April 8th will be 3 weeks post op for me. Since last week I've hit a stall and I'm not losing weight. I've lost a total of 28 pounds since surgery but I'm discouraged that it's stopped. I know stalls are going to happen but I worry that it's my fault. I'm eating approx 650 calories a day. Trying to get all my protein in but not sure I always do. I guess I'm just looking for someone who had this experience and what I can do to help start the weight loss again.

Hey @NewNewMe My stall lasted about 2 weeks. Like I said, I increased my Water and ate a few extra calories (made sure it was protein) and tHe weight started coming off again. You have to just keep your body guessing, switch it up. I eat lots and lots of chicken, I've always preferred chicken over other meats, and it's easy to digest. Now rather than fry the chicken, I bake it and I make sure it's skinless. Instead of rolling the chicken in bread crumbs like I use to, pre surgery, I use McCormicK Montreal Chicken Seasoning. It's delicious. I also make lots of veggies. I cut veggies into chunks, add a teaspoon of butter add salt and pepper and bake it for 20 minutes or until tender. There is one other thing I discovered while on the puree stage and I still make it because it's yummy. It's called "Mock Lasagna", I'll post the recipe below. Good Luck!

MOCK LASAGNA:

Ingredients:

Pinch of minced garlic

1/4 tsp Dried italian spice blend

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1 cup Marinara or meat spaghetti sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Mix ricotta, parmesan cheeses, italian spice blend, and minced garlic and spread into the bottom of a small casserole dish. Spread spaghetti sauce over ricotta cheese, top with mozzarella and bake at 400 degrees until cheese is golden brown and bubbly. This also works fine in the microwave (heat until mozzarella melts) but the browned cheese from the oven is sooo yummy.

This recipe is good for the puree and soft food stages but can be modified for later by adding cooked italian sausage or hamburger to the sauce. You don't even miss the Pasta noodles, really!

This looks awesome! Do you by chance have the amount of calories in a 3oz serving? If you have this posted on MyFitnessPal, that would be awesome so I can put this in my rotation for pureed. I'm so bored right now of the food I have been eating. I've got 1 more week of pureed and then I'm officially on to softs.

I'm approaching the end of week three and I've only lost 3 lbs during this time. I don't expect to lose much more in week 4 but that's because I have to travel on business. I won't be able to put much time into exercising with all day client meetings and nightly outings.

There are several reasons why the scale stops moving:

1. Your body needs to replenish it's glycogen storage. This process involves breaking down your fat and storing it as the quick energy your muscles burn when exercising. Glycogen needs water to make it soluable so you may retain some water weight because of this. This process could take a while depending on sleep schedule, water intake, etc. You may not be losing weight during this time, but inches should be shed.

2. Eating the amount of calories, 600 - 800, for a short period of time has the benefit of quick weight loss that is seen in the first 2 weeks. At some point, your body realizes that the small amount of calories you're feeding yourself isn't a temporary situation and your metabolism might slow down a little. That's why when you add some extra calories, as some have posted they have in the form of Protein, they saw the scale move. As someone said before "keep your body guessing" and change it up.

Some tips that I have read from multiple sources:

Do not drop below 600 calories. This may have the adverse effect and stall your weightless even more.

Increase activity if possible. Getting 10K steps in a day is nice and it sure has it's ups, but it does not beat the fast paced walking that lasts for 30-45 minutes straight. Get your heart rate up and keep it at a steady beat. When you're walking fast, it should be hard for you to carry on a conversation if someone was walking beside you.

We can make it through the stalls, and in some cases, even push past them sooner!

am officially at my first stall, almost 3 week post op, scale hasnt budged since wednesday, went back to the gym this morning and am upping my food now that i feel hungry, i wont let the stall discourage me! i havent been 213 and stayed there for a loong time!