Rate of weight loss

Hello, I had Gastric Bypass surgery 23 days ago.  The first two weeks I lost almost 20 pounds.  The last week and a half I have only lost a 1 1/2 pound.  What is everyone' experience with the rate and timing of weight loss

Each person is different with their rates. Slowdowns and stalls happen. Just do what you need to do including exercise, and loss will happen, pretty much guaranteed. And try not to be too focused on the scale, which I know is almost an impossibility. I only weighed myself once a week early out, and had my husband take our scale to his office in between times. Otherwise I went nuts.

Everyone is different but here is a kind of what to expect

Month 1 - 20 pounds

Months 2-6 - 10 pounds

Months 7-12  5 pounds

Most people take off 100 pounds from the surgery in one year.  You can exceed that with diet and exercise.

It's normal to stop and start with weight loss.  Here's the way I look at it:  I am eating only 400-500cals per day, most days less than 30 carbs, less than 15gms fat. There is NO WAY that I'm not going to lose weight eating like this! I may stop and start, but ultimately if I keep eating on plan I WILL be successful.

And when I get in a slump I bring out my secret weapon:  My MEASURING TAPE!  It never lies. My weight might be holding steady but my measuring tape shows that I'm steadily losing inches every 2 weeks.

I SO feel your pain.  I have been a slow loser.  Two months in I went 14 days bouncing between 221 and 223  - it was so frustrating.  Then I dropped 10 pounds in about three weeks.  Then I went another two weeks and actually gained .5 pounds.  Then I starting losing.  I've heard a lot of people talking about "stair-stepping" their way down the scale.  

I know it's frustrating.  You KNOW mathematically that you should be losing weight.  However, you probably know as well that there's no way you created a 70,000 calorie deficit in two weeks to lose the 20 pounds.  I don't profess to understand.  

I take comfort in looking at some of old posts (search "slow weight loss" or "stall") of people with slow weight loss or who stalled and are now only at goal or only pounds away.

See the calculator I posted further down this thread - it might give you some peace of mind!

It is VERY common to have a stall at or about 3 weeks post-op. The early, rapid weight loss involves depleting our glycogen stores, and at about week 3 the body says 'Whoa! Time to put some of that glycogen back' and that takes water---which weighs 8 pounds per gallon. Don't worry, you'll soon go back to losing fat.

Sounds like you are hitting the infamous "3 week stall" - nothing to do but ride it out and give you body time to adjust.

A number of months ago a vet told me to count PERCENTAGE of weight lost - not pounds - and wow was she right!  I use this calculator: http://www.calculator.net/percent-calculator.html?cpar1=&cpar2=86&cpar3=21&x=58&y=7  (I'm heavily math impaired so I have to use this). 

Leave the first block EMPTY, in the second box enter the total number of pounds you WANT to lose (in my case it is 87), and in the last box enter how much weight you've lost at that point, click calculate, and voila', it will tell you the percentage lost of your excess weight.  The reason this is more important to do is because people who have more to lose (I'm a light weight at 'only' 87 pounds to lose) will SEEM to lose weight faster, and yet when you compare percentages you'll see you're right on track.  Just remember that every time you check this out (I do it only on weigh days - Mondays - once a week) make sure you clear that first box. 

So if you see someone on here in the first two weeks have lost 28 pounds, and they need to lose 150, they've lost 18% percent of their excess weight, where as in the first two weeks after my surgery I lost 'only' 16 pounds, it was actually 16%.  And since lightweights tend to lose slightly slower (although that has not been my case), it means we were pretty much neck-and-neck although she had lost 12 more pounds that I did.  Make sense?

And yes, that dang 3 week "hang time" (it's not a stall, just your body making adjustments), can be irritating but things will move again.  You can't NOT lose weight at this point as long as you're following your program.

You're doing great!