Weight Loss Frustration, Pleateaus, Average Loss...Ugh!

I've had my band for nine months and have lost 65 pounds.  (Started at 375, I'm 310 now).  However, I can't help but feel like I haven't done enough.  I'm always questioning whether I should be doing MORE.  Objectively, I think my diet is great- I eat nutritional foods- I eat the amts. I'm supposed to.  I can definitely improve in the area of exercise. 

My surgeon says 1-2 pounds lost per week is about average.  I don't tend to lose 1-2 per week; I tend to lose several, then plateau.  Lose several, then plateau.  Repeat.... repeat.... Ugh!

I just pushed past a two-month-long plateau.  I was stuck at 315 for so long I started to lose hope.  Then the scale just started moving and voila!

Is this typical?  Is 1-2 pounds/week really average?  Am I about where I should be?  I guess I just need some validation here that I'm being to hard on myself.

Thanks ya'll!

65 lbs in nine months??? That is fantastic...pat yourself on the back girl!!! My doctor has told me 1-2 lbs. a week. That is a healthy weight loss.
Good luck to you:)

I noticed that from weight loss blogs and other research it projected to have a weight loss of 2-3 pounds/week. Personally that hasn't been the case for me. I also read that most bandsters usually see a 1-2 pound a week loss. After about the first year its one pound.

In my personal experience it has see-sawed depending on my food choices. I work out 3-4x a week. I've had weeks that I have struggled to lose a pound and then BAM day after day I lose a pound. Sometimes I don't get it. But one thing I do know is that when I follow the program I see the most results.

The norm is 1-2 pounds...some people can achieve more its possible but we all lose at different paces. Its hard to compare yourself to someone else... we all want to but there is many different factors and height being one of them.

I think you have lost a great amount of weight and you will continue to loss ... remember the slower the rate the least likely it's going to come back... so dont' worry how quickly you get to the finish line.. just remember your on a journey and changing habits and becoming more active is going to keep you successful long term.. we have to remember is long term.. we have all lost weight and some point and likely gain some if not all of it back.. so changing habits should be our number one goal... weight loss follows us changing behaviors.

Good Luck :)

We all lose differently.

I had a very steady downward loss --- did not go for more than 2 weeks at the same weight.

Slow/steady --- some weeks only 1/2 pound --- but did not do the 'up one, down 2' thing at all.

I have to say that I think that regular, consistent exercise helped me alot with that.

I don't let myself skip 2 days in a row of working out (even if it is just a 30 minute walk) ---- that helps keep me going.

I lost 135 pounds in 18 months.  So I 'averaged' 1.73 pounds per week.-- at the beginning it was 4 - 5 pounds per month, then it slowed down.

If you say, respectively, there are 4 weeks in a month, and you've lost 65lbs in 36 weeks (9 months), my math tells me you've averaged approximately 1.8lbs a week.  It may have been more some weeks than others, but from where I stand, it seems like you're in the average category. 

Losing 65lbs is awesome!  If you're following all the rules, then just keeping doing that.  If you think you should exercise more, than that's what you need to do.

All in all, you should feel great about what you've achieved thus far.  Just my opinion.  So, congratulations!!!
~ Barbara

I too am like you GingerNikki, I have lost 40lbs so far, and that's counting the weight i lost before i got the band. Its has been a struggle...

I too follow the rules and exercise regularly and have been the same weight for almost 2 months now...It is frustrating!!!! I was recently diagnosed with PCOS and put on metformin, so far there has been no change in weight, so I am giving it some time and following the rules in the meantime.

You are doing great, keep it up... No matter what, we can't go back to the way it was before the band. You post gave me hope that as long as i continue, I WILL break this plateau.. Good luck to  you!!!

Ginger I stall alot like you also .  I will lose one pound one week then not lose anything for a week maybe two weeks and then drop six pounds in a week and half all at once .I just did that about two weeks ago .


I'm never consistant with my weight loss. 

If you're losing on the average.. 1.8 lbs a week, you are right on schedule.  Remember average is a middle number.. some will lose much faster, some much slower.

I started just about where you did, I was 385 at seminar, 383 at time of surgery (no pre-op diet required).  I walked every day.  At first I could only walk to my mailbox and back ...long driveway.  Each day I'd make myself take a few more steps, from mailbox to stump in neighbors yard.  next day from stump to fence line, then fence line to large tree.  Just every day a few more steps.   Before I knew it I was walking a mile.. then worked up to 2 miles.

I believe it's the exercise that really helps.

If you think you can't find the time to exercise.. you won't find the time.

Everyone has the same amount of time in a day and while admittedly some have more obligations, there are ways to increase your activity without going to the gym for half the day. 

Some ideas..  put away the silverware one fork at a time.  Do lunges across the kitchen floor *unless carrying something hot or soupy..LOL*  If you are allowed a clothesline where you live.. hang your clothes out in nice weather and leave the basket in one place and walk back and forth to hang each piece on the line.   HOA too strict for that?  Then take things out of the dryer one item at a time and carry back to put away.  Sweep your carpets with a broom.. works and uses more energy.

One more suggestion:  I got really discouraged last spring when my rate of loss slowed.. so to encourage myself, I started taking monthly measurements.  So now, even though I can't always see the scale going down, I can see my hips & waist getting smaller.  

Hang in there, you are losing.. just in fits & spurts.  :)