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2 weeks, 1 month, three months & has been every 6 months for the last 2 years. The next appointment I have to make will be around my 5 year anniversary in May. Don’t know how long this will continue but it’s reassuring that they’re keeping an eye on me & are there if I need them. I actually look for ward to the appointment as I get on well with the doctor who does these appointments & we always have a good chat as well as the follow up.

I can relate to being afraid of gaining weight after working so hard to lose it. We all deal with that here. But it's a fine line between being mindful about it and developing disordered eating habits. I can speak to this because it happened to me. I was dropping weight like a champ, then I hit stall after stall, and each one lasted longer than the previous one. And I would panic. And I would restrict the amount I ate, I would kick up the intensity and frequency of my work outs. I would have anger and confusion and fear anytime I either didn't lose or I gained a little (turns out, I'm one of the ones that gains 3-5 pounds during a stall and then just sits there for weeks and weeks. Then when the stall breaks, I drop like 6-7 pounds all at once). I had to actually go to a therapist that specializes in bariatric disordered eating (not easy to find, btw) to get my head on straight. And it's still a struggle sometimes. Especially since these last 11 pounds absolutely fight me tooth and nail and just don't want to come off. I said all that to say just be very careful. I never started out intending to have these issues. I thought I'd have the surgery, lose the weight, get healthy, and bada-boom bada-bing, life would be great. But it's never that cut and dry, is it? We can become obsessed with losing the weight, seeing how low we can get the scale, getting into that lower size, looking thinner, never gaining weight again, getting that bmi just a little lower.....and before you know it, you have a whole new eating disorder that's even harder to get out of and we're doing even more damage to our bodies without even meaning to. And we can justify what we're doing because HEY, we got off our meds, we're getting healthier, we're losing the weight, we're EXTENDING OUR LIVES damn it!!! And that's harder to overcome and harder to recognize and going too far than being obese is. We knew we needed help. We knew we were doing wrong. That's why we had the surgery. But now? Now it gets harder to see what we're doing because HEALTH!! WEIGHT LOSS IS GOOD!!! NO MORE MEDS IS THE GOAL!!! JUST A LITTLE MORE WEIGHT OFF CAN'T POSSIBLY BE BAD!!! So please please just be really careful with where you're at now and where you're wanting to get to. Lastly, on the days you're working out (especially the really hard weight days) increase your protein and calories. Your body thinks it's starving, so you need to reassure it that you're not. The heavier the work out, the more your body needs. You can't run a car without gas and you can't run your body without food. So give it what it needs, in the amounts it needs, and it'll do what you want it to. Make sure you also have a larger amount of fluids than you normally would on those days, too. Dehydration can really do a number on the body, as well.

So we’re all about 4 months out give or take. How’s everyone doing? I’m in week 4 of a stall and it’s starting to get to me

This is absolutely normal. Almost everyone experiences stalls multiple times. So many factors contribute. Keep to your programme and you will hopefully be back on track really soon!

Will do, thank you! I'll start it today. I can't have anything else in my diet. Just my three shakes (to which I add skimmed milk). Everything else adds calories and they said it's a complete meal replacement shake diet only, so unfortunately I can't have anything else 😞 Do you think things would still be okay if I ate maybe broth and soup but went on just shakes for the last two weeks? I just don't know.

That's a great view. I walk one to two miles every other day. Part of the reason for the gastric bypass is I have a torn meniscus ligament in my knee. It's going to require a full knee replacement. The surgeon won't consider doing the surgery until I'm at 40 BMI. That's the reason why I can only do 1 to 2 miles, anymore than that is just unbearably painful. Tha days I don't walk, I get on the rowing machine I have at home. I try to exercise at least 6 days a week. It's not high intensity or anything as of yet. Great to see your stall has passed. My weight loss is very slow. But, it is moving.

There's typically a couple stalls that lasts for 2-4 weeks that happens after surgery. I've heard them typically referred to to the 3rd week and 3rd month stalls when they typically start, but can happen any time. Our bodies have to recalibrate things after substantial loss, and it will hold on to fat and/or fluids until it knows its safe for it to lose more. As long as you stick to you calories, macros, and fluid requirements laid out by your doctor, the weight loss will resume. Restart your diet and track everything closely. Also go back to weighing yourself weekly instead of daily to reduce stress. Additionally, if you are working out more than you were pre surgery, keep in mind you may also be gaining some muscle weight, which offsets the number on the scale. If your clothing sizes are getting smaller, you're still on track! It is very frustrating as I just came out of one, but I did slack off on tracking my eating closely over the holidays. Even though I didn't feel like I was eating that much more, I had crept back up around 1600 calories a day by having a treat I thought I had earned. I didn't realize it was so calorically dense and was a big mistake for me. I was using it to feel better after having covid over Christmas and New Years, but it did throw me off track and made my stall worse. I'm back on the strict diet this week and its starting to drop again.

Exactly as @catwoman7 said, perfectly normal. You can experience a few of them along the way too. They usually last 1-3 weeks. They are an important part of your weight loss & are when your body shuts down & takes stock of the changes you’ve made & your weight loss so far. It works out your new needs in regards things like digestive hormones, metabolic rate, etc. The stall will break when your body is ready to move forward again. Don’t stress your body more by trying to change things beyond what your plan requires. Yes, even knowing this, they’re still frustrating.

My weight loss has stalled since November 5th. I know this is normal since loads of other people have mentioned experiencing a week 3 stall, but it is still disheartening to lose nothing for 11 days when I know I'm following the diet, focusing on protein, drinking fluids and keeping my portion sizes appropriately small. I hope this plateau breaks soon because it is demoralizing.

Hi, welcome! I read the posts here a lot before my first post too and felt like I knew everyone even though they didn't know me! LOL It is a funny feeling... My first thought is you aren't eating enough to be physically active. The body is pretty particular about how much energy it gets and after bariatric surgery our metabolism gets a nice reset (it is part of what helps us lose the weight) but to maintain that nice, new metabolism we need to EAT. And what is enough when you are mildly active isn't near enough when you are doing things that strain your heart, muscles, and burn a good bit of fuel. So I agree with the above, I'd eat more on days you work out. 65 grams of protein isn't enough for working out, I'd add in at least a protein shake, a little healthy fat, and some complex carbs. Second, it is normal to stall for a few weeks at any point, but it is especially normal if you start working out, or if you increase your workouts. This is because it changes the fluid balance in our bodies and the body takes a bit to even out. Some people even see increases on their scale when they start adding in more workouts! So if that happens, don't panic. We can also stall when our food intake changes. This is commonly seen when you go from fluids to solid food, but it can also happen if you jump in calories at any point, even if it is a needed point. My stalls seem to last for 6 weeks at a time. It is super irritating. At 4 months out you are not likely to be done losing weight yet. You may lose a little bit more. But weight loss slows WAY down the closer to goal we get and you are on the small end at this point so I wouldn't be surprised if it slows now. The most rapid weight loss is the first 3 months, then it tapers off slowly depending on how much you need to lose. Since you are used to being at the lower end of your BMI it is reasonable to expect you may drop a bit more to have the space you want if you rebound some. Just be careful not to starve yourself to get those extra lbs off, if it isn't sustainable for your body you'll really have to fight for it and it could damage that nice new metabolism in the process! Oh, and weight redistributes after weight loss. So you may look a little thin now and it may balance out a bit in the next year. This happens especially around the face for some people.

No, but I did cut back on the amount of seeds (too much fat) and put drained and rinsed white beans this morning. It's definitely a work in progress to figure out what to eat. The bean taste was subtle so I think I will get used to it, and I may add some ginger to cover it. Frustrated to be on day 6 of a stall. My doctor told me I needed to increase my activity level, so I've been going on an hourlong walk and hitting 10k steps or more every day for the past...yep, precisely 6 days. Wondering if there's a correlation, like the extra activity made my body temporarily panic. I'm just trying to ignore it and carry on. The good news is I've had a lot fewer issues with stomach sensitivity this week, so I'm feeling brave enough to try some new recipes and incorporate more veggies.

I had surgery on December 4. I rapidly lost about 13 pounds. Since my appointment on the 19th I’ve only lost an additional 4 pounds. I’ve been drinking more water add I’m still on soft foods. Is this normal or not? I’ve also been utilizing my treadmill and weights three times a week.

@BlueParis The eclipse was so incredible. I went with a friend and my two teen daughters. We were all impressed beyond belief by the totality. But it was a very rural area and the small roads couldn't handle the traffic leaving the area all at once so it took 7 hours to drive home instead of 3.5. I counted myself lucky to get chicken nuggets. Stopping for a real meal (the original plan) was out of the question with the crowds. @Noelle74 The stalls are frustrating for sure. I know I could stop weighing myself daily, but at this point I am enjoying having a record since I do it in a smart scale app. I think it'll be worth it being able to look back later and remind myself of how it went. But I'm at 7 weeks post-op today and would love to see the scale shift a bit before the 8 week mark. I'm only down 17lbs since surgery. I've also had some incidents of throwing up. It seems to be when I eat too fast or don't chew enough.

Definitely sounds like a stall. Some people don't gain during the stall, they just sit at their current weight during it. Me? I gain. And by gain, I mean anywhere from 3-5 pounds. It's infuriating. Then I lose and gain the same 2-3 pounds over and over until one day I get on the scale and see that I lost 5-6 pounds. That's when I know the stall broke. It's going to happen, a lot. So start focusing on your NSVs (Non Scale Victories). Those tell the story of what your body is actually doing better than the scale can.

Is there a reason why you are so very restricted. 400 calories a day is very low. Your body thinks its starving and it is. It will be a stall for that reason. It will break when its ready. There is nothing you can do but add more calories.

I had my surgery 7/10 and am traveling for work. Thankfully I was able to acquire some protein shakes and triple zero yogurt but man was it a pain to track down. Does anyone have any travel tips and tricks to make sure you’re getting enough protein, hydration, and able to take all the post ops meds and vitamins?

I think that's actually pretty rare. I think I've only heard about feeding tubes maybe two or three times in the nine years I've been on this site (and I don't remember if they were for revisions or "virgin" surgeries)

Stick to your plan. Don’t stress your body more by making more changes. Stalls are when your body takes stock of your current needs & readjusts things like digestive hormones, etc. The stall will break when your body is ready to move forward again. Also, your weight loss slows so much as you near your final weight (set point) it almost does feel like stalling. Consequently shifting the last pounds can be a b**ch. it’s because you’re eating much to what you’ll need to eat to maintain. Oh, & if you do cut your calories &/or increase your activity to lose more you’ll always have to eat less than you are now & do more to maintain the lower weight. Don’t give up yet though. You can keep losing vey slowly for months. I lost another 10kg over 12 months after reaching my goal.

Oh no! I'm just over 5 weeks out and I've been put back on liquids due to vomiting. It started just before 3 weeks with what I thought was an isolated incident because of some fish that was too dry. I had four hours of agony before I was finally able to expel everything from my stomach and have the pain stop. But 4 days later it happened with something else, and then three days after that it seemed that anything I tried to eat was triggering pain and vomiting. So I had to go back to liquids. I've been having protein shakes and cream soups. It's been 9 days and I haven't had any more pain. I see the surgeon on Tuesday and am hoping he'll say I can start trying soft protein again. I hope your doctor gets to the bottom of the issue for you soon! I'm grateful that water isn't causing any issues for me.

Hi everyone, just wondering how those that had the sleeve in April 2023 are doing? How is your journey going so far? any setbacks? Stalls? New successes?

unless you're the size of someone on "My 600 lb Life", 14 lbs in three weeks is pretty normal. Most of us "average" WLS patients lose somewhere in the 15-25 lb range the first MONTH, so you'll end up somewhere in that range. as for stalling at three weeks post op, do a search on it on this site. I just did. There are literally 17,501 posts on it. Happens to almost everyone. To get through it, stick to your plan and back what off on weighing yourself. Maybe weigh just once or twice a week until it breaks. And it WILL break, as long as you stick to your plan. Usually lasts 1-3 weeks. And it'll likely be the first of many stalls.....

The stalls keep hitting me as well. Losing weight after Gastric bypass is a lot slower than I expected. Only fast food I've ate was grilled chicken nuggest from chic-fil-A and chicken protein bowl from subway. Both last a couple meals. Instead.of trying to eat any meal. I just eat a few bites of protein and veggies. At 4-5 times a day.

Congratulations on the surgery and improving your health! Sounds like you are doing well! Just a heads up, you're approaching the dreaded Week 3 Stall, as its known, but don't get discouraged. Everyone hits a wall for about 2-4 weeks around that point, but that's just your body recalibrating itself to deal with the rapid weight loss. It will retain water and try to hold on to fat because its panicking from sudden change. Keep the same diet and stay the course, and it will release that fat once it realizes its safe. Expect the same temporary plateau around the Month #3 and Month #6 marks as well. Our body has to readjust periodically. Weight loss will resemble stair steps, with a brief regain of a kg or two before resuming loss, instead of a straight downward line. Just remember it's normal when that happens! You're doing great!

normal. Wait it out. Make sure you're sticking to your program and stay off the scale - maybe just weigh yourself once a week until the thing breaks. And it WILL break. This will likely be the first among several stalls, just so you know. You just have to wait 'em out and just keep doing what you're supposed to be doing...

Chicken, Turkey & Bison ground meat is the easiest for me to eat and get enough in where I can get the protein I need. However, chicken breast is another matter. for some reason I can only eat about 2-2.5 oz of chicken breast. But I can have almost two cups of ground meat. Deli meats, I can get in about one to one and a half slices before I fill up. Greek yogurt with Pbfit2 chocolate and protein powder mixed is my go to. I can eat two cups and not feel stuffed. Weird thing is when it comes to eggs, I can eat two fried eggs easily, but two scrambled eggs and I can't finish it. Only thing I'm concerned with, is how very slow my weight loss is. I'll lose a pound or two, then go two to three weeks without losing. In fact, I weighed last week and gained a pound. I'm not sure how that's possible, but I managed it. The dietician and Doctor has assured me that's normal.