Is a 7 month stall a thing?

[wakeupmaggie 3]

Hi there! I'm 7.5 months post op from RNY. Since having surgery on Sept. 28, I've lost 85lbs ... averaging about 10lbs per month (with the exception of the first month or two when I lost 15-20). ANYWAY, I haven't lost a single pound in over a month! While I haven't gained any, it's still REALLY frustrating to also not be losing this early in the process. I eat anywhere from 850-1200 calories a day. Average 70-100oz of Water. Keep my Protein between 70-95. Walk 2-4 miles. Peloton 2-3 days a week for 30 mins. I also track every. single. bite. using MFP. I've had a couple stalls here and there, usually lasting 1-2 weeks ... but never a months long! Has anyone experienced this long of a stall this early on in their journey? How long did the stall last? Does anyone have any suggestions for breaking through a long stall? Thanks!

[xFatBoy007 49]

Hi there! Same is happening to me. My stall has lasted over 2 months with not much movement in my weight. I am running about 30 min 4-5 days a week and eating between 1200-1500 a day. I could cut back in calories to see if the weight will move but it seems like when I workout I’m more hungry. I wish you the best and hopefully we can get some good tips from this.

[KayBee1972 13]

Initial 25lb loss, then 5 week stall, followed by a 5.5 lb loss, and another 3 week stall. 5 days a week exercise(ish). I was at a work event for a week so it was much harder to track food and exercise when in a hotel working 12 hour shifts. I'm tracking every bite in MFP and come in between 850-900cal per day. No idea what to do. But you're not alone.

[wakeupmaggie 3]

39 minutes ago, xFatBoy007 said:

Hi there! Same is happening to me. My stall has lasted over 2 months with not much movement in my weight. I am running about 30 min 4-5 days a week and eating between 1200-1500 a day. I could cut back in calories to see if the weight will move but it seems like when I workout I’m more hungry. I wish you the best and hopefully we can get some good tips from this.

I am SO GLAD I'm not the only one in this boat! It's SO FRUSTRATING! I've upped my calories, reduced my calories, added in more exercise, then reduced it ... all in hopes of "shocking my system" but NOTHING is working! I know stalls happen ... but I didn't think a month long stall would happen this early in the process. Hopefully someone else has some words of advice for us on how to break through! I actually just made an appointment with a new nutritionist, separate from my surgeon's office, hoping that they will have some non-biased advice on what to do. Stay tuned ...

[wakeupmaggie 3]

11 minutes ago, KayBee1972 said:

Initial 25lb loss, then 5 week stall, followed by a 5.5 lb loss, and another 3 week stall. 5 days a week exercise(ish). I was at a work event for a week so it was much harder to track food and exercise when in a hotel working 12 hour shifts. I'm tracking every bite in MFP and come in between 850-900cal per day. No idea what to do. But you're not alone.

That seems to be how I've been losing weight too ... I'll lose 5-6lbs within a week and then NOTHING for 1-2 weeks and then drop another pound here and there. But I've never gone a whole month and lost nothing ... I'm just wondering if this is a normal time in the process to be stalled and if so, how long did it last?

[catwoman7 10,872]

I had several stalls along the way - and they seemed to last longer as I got further out. If things don't start up in the next couple of weeks, though, it could be you've thrown yourself into maintenance - so if that's the case, you'll need to cut back on calories a bit or increase your activity level. But I'd give it a couple more weeks since stalls can last awhile at that far out.

[Arabesque 6,491]

I too had a couple of stalls. My longest was when I was 1kg from goal! Stalls are common while we’re losing. We all talk about the three week stall but you’ll be bound to experience them again as you’re losing. I never did anything to break my stalls. I stuck to my plan & they just broke themselves.

Not sure how close you are to your goal but remember the closer you are the more slowly you’ll lose. A lot of this is because your food intake, which has been slowly increasing, is nearing the point of equilibrium where the calories you consume more closely matches the calories you burn. The closer you are to this point the less you’ll lose or you’ll be maintaining.

If you want to lose more weight you can either increase your activity &/or decrease your calories. But then if you want to maintain at a lower weight, you have to decide if your activity level & calorie intake to reach that weight & maintain is sustainable.

Unfortunately, while exercising does burn calories it also increases your desire for calories. Plus muscle weighs more than fat. So if you’re building muscle you may be adding weight or negating the weight you’re losing to a degree especially if you’re close to goal. Plus exercise only contributes to about 20% of the weight you want to lose. So if you have 20 more lbs to lose, exercise may only contribute to the loss of about 4lbs.

Your basal metabolic rate also impacts your weight loss.

Sorry, I sound like I’m lecturing.

[KayBee1972 13]

17 hours ago, Arabesque said:

Not sure how close you are to your goal but remember the closer you are the more slowly you’ll lose. A lot of this is because your food intake, which has been slowly increasing, is nearing the point of equilibrium where the calories you consume more closely matches the calories you burn. The closer you are to this point the less you’ll lose or you’ll be maintaining.

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Your basal metabolic rate also impacts your weight loss.

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My first "stall" was 3 weeks post surgery that lasted 5 weeks. I was barely eating 700 cal per day at that point and still on a pureed/soft diet. Then I lost maybe 5lbs and have now had another 3 weeks of no weight loss. Now I'm able to eat all solid foods and not quite 12 weeks from surgery date. I am nowhere near my goal weight or the 20-30% weight loss promised by surgery. If I wanted to be at a goal/healthy body weight you could say that I have 180 lbs to lose still. As someone else said, I'm failing basic thermodynamics because I should be burning way more than I'm taking in just existing.

I'm literally tired all the time and feel like my metabolism has shut down entirely. I went for a 6 mile bike ride w/errands (stops) on Saturday and spent all day Sunday and part of Monday feeling terrible. No energy to speak of for almost 2 days. The more I try to increase exercise, the worse I feel.