Hello, I, 9 month post with VGS,, I am on a super strict calorie diet. 400 or less a day. ( Doc is ok with that) i do moderate exercise 3 days a weeks, and walking everyday. i have only lost 3# in 2 months. Doc said sometimes it happens, it not typical but can still happen, then he said one month i could loss 10# after my body catches up and get out of starvation mode or something along that line.. I just need to talk to someone who has experienced something similar. I had a rough start to this journey and I am just hoping that it starts going better,

Is there a reason why you are so very restricted. 400 calories a day is very low. Your body thinks its starving and it is. It will be a stall for that reason. It will break when its ready. There is nothing you can do but add more calories.

Your body is in starvation mode, so it's holding on to absolutely everything you put in it. Especially with you exercising on top of it. You should be at MINIMUM double that by now. When I work out, I take in 1200-1300 calories per day. On rest days, I take in 900 - 1000 calories per day. You're actually going to have to increase your calories to lose weight again. I know that sounds crazy, but right now your body thinks it's starving, so it's hoarding as much as it can to try and keep you alive. If you absolutely will not increase your calories, you need to completely stop exercising. If you won't stop exercising, you need to increase your calories.

7 hours ago, summerseeker said:

Is there a reason why you are so very restricted. 400 calories a day is very low. Your body thinks its starving and it is. It will be a stall for that reason. It will break when its ready. There is nothing you can do but add more calories.

It's all I can eat.. I can eat maybe 3 oz of food at a sitting, and that pushing it. then it's 5-6 hrs before I can try to eat more. I was on central feeding tube for the first 5 months after surgery. Just couldn't keep anything down no matter what I tried.. now I take 3 different meds to help with stomach digestion and nausea. My stomach was non functioning. But it's getting better each month.

1 hour ago, Synlee said:

It's all I can eat.. I can eat maybe 3 oz of food at a sitting, and that pushing it. then it's 5-6 hrs before I can try to eat more. I was on central feeding tube for the first 5 months after surgery. Just couldn't keep anything down no matter what I tried.. now I take 3 different meds to help with stomach digestion and nausea. My stomach was non functioning. But it's getting better each month.

Have you tried eating smaller meals 5 or 6 times a day. Make them high calorie. Drink milk. I had to do this. I have changed to more veg, less cals now that my calories are in a good range. I am sorry you had a rough start but stop pushing your body.

If you take away the time you had a feeding tube, you’re probably more at about the four month mark compared to the rest of us. I think I was eating about 600 calories then so a little more. I was a low calorie small eater too. Didn’t stop e losing all my weight & more. So don’t give up. (So sorry you had these struggles.) and I would expect that is also why your doctor is okay with your lower food intake at this time & your eating routine. While yes it is important for you to be slowly increasing your caloric intake & increasing your portion size as you progress, I would expect t your path will be even slower.

Out of curiosity what are you eating? Maybe there are some foods that are less dense & with higher calories you could be consuming. Do you regularly see a dietician to guide you on food choices with your specific needs?

May be you could reduce some of your activity to take some stress off your body. Exercise only contributes to about 10% of your weight loss. I didn’t exercise as such. Just upped my daily every day activities. Parked further away from where I was going. Walked up escalators. Took stairs. Did single trips up & down my stairs instead of carrying multiple bags or whatever at once. Get some resistance bands. You don’t have to do a lot to see a change in muscle toning & building which ultimately will help you burn more fat. I’ve been doing about 4 x 5 minutes or so sessions across my day for about a year. Doesn’t burn a lot of calories. I say I wouldn’t burn 40 calories a day but my arms look great & I get complements & I had to buy new pants as my thigh muscles had grown.

All the best. And yes, the stall will break when your body is ready.

I agree with Arabesque that your body is probably more along the lines of what things would look like for most people at 4 months. The central line feeding would have been high calorie to prevent malnutrition, so I'm assuming you didn't lose any weight on it? Or did you? I remember reading about your rough start, I'm glad you've been able to get off the feeding tube and that you are able to eat, even though you are taking meds to help with that.

Going from the high caloric intake of the central line to an extremely low caloric intake has probably been a shock for your body. Many of us stall somewhere in the first few months, some for a few weeks, some for a month or two, as our body readjusts and tries to decide if it is starving or not. I know you can only get in so much food with your digestion issues, but is there a reason you aren't supplementing with whole milk or shakes a few times a day? These wouldn't be affected by your slow stomach issues. And they may give your body a bit more energy to work with. Protein waters could work too, things like SEEQ are thinner and as easy to get down as water. The watermelon flavor tastes like a watermelon jolly rancher. LOL

Weight loss post surgery is a delicate balance. We want to be in enough of a deficit to facilitate good weight loss, but if we are too low our body goes into stress mode and won't release any weight because it thinks we are in a famine and are trying to burn through our reserves. So we have to eat enough to reassure it that we aren't slowly starving to death. Decreasing your activity and increasing your intake a bit (even if it is just a shake or a few glasses of milk) might give your body enough of a signal that you aren't starving and have what you need to continue to lose weight safely.

Things like hydration and sleep are crucial too, as these are also markers the body uses to determine how much stress it is under and if it is safe to lose weight. In fact, some studies have shown that sleep is MORE important for weight loss than even exercise is! I tend to think they are both important, but the point is, you have to look at the holistic picture of how much stress load your body thinks you are carrying in relation to how much energy it has to give. My last stall lasted 6 weeks and drove me crazy! But my body broke the stall when it was ready to, I just kept eating well, drinking well, and resting well. That's all you can do really. You can't push the river. ❤️

I went through similar, op in July and only finally home from hospital start of November. While in hospital I found it difficult to hold anything down and was put on a feeding tube for a couple of months and then the second time I was put on a tube it was because I had a leak and they wanted to bypass the area so it could try to heal. I am also on daily medication for my stomach, have to take before I eat anything, and I have strong meds for nausea if needed.

Over the last few weeks I have slowly started to increase the calories I take and exercise I do, gone from about 500 cal a day to approx 900 cal but for me the more important aspect is ensuring I get enough protein. I am able to now hold food down but it is hit and miss, like Sunday my dinner did not stay down but it was something I had eaten before without issue, it just depends. I have to push myself to eat three meals a day as I just don't feel the hunger (or interest at times). I don't sleep well and am exhausted all of the time which is why I have tried to push myself the bit more on food intake and exercise. I do see small improvements but I am not where I thought I would be this far out from the op and it can upset me at times but I try to focus on the good things.

My weight loss as slowed down over the last 6 weeks or so but I am hoping it is just my body is still in recovery mode after going through so much stress since July. I would think your body is probably going through the same, a lot of trauma has occurred and it is trying to cope. Don't compare yourself to others, everyone has a different experience with the op and we all recover in different ways, just try to focus on the progress you can see in yourself.

If your doctor is ok with how you are doing that is important and it will get better for you, just need time to recover and destress. Hopefully you will be slowly able to up the food intake or find a source of high protein that you can keep down. I don't know how you are on fluids but for me I can now take coffee again (even the smell of it turned my stomach for the first six months or so) so I take it with protein powder which means I am getting protein through fluids as well as the food I can eat. Same for collagen, I put it in my coffee also and it is another dose of protein so in two coffees a day I get 20g of my protein requirements.

Happy to chat if you want. We can do this. ?

On 2/21/2024 at 6:00 AM, FifiLux said:

I went through similar, op in July and only finally home from hospital start of November. While in hospital I found it difficult to hold anything down and was put on a feeding tube for a couple of months and then the second time I was put on a tube it was because I had a leak and they wanted to bypass the area so it could try to heal. I am also on daily medication for my stomach, have to take before I eat anything, and I have strong meds for nausea if needed.

Over the last few weeks I have slowly started to increase the calories I take and exercise I do, gone from about 500 cal a day to approx 900 cal but for me the more important aspect is ensuring I get enough Protein. I am able to now hold food down but it is hit and miss, like Sunday my dinner did not stay down but it was something I had eaten before without issue, it just depends. I have to push myself to eat three meals a day as I just don't feel the hunger (or interest at times). I don't sleep well and am exhausted all of the time which is why I have tried to push myself the bit more on food intake and exercise. I do see small improvements but I am not where I thought I would be this far out from the op and it can upset me at times but I try to focus on the good things.

My weight loss as slowed down over the last 6 weeks or so but I am hoping it is just my body is still in recovery mode after going through so much stress since July. I would think your body is probably going through the same, a lot of trauma has occurred and it is trying to cope. Don't compare yourself to others, everyone has a different experience with the op and we all recover in different ways, just try to focus on the progress you can see in yourself.

If your doctor is ok with how you are doing that is important and it will get better for you, just need time to recover and destress. Hopefully you will be slowly able to up the food intake or find a source of high protein that you can keep down. I don't know how you are on fluids but for me I can now take coffee again (even the smell of it turned my stomach for the first six months or so) so I take it with Protein Powder which means I am getting protein through fluids as well as the food I can eat. Same for collagen, I put it in my coffee also and it is another dose of protein so in two coffees a day I get 20g of my protein requirements.

Happy to chat if you want. We can do this. ?

Wow, sounds like we are in the same boat. it is so hard to find foods that I can tolerate. As far a protein plain chicken is what I can keep down, if food it has to many spices or flavors to it, it all comes up. anything tomato based is a huge NO, red meat, nope. most veggies are a nope. I can eat a egg, but only the white, the taste of the yolk is a nope. I do mange to get about 22 grams of protein a day, most comes from shakes Only vanilla ( 1 brand) , other flavors make my nausea kick into overdrive. Most protein shakes, protein powder make me sick. I have spent 100$s of dollars trying to find something that i can tolerate. Currant my fluid intake is about 24 ounces in 24 hours. I'm still sipping so it stays down, I also am not a sleeper, I have been a insomniac since i was 18 , so 32 years of getting at best 4 hrs a night/day. Feels like every day is different, the suspence of what is going to stay down, what smell makes me sick, or if today is the day i cant drink anything, There are times I wish i never had a surgery, but I know i needed it, to try and get healthier. but this all is just so much. Thank you for your reply, nice to feel that i am not totally alone and there are others that struggle like myself. and i would love to chat!