I am 18 days post op and I'm already at a stall. My first week and a half I lost a total of 18lbs and now I'm still at the same weight. Any advice anyone can give me to break this stall.

just wait it out. It'll break on its own. Stalls are a very normal part of weight loss - this will likely be the first among several. Just stick to your program and stay off the scale for a few days. They typically last 1-3 weeks. Once it breaks, you'll be on your way again.

I am going to second what Catwoman7 said. I have had and sometimes continue to have stalls. I'm almost a year out and have had so many it can sometimes be ridiculous. Just stay on course and it will pass.

It happens
When I was 3 weeks PO it happened and then broke a week in a half later.

6 hours ago, Quetta89 said:

I am 18 days post op and I'm already at a stall. My first week and a half I lost a total of 18lbs and now I'm still at the same weight. Any advice anyone can give me to break this stall.

This sounds about right. There’s something doctors and others call a “3 week stall” where your body is recovering water lost and rebuilding the stores it expended during the first week or so of very low calorie/healing. The stall can happen earlier for some (it happened at the 10 day mark for me), or a week or two later. Regardless of when it happens, it usually lasts 1-3 weeks (mine lasted a week) and breaks as long as you stick with your guidelines.

YouTube has some great info videos on this stall, worth checking out!

Edited April 9, 20233 yr by mcipanda

just wait it out. It'll break on its own. Stalls are a very normal part of weight loss - this will likely be the first among several. Just stick to your program and stay off the scale for a few days. They typically last 1-3 weeks. Once it breaks, you'll be on your way again.

Thanks

This sounds about right. There’s something doctors and others call a “3 week stall” where your body is recovering water lost and rebuilding the stores it expended during the first week or so of very low calorie/healing. The stall can happen earlier for some (it happened at the 10 day mark for me), or a week or two later. Regardless of when it happens, it usually lasts 1-3 weeks (mine lasted a week) and breaks as long as you stick with your guidelines.
YouTube has some great info videos on this stall, worth checking out!

Thanks, I was really worried about not losing but I'll check out the videos on YouTube.

Yes, frustrating, but as everyone has said stalls are common. They are also an important part of your weight loss. It’s the time your body takes to respond to the stress of your weight loss & reset itself to your lower weight & needs like certain hormones & your metabolism. I used to think of them as your body taking a breath, a timeout, shutting the door and saying I don’t want to talk to anyone just like you may at a stressful time.

I recommend the videos by Dr Matthew Weiner & Dr John Pilcher. Very helpful on a wide range of topics.

Edited April 10, 20233 yr by Arabesque

I stalled 14 days out, and then stalled so frequently in that first year post-op, I genuinely lose count of haw many stalls I had. It sucks, but you just have to stick to your plan and have patience for the process.

the dreaded week 3 stall... it sucks, but it will pass. I think most of us hit that in the first month.

In 17 days I've lost 7.2 lbs in 18 days (nothing yesterday, .2 the couple days before. It's slowing down). Better than the 1.5 per week on my pre-surgery diet, but not as much as I hoped for the initial period. I'm hoping it will pick up once I can start exercising. I'm going to try walking again today and hope my back pain doesn't come back (back pain is a seperate issue, but triggers easier since the surgery).

I think if we had a poll on here more of us probably stalled around the 3 mark than ones who didn't. It's normal, stay the course, you're not broken you just put your body through a load of trauma and it needs to heal.

Thanks everyone for the advice I appreciate it so much I'm going to be more patient with this journey.