RubyWednesday

If you document what your weight is at each stall, you will find it was the set point which you started a new diet. I was a chronic dieter before my Duodenal Switch, so my weight loss was very, very, very slow and my stalls were long and frequent. When I went back to each stall, I compared it to my chart illustrating my diet attempts, the weight I was when I tried each one, and sure enough, my stalls corresponded to the ounce what I had documented.

Congratulations. I got my DS back in 2004. My top weight was 450 and I am now 200 lbs. Unlike you, I am not on a strict regime. Probably, because of this, I was a slow loser. I lost 100 lbs the first year and then the rest came off over the next twelve years. My experience is that I keep hitting and plateauing at every set point I started another diet at. I'd go several months without losing a thing and then all the sudden I would drop five to ten pounds. Overall average was and continues to be about a quarter to half a pound a week.

Get your Iron levels checked ASAP.

Each weight loss is unique. Do not compare your experience to someone you know had the surgery. Do not make yourself crazy if you are not losing weight as rapidly as she or he is. I am one of the segment that is called The Slow Loser. There was a rumor that I could only expect to lose all the weight I could hope to within an eighteen month window. This rumor cast many slow losers into great despair and panic, seeking revisions, because they didn't see the hoped for results within that window. Luckily for me, I lost my job and benefits about a year after this surgery or I would have driven myself crazy trying to qualify for revisions surgeries. To set this up for you, I did not follow any particular diet. I already was aware that I had dieted myself up to 450 lbs. This surgery was supposed to be a weight loss tool, not a cure. The writing was on the wall when the nurse expressed disappointment that I had lost "so little" in my follow up to surgery about a week later. If I recall correctly it was about seven or eight pounds and I was thrilled before she opened her mouth. But my top weight had been 450 and I had worked my way down to 410 for the surgery. I weighed in at 400 that day. That was in 2004. I am now 200 lbs, literally half the size I was that day. I lost 100 pounds within that window and then it stopped altogether one in 2005. After finding my body totally resistant to everything I tried to do, I resigned myself to the size I was. 300 lbs was still better than 450 lbs. But then, after a few months, I'd get on the scale to find I lost weight. Then I'd get stupid and hopeful and see what I could to to nudge it along. The scale would fluctuate wildly. I'd throw up my hands in disgust and get back to my life. Rinse, repeat. Until I finally started documenting the progress I made. I figured out that I would plateau at every point I started another diet. 300 lbs., 275 lbs., 260 lbs. 230 lbs. 210 lbs. Now 200 lbs. I don't know if I will lose more weight, but if I do the next point set is going to be 185 lbs. So, based on my experience as a slow loser who didn't follow some hard core Atkins regime, I lost half of my weight within that window due to having a much smaller stomach with very little ghrelin and the other half moved off much much slower to the point I averaged about a half a pound a week, all said and done. So, don't panic. Expect to revisit every set point that you started dieting again. You are not as muscular as you think. Most fat people think they must have a huge muscle structure, because they carry so much weight, but if you're like me, you don't realize all the things you did to avoid getting up and moving. Get into a muscle building program before the surgery so you will stay warmer and more energized. You also want to pay attention to your Iron and your Calcium. I finally got this right recently after years of trail and error. So what you want to focus on is staying strong and energetic, not to mention how you look in your clothes. Stay off the scale as much as possible and pay more attention to how your clothes fit. The less bloating and unsightly bulges you have, the better off you are. Hope this helps. T

Hi, Pamela. Congratulations on your weight loss. You probably have already heard about courtesy flushes, but I'm afraid once you drop the stink bomb, the stench spreads out very fast, indeed. You may always want to carry Ozium smoke and odor eliminator. I spritz into and around the toilet before I start. My stuff was so bad that my nieces and nephews named it Zorg for the alien that crawled out of my rectum and died, after overhearing my sister say the stench "was not of this world." Our "zorgs" are caused by malabsorption. You need to look first at a probiotic. Another duodenal switch forum recommended Primal Defense Ultra by Garden of Life. You should boost its power by a good prebiotic. I get one from Vitamin Shoppe called Nutra Flora FOS. I had researched internal deodorants on the internet and learned that alfalfa and chlorophyll would work, but they only helped a little. After Zorg kept setting off the carbon monoxide in the travel trailer of a friend I was visiting, I went to the vitamin store to also add parsley to see if that would work and told the manager about my problem. He told me to get activated charcoal tablets. I have found that this protocol works very well for me. I don't set off alarms anymore and if I'm in the middle of something in a public restroom, people still come in and do their business rather than cough, choke and quickly exit, looking for another place to do their business. Devrom has been recommended, but I won't go there if I can get natural supplements. Hope this helps.