Search the Community

There's a very high likelihood your weight stall has nothing to do with what you are eating, and it would definitely not have anything to do with too much protein. This is your body's natural reaction to severe calorie restriction. In a nutshell, when you are on liquids only, you rapidly lose mostly water weight as your body burns stored glycogen for fuel. Once the glycogen runs low, your body turns to burning fat, which is what you want it to do. This takes a few weeks. However, when you start to introduce solid foods again, and especially carbs, your body is very keen to restore those glycogen stores. So it burns fat while also replenishing glycogen. Glycogen is bound to water, which means the water weight you lost in the pre-op diet and right after surgery are regained, which is fine. You need glycogen. It's what helps us get through short periods of lower food intake, like when you have a bad cold and lose your appetite for a week. Your body is still burning fat because you have a major daily calorie deficit. It will show up on the scales in a few weeks when everything else balances out. My advice is to just do what your doctors tell you, stop tinkering with your diet, and don't weigh yourself for a few weeks. Your doctors have advised hundreds if not thousands of patients just like you. They know what they're doing.

I agree with Arabesque that your body is probably more along the lines of what things would look like for most people at 4 months. The central line feeding would have been high calorie to prevent malnutrition, so I'm assuming you didn't lose any weight on it? Or did you? I remember reading about your rough start, I'm glad you've been able to get off the feeding tube and that you are able to eat, even though you are taking meds to help with that. Going from the high caloric intake of the central line to an extremely low caloric intake has probably been a shock for your body. Many of us stall somewhere in the first few months, some for a few weeks, some for a month or two, as our body readjusts and tries to decide if it is starving or not. I know you can only get in so much food with your digestion issues, but is there a reason you aren't supplementing with whole milk or shakes a few times a day? These wouldn't be affected by your slow stomach issues. And they may give your body a bit more energy to work with. Protein waters could work too, things like SEEQ are thinner and as easy to get down as water. The watermelon flavor tastes like a watermelon jolly rancher. LOL Weight loss post surgery is a delicate balance. We want to be in enough of a deficit to facilitate good weight loss, but if we are too low our body goes into stress mode and won't release any weight because it thinks we are in a famine and are trying to burn through our reserves. So we have to eat enough to reassure it that we aren't slowly starving to death. Decreasing your activity and increasing your intake a bit (even if it is just a shake or a few glasses of milk) might give your body enough of a signal that you aren't starving and have what you need to continue to lose weight safely. Things like hydration and sleep are crucial too, as these are also markers the body uses to determine how much stress it is under and if it is safe to lose weight. In fact, some studies have shown that sleep is MORE important for weight loss than even exercise is! I tend to think they are both important, but the point is, you have to look at the holistic picture of how much stress load your body thinks you are carrying in relation to how much energy it has to give. My last stall lasted 6 weeks and drove me crazy! But my body broke the stall when it was ready to, I just kept eating well, drinking well, and resting well. That's all you can do really. You can't push the river. ❤️

Congrats! Sounds like you are making some good progress if you've gone through that many clothes! I can relate to both of you. I feel like I haven't made the progress I should be, but Long Covid has hurt my exercise efforts and constant brain fog is frustrating. I also hit a 6 week long stall that really brought me down. Thankfully that finally broke the last two weeks for me, but I still dont' have my strength back. A 2 mile walk pretty much drains me still, even though I was doing 4-5 miles at a time 4 weeks post-op before Covid. EDIT: Based on continuing conversation in this thread, I just wanted to say I realize I have made good progress, but was trying to emphasize that I still have a mental block that, for some reason, prevents me from appreciating it. I've lost more weight than I was ever able to on my own, but at the same time feel physically weaker than any other point in my life despite trying to exercise. Also my start weight of 352 was from my highest ever weight in 2021, and not my pre-op diet weight of 321. Not trying to be dishonest, just trying to remind myself how bad off I was 2-3 years ago.

Hi from UK, Ive been booked in for surgery in July and was told to go on 12 week diet. I thought that's excessive as I've seen heavier people only do 2-3 weeks max. I have to do 9 weeks on milk and jelly, then 3 weeks on weight watchers soup and Muller. For example I've started today and I'm at weight I should be on 20th if I have like healthy protein based meal once a day in the 9 weeks that should be fine isn't it? I had boneless chicken today and weight didn't fluctuate thankfully so one meal a week for 9 weeks should be fine? Sorry if I'm rambling

I think it was a while too. Was eating cooked vegetables from soft but my tummy was a bit fussy about some & others just tasted bad. I love vegetables so that was hard to accept until everything settled. I did eat cucumber at about two months. I’d put a little cream cheese on strips of smoked salmon & wrap it around small salted wedges of peeled seedless cucumber. I’d eat two or three as one of my lunch options. But that was the only raw vegetable for a while.

I must be in the minority - I didn't mind the puree stage at all - especially after a few weeks (before and after surgery) of just drinking fluids! It was great to eat real food - even if it was pureed. I remember eating a lot of Greek yogurt, hummus, refried beans - I also pureed spanakopita (which I made without the phyllo) a couple of times, as I recall (I must have added something to get it going in the blender - some milk, maybe? Can't remember). I had surgery at age 55 (that was nine years ago) but fortunately, unlike summerseeker, I didn't deal with any hormone issues. I did have off and on "buyer's remorse" the first two or three weeks, though ("what in the hell did I just do?" "Why could have I tried dieting one last time?"). All that will pass and you'll be so glad you did it. p.s. I used my blender a lot during the puree stage. I already had a standard-sized one, but I ordered one that had both a standard-sized pitcher and a small pitcher, since I figured I'd use the small one a lot more (and I did). I think it's a lot easier nowadays to find small blenders. But like someone else said, you can always order one afterward, too.

Yeah. I have some that haven’t noticed but you know what, I didn’t do this for them. At my weight (315) I still look fat to people. I however I’m down from 412 (43 since surgery and the rest preop). What they don’t see is I have to wear smaller clothes, can fit back into my bra, and I can move and sleep better. I had my surgery about 10 days after you. I’m down 43 pounds over all. Sadly I am struggling to keep my losing on track. I tend to stall for a week or two and then drop like 5-7 pounds 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️. 60 pounds sounds like you’re right on track. the important thing is how you feel now. As far as how the weight comes off it varies person by person. It depends on if you work out or walk a lot. So however you “burn fat” will affect where you lose faster.

I have logged my weight like that but never thought to add the big life stressors or events in between. I bet that would be helpful for a bariatric therapist if you see one. I am working on getting in to see one. I had gastric sleeve three years ago and gained all my weight back. I am contemplating a conversion surgery and I want to pull out all the stops this time around. Best of kick to you.

If you lost a bunch of weight pre-surgery your loss post surgery may be slower for a little while. This is because the body has to recalibrate and reassure itself it isn't starving to death. It also has to replenish glycogen and rebalance your fluids and on and on. It's a lot of hard work for it!! And slow to one person is not slow to another person. I'm 6 weeks post op a DS and have lost 20 lbs. I did not lose much pre-op. I have been stalled for several weeks because that's the classic 3 week stall where the body does its thing to recalibrate to lose more weight. I'm not stressing about it, I just had a very major surgery! My body has been working hard! It takes time to recover. You feel like you are starving because you aren't getting your fluids in by mouth. Trust me, once you are getting all your fluids in it becomes a challenge to find times to eat and drink everything you need in a day. Getting fluids by IV will keep making the scale jump by 10 lbs because they fluid load you to last a few days. You are probably losing fat, it just isn't showing on the scales because of the IV fluids. Make sure you take measurements too, those often change when the scale doesn't. I wish you much luck in getting off the IVs!

I am 4 weeks now from surgery. I got my date of 12/27. I have been doing pre op since April but I ran into a health issue that took priority. Now that is taken care of this last stretch has gone quickly. I have a 2 week liquid with one meal a day. Then I have a 1 week liquid only up to surgery. Of course after surgery is the two week post op liquid and then adding in purée food for week three. I don’t know where to start and everything is so expensive. I have gotten some of the stuff I will need but none of it food or the Protein Drinks and shakes. That part I am actually finding rather overwhelming on what to get and how much And advice from anyone?

I've been able to eat ground meat (ground chicken, turkey & some Bison) fairly easy. Three ounces of meat with a few bites of veggies and I start feeling full. I take 20-30 minutes to eat with a lot of chewing. I've been sick a hand full of times since I've started soft foods. Mostly from eating too fast or taking one bite to much. Good to hear that you were able to eat without getting sick.

I was going to suggest the protein waters as well. Or if it’s the flavors that you are not liking and you are allowed to have caffeine the caffe latte by premiere protein. It’s kinda like iced coffee if you like that. These two were my go To post sleeve. In fact I am three years post sleeve and I still have the cafe latte in the fridge for morning when I don’t have time to cook or I just wake up really hungry and don’t want to wait.

Oh, I'm 3 weeks post op, almost 4 weeks

Hi there. It sounds like you're doing well. As for me, I'm 60, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 223 at time of surgery. I have only lost 12 pounds so far and am at the dreaded 3 week stall. I just have to be more patient.

Made it to day 2 post op! Not so much in pain, but get some very uncomfortable stomach feelings or cramps. They prescribed oxy and liquid Tylenol which I’ve been taking pretty much every 3-4 hours (woke up every three hours the first night following the procedure). Otherwise I’ve been up and walking in between napping - very tired! I had my procedure Thursday and was planning to go back into my office on Tuesday. Based on how tired I am, I will probably work from home the whole week following the procedure. My dietary guidelines are as follows: Day 1 (procedure day) & Day 2: Clear liquids, supposed to have 64 oz of Gatorade or a diluted fruit juice but I haven’t been able to drink that much at all. They said the first two days are the worst as your stomach heals, so hoping tomorrow is better. 4 weeks: Full liquid diet 2 weeks: Blended/pureed foods 4 weeks: Soft foods Regular food I feel ready but am a little nervous for the amount of drinking I’ll be doing at the office!

Your feelings are valid @Nan CC, surgery is stressful and the idea that we have done so much for so little loss in the beginning is discouraging and depressing!! I have some thoughts to share about your experiences... 1. That hunger you are experiencing is normal. It doesn't go away for everyone. I woke up in the recovery room ravenous which pissed me off because all they kept saying is I wouldn't be hungry! And I ended up more hungry than I'd been in years!! The first two months I was hungry all the time. True hunger. I think it is because the body is panicking and trying to figure out what is going on. Plus we've been lied to, that growling sound is often not hunger, but just our system digesting and moving air and fluid through our system. After surgery our internal digestive process sounds louder to us for some reason. Maybe because we are paying more attention?? I don't know. But I had true hunger constantly. One thing that will help this is a PPI (proton pump inhibitor). Our tiny tummies are still making enough acid for a normal tummy and that can irritate it as it heals. That gnawing hunger can often come from this and gets worse at night... 2. No, you aren't supposed to automatically feel full with 1/4 cup of food. A lot do, but not all by any means. The reason for this primarily is because all the nerves that communicate fullness to us were cut during surgery. It takes at least 3 full months for those to heal enough to accurately communicate again. The 1/4 cup portion size is to keep you from inadvertently overeating and stressing your healing stomach. At about 8-10 weeks you may notice you can eat more, that's because the internal swelling has gone down. By then you should be able to start gauging your fullness signals. They are often different post op and can look like sneezing, a congested or runny nose, hiccups, pressure in your breastbone, nausea, etc... By 3-4 months out you may be eating more like 1/3 to 1/2 cup of food at a time. Not everyone progresses that way, some have high restriction all the time and have to stick to smaller portions. But the key here is to start building that relationship of listening with your body and learning that the feeling of hunger does not mean you are starving. If you are eating 1/4 cup of food 5-6 times a day, you are getting enough nutrients for your stage in the process. As @AmberFLmentioned, I suggested Millie's sipping broths (you can get a sample pack of all the flavors on Amazon) they help a LOT when you want something, the warmth and savoriness can really soothe the extreme hunger until it balances out on its own. 3. Stalls are normal and can happen early and often. I lost about 15 lbs in the first 3 weeks and then proceeded to stall for 6 weeks and gain and lose the same 4 lbs!! I was horrified and really worried my surgery wasn't going to work. I lose weight VERY slowly, my body is resistant to losing, and I have diabetes and such like you, which I think makes losing hard too. This stall was normal, even though it didn't feel normal. DS patients are known for losing dramatic amounts of weight and my surgery weight was 307, there was no good reason for the stall. But my body needed to take a break and recalibrate and heal, so it did. Finally after those 6 weeks I SLOWLY started losing again. Then at the beginning of February the weight loss finally started to pick up! A lot of people lose a ton at the beginning, I didn't. Apparently my body needed 3 months before it felt safe to start dropping weight steadily... All you can do is get good movement, good sleep (sleep is crucial to weight loss), good hydration, eat every few hours, and stay off the scale for a bit...it will break when it is ready to. 4. Hunger does eventually return to normal, or whatever is normal for you... I'm almost 4 months out and mine is back to what is normal for me. I still have to eat every 3 hours, if I don't I feel drained and irritable and my weight loss slows... I drink plenty of fluids during the day, it helped with the hunger. I feel my fullness signals clearly now, I think all that healing is finally done. I just have to eat slow enough to allow those signals to get to my brain (it takes longer than you think!). Broths, milk, coffee, tea, flavored waters, all these will ease hunger pangs, but the best cure is time and learning to heal your relationship with your hunger so you can feel it and not feel stressed about it. The great thing about eating every 3 hours is the next meal is around the corner, so I can drink something and tell my system to wait until mealtime. This helps heal the insulin resistance too by allowing your body to go through the full insulin response cycle post meal. I'm sorry this feels so hard. I hope your stall breaks soon! And I hope it helps to know you are not alone. ❤️

I'm always cold too. I was cold before surgery and now it feels worse. Also i have a slow healing ulcer in my leg, which is going on three years everytime i get close to it healing somehow i manage to rip the dressing off it. Don't know if it's the extra walking I've been doing that has made it flare up again. On friday i had a fever and literally could not warm up (until i was too hot) that's gone now. Just called in sick for work to get some antibiotics for this leg. (Its Winter over here in Australia)

December 6 is my surgery date, I just got that today. Feels like it’s been forever but it’s really only been three or four months now. all I have left is November 29 a video call with a RN about my weight from that morning my medication list And my new Vitamin list which I’ll be getting from her. Then November 30 I have to go to a three hour “second Pre-op class“ I have to start my two week liquid diet this Thursday Thanksgiving 😞 that’s OK though does anybody have any suggestions about things I need before surgery? any help is appreciated!

I'm always cold too. I was cold before surgery and now it feels worse. Also i have a slow healing ulcer in my leg, which is going on three years everytime i get close to it healing somehow i manage to rip the dressing off it. Don't know if it's the extra walking I've been doing that has made it flare up again. On friday i had a fever and literally could not warm up (until i was too hot) that's gone now. Just called in sick for work to get some antibiotics for this leg. (Its Winter over here in Australia)

The first three weeks - I won't be coy here.... were really really hard. Having bones sawed off, and replaced and drilled into place is really painful; at any weight. However, once I got to being able to move around more - once the 34 staples were removed after just over 2 weeks; I was able to start moving around more. I totally gave up on the narcotics by the end of week two. I couldn't hold them down well, and the only thing I could eat was.... basically toast with a bit of jam. I finally at about the middle of week three could start walking a bit outside instead of around my dining room table - and progressed from taking 300 steps a day to over 1000 in that third week. At week 6 I am now able to walk for about 10 minutes with a cane, twice a day, and am able to take care of myself, the house, a flock of chickens (less any heavy lifting), the dog, parrot and reptiles. I weigh basically almost half of what I did at my heaviest. With this surgery,.... right before it, I was very limited in my ability to walk. I had gained 8 pounds from my lowest. After surgery at week 2 I was up another few pounds - Surgeon told me this is normal from how much IV fluids I was getting to keep me going. I am frankly eating A LOT of healthy foods right now. On dr's and nutritionist suggestion to build back muscle, nerve and bone loss. I am told that in another couple weeks I will start to lose the weight again. I am not worried, and I can hang with the process. I am walking about 4,000 to 5000 steps a day - over what I should be for my age and where I am post op.

Chinese yum cha lunch with girl friends yesterday & a part way through my meal pxt. Half of the Moreton bay bug spring roll & one of the three prawn & scallop siu mai. Took about 45 minutes to eat it all but I was sipping a glass of Louis Roederer champagne & the bubbles were giving me a bit of trouble. Was still worth it though. Lol! PS - Bugs are a local lobster variety. Very yummy: sweet, rich.

I was in Eygpt at 8 weeks post op for a couple of weeks and was totally fine!

I am 22 pounds from goal weight and the only exercise I have done for the past year is walking 2-3 miles a day. Casually. To be honest, I joined Planet Fitness since everyone kept telling me I needed to lift weights to avoid too much muscle loss from the rapid weight loss. I went a few times then stopped during flu season and never went back. I had a few different stalls and of course the weight loss slows the closer we get to our goal weight. But on the average, I lost 1-2 pounds per week since RNY WLS in April 2023. I plan to amp up my workouts after I get below my goal weight with resistance training. I used to body build in my 20's so I'm counting on muscle memory to kick in for me. LOL I also knew that weightlifting would increase my appetite and eating more when our bodies can't build muscle during our honeymoon phase didn't seem logical. According to bariatric surgeon, Dr V, we are in a catabolic state for 1 -2 years after surgery. Meaning we cannot build muscle while our body is breaking it down. (losing weight) Makes perfect sense to me. I'm curious if you have gotten a bodyfat test that shows increased muscle mass 9 months after surgery coupled with weightlifting?

I had my RNY procedure last January at 52. So far so good. 2 days in the hospital, I managed my pain at home with Tylenol instead of the hydrocodone I was given. No complications, I did have a bout of dumping when eating peanut butter for the first time post-surgery. I can tolerate it now. I lost a total of 85 pounds. I had a 3-week stall last March. I am off CPAP. My A1C is at 5.5 and I am feeling great. I love my new body. I am working on minimizing the scars with silicone scar and tretinoin via the advice of my dermatologist. My asthma is way under control so need for my maintenance inhaler. I feel that this was a reset in my life in many ways. I do Zumba, walk, and use dumbells to stay in shape. I make sure to stay hydrated per my surgeon's instructions. I follow my surgical team's advice to the letter. I'm just feeling blessed. Best of luck in your journey.

From what I gathered, most programs don't really give you a set calorie goal or exact amount of carbs and fat. Mine gave me a protein goal 80-100g and to concentrate on hydration and vitamins. Typically because of restriction, by the time you work around getting to the protein goal, carbs and fats work themselves out. That being said, I am 9 months out and typically have around 1000 cals a day, 80g protein avg, and 50g or less of carbs just because that's how it works out. I don't pay too much mind to fats. Your loss is great and your rate of continuous loss of 1-2lbs a week is great. It definitely slows down as you lose and your body adjusts. Stalls are also common and don't last forever. It took me a month to lose 3lbs and then I lost 3lbs in a week after. It's just part of the process. Every body is different and even your own body will behave differently at different stages.