I'm having a rough day... I moved to pureed last wednesday after 9 days of clear liquids and a loss of 20 pounds. The doc suggested that I stay away from scales anywhere but his office! Which I go back to on 11/12... well at the gym the temptation got the best of me and I hopped on... I gained like 4 pounds!!! I can't figure it out! I'm only getting up to about 700-900 calories a day on pureed and like 70 grams of protein... how could I be gaining!?!?!?!? I have an appt with a nutrionist today, but I just feel discouraged... I know its not about the number, its about being healthy....but it doesn't stop it from messing with my head alittle...:tongue:

I can sympathize. I haven't lost any weight since I started mushies. I don't feel much in the way of restriction either. Its disappointing for sure but I am hoping that my first fill (2 weeks away) will boost the loss.

Megs,

Keep in mind that every scale is different....you may one thing at the doctor's office and immediately step on a different scale and weigh something entirely different! I'm sure that I'll be scale hopping too.....you just need to KNOW! LOL. But only count the one at the doctor's office.

I plan to weigh myself the morning of my surgery on my home scale and that way when I check it will be the same scale.

Good luck! You are doing great!

Mary

I weighed myself at My dietitions office and came directly to the nursing office i work at and weighed myself again, just to see how close the scales were, there was a 6lb difference (in 25 minutes). so Scales are calibrated differently..... so don't stress. and if you did happen to gain 4lbs.... remember...... it's not a Sprint, its a Marathon :0) good luck to you

What you have just expressed is exactly what I am afraid will happen with me. I have been following the pre-op diet for awhile now and I have lost a good amount of weight. I am terrified that once I start eating again, I will gain. I even asked if I can stay on the protein shakes after the surgery but they said they don't want patients to continue the shakes post op and that we should get used to eating food again. I am very nervous for that time. Please let me know what your nutritionist said after you meet with her.

I first want to say that you seem to be doing awesome!! You have already lost twenty pounds! And you are weighing yourself at the gym so that’s great that you are going to the gym.lol I am not banded yet but I have worked at the gym before (yeah chubby me) and have had like three personal trainers, etc. etc... The scales are all different and your body is different weights at different times of the day. Food, water, and even going to the bathroom can change the pounds, not to mention different scales. I was told to have one scale put in the same spot, flat as possible everyday. It is better to weight myself after I wake up in the morning before I drink or eat anything and either wear the same clothes or no clothes. So I started waking up and weighing myself naked in the bathroom and writing it on the calendar once a week. That way I have no clothes, food, water, or bad scales discouraging or "messing with my head a little". I would also suggest measuring yourself. I know it sounds like mubo chumbo but really muscle burns fat but is heavier than fat. Have you been doing only cardio or weight training as well?? It’s good to do both, and if you are doing weight training that is where you are getting your muscles from. But don’t stop doing weight training cuz it makes you weigh more. Yea cardio helps burn fat and keeps burning fat for about an hour after wards. But weight training not only tones, tightens, and burns fat but eventually after you have enough muscle mass, you will be burning fat all day!!! Even when you’re sleeping.... and you can only get to that point my weight training. well i seem to have gone overboard with the reply.. ttyl xoxo

I am having the same experience. I was banded one week ago. 8 days of clear liquid, 20 pounds off and so weak I could hardly stand. I called my doctor and he said I was malnourished duh. Your weight loss probably reflects a tremendous amount of fluid and going into a bit of starvation mode after surgery when you're trying to heel. Consider the 4 pounds up to be healthy and replenishment of fluids you desperately needed. It's a good thing. The scales do vary of course but so does your weight throughout the day. Weigh once a week in the morning and go by how you feel and clothes fit. Even after 20 pounds off my jeans are actually tighter probably because of the abdominal swelling. Its a long road and we just started the journey.

hey all,i think my dr told me the first 6 weeks is about your stomach area healing.not about losing a lot of weight,ive lost over 30 pds in 2 weeks but im getting all my protien,im walking 2 miles a day,i love the whey liquid 42 g then i have a slimfast low cab shake at dinner,yopliant thick lights are great,im feeling great.sugar free puddins and cream chik soup at dinner is working great,even if i gain alittle when i got to mushies ill just pick up the walking this am i was out for another mile walk so today be 3 miles,good luck all

Someone explained this to me and I think it makes a lot of sense.

During the pre-op diet and while on the liquids phase, your body is completely empty of any food stored in the stomach or alimentary canal. (tum to bum). When you start eating again, that volume slowly is built back up. Any extra weight put on at this stage is to be expected and is simply the body doing its usual thing.

GET OFF THE SCALE! IT IS THE DEVIL! Especially in the first couple weeks. Seriously-- It will make you want to take it and throw it thru the window, into traffic, and then set the scale on fire.

I say 1x a week MAX. Also- you have no restriction, are back on actual food and healing. You're consuming tons of liquids and your body has to adjust to all this. It is going to freak out. Mine did. I think it still is. But I was weighing myself everyday, a couple times a day etc --I started really making myself crazy and depressed. I have had put myself on "time out" from the scale.

I am only registering my weight from the doctor's scale at my fills. Right I am going in every 2 weeks so it works.

A couple of hints, since I've 'been there, done that'.....

First, if you must weigh yourself other than your doctor's office (which is how I was), be sure to use a reliable scale. For instance, I know that the scale in my home registers three pounds heavier than the scale in my surgeon's office (this makes for a nice surprise when I go in for fills :thumbs_up:).

Second, just like you, I GAINED weight in the exact same point in the process and I was SO frustrated; I cried, I had a pity party, I swore that I was stupid for doing all of this, and then..... I started losing. It took me three fills (my last one was two months ago) and I finally hit an AWESOME point in my restriction; I eat lots of small meals a day; I NEVER order when we go out (I just have a few bites from my husband's plate), and I very rarely actually feel 'hungry'. The amount of weight I lost so far is 82 pounds (surgery was in June, but this is how much weight I've lost since early May), and I've only got 61 more pounds to go to my goal; I never thought I'd be at that point. Honestly, even if I never lost another pound, I am truly happy with as far as I've come.

I'm just trying to encourage you to get through this rough time. I can remember being in your shoes and feeling the exact same way, but honestly, take a deep breath, stay off the scale, get the fills that you need, and you'll be on your way!

I love my scale. It tells me I'm the same weight no matter how much I gain or lose. Well, If I lose about 8 pound, it might tell me I've lost 2!! So basically, I stay away from it. I pay attention to my clothes, I figure, people aren't going to know what I weigh, but they are going to see my weightloss in my clothing.

Someone explained this to me and I think it makes a lot of sense.

During the pre-op diet and while on the liquids phase, your body is completely empty of any food stored in the stomach or alimentary canal. (tum to bum). When you start eating again, that volume slowly is built back up. Any extra weight put on at this stage is to be expected and is simply the body doing its usual thing.

I think that was me, Sunwyse, and I'm going to go find it, copy/paste it here and put it in the post-op forum as a new thread as well, as this is by far the most common query that new bandsters have in their post-op period. I wish the doctors would warn us to expect this, so that people wouldn't get the 3 week post-op blues about it.

Here it is:

It is highly likely that you will hit a plateau or regain a few pounds in in the weeks after the op. My theory on this is:

* In the pre-op weeks, we saw big numbers as weight loss because we had switched from a solid to a liquid diet and most of the loss was not fat but simply emptying the digestive system. At any point in time on a normal eating regime, an average person will have 10-15lb of food in various stages of digestion in their alimentary canal. Us fatties probably had 20+! Real fat loss at that stage is probably only 2-5lb, the rest is fluids and undigested food. However, we believe the big numbers and get disappointed when they don't continue.

* During the operation, they put you on an IV saline drip, which boosts your Fluid levels and Water weighs MUCH more than fat. This can take several days to a couple of weeks to get out of your system (see next point).

* The internal swelling from the operation all contributes to fluid retention, which is boosted by the IV drip. Until the swelling goes down, you're going to hold onto that fluid.

* As the swelling goes down, you start to move from liquids to mushies to solids. You will probably notice that you don't poop for quite some time post-op, which is a combination of the constipation-causing painkillers, the fact that you are eating MUCH less in volume, and that you are now re-filling your digestive system from it's previously completely empty state. This means that as you lose fluid weight, you are regaining solid food weight, and all the actual fat loss is disguised by those two. Some people will retain more fluid, especially if they're eating salty canned Soups (I know I did!), so they will see a gain. Others will lose more fluid than they are gaining in food weight, so they will see a slight loss. For others it will be equal or will go up and down day by day.

In the meantime, in the background, I believe that if we stick to the diet plans, we are still losing real fat at the steady rate of 2-3lb a week - we just can't see it and judge it accurately because there are too many other influences. Once you get back to solid foods, a "normally full" digestive tract and get rid of the extra fluids, your scales will be much more accurate and should be showing a steady loss of 1-2lb per week.

Yes it was you babe! Definitely do post in the post op forum! I think its very important info we all need to have!

If you are going to weigh yourself at all invest in a really good, really expensive doctor's office quality scale. Using different scales and gym scales is just going to screw with your mind.

Also, when i first started losing weight i would go upand down 4-5lbs throughout the day and during differnet times of the month. Now that I am at goal I only fluctuate about 2 lbs throughout the day and throughout the month. In the long run 4 lbs is nothing given the amount of weight you will lose.