Hi guys!

I’m officially 6 weeks post VSG. When I started the Kaiser Program in June 2021 I was 330Lbs. I’m a female early 40’s. Surgery day 2/28 I weighed in at 290. Today I’m at 273lbs. I heard a lot about slow losers on this forum and I think I’m in that category but maybe you guys can confirm. I enter the regular food phase on Monday which is the day I go to work.

I moderately workout 3 Times a week. Mostly in the pool because I have osteoarthritis in my knees that keep me from running, squatting or movement exercises. I eat no more than 700-800 calories currently. I get my protein, water, low carbs in. Make good food choices in my carbs & starches.

if you are a slow loser how has your journey been? And did you have a lot of stalls in between? I’m trying not to get discouraged.

Hi, official card carrying member of the SLC here!

You're losing at about 1.2kg a week, which is around what my average weekly loss has been.

First up, that is good weight loss! It's nothing to be discouraged about, that is a healthy, good rate. It's easy to buy into the rapid-loss dream, and I absolutely don't begrudge folks who have had their "honeymoon period" and had weight "melt off" - genuinely thrilled for you! But I think it's vital to go into WLS managing your expectations (with rate of loss, loose skin and hair loss). I went into it pretty zen, though I have had my perfectly human moments of wishing I was losing faster. BUT, I'm losing well, about 7 months out and have lost over half my excess body weight and have dropped 4 sizes. Results aren't always on the scale - it's important to remember that!

I'm not just a slow loser, but I'm also a serial staller. I have lost count of how many stalls I've had - stalls and I are on a first-name basis. In the first four months I was stalling every second week, for at least a week at a time. I feel like I earned a damned trophy for my stalling expertise. But they always break (even if they go on for weeks), and that's what you need to keep in mind. Stay off the scale when it happens, focus on the good things like feeling better, clearer skin, the clothes that are starting to fall off you.

And ultimately? You're not alone. Your experience isn't weird, or wrong, or abnormal. Don't compare yourself to others, manage your expectations, slow down and breathe. Enjoy all the small victories the journey brings.

6 minutes ago, Smanky said:

I'm not just a slow loser, but I'm also a serial staller

That is crazy! But oh so real. Thank you so much for validating me hat I was feeling. I definitely want to have a realistic, safe WL experience. It feels great to know that this is actually the norm nothing to see here lol I’m definitely going to give the scale a break and weigh in every couple weeks.
Wonderful advice. I do FEEL amazing and I can tell in my clothes things are changing. And I also feel like my body is going to have frequent stalls. I guess it’s not something to try to avoid or dread just live in it as part of the journey and accept it for what it is knowing it will pass.

Congratulations on your weight loss as well I do hope to lose 1/2 my excess weight by 7 months as well!

1 minute ago, TheWeightisOvr said:

And I also feel like my body is going to have frequent stalls. I guess it’s not something to try to avoid or dread just live in it as part of the journey and accept it for what it is knowing it will pass.

Just do what I do to keep my humour up when stalls hit: I give each one a name, like cyclones/hurricanes get names. That way I can shout things like "Oh for god's sake Beryl are you still here?!"

I also went through Kaiser and I have almost the same stats as you.
i started at 330 pounds.
i had surgery around 297 pounds.

(I’m 6 2” for reference)

i am 39 years old with severe osteoarthritis in my knees and ankles.

I weighed in this morning at 169 pounds (I am on my period though and I tend to retain water so I am probably closer to 165) . I get about 1400 to 1500 calories a day in now. My one year surgiversary was on March 24th. So I am just over a year out, but my numbers looked very similar to yours.

they are happy with my loss, I am now in a BMI range of 21 or so… i was at 185 for a LONG TIME then just recently started loosing again because they upped my calories. So now I am down to my lowest I have been since junior high. It’s really trippy when I look back on photos of me as a child and see that I weigh more then. Or the fact that I can wear my sons T shirts (he’s 11). I only weigh 65 more pounds than he does ?

7 minutes ago, Orinskye said:

I also went through Kaiser and I have almost the same stats as you.
i started at 330 pounds.
i had surgery around 297 pounds.

(I’m 6 2” for reference)

i am 39 years old with severe osteoarthritis in my knees and ankles.

I weighed in this morning at 169 pounds (I am on my period though and I tend to retain Water so I am probably closer to 165) . I get about 1400 to 1500 calories a day in now. My one year surgiversary was on March 24th. So I am just over a year out, but my numbers looked very similar to yours.

they are happy with my loss, I am now in a BMI range of 21 or so… i was at 185 for a LONG TIME then just recently started loosing again because they upped my calories. So now I am down to my lowest I have been since junior high. It’s really trippy when I look back on photos of me as a child and see that I weigh more then. Or the fact that I can wear my sons T shirts (he’s 11). I only weigh 65 more pounds than he does ?

Wowzers ! What another amazing story there are loads of surprises on this forum. Thank you so much for responding with your experiences. You’re a lot taller than me I’m about 5:7 on a good day. But our stats are definitely similar and it warms my heart to know you started out the same way. I would kill to be 169lbs. My God that is so ideal for me. Did you Start slow? And it actually kick started your weight loss by increasing your calories?? What does your diet consist mainly of?

major claps for junior high weight! Haha that is a new one. I’m so excited for you and I pray to God I will be able to celebrate such wins at my surgiversary next year. Let’s keep in touch!

29 minutes ago, Orinskye said:

i am 39 years old with severe osteoarthritis in my knees and ankles. 

And how do yo my navigate the osteoarthritis thing with exercise and getting around? Some days it’s so tight and swollen I can’t do anything but test my legs ?

I was a slow loser from the get-go. I was about where you are in the same time frame (it's been several years since my surgery, so I only have my monthly weights - not every week anymore - but at four weeks out, I was down 16 lbs). I went on to lose all of my excess weight, 235 lbs. I've since gained back 20 lbs, although it's super common to have a 10-20 lb regain after hitting bottom.

I did have stalls - not too many the first year - maybe two or three. I had a lot during year 2, though, as I got closer to a normal BMI, and they lasted a long time. Every time I hit one I'd think "OK - I guess this is it", and then the weight loss would start up again. My weight loss finally stopped at 20 months out.

if you stick to your program, the weight will come off, whether fast or slow.

Edited April 9, 20224 yr by catwoman7

I’m a slow looser like you and sometimes panic over the stalls. I also panic a bit about not loosing the majority of weight during this golden year-year and a half that our tool gives us. Then I look at the big picture of a 130 lb loss and don’t worry so much. I’m shorter than you and lost the majority of weight before surgery. I’m averaging about 3-4 lbs a month after the 6 month mark. “Keep swimming, keep swimming “, said Dory.

I also have osteoarthritis like other posters and found that weight lifting (smartly) , biking, rowing, and gentle yoga like chair or Hatha helps me stay active without pain. My garden gives me a good amount of gentle activity too. Now if I could only loose weight by activity alone, alas it never works!

I'm not sure if I count as a slow loser - possibly, since I see others with similar surgery dates who have lost quite a bit more than me. I had surgery in August and have lost 85 since surgery, 96 if you count preop liver diet, which I do. But, I am trying hard not to think about myself as a slow loser, just as a loser (in a good way!) My program has been really happy with my progress. I feel amazing. My BP meds have been reduced. My endurance is much improved and my energy through the roof. I don't feel like my body is sabotaging me anymore.

When I stop and look at the big picture and not the day to day numbers I remember that I am on a consistent downward trajectory.

I worry about getting to my ultimate goals because I worry what will happen after the 12 month and 18th month marks, because I know this will get harder at some point, but then I have to tell myself to focus on what is going on now, how I am using this new tool, and how I already see so many positive body and emotional changes even if I am far from my ultimate goals. And, in this "honeymoon period" I am trying to build some good habits around food choices, exercise and added movement, and even just the way I think about myself and my body.

Good luck!

4 hours ago, catwoman7 said:

if you stick to your program, the weight will come off, whether fast or slow.

Thank you catwoman7. I didn’t know you were a slow loser as well. But I do remember your posts on your weight loss and definitely so proud of you. Thank you for confirming my concerns were valid. Did you remember doing anything particularly different when the stalls broke? Or your body just decided for you?

I wish you continued long term success my dear.

3 hours ago, learn2cook said:

also have osteoarthritis like other posters and found that weight lifting (smartly) , biking, rowing, and gentle yoga like chair or Hatha helps me stay active without pain

Thanks for this Learn2cook. I’m going to YouTube chair & hatha yoga to get some more information on that. Weight lifting is definitely one of my interests. Wishing you the best on your long term weight management. I know it’s a lifetime change for all of us. Your screen name is cool. Is it related to cooking at all or any cool things you learned throughout your journey?

3 hours ago, Queen ApisM said:

When I stop and look at the big picture and not the day to day numbers I remember that I am on a consistent downward trajectory.

And, in this "honeymoon period" I am trying to build some good habits around food choices, exercise and added movement, and even just the way I think about myself and my body.

These are wonderful nuggets Queen! Thank you sooo much for taking the time to share with me. I love it. Everyone’s response la is really going to help me get through this now and in the future.

11 hours ago, TheWeightisOvr said:

Wowzers ! What another amazing story there are loads of surprises on this forum. Thank you so much for responding with your experiences. You’re a lot taller than me I’m about 5:7 on a good day. But our stats are definitely similar and it warms my heart to know you started out the same way. I would kill to be 169lbs. My God that is so ideal for me. Did you Start slow? And it actually kick started your weight loss by increasing your calories?? What does your diet consist mainly of?

major claps for junior high weight! Haha that is a new one. I’m so excited for you and I pray to God I will be able to Celebrate such wins at my surgiversary next year. Let’s keep in touch!

I had a tendency to stall for long periods then drop a ton quickly…. Then stall for forever and a day again… rinse and repeat. Overall it was agonizingly slow

food wise now:

Breakfast: a slice of toast with peanut butter or avocado. If peanut butter I will add 1/4 of a banana (sliced)

lunch: P3 peanut cluster pack and a chobani yogurt.

dinner: chicken/shrimp/ rarely pork or beef (pork for some reason my stomach can’t handle very easily. That was the first food that gave me foamies and it sits like a rock in my stomach ??‍♀️)

for snacks I tend to have nuts or cheese or yogurt.

im boring with food. I tend to do what works and that’s it. I don’t like to think about food and honestly I am never really “hungry”. I think I’ve only been hungry once since surgery and it was one of those things where I was working on a home improvement project and lost track of time/forgot to eat and missed eating for almost the whole day. So I really don’t even classify my hunger as coming back yet since it was only the one time.

I just got Invisalign so I am not really wanted to snack much either lol. My calories were in the 1000 range up until a few weeks ago and my nutritionist freaked out because she said I should be 1700. I had a meeting with a different nutritionist and she said I could push myself to 1400-1500. So that’s what I did and I started losing again. Their reasoning was that they didn’t want my metabolism and body to adjust to 1000 calories because that wasn’t sustainable long term.
typically people say that you have a bounce back from your lowest weight. My family is a tad concerned I lost “too much”. I do have lots of loose skin ??‍♀️ I don’t like it so I tend to hide behind clothes.

as far as osteoarthritis… with that amount of weight loss I actually hardly feel any pain and can walk around like it’s nothing. I can’t run (high impact) or jump (also high impact) but easier exercise is fine. I’m currently taking it easy because I played basketball/handball with my students and stressed my knee out by doing all the things I shouldn’t have been doing ?

I tend to walk A LOT. I have a big campus and I walk back and forth all day, I have a standing desk with no chair so it encourages me to walk/rotate the room. My arthritis was so advanced it looked like an X-ray from someone who is in their late 80’s and they were talking knee replacement surgery. I was in a wheelchair. They wouldn’t do the surgery
Because of my weight and my age (too young). By doing the weight loss surgery I have put off that need for a knee replacement indefinitely.

I was both a slow loser and a chronic staller. But I still got to my goal weight and even went a little past it. I'm in maintenance now and the only thing I can tell you is to try and not stress about it (which you will still undoubtedly do, because I know I did).

4 hours ago, TheWeightisOvr said:

Thank you catwoman7. I didn’t know you were a slow loser as well. But I do remember your posts on your weight loss and definitely so proud of you. Thank you for confirming my concerns were valid. Did you remember doing anything particularly different when the stalls broke? Or your body just decided for you?

I wish you continued long term success my dear.

no - didn't do anything different during stalls. I just made doubly sure I was following my program to a "T".