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Never fear. You've hit whats commonly known as the "3 week stall". During this week to two week period, you will see very little to no weightloss but you'll start seeing INCHES come off you. There are numerous posts on here about the three week stall you can search and read on. Just have to wait it out and keep doing what the doctor told you. I lost two pant sizes during my 3 week stall. So keep an eye on the inches!

I agree with butterthebean....I actually laughed at some of the post...laughter is good for the soul....everyone here really want to see people succeed. I fell off because for some reason I stop wanting meat & only wanted soft stuff, such as macaroni salad, mashed potatoes...I got back up & dust myself off....I started back to protein shakes to get back on track. I was doing the happy dance today after I got on the scale & down three more lbs after a three week stall...yayyy me

First, thank you to everyone that posted not only where they are but their personal struggles as well. It's a big deal to know that I am not alone here...I knew that, of course, but it's nice to really see it's true. So many things that were written really resonated with me and it was good to see the approaches you guys take. I suppose that right now I'm realizing that I am a horrible hypocrite. Yes, indeed, I am. I must be. I have posted multiple times over the past year about being happy with accomplishments we've made and not worrying about a number on the scale. And here I am, making myself insane in my own head because of a number on the scale. A number that, quite frankly, does very little to even impact how I look. I might not like my snug pants, but they're still a 5/6 and I'm still in a small. I have reassured my friends like coops over and over again that they're successes and here I am beating myself up like I'm a failure. Quite frankly, I'm being ridiculous. Not about wanting to keep on top of things and certainly not about wanting to perfect a way to slide back into loss when I need to. Certainly those are valuable things to learn because maintenance is the long haul and who knows what will happen as I get older and naturally tend to hang on to weight? (Even more than I already do, blech!) I am definitely dealing with some hormonal/emotional wackiness postpartum and where we live does not help. I need abundant sunshine to feel good - days on end of overcast gloominess really affect my mood. I also have a great deal of stress, partly just because of life and this feeling that we're hemorrhaging money lately but also because I try so hard to shape my future and stay on top of things and we have a lot going on. Additionally, crazy as it sounds but a book of poetry I recently read just crawled in my brain and reawakened so many old emotional feelings and really made me reflect on who I am and why. I've been worrying it in my brain for weeks now and I keep trying to find these things I can just "fix" so I'll be back to how I was feeling a few months ago. And let us not forget what sleep deprivation does to a body and mind! I keep wanting to Google things like, "When will this baby ever sleep?!" but I know that it will be at least another month or so before I'm able to get more rest. With all this, weight seems like it should be an easy target, but it's just not. Am I in a better emotional place than I was three years ago? Most assuredly. But it's kind of sad and puts a control freak like me on edge to realize that it's not all gone - that I still have some issues that need attention or work, or that might never go away. A big hallelujah for the fact that I am still fortunate enough to not be battling non-stop hunger or food obsession. But let's just say that when you're not paying attention, a real desire to eat does not have to be there to overindulge or mindlessly snack. I've gone totally off the rails the last few days, eating the sloppiest I have eaten at all since my surgery and after going back and logging all my calories to the best of my memory, I was disheartened to see that I'm eating 1,800 calories a day or more, mostly in junk slider foods. Foods that do not taste good to me, do not satisfy me and even make me sick. I've been having digestive issues all week and no wonder! You know, it's sad...really sad, because I am NOT EVEN HUNGRY. I am not eating for stress. I am eating JUST BECAUSE. Just because it's there and I can. I realized last week that I was a bit peckish for a sweet in the evening and we had nothing to suit what I was looking for (okay, junk, I admit it) in the entire house. So the next time I shopped I bought a bunch of junk! And you know what that stuff does even when you're not triggering cravings? It makes you feel like crap, I swear. Not just physically but mentally. I'm up one pound on the scale, too, and I'm lucky it's just one. Today, I am fasting. I feel good. Well, the sun is shining and I'm sure that helps. But that junk got packed up in a bag and sent to the office with my husband. Let his poor coworkers divide the stuff up, I don't want it in the house. I don't have to avoid those things forever, but right now is not the time to surround myself with it, either. I've gotten more than one email about doing the 5:2 thing and I might try it. I don't know. At first I was convinced that no way would I even consider another diet. But after reading about it, it's actually pretty close to how I ate in maintenance, when I easily maintained. I'd weigh daily and restrict when I needed, but mostly I ate what I wanted, within reason. I'm not sure if it would help me lose again, and honestly, I'm not sure if I just need to take a step back and stop thinking about my weight entirely. I'm sure some counseling would help because I feel like I've been on a roller coaster since a few months before I had the baby. It's unfortunate that it's just not a real option for me - having a counselor write in paperwork that I need regular counseling can red flag my husband's career, and never mind that it's not supposed to happen that way. It does, trust me. So what am I learning? Wherever I go, there I am. I do not get to escape myself and who I am, or my particular issues, just by changing my location or my body shape or my weight. I am still the same person, happier, yes, less weighed with baggage, yes, but still susceptible to depression or anxiety like I was before. It does no good to beat myself up over this, either, it just adds another stress I don't need. Maintenance is hard, and it is forever. I don't care how fast people get to goal. I don't care how they do it. The fact is that it is hard to stay there, forever, if you do not pay attention and keep yourself accountable. If I had avoided VST, gone off to my hermit hole and kept binging on junk for a few more weeks or months, I could easily find myself up twenty pounds and even more frustrated. We say this to newbies all the time, but it's true. I don't care how long you've tried to build good, new habits. The old ones are ingrained, comfortable and immediately gratifying. I can eat wonderfully for ten months straight, but give me a few days with the old foods and tack on some emotional struggles or some boredom and I'll slide right back into the habit of grabbing a snack here and a dessert there. Maintenance is the real battle and it makes things like the three week stall pale in comparison. It is ridiculous to pursue perfection. There is nothing wrong with pursuing a goal. And there is everything right about wanting to be a better person today than I was yesterday, to continually improve myself. But I have a problem with telling myself that I'll be happier, or feel more accomplished, or whatever, once I achieve "X" goal. That's B.S. Because I always have another goal or another reason to beat myself up waiting. I beat myself up for being fat. I was going to be totally happy when I got to 160 pounds and could wear a size 12 again. Then I exceeded that goal. Then it was the skin. I'll be happy once the skin is gone. No, I won't. Because then I'm going to beat myself up over my scars. Or over my lack of physical fitness. Or over the fact that I'm still not 100% over all of my emotional traumas. I'll always find a reason to defeat myself in my pursuit of perfection. The fact is, I need to learn how to love the skin I'm in and the person I am and I still struggle with this. If I tell myself, even whispering it in the most hidden part of my mind, that I'll love myself more when I reach a certain place, I am defeating myself. I am ensuring that I will never be totally happy and totally at peace. Anyway, I'm sorry for the long post. But if you haven't realized now that the way I work things out for myself is by writing them out, you haven't been paying attention! I appreciate all of the advice here. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. The first thing is to try and deal with some of what's bothering me, and I think that weight loss is secondary to that right now. I do want to get back on track, though, so I'm going to focus this week on eating properly again. Beyond that, the scale is going away. I can weigh once a week right now, and so long as I don't see an upward trend I will need to be happy with that. This is not a food issue or an exercise issue for me. This is entirely emotional, and everything I'm dealing with stems from that point. New methods to attack the weight loss are only going to help part of my issue, and it's the smallest part, I think. ~Cheri

I'm interested though how much everyone lost on average every week? I'm not trying to compare myself to anyone just interested if there is a big variance in weekly averages. Hi Ditdee.Mine varied and I am currently in the middle of a three week stall after gaining then losing 1kg over Xmas My monthly losses approx after July 2013 when I was sleeved are: Aug 7kg Sep 5kg Oct 5kg Nov 3kg Dec 3.5kg Aiming to break the stall even if only by 1kg.I have lost 60% excess weight which is surgical goal but hope to lose another 20% which doesn't look likely atm.

I was sleeved June 15th. Started at 324 got down to 291 day of surgery now at 274... Feels like I should have lost more? Following diet, exercising daily. Plus was on a three week stall...just broke it.. See other posts where people have lost a lot more within first month. Am I being to hard on myself?

My surgery was Dec 19th. I was down 32 pounds from surgery diet, but I hit the dreaded three week stall the end of last week. Not only am I in a stall, but I am GAINING weight. This is so frustrating to me! I think it is probably water weight as I'm sure I was dehydrated before, but it really is discouraging. Did anyone else gain a few pounds in their stall?

You are doing great!! I hit a three week stall that started week 3. It's a very normal feeling to be anxious regarding the surgery and weight loss. ("Am I a failure?" "What if this is it?") The weight will come off!

30 lbs the first month is possible, but it's definitely at the high end of the range. It seems like a lot of people here lose 15-25 lbs (some more, some less). So her expectations sound high to me. I only lost 16 lbs my first month, and I've lost almost 200 lbs altogether. regarding your second issue - a stall during the first month is super common. Almost everyone experiences that. It's called the "three week stall", but it can happen any time in the first month. Mine lasted two weeks (weeks 2 and 3 post-op). I just stuck to my plan and dropped something like 6 or 8 lbs during week 4, when the stall finally broke.

I did have the traditional three week stall that many people on here talk about. I went a whole week without losing a pound, and then bam...it picked right back up! No worries carriecat, you will start up again!

I mean this in a totally kind way . . . the only thing you are doing wrong is not knowing that virtually everyone stalls between about weeks 3 and 5. Seriously. You can search the forums here for "three week stall" or even just do a basic Google search for "third week stall weight loss surgery" or "3 week stall vsg" or anything like that. You'll see that this is pretty much the most common thing ever after surgery. I think it is a shame that more surgeons don't educate their patients to expect it! You are not doing anything wrong with respect to eating, exercise etc. Just stay off the scale for 2-3 weeks (maybe measure yourself to see if you are losing inches -- yes it can be true that you lose inches but not pounds!). The weight loss will start up again I promise, and don't stress out or beat yourself up over doing anything "wrong." It sounds like you are doing incredibly well, but are stuck at the third week stall like we all were and all future wls patients will be. You are in good company

Congratulations! Good luck on your journey! I was sleeved 4/23 and am still figuring out things! Haha I love this site!! I take what people have for advice and their experience and try and make sense of what I am going through! It helps knowing others have the same experiences!! Like when I hit a three week stall. It wasn't as aggravating after I found out its normal and most people hit them at some point! I hope everything goes smoothly for you!

Hi there I just wanted to check and see how everyone is doing. I have about 25 more pounds to goal. I am not as strict with myself as I should be ... Just broke a three week stall. Down over 120 lbs now... Labs ok Vitamin d low, every thing else ok Flabby skin on arms, thighs, belly. But oh well flap on!! I still can't eat a lot, and my acid reflux can be a beast. Nexium once day helps Still have at least one Protein shake a day...struggling with Water The journey continues.

LOL! You are a ball of liquid. You're chock-full of IV fluids you were pumped with while in the hospital. Be patient. You're about to drop a lot of weight. Then you'll hit the "three week stall" which everyone does. And then that'll end and you'll lose weight faster again.

I had a huge case of the blues after surgery. It's normal..and it's normal to hit a three week stall...you're right in that time frame. Defiantly stop weighing! You will start feeling better soon. And unlike with weight watchers...this actually helps KEEP the weight off!

If you search for 3 (three) week stall, you should find plenty of information and help to get through this phase.

I would give it a couple of years before resorting, or going back to, any of these fad diets. One of the greatest strengths of your WLS is that it works well irrespective the diet that you use, so there is no need to jump into one of these diets to try to "improve" your weight loss. As long as you are getting adequate protein to maintain your muscle mass (which at 65 g for an average to shorter woman, you are), and your caloric intake is low enough to provide the caloric deficit needed for burn your stored fat, you will lose. Two of the things that have been shown time and again over the decades to torpedo WLS results is consuming empty calories (calories with little or no nutrition tied to it, i.e. junk food) and drinking your calories, both of which you would be doing by adding that junk to your protein drink. You don't want your calories at a "normal" level - you want them at a deficit (though not ridiculously low - where you are at with 5-600 at this stage is just fine as that is very common at this point for successful patients. Keeping your calories "normal" is how we all got here needing WLS. As noted above, search for "three week stall" as that is very common in these circles no matter what diet is used - it is part of the normal physiological response to the sudden caloric deficit that you now have. That you may not have lost much immediately after surgery is likely just part of the normal water weight fluctuations that occur around surgery time, and if you lost a fair amount of weight before surgery, then you already have lost that big slug of water weight that we all lose when we start one of these programs - particularly if you were playing keto games then, which only accentuates that water weight loss (only to gain it back when you stop.) In short, adding empty calories isn't going to "boost your metabolism", but is a good way to inhibit your long term progress. The best long term results that I have seen over the years is to take this opportunity to learn how to eat a normal, healthy human diet balancing meats, fruits, vegetables and whole grains that that are associated with good long term weight control rather than the diet of the day, which is a good way to help ensure regain once diet fatigue sets in, or it goes out of style and a new latest diet has to be found.

I am one and a half week post-op, but completed two weeks of a two week pre-op clear liquid diet. During the pre-op diet and a week after surgery I lost 23 lbs!!! BUT...since last Thursday I have only lost 2 lbs. I was getting depressed thinking I am "eating" too much. But when I plugged in my food diary into My Fitness Pal, I was pretty much on target. After reading this post and the comments, I feel SO much better. Knowing there is a "three-week" stall for many makes me know I am not alone.

I am in the three week stall for two weeks now. I understand the frustration but what can we do. I am not eating too much and I am haveing out put if you know what I mean. I started today with the suggestion to eat every three hours to help the metabolism. Making sure I am getting my fluids and staying active. So like you I can only sit mad cause I went through all this and nothing is working! Date of surgery 277 2 week check up 257 Today 260 Very hard not to feel like it is not going to happen for me.

Thank you SO much for sharing this. I cried when you were talking about your kids and the Snacks and having the energy to do the things you want to at home. I can relate to both of those things so much. While I am 100% doing this for me, I am so hopeful for the impact that it will have on my family. I think the part where you described that first small gain was exactly what I was talking about. I am just anticipating that " Oh No....I can't gain this back!" moment and just need to be prepared for it and not freak out. I'm just so thankful that we can all communicate on here and know better what to expect. I can't imagine having hit the "three week stall" not knowing that it's common. Now I think I'll be able to be better prepared emotionally. Thanks again for listening and sharing.

nope - "normal" WLS patients do not lose that much that quickly. Maybe if they started off at 600 lbs, but otherwise, no. You might find some "normal" WLS patients ("normal" as in starting off in the 200s or 300s - and maybe low 400s) who lose 30+ lbs the first month, but even that's not common - and they certainly wouldn't keep up that pace after the first month. I've been hanging out on bariatric forums for the eight or so years, and just based on posts I've read (which have been thousands), I'd say most of us lose around 15-25 lbs the first month, then about 10 lbs (give or take) a month for a few months - then it drops to around 5 lbs - then 2 lbs......then eventually stops. as far as not losing any weight the last 1.5 weeks, you're in the infamous three-week stall that most of us experience. I just did a search on it here on bariatricpal for you just a second ago. Here are the 17,501 (and no, I am NOT kidding) posts on the three week stall for your reading pleasure: https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three week stall

do a search on this site for the "three week stall". I can pretty much guarantee you'll find hundreds of postings on it UPDATE: I just did the search for you. There are 17,500 posts on this topic, to be exact.

Yes, I believe I'm in the dreaded three week stall, so I'm putting that out there. I'm frustrated. But really, I am eating very little and I feel like if I ate what I am eating now before I had the surgery, I'd be losing weight pound over pound. Now, I'm staying the same day after day. My husband is eating low carb and the weight is falling off of him. I'm eating low carb and very little calories and it's just sticking to me. I know people will tell me the weight will come off, but I'm so frustrated right now because I'm dealing with the side effects of surgery (terrible potty issues) and not seeing any of the good things to come of it yet. I lost 10 lbs on the pre-op diet and 10 lbs since surgery, but only when I was on the liquid diet. Once I added real food, even this little amount, the weight loss stopped immediately. If I was going to stay fat, I would have been happier being fat and able to eat and potty.

almost all of us experience our first major stall within the first 4-6 weeks after surgery. We call it "the three week stall" because it's usually the third week, but not always. Mine was weeks 2 & 3 - it broke during week 4, and I dropped like 6-8 lbs within a couple of days we get a question on this early stall at least a couple of times a week, and if you do a search on "three week stall" on this site, you will see over 17,000 posts on it (and no, I am NOT kidding). It happens to almost everyone. And just so you know, you'll experience occasional stalls throughout your journey - it's a normal part of weight loss. Just stick to your program and stay off the scale for a week or two if you need to, and know that it WILL break. They usually last anywhere from 1-3 weeks...

I hit my first stall at weeks 4-5 and it scared me, even knowing it waa called the three week stall mark. Bwginning of qeek five i woke up and had lost 2lbs..still going again:) we've gotta somehow expect this and not let it bother us but it's difficult when the scale is consistently dropping and then it just doesn't for a bit..stay positive! Sent from my SM-N960U using BariatricPal mobile app