Why am I not losing weight?!

[LINZ62383 39]

I am 11 days out from surgery, and I have already stalled out on losing any weight. I am following all of the rules, in fact I’m eating a little less than I should because I find eating to be an annoyance at this point. I’m getting Protein and fluids in, I walked outside yesterday for half an hour. I weighed myself this morning and I gained a pound. I am so depressed and frustrated, I really don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. I did not go through all of this to not lose much weight. Has anyone else experienced this?

[James Marusek 5,244]

Generally when I had my surgery, I gained several pounds when I was in the hospital because they pumped my body full of fluids. It took several days before I lost that weight and arrived at my pre-surgery weight. So please do not panic at this stage. Just keep following all the rules and you should see the pounds begin to fall off sharply.

It is important to walk every day for around a half hour during the first year post-op.

Also some people get so wrapped up in watching the scale that it stunts their weight loss because it totally stresses them out. To correct this problem, some individuals simple chose do not to weigh themselves and rather use the weight from their visit to the surgeon's office. So if stress is a major factor, then relax and consider alternatives to relieving the stress.

My primary goal in getting gastric bypass surgery was to correct my severe health conditions. I had high blood pressure and diabetes and a host of other adverse health issues. Most of these were solved in the first couple weeks. I am around 4 1/2 years post op at this point and they remain in remission. So generally I met my primary goal almost immediately. Everything else was gravy. I measures success after this in terms of pounds lost, in reduced waist sizes and the ability to fit into smaller clothes, and also into non-scale victories (NSV's). As an example of an NSV, I had bought a beautiful Mazda Miata convertible when I retired but I had gained so much weight that I could hardly get inside it unless I had the top down. Now it fits like a glove.

[Sadiebug 206]

Exactly what James said! Try not to weigh yourself too frequently right at first. Your body is going through a huge adjustment and still trying to recover from major surgery - this is such a huge shock to the system. I know it's hard to stay away from the scale - I personally get on every single morning And I was so used to seeing the scale go down a few pounds and then right back up a few days later pre-surgery. It was hard to accept that it will drop after surgery but you just have to trust that it will.