UGH! I hit the dreaded plateau....but I also have pain too!

[topazz 4]

So, for over a week, I cannot lose more than a 1/2 lb. Very frustrating!! I am following all the advice here, and trying really hard to be a straight arrow and not stray. But no matter what, the scale is not moving! I think in 3 weeks, I only lost 3/4 lb. GRRR!!!!!

But lately, I have a lot of pain in my port area. The pain is like soreness. Do you think there is any relation??

[reverie 49]

One week without a loss is hardly a plateau. When you go for a month without losing, then you can say you've hit a stall. You didn't get fat over night and you're not going to lose it over night, either. Be a bit realistic before you over-frustrate yourself for no good reason. Weight loss is not constant or linear, so you cannot, and you won't, lose weight every week. Try tracking your calories to make sure you aren't overeating. Are you exercising? If not, do so. Are you measuring your portions? If not, buy a food scale and start. Otherwise, wait it out, stay off the scale. Look for other measures of success. Maybe you're losing inches. Maybe you feel better and are seeing differences in your clothes.

I doubt the port pain and lack of weight loss are related. Maybe try a heating pad to see if it helps. You could have just irritated it.

My advice: be patient and stop expecting to lose everything so quickly; it won't happen.

[Cindy C 150]

Topazz, You are doing great! 57 pounds in 6 months!! I too hit a plateau about 6 months post op. It Iasted about a month and the weight started falling off again. Just be patient and keep doing what you've been doing. If you haven't discovered it yet. there's an awesome website where you can track your food intake, exercise and tons of other stuff. I started using it about 2 weeks ago and have lost about 9 lbs. 17 to goal!!!! Wish it had been there 3 years ago when I was banded! http://www.lapband.com/en/home/

[topazz 4]

Thanks guys!! I appreciate the words of encouragement and wisdom. True it only has been 2 weeks. But when you are on a good roll for 6 months, and then you get hit, it is frustrating!! i wish I could have lost 20 more lbs first before it hit! Now??...when I am really trying to get more weight off before the summer? I guess bathing suit shopping will be put on hold a little longer!! LOL!!

[Dave_NW 92]

Stalls definitely happen, even if you have a perfected daily routine. (I like Reverie's term that weight loss is not "linear.") I was clicking along, losing pretty regularly, but hit a wall when my doctor and I agreed to eliminate another of my daily medications. Good news for me about daily meds, but it messed with my metabolism, which I think had grown accustomed to how I was living my daily life. The after-effect was that I went up and down fighting a half pound or so for nearly three weeks. Like you, I had tried adjusting this or that, in hopes of getting the scale moving again. In the end, I changed the foods I was eating (more solid Proteins, fewer slider foods), and bumped up my Water intake. And bingo - that was the key. I lost four pounds within a few days, and the scale is moving downward again.

As others have suggested, look at every aspect of what you're doing daily. Is something different? Is everything still the same old thing? Maybe that's what needs to be changed. Bodybuilders achieve success by muscle confusion, by changing up their routine frequently. I'm beginning to think weight loss works in similar ways. If the daily numbers end up the same, how you get there may be the key. shake up your daily life a bit, but maintain end-result consistency, and see if it doesn't help.

Good luck!

Dave

[trish151 33]

I stalled out for about 3 weeks and then remembered taking an amino acid called glutamine. I started taking before surgery because it is supposed to help with carb cravings and it also helps you recover faster after surgery and it helps to keep your body from eating muscle tissue while you are loosing weight. I started taking that a few days ago and dropped 4 lbs. I also read an article the other day that to make your weight loss workouts more effective to do weights before you do cardio and it helps you burn more fat. I have been trying that and not exactly sure what the results are yet but it feels good. I have been doing a 20 minute workout with a 5 lb weight before I go jog. The article said it would help you burn off any glucose in your body before you start the cardio so when you start the cardio you will be burning pure fat. Again, the verdict is still out but it feels good. I started with a 3lb weight and could barely lift it over my head. I started doing 5 sets of 20 reps and now I have progressed to doing that many with a 5lb weight so progress is progress.