I'm going on 12 weeks post-op and for the past 2 weeks, I have been stalled. I know this is common, if frustrating. But what interests me is where I stalled. About 7 years ago, I had my most successful attempt at weight loss through nutrition counseling. I started at 251 lbs and I lost fairly rapidly and steadily for 6 months through calorie restriction and daily walking, reaching a low-point of 203.8 lbs. And then I stalled. I never got below 203.8. In fact, I steadily gained about 10 lbs over the next several months and then maintained that higher weight for maybe a year, and then gained more. When I started the surgical program last summer, I was right back at 251 lbs.

Perhaps coincidentally, 203 lbs is a number I remember being fairly consistent for me in my mid to late 20s. When I weighed myself, not having dieted at all and just living my life, I was usually between 202 and 205 for several years.

My question is, did anyone else stall when you reached a certain weight where you had either struggled to get lower in the past or where your body had been very comfortable for a long time at one point? I'm curious if this could be some sort of built-in set-point where my body is trying to settle itself just because it remembers being comfortable here for some reason. Like after the shock of the last several weeks it's saying "Oh, thank God, I recognize this street. I think I'll live here."

I know the surgery is still doing its job and I will hopefully see this stall break soon. It's early days. But I'm just fascinated by how this particular number seems important to my body in some way. Did anyone else have a similar experience?

I had several stalls - but they all eventually broke and I kept going until I hit goal (actually, about 10 lbs under) 20 months later. When I tried to lose weight on my own, I'd lose at most about 50 lbs before I'd hit a brick wall and my weight would eventually start heading back up. WLS was the only thing that allowed me to break through those brick walls and lose all of my excess weight (100% of it - although I've gained about 20 lbs of it back over the years). I think it's just a coincidence that you're having a stall at your former "brick wall". Just keep plugging away at it. It does get harder the closer you get to goal, though. Those last 20 or 30 lbs were a bear to get off (and It could be that my new, post op "set point" IS where I am now - but this is way, way lower than any pre-WLS set points).

I've had this happen! My body seems to have some set points it is familiar with and I have noticed myself stalling at them or at least holding there for a week or two. My first stall post-op lasted 6 weeks and was at around the same weight I got to when I took Saxenda. I hope your stall is gone and over WAY before then!!

It is interesting that your body picked that spot to stall at. I really wonder if the body has a variety of set points within it as opposed to just one. The way I understand it is that stalls mean our body has reached the point that we've lost enough it needs to reassure itself we aren't starving to death. So it stops weight loss, recalibrates, and assesses things before moving forward. It makes sense to me that for some of us this may happen at previous points of stalling or previous weights we stayed at for a while...

I haven't ever noticed this and I can't think of a scientific reason for it!

What I will say is as humans we are hard-wired to look for patterns and then read into those something significant.

I suspect you've just hit a stall. We all do, many times, on our weight loss journeys. If you can just relax into it and wait for it to break and then resume losing I think you'll be good.

My experience with WLS is that my body chose a new set weight and I just got there with a bit of effort and sticking to the rules. Totally agree that with previous diets my set weight might have been very different but those haven't intruded *at all* into my life post sleeve.

12 minutes ago, Spinoza said:

I haven't ever noticed this and I can't think of a scientific reason for it!

You're probably right about the need to search for patterns when there aren't any! The only scientific explanation I can think of is the amount I've lost this time, and the amount I lost 7 years ago to get to this same weight, is basically the same, and about 20% of my total body weight. I know I've read that 20% tends to be where the body starts really fighting weight loss, and even if the surgery makes it possible to overcome those mechanisms and lose more, it may be that the short term effect is a brief stall while it all gets sorted out internally. So it's probably just coincidence, maybe based on having lost about the same number of pounds as last time.