Help

I have been stuck for the past 4 weeks I'm down two and up two its driving me crazy. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to do the five day pouch test? Thank you

Here's the website - it gives the details for each day:

http://www.5daypouchtest.com/plan/theplan.html

If you up your protein and water, and cut out the simple carbs, you should see a drop in the weight.  I don't think it's really necessary to go the pouch test route.  Just my opinion lol.

Chris is right Ana you don't need the 5 day. I tried to do it and found that I just wanted more. Maybe all in my head.  Your probably just going through one of those dreaded stalls. Been there done that. It will get better. Definitely more protein and more water.

I'm going to try uping the water and the protein and see, hopefully that will work. I'm so afraid of being one of the people that this surgery doesn't work for, even do I lost 69lbs in the last 5 months. I compare myself to what others lose so it makes me feel like a failure.

I know how you feel. I am 11 months out and still feel like that. Just stick to it and you will be ok.

if i were you, i'd put the scale away, and concentrate on other measures, like your tape measure.

Rather than do the 5day pouch test, i'd just record everything, to make sure your intake is right, make sure you're getting enough activity, etc.

Put your scale away. its not your friend.

YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE!!

Everyone losses at their own rate.  I'm 5'9" with a large structure, so I don't expect to lose as quickly as someone who's 5'4" with a smaller structure.  You cannot base your weight loss on anyone else's progress.  We didn't all get fat at the same rate, did we?  I've been bouncing around the same 1.5 lb. range for over a week.  It will start to go down again when it's ready to, and not a moment before.  I'm not freaking about it, because I know I haven't been doing anything different than when I was losing.

As for the 5 day pouch test - I've heard it's a crock.  There is nothing wrong with the pouch - it doesn't need 'testing'.  Just put the scale away and concentrate on following the book.

Hi.  I don't see your surgery date in your signature.  When was it? Our weight loss is similar; I've lost 65 pounds since late March when I started Optifast. I know it's hard not to compare, but I find that looking at other people's rate of weight loss hasn't been helpful for me.  As for stalls, yes it seems to happen to everyone.  I had one 3 weeks out (very common, I hear), then I lost slowly for a while, then my rate of loss went up for a couple of weeks, and I'm again in a slow loss period (regardless of working out regularly, tracking everything, getting enough water and protein, and so on). 

I've read about many stalls on this forum.  Someone even wrote recently about being in a 4 month stall, and got a response from a veteran saying that they didn't hit their lowest weight until they were a couple of years out (following an extended stall).  I think the lesson is that we all are different and need to honour our own process.  As long as we are eating the right amounts of the right foods, exercising regularly, taking our vitamins, getting our protein in, and getting enough water, we WILL be successful... maybe just not as fast as we would like!

If the stall keeps up for much longer, you might want to set up a meeting with your nutritionist to go over your food logs (I hope you are weighing, measuring, tracking everything...?).  good luck,hope it breaks soon!

I started Optifast march 14 and had surgery on March 28. Its so hard not to compare I started at a higher weight then you 309 so I feel because it was so high I should have lost more.