, stay off the scale if you have to, and trust the process. Your weight loss WILL start up again...

Take your vitamins and KEEP weighing. It is very good to know where you are at in case you need to adjust your routine(Like in this case). Keep drinking your water and the weight will move. During my three week stall I gained 3 pounds and thought WTF!! I now stick to 600-700 calories and low carb, woohoo!! Keep going, no worries, you can do this!!

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!

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.

Three week stall? Search the forum it's all around here. Body is in shock and trying regroup. Did not loose a pound on 3rd week postop. Staying off the scale helps if you can. Easier said than done. I'm exactly where you are. I'm 14 down. You will break through! :-)

I too am a slow loser, but so far I have lost consistently each week with the exception of the famous three week stall that lasted 3.5 weeks. My surgery was 12-28-11, I have lost 29 lbs since my surgery and that includes the pre- liquid diet. Most people think I've lost much more. So far the skin is pretty good considering I'm and old lady. I have always been a slow loser, have less than some to lose and have age against. It came on slow, so I will be patient. I see huge life changes already. At to months I was afraid my Dr would be upset, she was elated, also counted the weight I lost prior to surgery and thought percentage wise I was ahead of schedule. I had feared her reaction and she actually made me feel so successful. Keep up the good work!

6 weeks at 6 months out. This is probably your first (The Dreaded Three Week Stall that most get) and it won't be your last. Just keep getting your protien, fluids, stay low carb and move a little and it will pass. Stalls still suck, though

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.

We were at the same starting weight too give or take 10lbs (I WAS HEAVIER!) Surgery was 1/21. I had a very rough recovery, had the notorious three week stall which lasted 3 WEEKS, and have been feeling like my progress is NOT where it should be. I hardly ate or drank anything after surgery for at least a month. I had Water nausea & everything. Puree phase was the worst...I just could NOT eat and the sight of Protein shakes made me heave. She, on the other hand, had a super easy recovery and lost almost 20lbs more than me at this stage (her surgery was in Aug & 8 weeks later she was down 50) I just started tracking food- right now I'm having about 800-900 calories most days & I just started back to doing vigorous exercise this last two weeks. Tuesday I did a 63 minute spin class and ate 1500 calories that day. I felt that was WAY too much. I don't even like going over 1000 calories but according to FitnessPal, those 63 minutes burned off 1100 calories... Anyway, I've done over 190 minutes of exercise this week and lost only 2 friggin pounds. She's 10-12 years older than I am too. I''ve been teary all morning since weighing in. I don't know if this was really worth it. I could have struggled like this WITHOUT spending $7000 of my money on this effing surgery.