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I lost 18 lbs. in the first three weeks after surgery, then nothing. It has been 17 days now since I have lost anything. I am starting to get discouraged as you might imagine. I was wondering how long other people have gone in their stalls.

It’s the weight loss cycle. Lose then stall. Lose then stall. Some people will say to increase your calories or increase your activity to break it. I just stuck to my plan & the stall broke. This won’t be your only stall. Some last a week others may last three weeks. They’re just your body taking a breath to catch up on all the changes. You will start to lose again.

The stall arrived 3 weeks ago. I knew it'd come sometimes around the third month and it did at -25 kgs (or 55 lbs). I wasn't that happy, I wasn't sure what advice I should follow. And I basically didn't do much, apart from increasing my daily water. Today the scale was down 1 kg or 2.2 lbs, not much, but still. You just have to believe it will move again, because it will. And I can actually see amazing advantages coming from my stall: first of all my skin. It was going so fluffy I hated it but in the last three weeks it tightened and now it looks almost OK. People started noticing my weight loss. It's amazing how they didn't notice much while I was losing and now they keep asking me daily how much more I have lost (which is basically nothing!). My hair has a break too I haven't started losing it yet and I honestly hope this stall will avoid the fall. We'll see. Another thing I did is... relax. In the last 10 days I didn't stress over my non-weight loss. I was like "Whatever. At some point the scale will move again" and it did. I relaxed, kept going to the gym but no more often than before, I kept having my 2 days a week without carbs, I just went on with my life. I am really happy now because I feel good and my skin looks much better. I just wanted to share my experience, because it was a positive one even if it involved a stall!

I started out around your weight...227 on the day of surgery...I am 5'8. I had a stall last week at 4 weeks out...In fact, I gained three pounds..It was the week I introduced soft foods and I also did not exercise that week...But this week I kicked my workout game up a notched and I lost the three I gained and an additional 3 mo pounds...So I thus far, I have lost 27lbs including 1 week pre-op where I lost 5lbs...While the sleeve is a great tool, I am doing my darnest to help it with the weight loss by sticking to a workout regime...I started walking 3 miles at 60 minutes about 2 weeks post op...Now I walk/jog 3 miles at 46 minutes. I am working toward 30 minutes...I say all this to say I want to really maximize the first 6 mo of the sleeve loss...I want to be that non-ideal case and hit my goal 155-160lb within 6 mo. And that only happens with hard work both in being good with diet compliance and working out...I got 50lbs to drop over the next 5 months...I am going as hard for it as I did for cold stone creamery ice cream on double stamp day Mondays...

I am currently on my third week (yes, the dreaded stall stage) however, my main concern is that I have a large appetite. When I eat, I do get full after about three or four bites of a meal, but I am able to down an entire pudding cup, and am able to drink easily. My question is this: what was your calorie count within your first month post op? And did anyone else experience having an active appetite. My sister also had vsg done, and she said she was nauseous all the time...I hardly ever feel nauseous at all. Please help. Sent from my SM-G950U using BariatricPal mobile app

From what I have read, that is too few calories for someone three months post op. You won't have put on fat weight, it is more likely fluid retention plus possibly bulk from the extra food. It is only temporary, a bit like when people go through the post op diet stages, as they progress they typically have a stall or gains, but once their bodies adapt weight loss kicks in again. While WLS does typically result in a lower calorie intake, you don't want to go so low that it comprises your health: body using muscle for nutrition - you want to maintain muscle as much as possible, hair loss, lack of energy etc. Bear in mind, now that you are already in the healthy BMI range, that weight loss will be lower per week than it was immediately following your surgery. Please do listen to your nutritionist.

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.

Same happened to me. I dropped 17 lbs in he first twelve days then stalled for a week and actually gained three. Now down 5 in four days.

it's the infamous three-week stall (this early stall happens to probably 90% of us. It's usually the third week after surgery (hence the name), but not always. It can happen any time within the first 4-6 weeks after surgery). If you do a search on it on this site, you will find over 17,000 posts on it (and not, I am NOT kidding). Just stick to your program and stay off the scale for a few days. It usually takes 1-3 weeks to break, but it WILL break and you'll be on your way again.

You were lied to. The three weeks stall is infamous. What can you do? Be patient. That's it.

Mine has been much crappy. 1 week post op- 258 to 246.5 2 weeks post 249.5 (that's right a three pound gain despite eating exactly on plan, averaging 400 calories and doing 40 minutes to an hour of walking or biking 6 days a week). We shall see what week three says. My NUT and surgeon warned there is big stall that happens happens around week three, and another around week 7, week 12, and every few months. Edited to say I know... Embrassing the stall Everyone loses at different paces Trust the program Don't be a slave to the scale Inches gone, doesn't mean pounds gone Check your fluids, check your Protein...

Yes. I have been using Genepro to break a weight loss stall that began about 8-9 weeks post-op and continued through to 11 weeks. I'd still be in it had I not changed what I was doing. I came up with the solution described below to break my stall/slowed down weight loss as I was thinking about the days right after my surgery. My surgeon has her patients on clear liquids for 14, yes, 14 days!!!!! following surgery. No protein, no vitamins.....ONLY CLEAR LIQUIDS and medications for 14 days. I lost a pound or two a day on the regimen. Since my weight loss had drastically slowed, I was significantly behind on the amount of weight I am expected to lose by my next surgeon appointment and decided I would go back to post-surgery basics, but with protein, meds and vitamins added. I began this regimen on Thursday, March 14th, weighing 219lb. Today, I weighed in at 210 pounds. Here is what I do: I take three 16 ounce bottles of water and to them I add 1 scoop Genepro, which is flavorless, 30g protein and only 60 calories. You can drink it plain or flavor it however you,d like, just don't add calories more than 20, perhaps, with whatever you choose. I add sugar free decaffeinated ice tea powder to mine. These three bottles become my "meals" for the day, breakfast, lunch, supper, giving me 90g protein for the day and only 180 calories. In between these "meals" I drink another 16 ounce bottle of water, giving me a total 96 oz water for the day. Additionally, I take all my meds and vitamins as I am supposed to throughout the day. Once I reach 209 pounds I will be at the bare minimum of where my surgeon expects her patients to be at 3 months post-op, which puts me at the 50th percentile. I plan on continuing this regimen for the entire 14 days in order to get as near to 201 by the end on March, early April, which will put me in the 75th percentile, which is a MUCH better place to be. Anything below the 50th percentile is considered to be a weight loss surgery patient failure. This info is taken from a Duke University study conducted to discover early weight loss predictors for success or failure among weight loss surgery patients. I explain this study and provide links in the video I've posted here in my status update on Bariatric Pal. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. :-)

If you are eating low carb/low sugar/high protein food, then I would put it down to the dreaded stall. My first stall lasted close to a month... when it was over - I started losing 4-5 lbs a week for three weeks, but then hit a stall again.. From what I understand, a lot of people have multiple stalls along the way. But, I would suggest being more mindful of calories - they can add up, especially with things like cooking oils. Using cooking sprays can help alleviate that. Try not to stress out about and trust the process.

Three months and 46 lbs down and stalled at 172 lbs. Been here for two weeks. Stepped up exercise and cut back calories. Just have to ride it out I guess. Wonder how long.

Thanks. It's surreal sometimes to realize that I have lost over 200 pounds. Two hundred pounds! And yet I still feel like the same old Big Sue a lot of the time. TBH, I've been struggling a lot in many aspects of my life, so I'm not in a great place to be offering encouraging words to other WLS patients right now. I do still look at new posts, though, and I have to admire you for sticking around after all these years to educate newbies on things like the three week stall.

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.

It sounds like you got hit with a double whammy - the dreaded week three stall and your period. Relax, there is nothing you can do about it. Stick to your plan, hide the scale, and drink more Water if you can. I just went through this about 2-3 weeks ago. The scale has started moving for me again, not quite as fast though.

A stall at three weeks after surgery is very common. None of us lose at a constant or steady rate. Everyone stalls, and just about everyone stalls about three weeks after surgery. Stalls are a normal, natural, and necessary part of the process of losing weight. If you intend to lose a significant amount of weight, you will experience stalls. Just follow your program. Make sure you are getting at least 64 oz of Fluid and reaching your Protein target every day. Take your Vitamins and supplements as directed. Exercise when cleared. Stay off the scale. And, Embrace the Stall http://BariatricPal.com/index.php?/topic/351046-Embrace-the-Stall.

A stall at three weeks out is very, very, VERY common. You are generally back to a typical activity level and your intake has been severely restricted. You are healing, and have not been taking in sufficient calories to met your basic needs at rest. Just keep following your postop instructions. 8 kg. in three weeks is still a significant loss!

It's a big variable depending upon a lot of individual factors, including how heavy you are at the start, your caloric intake, your exercise levels and basic metabolic rates. Of course, you will lose more quickly at the beginning than later. You may even gain some when you are in the hospital from all the fluids they pump into you, but that comes off in a couple of days. Not including the 5lb of Fluid gain I got in the hospital, I lost a little over 8 lb per week the first three weeks (from a total of about 100 that I need to lose,) which then slowed to 4-5 lb per week, and is now down to around 2-3 per week at 20lb to goal. The first 2-3 weeks your loss typically comes from your ready store of reserve carbs and Protein, coming off at a rate of about 2000 calories per pound; after that (and maybe after the dreaded third week stall,) you start buring mostly fat, but at the lower rate of about 3500 calories per pound. I didn't have a significant third week stall as many do, but there was a definite slowing ot the loss rate at that point which correlates well with the physiology of weight loss progression.

the dreaded three week stall - happens to almost all of us. Search this site for it - there are literally over 15,000 posts on it just stick to your plan and stay off the scale if you have to. It usually lasts 1-2 weeks, and then you'll be on your way again P.S. it's USUALLY the third week, but not always. Mine was weeks 2 & 3. My weight loss started up again during week four, and I dropped like 6-8 lbs in a couple of days.

I was three weeks post-op on Wednesday, and haven't lost a pound since then. (will be one week of a stall). This also coincides with moving into soft foods per my doctor's plan. Should I go back a stage in the food plan or keep going with the soft foods?

Hi Everyone, Not sure if I am just over reacting, but it seems like my weight loss has stalled and tomorrow will be my three weeks post op. I have no idea why. I am getting ready to start my soft foods and I have been doing the puree this last week. I found some recipes and have not gone over or eaten anything that isn't recommended. I am working on my activity and am walking 20 min. a day. I don't know if I am just over reacting or not, but I don't like this stall. I saw my surgeon at 10 days post op, and my weight has not really changed much since then. Any ideas? Thanks!!

I stalled at three weeks too! I was super bummed!! I still am lol. Today is the first day of my fourth week and I I havent lost anything in 7 days. I just had my post op today and DR said my weight loss is good ( 18 pounds since August 16) I'm hungry about every three hours but she said that was ok - as long as I stay within 600-800 calories. I was just expecting to lose steadily for the first few months. Ugh!! I guess all we can do is hang in there

Thanks Bri, I'm still taking the Fintstones vitamins but I had problems with the chewable ones so my doctor allowed me to switch to the Flintstones gummies. I was stalled for three weeks and I am sure I will experience other stalls as my body continues to adjust and adapt to my new lifestyle, but overall I am pleased with my results so far. I no longer eat anything made with white flour and I have also cut out processed foods. I also accept that if I want to continue to lose weight I may have to add to my workout because I will be only doing enough to maintain my current weight. I need to lose 60 more pounds to be at the ideal weight for my height of 5ft 7in which is 140 lbs. I would talk to my surgeon to ask if the prenatal vitamins are okay. Are you pregnant? they might be okay because you are getting all of the important minerals and nutrients I'm just not sure if they are good after surgery. Have a great day, God Bless.