Stalled? Already?

Okay Guys, I will be three weeks out on Tuesday but I haven't lost anything in a little over a week, I haven't gained anything either. This has been since the doc told me that I could move up to soft foods. I haven't had that much though. I have been sticking to half an egg (hard boiled) I have had a half a scrambled egg but that doesn't seem to sit as well as the hard boiled. Then some diced lunch meat salad. For dinner. Lots of fluids; Water, SF Kool Aid, Crystal Light.  but having a hard time with the protein shakes.

I lost 12 lbs the first week and 6 the  second week.

Is this normal? Should I be worried about this?

Thanks Everyone

You are well in the normal range for your first stall.  This happens at any point with the average being three weeks out.  I have read many cases of this starting a week earlier as well as a week later.  You are doing fine.

I really question the logic of eating soft foods at this point.  In most cases people go from full liquids to a pureed stage.  Pureed is not the same as soft foods.  I realize that your surgeon has given you the go ahead but there is no reason that you can't slow things down a little.  Take things at a slower pace that is more comfortable to you.  

I wonder if you didn't mean the pureed stage instead of the soft food stage.  My nutritionist defined the pureed stage as eating anything that can be mashed with a fork.  I suspect this is really where you should be.  Scrambled eggs would definitely fall in line with a pureed stage as would the hard boiled egg.  In this stage I also had canned chicken blended with the 0 calorie Walden Farms BBQ sauce and then heated up.  Also I would have canned tuna mixed with the 0 calorie Walden Farms Bacon Ranch dressing.  Both of these were pretty good.

On a side note a lot of people will recommend that the best way to break the stall is to increase fluids and proteins.  Since you are having issues with your protein shakes I am thinking you are not getting at least 80 grams per day.  The quicker you can get to that point the better for the stall.  

That being said the two things and most important things I learned is that during this journey you need to 1) practice patience ... things will happen as they should and when they should at your own individual pace. 2) Embrace the stall.  If you aren't loosing weight you are loosing inches.  Both of these are goals you are working toward.  So a stall is not a bad thing.

There is a cycle to this journey ... loose fast ... slow down losses ... stall .... loose fast ... slow down losses ... stall ... and so on.  Enjoy your journey and don't worry about what is normal.  You can only make yourself upset if you compare yourself to others.  There is no doubt that you are doing better than some and not as well as others.  You are where you should be.  

Thank you for the reply. My diet plan for phase three is pureed/soft foods, Whi*****lude thinly sliced lunch meat, canned meat, mashed potatoes, cooked soft veggies, eggs, sf jell-o, sf pudding, etc. When I do eat, I eat very little as i can feel the restriction. I mostly eat eggs of some form because they go down well and I know that it has decent protein, since I am not getting that much through shakes. You would be correct that I am probably not getting 80g. I was having a hard time keeping it down so my NUT said to try for 1 shake a day and focus on high protein food to help.

Okay so I find your words really encouraging but I have a question, And I may sound like and idiot but I am willing to take the risk. If i am not loosing weight then how am I loosing inches? Don't they come off with the weight?

Thanks again.
Michelle

I have three thoughts after reading your reply.

First of all you said that you are feeling a restriction and having trouble taking down food.  Are we sure that this isn't a physical issue meaning there is a reason you should have a quick chat with your surgeon to see if there is something not quite right?

Second of all you said that you are probably not getting 80 g of protein.  To me this suggests that you are not recording your bites and sips anywhere.  Please start a new habit of using something like My Fitness Pal ... http://www.myfitnessspal.com  It is free and it is also used by many people on this forum.  This allows you to know for sure what your daily numbers are.  You can track calories, protein, fiber, carbs, and many other things.  I am about 10 months post op and started within a week post op and just finished logging my breakfast this morning.  By logging this information when you are stalling you might be able to determine if it is indeed a stall.  by that I mean to say that there have been others on this forum that say they have been stalled for many weeks.  This drew suspicion an when asked about recording daily intakes they weren't.  What had happened is they got a little too much food on a daily basis and didn't realize that they were taking in a lot more than they thought.  They had found their maintenance numbers.  Those amounts of food you take in when not trying to loose or gain weight.  So please start logging this info if you aren't already.  The nice thing about My Fitness Pal is that you can add many friends from this forum that can watch your intakes and you can see theirs to find out what they are eating.  After setting up an account just post on here the title "Looking for friends in My Fitness Pal" and mention that you just set up an account and would like some help keeping an eye on things.

Third your question about the inches versus the weight loss.  Apparently after a period of rapid weight loss like we experience your body needs to catch up.  The body will then do something I didn't think sounded right but I have experienced that it is true.  It will redistribute your weight.  Your fat storage shifts around and I guess as you have burned from various areas it takes the fat storage from other areas and puts it in spots that are lacking in storage.  So things shift around.  While shifting you aren't loosing the weight but instead since areas that have lost the fat are getting some replaced from areas you haven't lost you end up loosing inches in various places.  What you want to do is get out a tape measure and measure various things.  You will find out that once you see the scales move again after the stall that these areas you measured will actually have lost some inches.

Is your difficulty with the shake a restriction one?  What brand are you using for these shakes?  What type of protein?  Perhaps if you thin out the shake by adding more of whatever you add (milk, almond milk, water) it will be easier on you.  If not a restriction issue, do you have lactose intolerance?  Some that never had it get it post op.  If so and you are using a mix, perhaps you need to switch to an almond milk.  I would like to figure out the issue with the shakes.  After a couple minutes I remembered something else.  When you are drinking the protein shakes are they pretty cold?  A lot of people early on find that drinking things a bit warmer perhaps even room temperature liquids makes it easier to drink.

Hello,

I am pretty sure that there is nothing wrong  with me, I have seen my surgeon and he seems to be really pleased with my progress thus far. I was using MFP prior to surgery but I have not used it since. So I will go back to that.

My main problem is that I just don't feel like putting anything in my mouth. . . water, food, protein etc. I am not hungry and when i do feel like I am I et half an egg and I am done. I know that I need to try harder to get the water and the shakes in. . . I was never a big water drinker before so it is really hard now.

Thank you for clarifying the weight loss, inches. . .That makes sense in a weird kinda way.

The shakes are the premier protein pre done shakes, I like the taste of them but I just have a hard time getting a lot of it down. Maybe it is to thick, idk. I will have to try something else. Can I thin that out with something?

Thanks

Hi,

I didn't mean to suggest that there is something wrong.  In some people there can be a narrowing that occurs making it difficult for things to go down.  I think they call them strictures.  I really doubt that this is the case.  Especially if you aren't throwing up or becoming nauseated.

I don't much care for the premier protein pre done shakes as they aren't the best thing out there.  By that I mean they aren't Whey Protein Isolate but instead a blend of other various proteins.  As it turns out Whey Protein Isolate is the quickest to be utilized by your body.  If you are getting proteins that take longer to digest then the digestion occurs farther along in the system beyond the stomach.  Proteins that digest in the lower intestines are too late to be of benefit and have the tendency to cause gas issues.  Bottom line is that you actually use less of the proteins you are getting when the proteins take longer to digest such as the ones in the Premier Protein pre done shakes.  I am not saying that these shakes are useless and a lot of people on this forum use them.  I am just saying that there are much better things out there that work much better for us and do us more good.  

I do see that the premier protein rtd (ready to drink) shakes do have milk in them and I would expect that you could add almond milk (unsweetened or unsweetened vanilla) to the shakes to thin them out.  

By the way if you do want to try something else I am in love with the About Time mixes that can be bought online.  I usually go to www.gnc.com because they have a deal where if you get their gold card ($15 for a 1 year membership) you get 20% of anything that isn't a hot buy the day you get the card as well as the first week of each month.  With that discount the About Time protein powder is about $28 plus shipping for about 28 servings.  Shakes for $1 per day plus cost of almond milk (can use water or other milks as well I just love almond milk).  There are many flavors but the one thing you need to know about 100% Whey Protein Isolate mixes is that the flavors tend to be more subtle.  You are likely going to want to add in a SF syrup or fruit.  I like to add in Hershey's Special Dark Unsweetened Cocoa and some Stevia for sweetening.  The thing I love about the About Time shakes is that they are 100% all natural and only 4 ingredients.  

1) 100% Whey Protein Isolate (the quickest protein for digesting purposes and therefore more of it is usable)

2) Stevia

3) Xanthan Gum (a thickener ... even with this you have a thickness approximately a little less than that of a chocolate milk you would have drank pre op)

4) Natural Flavors (Strawberry, Vanilla, Chocolate, Birthday Cake, Cinnamon Swirl, Mocha Mint, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter, Peaches and Cream, Unflavored)  

Another thought is that you get something like a vanilla and add the unsweetened cocoa with a couple of drops of peppermint oil.  The peppermint oil is good for digestion and will give you a minty chocolate shake similar to a Peppermint Patty.  You will probably want to sweeten it a little as well.  I use Stevia whenever I can as it is all natural made from Stevia leaves.  When not possible I like to use Splenda and refuse to use Aspartame.  Aspartame gives me headaches and if you ingest Aspartame and some meat that has nitrites in it you actually create Formaldehyde which is that stuff they use to preserve frogs in school that you were about to disect.  This is true but it is claimed that it is in such small quantities as not to be harmful.  I say that after time that stuff has to build up in a body.  

Anyway I think that I have rambled on enough.  These are my thoughts as well as things that I have experienced and like.  Many people on this forum will likely disagree with my thoughts on Premier Protein RTD shakes as they use them.  The one thing they can't argue is the fact that Whey Protein Isolate is more quickly used by our bodies and therefore a better way to get protein than the Whey Protein Concentrates or Blends.  The things is that the Premier Protein shakes also throw in sources of protein that aren't as good as the Whey Protein Concentrate or Blends such as Calcium Caseinate and Milk Protein Concentrate and Milk Protein Isolate. 

I was sleeved the same day and am having the same issues. I am hoping that the stall, will too pass.

Congrats on being sleeved. I am curious what you are eating and drinking at this stage? How is your protein working out for you?

I'm probably not the best with the protein drinks. I have been eating eggs and cheese sticks to help with some of the protein. I have been eating Mashed potatoes. I have pureed some strawberries but, havent ventured outside of that.

Don't let this get you down already.  It happened to me too. I think it ended up being a three week stall (not to scare you) but guess what? I am still down 90 pounds now, so you will get there. Don't worry!