Slow plateau, tired of being stalled

Hello fellow VSGers

I AM SO STALLED! Ugh.  I'm getting so frustrated.  My highest weight was 465 and I'm down almost 200 lbs, now sitting at 268.  My doctor has encouraged me to eat up to 1200 cals a day as long as its healthy high protein food.  I'm exercising intermittently, but at least two - three times a week and I'm either not losing or losing on 1 or 2 lbs per week.  I used to lose 5-6.  I understand that the weight loss is going to slow down but do any of you know of a boost I could give to myself? Cut out all carbs maybe, eat only protein.  I'm SOOOOOOO sick of this stall I just want to get past that 200lbs lost mark already.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

It seems logical to me that, having lost so much weight, you would need to eat fewer calories now than you could get away with in the beginning. I'd try reducing to 1000 or even 800. 

My father lost 300 pounds he was a whooping 500 pounds and is now 190, he weighs less than me :(. Although he did it without surgery he says when he stalled out he did calorie confusion, going high one day super low another day for at least a week then cut back. There's no real science to it but he says it always helped him. 

Do you know what he cut back, calories, carbs, fat etc? I've heard other people say that calorie confusion is a good way to go.

What is a typical day of eating for you?

I don't think eliminating carbs is magic or anything but if you do cut them back, you may find it easier to stick to a lower calorie goal. I ate almost none on my pre-op diet of 1000 calories and found it pretty easy and that was with a regular sized stomach!

I have a protein shake for breakfast, a turkey stick, 100g of Greek yogurt and a serving of fruit mid morning, a serving a soup for lunch (today for example was borscht with another bit of Greek yogurt and a tbsp of Parmesan cheese), my mid afternoon snack is generally hummus and snap peas or hummus and carrots and a 1/4 cup of nuts of some kind, supper is a meat of some kind and veggies and maybe a carb depending on what i'm making that night (tonight is honey garlic sausage and cauliflower potato mash (a head of cauliflower and four medium red potatos mixed together) of which I would have about half a cup.  Everyday I'm between 1100-1200 cals and between 75 and 100grms of carbs.  On days I exercise I typically burn off about 700-800 cals as I water run and weight lift.

I ate less than 20 carbs per day on my pre-op diet and lost almost 50 lbs in the first month.  I just seem to be so stuck, i'm wondering if it is because i'm eating pretty much the same thing everyday.  I wonder if I need to shake it up a bit.  I'm not bored, I love what I'm eating but maybe my body is begging for some variety. 

I hate to say it, but 1200 cals/day sounds like an awful lot to me if you're still trying to lose. Also, I'm wondering if you're actually logging everything you're eating--you know how calories can creep in there when our backs are turned!

If I were in your position, I would definitely try to drop back to 800 cal/day, make sure I was getting at least 64oz of water/day, continue logging my intake, and possibly bump my exercise to at least 4 hours per week. You may already have tried all of this, I don't know. Good luck!

I was doing 800 cals a day and stalled out completely, my doctor and my weight loss facilitator suggested uping them to between 1000 and 1200 so I have but I think you're right I think I need to decrease again.  Cut out one of those snacks.  I'm so annoyed I was doing so so well but obviously it isn't working anymore.

I agree w/skeller..

if you want to continue to lose..

cut the calories back to 700-800

up the water to more than 64 oz...I Drink a gallon a day

and you really must cut the carbs..

I generally do less than 30...

good luck and keep us posted!!

First of all, congratulations on losing almost 200 pounds! That is AWESOME!  First, I would weigh/measure and track using something like myfitnesspal to make sure that you're eating the calories that you think you are - I would probably cut back to less than 1,000 cals/day (I stay around 800, most days less, based on what I've seen to be most effective for the vets around here). Second, I saw that you're eating 75-100g carbs/day. If I were you, I would drop that down to around 40g and see if that makes a difference. You don't need to avoid carbs entirely, but it may be that this is a bit higher than what your body needs for weight loss. If you cut these out, you'll probably find that it's easier to stay under 1,000 as well.

The good thing is that this is a life-long process so we can experiment to find the "sweet spot" of what works best for each of us. (Just as an aside, physicians get notoriously little training on nutrition [in general]. Surgeons, again, generalizing here, are trained to do the best surgery, not counsel you on nutrition.)