Question:
Frustrated with not losing! Any thoughts?
I am on week 6 of Post OP Gastric bypass. I lost 23 pounds on the liquid stage. I gained 2 pounds week 3 when I started on pureed foods. I lost no weight week 4 and I lost no weight week 5 and still no weight this week on week 6!! I am drinking my water, eating six small meals a day that are 400-600 calories and I am getting my protein. I really don't know what I am doing wrong. I have lost 23 pounds but that was just during the liquid stage. Now that I am eating I gained 2 pounds and I have not lost anything for three weeks. What if I just keep gaining? This week I go back on all foods and I am afraid to eat anything becuase I think I am just going to gain more. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thank you for your help and support! — jann91 (posted on August 19, 2008)
August 19, 2008
when you say you're eating 6 small meals a day that are 400-600 calories,
I'm assuming that you mean in total....not 400 - 600 calories each. Right?
In total you should be taking in around 800 calories a day from all your
meals and liquids.
Also you didnt' say anything about exercising. If you're not exercising
then you should start slowly and work up, although I know of people who
have not exercised and still lost weight.
Good luck.
— cjjordan
August 19, 2008
The way I'm reading this, you're eating 400-600 calories 6 times a day.
That's way too much! Think about it...that's 2,400 to 3,600 calories a day!
That's way more than a normal adult NOT on a diet should be eating. I hope
we're just reading this wrong....
— suezahn4me
August 19, 2008
If you are onlyeating 400-600 calories a day...you just might be one of
those that just loses much slower than most. If you are just barely 200
lbs that might explain that you only have a a small amount to lose and a
whole year to do it (generally).
A lot of new post ops ask "what am I doing wrong"? It's not that
you are doing something wrong, it's tat your body is doing something right!
Your body is an awesome machine...It's job is survival...and it's doing
it's best to keep you from what it thinks is starvation. I know that's not
encouraging to us when we are trying so hard to lose weight...but that's
how it works! Be grateful...and then be patient. (Easier said than done)
3 weeks is a long plateau and I can imagine how frustrating it must be for
you, but these long stalls usually can take 3 weeks to catch up. If you
don't begin to show aloss soon...Go in and see your surgeon. You might
want to start writing things down to help the dcotor better understand what
is going on and what you are eating.
Otherwise, you are only 6 weeks and already had a nice loss of 23
pounds...I think things will start moving before long! Your body needs to
adjust to the pureed stage too...You've got a whole year! And maybe more
to lose your excess weight.
— .Anita R.
August 19, 2008
First off, weight loss is not always a straight line loss. Some times there
are plateaus. Some times there are gains. There are a few possibilities
that you need to consider. The first is: Are you retaining water? The
second is: Are you getting enough protein and exercise? In the FIRST
scenario: The issue will probably resolve itself given time. In a few days
or a week or so, you will lose the water and lose the weight. The SECOND is
actually a GOOD thing if it is occurring! If the SECOND scenario is the
case, what is happening is that the protein that you consume is being
turned into lean muscle mass on your body by the exercise? Lean muscle
weighs more than FAT per cubic inch so you can't measure your progress by
the SCALE at this stage of your weight loss, but you CAN with a MEASURING
TAPE! If you are NOT dropping pounds but ARE dropping INCHES, you are
GAINING Muscle! MORE MUSCLE means LESS FAT! The lean muscle mass will help
to ACCELERATE your weight loss! There is the possibility of a THIRD option
that I did NOT mention before. If one of the FIRST two is not your problem
then the THIRD option is likely. The THIRD option is that your body's
Metabolism SET Point could have readjusted itself to starvation mode. This
IS possible. Give it some time. If things don't start working in a week or
so you may want to contact your physician and get PROFESSIONAL advice or go
to a nutritionist. It SOUNDS like you may have done this already. If NOT,
I would suggest that you DO. A CERTIFIED nutritionist will be able to set
you up with a dietary lifestyle that will meet your nutritional needs and
your dietary preferences so that you are likely to STICK with it. You will
also be able to LOSE your weight because he or she will be able to
CALCULATE the calories that you need to consume to lose the weight at the
maximum rate that your body will allow without triggering your body's
metabolism set point. This may be the problem you are having now. You need
to eat a certain number of calories a day or your body starts holding on to
all the FAT that it has stored and actually starts robbing your body of
it's own PROTEIN instead. What your body takes instead of the fat is
MUSCLE. You do NOT want it to do that. Muscle BURNS fat! Your body does
not discriminate from WHAT muscle it robs the protein FROM either. It will
take it from your HEART muscle as readily as it will from your LEG muscle.
You need to eat a certain amount of both PROTEIN and CARBOHYDRATE a day and
for each person that amount will be different depending upon what their
GOAL is. If your goal is to lose weight, and you are a SMALL WOMAN, the
requirements will be different than if you were a large MAN who wants to
MAINTAIN your weight. This is why you cannot use someone ELSE'S dietary
program to optimize your weight loss. Your best bet is to talk to a
CERTIFIED nutritionist and have him or her outline a PERSONAL diet plan
JUST FOR YOU. In order for you to MAXIMIZE your weight loss, you need to
eat the proper amount of both protein AND carbohydrates. For ME, that
ratio is about 20 grams of protein per meal to 20 to 40 grams of
carbohydrates per meal. I eat 5 or 6 small meals a day. I am a 6 foot 3
inch tall MALE, so my needs are going to be different than YOURS. I also
have a severely restrictive diet due to MANY severe allergies. Add to
that, the fact that there are some foods that I will not eat for religious
reasons and OTHERS that I will not eat because I dislike them, and my
nutritionist had her work cut out for her. Each person should have a diet
plan worked up PERSONALLY by a nutritionist instead of using someone ELSE'S
information because the other person's information may not hold true for
YOU. YOU may be smaller or larger than the other person, and that
difference will throw off the calculations needed for your optimal weight
loss. They may also have different GOALS or be somewhere ELSE on the
journey. If you are trying to LOSE weight, and they are trying to MAINTAIN
it, you are going to be very FRUSTRATED if you try to use their diet to
lose weight. The GOOD news is that you do NOT have to give up bread and
pasta. Unless you find that it causes problems for you after your surgery.
Of course, If you INSIST on eating bread or pasta, It would not HURT to
make the change from WHITE bread to WHOLE WHEAT bread. The same goes for
PASTA. As long as you are going to CONSUME these things, let's TRY to make
them HEALTHY. We can only eat SO MUCH FOOD now. We need to make sure that
it is QUALITY food and NOT JUNK. Whole Wheat products can count as a
protein as WELL as a carbohydrate. The nutritionist will be able to assist
you to figure out EXACTLY how much you can have of what item without
causing yourself to derail from your weight loss goal. If your weight loss
surgeon provides a nutritionist as part of his services, then you are set!
If NOT, I would HIGHLY recommend that you look into getting one for
yourself. The nutritionist will save you a great deal of headache and
heartache in the future, and will serve to make your weight loss a much
more productive experience. I have had the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy and
have lost 100 pounds in 5 and a half months with the help of a CERTIFED
nutritionist and PERHAPS with the added benefit of not consuming dairy
products, eggs, pork, and red meat. Some of these I avoid due to
allergies, some due to religious reasons. I am also allergic to Cane
Sugar, so I avoid ALL products containing sugar because they usually do NOT
label what TYPE of sugar they contain. This has PROBABLY kept me on the,
"Straight and Narrow" more faithfully than MOST. I am allergic
to BEANS, otherwise I would likely have remained a STRICT VEGETARIAN and
ELIMINATED a lot of the BAD HABITS that I had picked up such as eating
FRENCH FRIES and CHIPS to help me lose the weight. I hope this helps, Hugh
— hubarlow
August 19, 2008
— gigi_c
August 19, 2008
If those meals are each 400 to 600 calories you are eating way too much. I
eat 3 meals a day for a total of 1000 calories. The adverage meal is 300
calories. If I have a snack at night it is fresh fruit and no more than
50-75 calories. I might suggest that you try the 5 day pouch test if you
are eating that kind of calories just to get your system back into the
condition it was just after surgery. If you are not aware of it, just post
another note or write me and I will send you the full details.
— William (Bill) wmil
August 19, 2008
If you are only taking in 400-600 calories a day that is probably not
enough. I am post op 15 weeks and we are supposed to take in about 900
calories a day total. They say do not graze either, but that is hard. I
have lost 55 pounds in 15 weeks, not bad since I have terrible knees and
can only exercise in the pool. Also, at about week 8 post op I did not
loose anything, then only lost a couple of pounds the next 2 weeks. Your
body is trying to hold on to your fat for fuel, that it is why you have to
eat enough calories a day to nourish your body and give it what it needs
but not too much or too little. Good luck. You may want to talk to a
dietician to see if they can help you work out a plan. I have my surgery
done at Duke WL center in Durham NC and they gave us a list of food to eat
and what not to eat. Rice and pasta was on the list of not to be eaten for
the first 15 weeks. Now we can eat whatever we can tolerate but not over
due the calorie counti!
Good luck.
— ajcorgimom
August 19, 2008
So assuming, like everyone else that you are having 4-600 cals per day.
You could not have put on "fat" weight. It could be that you
added back some salt with the puree's and you have put back some water
weight. Up your fluids, preferably water and see if that helps balance you
out. You may slow down to 1-3 lbs a week here too. Also, measure
yourself, you will find you keep shrinking down to what you have already
lost, and notice more room in your clothes as well. You can check yourself
for dehydration by pinching up the skin on your hand. If it snaps right
back you are okay. If it stays up, you better get sipping! Also, you can
press on the bone of your shin a few seconds, with your finger. If it
stays indented, you are retaining water. Good luck! Hope this helps some!
Congrats on your loss!
— lesleigh07
August 19, 2008
I'm 3 weeks post-op and less than a week ago I started to panic since I was
only losing 0.2 lbs a day or practically nothing. I know I'm not supposed
to weigh daily anyway. I talked to dietitian to make sure I'm not doing
anything wrong and they said just be patient. While I was complaining that
I'm not losing and it's too early for a plateau, a friend stopped by and
complemented me that my clothes are way too big on me. Guess what? I ended
up buying pants 2 sizes smaller. I used to be 16 and now I'm wearing 12 so
sometimes we're losing inches versus pounds.
I can't imagine it's ok to eat 6 meals and a snack! That sounds like way
too much food. I started having some no-sugar fruit juice but the dietitian
told me not at this stage so I stopped.
Another thing I started to add to my diet was more fat. I take less than a
teaspoon of almond butter with my meals, sometimes. I'm thinking maybe fat
was missing from my diet. After my plateau, I started losing 0.6/0.7 pounds
each day and the past 2 days have jumped to about 2 lbs a day so my body
was just catching up.
Good Luck!
— far2be
August 19, 2008
I didn't read anything about exercising. Are you doing at least some
exercise everyday? If not, that will surely kick start your metabolism and
not optional.
If you are only consuming 400-600 calories per day total, you are probably
in starvation mode and your body is holding on to everything.
I would recommend using a tool like Sparkpeople and tracking your intake to
see how many carbs/sugar/protein you are taking in. Are you eating too
many carbs? Review it after a week or so and perhaps there is something in
the numbers that might surprise you.
I also would recommend a call to your nutritionist/surgeon and checking in
with them.
Good luck,
Dawn Vickers, RN, BLC, CLC
— DawnVic
August 20, 2008
I am not a doctor or nutritionist but I have heard over and over that when
the body and brain receive a message of starvation, which 400-600 calories
daily is, the body stores and holds onto the fat so it won't starve. The
initial weight could have been a bit of fat but a lot of fluids as well and
now your body might be freaking out and wondering what you are doing to it.
Many people I have talked to who had surgery told me that when they
actually increased their calories a bit and added daily walking, the weight
came off at a much healthier rate. I had the lapband and am losing on
average 1-2 lbs a week. I am in no rush since I know my brain needs time to
catch up to the new me at each new stage. Maybe your brain already knows
what's best..smile. Good Luck and make sure you address your issues with
your doctor. Take care
— pjlewis1
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