#1: I never thought I would struggle this hard to lose weight. I am sticking to the plan by the letter and I'm losing, but ever so SLOWLY! It's frustrating. My surgeon wants me to lose 50 more pounds by New Years and it has taken me 4 months to lose the first 50 (post op). Coming from 400+, I expected better results.

#2: I have a friend with similar stats and she has lost almost as much as I have in one month. Crazy part is that she has lost all this weight while eating chips, white castle, and other crap... yes, in the first month post op!

#3: This week, despite doing everything "right", I have gained 3 pounds. No I'm not pregnant or on my cycle. This is maddening. Should I go back on the liquid diet?!?!?!

Ugh!!!!!!!

Congratulations on losing 50 pounds over the first 4 months. I had RNY gastric bypass and my weight loss ended at about 6 or 7 months post op. But sleeve patients lose weight at a slower pace, but more consistent over a longer period of time. So take a deep breath and continue to follow the program and let the magic happen.

After surgery, I was drinking 3 Protein shakes a day. But as my meal volume increased, because I was concentrating on consuming high protein meals, I was able to begin to drop my Protein Shakes from 3 a day to 2 then 1 and finally when my meal volume increased to 1 cup per meal, I completely took myself off all protein shakes. The point here is that protein shakes contain calories and as I dropped the protein shakes (while still meeting the daily protein requirement) I was able to kick-start my continued weight loss even when I hit a stall.

The daily protein requirement is a combination of the protein from meals combined with the protein from supplements (protein shakes, protein bars).