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Welcome! You're the same day as me! One of the things I have done that I think has really helped me feel more prepared is watching YouTube videos. I started with every video available from both Dr. Matthew Weiner and Dr. John Pilcher, and I also watched all of the ones from Dr. Vuong, although I know he's a more controversial figure these days. But I did get a lot out of some of them when he was talking about your mindset and that type of thing. I also watched a ton of videos made by regular people talking about their experiences. I've done book research and such too, but I feel like the videos are just a way I can get a little bit of something to think about every day. With 4 weeks to go, my plan is to try out a few recipes from the bariatric cookbooks I've bought and see if I can get some menu ideas for some of the earlier stages, figure out the groceries I will need, etc. Oh, and freezing some meals for my kids so I can avoid cooking the first few weeks. Other than that, I think we just have to take it one day at a time.

Perfectly normal. As @Shanna NYC said they usually occur at week three but can occur before or after that. They usually last 1-3 weeks. And it may not be the only stall you experience. They are the time your body takes to assess where you are now & what it needs in regards to digestive hormones, metabolism, etc. When your body is ready to move forward again the stall will break. Can’t force them to break though some people say they did but they don’t know how long their stall would have lasted. Just stick to your plan. I agree stay off the scales for a week if nit seeing it move is messing with you. Try taking body measurements as some times the scale doesn’t move but your measurements do as your body realigns itself & yes including your fat deposits.

Spot on SBG. this happened to me first time round. I also didn’t do any pre op for both surgeries as they were both ended up emergency surgeries. but you also get a stall around 3 months. I lost 55lbs(25kgs) in 3 months. But cause I was so sick and not handling foods my body stored all the nourishment I would be able to hold down. Plus I was plagued with injury so couldn’t walk. Cat, up your protein. My nutritionist said this to me and I started to shed a little more. good luck Brandy. You are doing this cause you want a better quality of life.

Welcome! Plateaus are absolutely normal. Just look through these forums under 3 week stall. It's called the 3 week stall, but can happen at any time and can last anywhere from a week or more. Remember your body is adjusting to all these changes. It definitely can be discouraging, but its so normal and doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong at all. It can be hormones, the body making up for such rapid lost, a good BM etc. Dare I say that most if not all of us have experienced this. Stick to your plan and stay off the scales for a few days. Sometimes the daily weigh in messes with us. Best of luck. You got this.

Hey everyone, I’m new here but I was wondering if anyone else experienced a weight plateau so early on. I’m only 2 weeks out of surgery but have been stuck at 213 for a few days now and it just feels so discouraging.

Good luck Brandy and Meisha and everyone else having surgery this week!! Tomorrow I will be one month post op!! I didn't lose anything last week, in fact when I checked my weight Monday I've gained 2,6 lbs. I might have cussed out the scale. 😂 I know it is just the infamous "3 week stall" and there is nothing I can do but stay the course. But maaaaan, when the scale starts moving in the other direction, it really does your head in. I worry this won't work for me, that this is all the weight loss I'll get, that my weight issues are too complicated for this surgery, etc... I know it isn't true, it is just a feeling and feelings are transient, but I'm pretty discouraged anyway. I'm sure it'll only last a few weeks, then get back on track. I plan on watching how everything is fitting while the scale is being difficult. I know it is just water weight gained from a stressed out body. But boy does your headgame need to be strong for this process... In other news I am on soft foods and about 70% of what I eat is relatively fine. I'm still taking nausea meds on and off. I still keep finding foods that piss everything off, my tiny tummy is PICKY. Fish still works best of all which still strikes me as all sorts of weird since I never liked it before. My tastebuds are still behaving strangely. And I really want a muffin but I can't have it because DS patients have to low carb it. *sighs wistfully* I picked up some of the Devotion brand protein that you can bake with. Maybe I'll be able to make a muffin when they arrive?!

Wow, you look great!! I'm so glad you've had such a great result! I love when successful people pop up to encourage everyone to stay the course, it is really inspiring. I'm in my first stall post surgery and it is soooo annoying and discouraging, even though I know it is part of the process. I'm just staying the course--low carbs, high protein, water, water, water, move when I can. I know it has to break at some point. I gained 2.6 lbs but I know it is water weight. It is a good thing I only weigh once a week or I'd drive myself mad... LOL

I woke up in recovery hungry, genuinely hungry. I would have eaten seafood if they'd offered it and I hate seafood. I'm one of that minority that didn't lose my hunger, in fact, I wasn't hungry before, it came back after surgery! Not fair! LOL I find hydration is important for controlling hunger. I had to have a stern talk with my body about how shakes are nourishment and head hunger was complicating the picture because I just wanted to chew on something. Sugar free popsicles helped. I was on liquids for 2 weeks post surgery, strict liquids, no cream of wheat or yogurt or pudding. I agree with Arabesque, distraction is your friend. As is drinking your shakes on a schedule and hydrating all throughout the day... I saved my popsicles for the evening, when I'm most used to eating a meal. Your doctor is mistaken if they assume being hydrated or having shakes takes care of hunger. It doesn't for everyone. Each body is different. Just remind yourself this is a finite period of time. Try warm broths to alternate between the cold, sweet shakes.

I signed up on here awhile back and waited to post anything until now and hope I can give some of my experience. March 1st of this year I had my gastric sleeve. I went in with a weight of 363 pounds and am 6’1. As of today posting this I am 225 pounds. Definitely was one of the smartest decisions I ever made for myself. Everyone’s journey is different. I was met with immediate energy following my procedure, like waking up everyday and ready to take on the world. And it’s still like that. For whatever reason for me, my eating habits and likes and dislikes immediately changed. I hated fish my whole life and now find myself craving it. Once loved ranch dressing, not it makes my stomach feel yuck. You hit these plateaus where your weight doesn’t change, sometimes for a couple weeks at a time, it’s easy to get discouraged but trust me, stay the course, don’t go back to bad habits and then bam! Next thing you know, you’re dropping a pound or two a day, followed by another plateau. This will happen repeatedly. For me I’ve noticed that walking 4 or 5 miles a day and being as active as possible REALLY makes it come off even quicker and maintaining a diet with no sugar for me has seriously helped. I treat myself to a little bit of carbs daily but mainly all proteins and it has worked great for me. Again, these are just the things that have worked in my journey and no two are the same. I’m fortunate that my job is pretty active so I keep track of my steps climbed and steps to get my exercise minutes in while I work. I also find a reason to be active when I’m not working. I wish everyone luck that is or has had this procedure done. And like I said, it’s the best thing I ever did for ME.

Congrats! That is great progress! Look how much you're able to do now that you weren't even a couple months ago, its amazing! Glad your health is improving so quickly! Yeah, I'm dreading my upcoming stall. I it's "when" and not "if" it happens for everybody. Just have to remember its just your body coming to terms with the drastically different caloric intake, and it will freak out periodically along the way. As long as we stick to the plan, we're still burning fat, even though our body is offsetting the scale number with fluid retention while it panics. It took years for us to put the weight on, so anything shorter than that makes our body interpret it as a threat. Once it realizes you're maintaining your health while burning the fat, it will gradually release it. Weight loss won't be linear, it will look more like stair steps with the occasionally brief increase (again, "Fake weight" since its fluid retention) before it steps down again.

I haven't seen any posts in a while -- how is everyone doing? I had a sleeve on 10/9, lost 19 pounds really fast, then at 2 weeks, hit a stall that lasted about 3-1/2 weeks. It was very frustrating and I felt like I had messed something up or done something wrong. I wondered if this was not going to work for me and yet I was permanently stuck with a tiny stomach. I hated seeing all the social media posts of all the people who seemed to be continuously losing weight every week while I stalled -- even though I knew not to compare my journey to other people. But even during that long stall, I had to stop wearing a bunch of clothes that were too big, I moved my Apple watch to a tighter setting on my wrist, I was able to stop taking all blood pressure and diabetes meds because my levels were all normal or low, and I even completed a 5K (walking it mostly but still!!)!!! My doctor told me not to worry about the scale -- that "it would catch up." So I just didn't weigh for a while, though I stayed the path on eating, water, protein, and movement. Well, today I got on the scale and have now lost 31 pounds since my surgery. The scale is catching up. What a relief! I'm sure that I'll stall again at some point, and I'll be in a better mindset to just stay consistent and keep with the program and have faith.

Congrats and good luck! I had mine last Monday, and had similar doubts going into it. The first 8 hours afterwards was the worst, but it wasn't so much that it hurt, it was more just an uncomfortable feeling. That combined with coming out of anesthesia and the way I overthink things didn't help, haha, but around 8 hours afterwards it started easing dramatically. I felt way better the next morning and walking was easy after that. Definitely recommend walking and Gas-X to reduce the pressure feeling. As for the scale not moving, just remember that weight loss is not linear, it comes in waves. Whenever there's a sharp change to our body, our mind overreacts because it thinks we're under threat and its trying to save our life, even if its something as simple as a diet. The fat we accumulated was as a defense measure to protect against starvation for our ancestors, but we as humans haven't adapted to the plentiful amount of food and high carbohydrate availability that we have present day. Think of our fat cells as little balloons that can store pieces of fat as a potential fuel source for starvation protection. As we go into a deficit with our calorie restriction, the body is forced to burn those pieces of fat, but those balloons remain, waiting to be filled back up again "just in case". If our body thinks it is threatened after a significant amount of that fat fuel is burned, it will temporarily fill it with water/fluid to keep the balloons in tact. This is where the "water weight" you may have heard of comes into play. So even though the fat itself is gone, those balloons are hanging on for dear life, thinking they're trying to save you. Only after some time passes, the body decides that its safe to shed those empty fat balloons, and you'll have a "whoosh" of weight loss after a stall period. These stalls can be 1 week to a couple months, which makes it very easy to get discouraged. When (not if) you get to a stall, just remember to stay the course. You had an entire lifetime to condition your body that your higher food intake was the normal amount required for survival, so it won't be convinced that everything is ok with a reduced caloric intake for a little while. Your weight loss will appear like stair steps instead of a straight line. Also anticipate slight gains during these stalls. That is just the water retention, and not fat reappearing, so think of it as "fake weight". As you get close to your final goal, and you're exercising more, remember that muscle weighs more than fat, I think about 1.5x as much. So as you build muscle, it will offset the number on the scale. That is why the scale number isn't as important in the final phase of your weight loss journey. It can be discouraging if you're only chasing the number, so keep in mind all the other victories towards the end. Think of the energy you have, an easier time breathing, the ability to do things you couldn't before, being able to wear clothes you never thought you'd fit in, and the additional years added to your life!

Well done on the loss. dont over do it. It is a big adjustment. After 14 months I got the hang of limited foods, about a cup full. And that one extra sip or mouthful made me throw up everything. And now I can have no more then 3/4 a cup. And I’ve only thrown up three times since surgery on the 2nd. i had a mini meltdown last night. I had thrown up and also had my first dumping(think it was the date smoothie.) and I was contemplating the decisions on the fluid/puree diet for the last 15 months. And how it’s affecting my mental health. I am so over it and often feel myself wondering to how people do this for their life. I am walking 30mins - 1hr a day. And it’s the only enjoyment I feel besides my sewing. I can only sit for an hour at a time. I see my GP tomorrow.

We see so much people during the first weeks after surgery "regretting" it... I doubt OP is a troll.

Thank you everyone!!! I'm actually excited to get these last 2 surgeries because my stomach will no longer be the size of a 16 week pregnant person, free boob job (kidding...kinda lol ), no more monthly enemy, no more PCOS issues, no more cancer concerns, and NO MORE HEALTH ISSUES!!! I'm speaking that into existence, because after these last 2 surgeries, I will have had 9 surgeries in 2 years. That's just too much. My body will practically be brand new by the time I'm done LOL

Barifusion chewables 3 a day, for the first three months. Now I just do a women’s one a day

Hi all! I had my sleeve done on 11/21/2023! I am finding that no matter how many protein shakes I am having I am still hungry! I have tried yogurt, cream of wheat, protein shakes etc. My Dr. has me on liquids for the next 3 weeks and I am miserable! I was told today if I follow the plan, I shouldn't ever be truly hungry Any suggestions?! Edit: I am currently eating 75-100g of protein a day

Hope everyone is continuing to do well. I over indulged for Thanksgiving and didn’t feel great after (some very wet mashed potato and a few spoonfuls of pumpkin pie filling). Otherwise have not really had much pain or nausea. Tomorrow is my two week appointment and I expect to be given the green light to move to purées and soft foods. I’m down about 15 pounds from my surgery and 45 from the start of my preop diet.

I never did Wegovy (Semaglutide) but a few of my friends have done it. I went straight to surgery. As soon as my friends were off, their body put back on the weight and then some. Too many horror stories about Semaglutide, rotten food stuck in stomach, stomach paralysis, to name a few. My best friends daughter has been on it for 3 months and has only lost 5 pounds, she needs to lose well over 100. Found out her thyroid is messed up so she is on thyroid meds and has lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks. She is still considering surgery, but will let her body adapt to thyroid meds first.

I didn't lose my hunger with surgery, it is still here. In fact, I woke up from surgery in the recovery room hungry. 😂 However, my taste buds have changed. It happened about 2 weeks out. I can't taste sweet spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. It sure does make holiday treats less tempting. My brain hunger is a lot quieter too, I'm assuming that's from the surgical effects on GLP-1 in the body...similar mechanism to what quiets head hunger on the meds. I don't know how long this effect will last. I had the DS so it alters more of your anatomy than a sleeve does, and there are metabolic benefits to that alteration. So I'm hoping it is an effect that stays around for a while.

You will get through it! Seems quite a few get feeling off. Our body's hormones have changed, not eating comfort foods, lifestyle changes are apparent. It should wear off before too long, but if it doesn't then you should talk to your Dr about it. I was in a humdrum for a week, it all seemed to change once I was able to start even eating puree and getting other food in.

Anesthesia can mess with our bodies for a while after surgery, and it has been clinically shown that major surgery can trigger depressive episodes in people. What you are experiencing is completely normal even though it sucks. Add to that hormonal changes, and body changes, and changes in the nutrients you get, and recovering from a major surgery and yeah, you could feel pretty down! I'm 3 1/2 weeks post op. Some days are good and some days aren't so good. I've heard the first 3 months are really challenging and the first year takes a lot of resilience and adjustment. Next time your husband starts with the "this is what you wanted" I'd kindly remind him that those words are not supportive and guilt trips are not necessary. That you are cognizant of the fact that you wanted bariatric surgery to lose weight and improve your health, but NONE of us can even begin to understand the fullness of an experience before we actually have it...and living this experience is feeling challenging right now. Even the BEST things for us often come with distinct downsides. You are allowed to be upset! You are allowed to say this is a struggle! What would be more supportive of him would be for him to validate your feelings and assure you that things won't always feel like this, but while they do, he's there for you. I'm sure he's doing what he can, but everyone deserves feedback when their words are making it harder for you to deal with what you are dealing with. I too feel a little off kilter from the world right now. Any surgery brings grief with it when it alters your body. Let yourself grieve. You are in a liminal space right now, transforming from one version of yourself to another. Much like the caterpillar who winds itself into a cocoon, you have had to bury yourself into this new experience, and you will never be the same. Some parts of you have to die so that other parts of you can blossom forth and live. When you finally come out of this cocoon, flying will be so thrilling!! But in the meantime, the transformation sucks! LOL I don't think caterpillars think the process is fun either...

I'm so glad that work is going well! You look fantastic and all professional!! I hope it continues to be awesome... I am so sorry you have the BRCA gene. I had a cancer gene panel done this summer due to the endometrial cancer I had. I found out I have the CHEK2 gene, which is lower risk than the BRCA gene, but still high risk enough to consider an elective mastectomy. I've considered going that route if I have to have a boob lift post weight loss... I saw the oncologist this morning to talk about taking a round of tamoxifin to reduce my risk. It was informative!! It is possible they could do both the hysterectomy and the hernia repair at the same time if the doctors are in the same system. GYN surgeries often coordinate with other surgeons so their patients only have to go under once. You will be shocked at how light your pelvis feels post surgery, I still marvel at it! I love not having that monthly visitor, I didn't really understand how much energy it was taking for me for 2 weeks out of the month. And my iron levels stabilized really nicely post surgery. If you need any support don't hesitate to message me! I found recovery from the hysterectomy similar to my DS surgery, though I was sore longer with the hysterectomy...

Yep those sneezes and hiccups hurt so much. I’m 25 days post op and it still hurts. Even the burps do. First time round- I took photos in different standing poses and even in bra and underwear. I did all the body measurements too. (As Cat says. It’s good for the stalls) This time I remembered on the morning as my daughter reminded me. the dr said I wouldn’t loose much as I lost it all the first time a year ago. But I’m 5 kgs down

I did a few days before. Pics and measurements! Measurements are super important for when the scale stalls!!