I am just shy of 10 months Post-Op. I started at 305; lost 30lbs in the pre-op liquid diet then another 40lbs in the 8 weeks post op dropping me to 235. An amazing accomplishment.

As most of you know, after eight weeks, we’ve pretty much progressed to eating normal foods again. In the eight months since I have been able to eat normal foods, I have lost zero… now first off – this is the first time since I became obese that I’ve been able to maintain any significant weightloss but I know there is more to loose! I'm having trouble accepting that I'm doing everything right and that 235 is were my weight is supposed to be.

I can’t help but think that I lost all the weight from the pre-op & post-op liquid diet and the surgery has just prevented me from putting it back on.

What I’ve been doing in the past 8 months

- Working out 5x a week - 40min cardio & 40 minutes of lifting weights

- My daily calories are under 1000

- My daily carbs are under 40grams

- I stop drinking liquids 30m before; 90m after a meal.

- Every meal is a 4oz piece of grilled lean meat and some green veggies.

- I have not had any fried foods, fast foods, starches or even a single piece of bread product since the surgery.

I’ve gone back to the liquid diet a couple of times for a week or so and no change.

I’m starting to get discouraged. Prior to the surgery, I felt like I was destined to be 300lbs forever; now I feel like I’m destined to be 235lb forever. Both times I know there is room for improvement but nothing I do changes my situation.

What am I missing??

Wow thanks for all the replies!!!

to answer the follow up questions - I am 6'. I had originally been seeing a dietician for the first few months and after reading through all the great replies, I made a follow up call this morning.

My dietician - after reviewing my meal plans (which haven’t altered much; the original meal plans are still on my fridge) she started asking about my workouts.

I should have elaborated more on the workouts themselves before as she feels they are beneficial health wise but aren’t promoting weight loss;

My workout routine has been 40min of elliptical; enough to get my heart rate up then the lifting is generally power lifting my chest, arms & legs. Quick back story- I had broken my back about 14 years ago as well as a pair of follow up surgeries, all of which were a large contributor to my weight gain. In the years following, any strenuous exercise, treadmills ets, were enough to lay me up for a few days; even a hike put me out of commission for a day or two. As you can imagine, I’ve been very cautious / afraid of hurting myself and was sticking to workouts I felt wouldn’t hurt anything but I thought were helping.

After reviewing this, my dietician referred me to a personal trainer.

I had a very lengthy chat with the trainer this morning as well; we are meeting up today. He agreed that my current workouts were definitely helping maintain my weight and not to disregard the accomplishment of keeping it off but it’s not prompting loss. He completely understood my apprehension (fear) of hurting myself. His focus will not be to get my scale moving again but to approach this as physical therapy sessions. With the weight I’ve already lost, it’s a huge relief on my lower back already. He wants to focus on strengthening my back, core / abs. In turn that will allow more vigorous workouts, which make sense.

I’ve blown out my back nearly a half dozen times since breaking it and wouldn’t wish that kind of pain on anyone. I can honestly say I am more afraid of hurting myself then I was going getting the VSG surgery.

Sounds like you solved your problem. You probably also healed up your back a bit. Your trainer should hook you up.

Good luck!

Wow, a broken back! Ouch!! I imagine the weight loss has greatly improved your situation, but I can totally understand your caution. I have back problems as well, which also contributed to a lot of my weight gain. I hope wls will greatly improve my mobility. I've lost 30 lbs pre-op and it's already helped me so much! I can't wait to see the difference 100 lbs will make.

My surgery postponed.

My thought is increase is to agree with another poster, increase calories, or at least ignore them, but reduce carbs to 20-30, don't worry about fat. too few calories and body is in starve mode. But first, have a day of high calories where you eat ice cream or something, then the next day, cut carbs, a jumpstart to make your body think famine is over.. only way i've ever ever lost is low-carbs and ignore fat, even before exercise.

My surgery postponed.

My thought is increase is to agree with another poster, increase calories, or at least ignore them, but reduce carbs to 20-30, don't worry about fat. too few calories and body is in starve mode. But first, have a day of high calories where you eat ice cream or something, then the next day, cut carbs, a jumpstart to make your body think famine is over.. only way i've ever ever lost is low-carbs and ignore fat, even before exercise.

I've been hearing a lot of folks stating about increasing calories but everything from my doctor as well as nearly all VSG supplementary materials I've read stated once you've progressed to normal foods is to keep your calories under 1000k

I've been hearing a lot of folks stating about increasing calories but everything from my doctor as well as nearly all VSG supplementary materials I've read stated once you've progressed to normal foods is to keep your calories under 1000k

This is kind of where my thought process on guidelines are just guidelines comes in, and honestly, if I kept my calories under 1000, I'd still be losing. I have to eat a minimum of 1500 calories a day or I drop weight. Take away the pregnancy, but I had to consume more to stop my losing.

I know this is NOT your issue, but there is sometimes when guidelines have to be tweaked, and honestly, WLS is NOT a cookie cutter world.

This situation reminds me of the old saying "doing the same thing over and over yet expecting different results". You've followed the guidelines to a T yet you've been in an 8 month stall. Obviously, this guideline is not working. I'm not suggesting adding 800 calories a day, but 200 calories with an additional 20-30gr of Protein could be all your body needs to get the scale moving again.

Have you ever calculated your BMR(basal metabolic rate)? If you'd like to consider putting some science behind this query, do some google searches on BMR, and actual caloric needs for weight loss, maintenance, and your own metabolic needs.

Guidelines are guidelines in my world. It's impossible to say a specific number of calories per day which will work for everyone. Woman / Man, sitting at desk all day/moving about in job, exercise or not, current weight? These are all things which will affect the amount of energy each individual will need on top of the basic calories needed (to keep your heart beating, breath etc - just sleeping requires 2 cals per minute! :-) )

I don't count calories at all since my surgery and have been regularly loosing the weight, other people need to have the calorie control for it to work I'm sure. However, if I where you I would try to eat more (healthy choices) to up the energy going into your body - what's the worst that can happen? Try it for a couple of weeks and see what if anything happens. Good luck and best wishes!

I've been hearing a lot of folks stating about increasing calories but everything from my doctor as well as nearly all VSG supplementary materials I've read stated once you've progressed to normal foods is to keep your calories under 1000k