I need some help.

[FiguringItOut 5]

Hi everyone.

I am about to hit my 4 month and I am at a major stall, plus I gained some weight and I am not using the restroom how I was the first 2 months after. I am stuck on 30 well now back to 24lbs. I wanted to ask what is you all eating plan that ya'll go by on a day to day. I'm talking very informative like Breakfast, snack, lunch, Snack, dinner the reason why I am asking because I meal prep week to week. I really want feedback from those who have had success through the VSG and those who broke their stales. I can't wait to read all your replies.

[SummerTimeGirl 582]

I'm 4 months out too and hit stalls a few times. In the beginning I believe it was due to not enough Protein an possibly not enough calories. But once I corrected that and made an effort to increase both, my weight started moving again. However, I hit my lowest weight of 253.4 lbs on Aug 28th and since then I have stalled and not lost anything more. In fact I have been seeing 255, 256, 257 on the scale since then. Nothing has changed diet wise so I'm not sure why (but I'm also due my period in 8-12 days so maybe that's why?). But like others say, it's normal to stall along the way.

Anywho, my normal diet usually consists of......

Breakfast: 1 egg scrambled with some shredded cheddar cheese. Sometimes with some salsa, spicy guacamole, or mushrooms and/or onions, etc. I also usually have 1 or two turkey sausage patties but not always. Once in a while I will even make a sausage, egg and cheese on a whole wheat English Muffin but can ever only eat about half or a little more that half.

Lunch: A scoop of tuna (made with light mayo) with 6 whole wheat Saltines and a few cubes of cheese. Or sometimes a sandwich (on Aldi Keto Bread: zero net carbs and 50 cal) with turkey lunchmeat and cheese (again, I can never eat a whole sandwich). Or sometimes just the meat and cheese by itself.

Dinner: Usually chicken (baked in some way or another) and I always try and add a scoop of veggies but once I eat my protein I'm usually not able to fit the veggies. I also try and add brown rice once in a while or black/kidney/northern/etc. Beans but usually never eat more than a few forks full. Other Proteins I eat for dinner are salmon, shrimp, tilapia, flounder, etc. I also use the various tortilla's from https://mrtortilla.com/ and make all sorts of tacos or quesadillas. Each tortilla is 1 carb and 15 calories!! We LOVE them!! Oh and I also make chicken wings with various seasonings in my air fryer. Homemade chicken nuggets too.

I don't usually snack during the day or evening but once in a while I will have an extra thing during the day like some light Greek yogurt, or cottage cheese alone or with something like cut up cantaloupe. I do TRY and have fruit most days too, like an apple or Halo, etc.

Edited September 11, 2021 by SummerTimeGirl

[Arabesque 7,240]

Stalls are so frustrating but you really just have to let your body take the time it needs & your weight loss will start again. I never changed what I was doing, stuck to my plan, & the stalls always broke.

Constipation is a constant companion for many of us. Are you adding a soluble fibre to your diet? I used to take a stool softener if I got to day 3 without any movement. This stopped me getting to bound up & then having painful movements. Are you still meeting your daily Fluid goal?

Do you track your calories & measure & weigh your food? Were you given caloric goals as well as Protein? if you are just guessing or eyeballing it, it can be easy to over estimate. Not everyone is given caloric goals. I wasn’t but I was given advice on portion size progression. At four months I was eating about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of food. I did random checks of calories & was around 700 at that time. Many eat much more than I did.

I prepped & cooked almost everything I ate myself so I had control over the ingredients & how things were cooked.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs (cooked two eggs & took 2-3 days to eat) or rolled oats (3 days to eat a single serve).

lunch was meat (chicken tenders, white flesh fish, smoked salmon, pork sausage, dinner leftovers, etc.) Often that was all I ate - just the protein. Sometimes I’d have a little cucumber or green vegetables.

Dinner was basically meat (pork, lamb, chicken, beef, fish) with vegetables (combinations of green Beans, cauliflower, asparagus, sugar snap peas, cabbage or broccolini). Sometimes I made Soup with meat, vegetable beans or lentils. I made rissoles (meatballs) a lot - easy to portion, freeze & reheat - & zucchini noodles bolognese. I portioned & froze a lot of what I cooked. Made it easy those frequent nights I wasn’t very interested in food - just defrost, reheat & only prep vegetables if needed. Easy & quick.

I ate two snacks: a high protein yoghurt or yoghurt drink & either cheese or fruit.

Good luck.

[catwoman7 11,212]

it's been a few years so I don't remember what exactly I was eating, other than I stuck to my clinic's plan pretty much 100% that first year. And yes - I hit stalls along the way. I just doubled down on eating according to plan and stayed off the scale for a few days when I hit them - and they always eventually broke. They did become more frequent and lasted longer the closer I got to goal, though.

[ms.sss 15,581]

14 hours ago, FiguringItOut said:

I wanted to ask what is you all eating plan that ya'll go by on a day to day. I'm talking very informative like Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner

You asked so...here's some detail, lol.

Below I've included screenshots of what I ate for 7 consecutive days at my 4 month post op mark. I realize that the calorie counts are quite low compared to what some others may have been eating at the same time, but it was totally normal for me as I just wasn't a big eater for a really long time after surgery. I wasn't suffering as far as I can remember, and was generally in a good mood all the time. I had had probably 3 labs done by this time and all came back satisfactorily. In fact, all my other labs since then to today have all come back satisfactorily.

For reference, I started out at BMI 43 (235 lbs) at the beginning of the 2 week pre-surgery liquid diet, and was BMI 29.6 (160.9 lbs) at this 4 month mark. I'm a 5'2" female, and was 46 yrs old at 4 months post op. I was exercising pretty regularly at this time, mostly fun classes 2-3 times a week (dance, zumba, hot yoga) and walking for about 5K a every day. I did some strength training, but not much. I drank Water like it was going out of style. I didn't really have set meals (still don't, really). Just sorta grazed all day. I didn't eat before noon, nor after 7pm (again, something i still mostly do at almost 3 years post op today, though I am less of a stickler about not eating after 7pm, as my nighttime gas issues are much better now).

I dunno why I always feel hesitant to say this, but: I did not stall once. But I mean, I realize I was eating VERY FEW calories so how could I not lose, right? There was one week in month 3 where I lost less than a 1/2 a lb, I remember, but its still a loss so...yeah.

P.S. Today, I'll be 3 years post in October, have been maintaining my current weight (+/- 5 lbs) for over 2 years, and probably consume an average of 1800-1900 cals a day. I am still pretty active. At my peak activity levels I was eating like 2000+ cals a day regularly.

Anyhoo, here is a consecutive week's worth of food diary entry screen shots at my 4 month mark:

 

 

 

 

[FiguringItOut 5]

On 9/10/2021 at 10:07 PM, SummerTimeGirl said:

I'm 4 months out too and hit stalls a few times. In the beginning I believe it was due to not enough Protein an possibly not enough calories. But once I corrected that and made an effort to increase both, my weight started moving again. However, I hit my lowest weight of 253.4 lbs on Aug 28th and since then I have stalled and not lost anything more. In fact I have been seeing 255, 256, 257 on the scale since then. Nothing has changed diet wise so I'm not sure why (but I'm also due my period in 8-12 days so maybe that's why?). But like others say, it's normal to stall along the way.

Anywho, my normal diet usually consists of......

Breakfast: 1 egg scrambled with some shredded cheddar cheese. Sometimes with some salsa, spicy guacamole, or mushrooms and/or onions, etc. I also usually have 1 or two turkey sausage patties but not always. Once in a while I will even make a sausage, egg and cheese on a whole wheat English Muffin but can ever only eat about half or a little more that half.

Lunch: A scoop of tuna (made with light mayo) with 6 whole wheat Saltines and a few cubes of cheese. Or sometimes a sandwich (on Aldi Keto Bread: zero net carbs and 50 cal) with turkey lunchmeat and cheese (again, I can never eat a whole sandwich). Or sometimes just the meat and cheese by itself.

Dinner: Usually chicken (baked in some way or another) and I always try and add a scoop of veggies but once I eat my Protein I'm usually not able to fit the veggies. I also try and add brown rice once in a while or black/kidney/northern/etc. Beans but usually never eat more than a few forks full. Other Proteins I eat for dinner are salmon, shrimp, tilapia, flounder, etc. I also use the various tortilla's from https://mrtortilla.com/ and make all sorts of tacos or quesadillas. Each tortilla is 1 carb and 15 calories!! We LOVE them!! Oh and I also make chicken wings with various seasonings in my air fryer. Homemade chicken nuggets too.

I don't usually snack during the day or evening but once in a while I will have an extra thing during the day like some light Greek yogurt, or cottage cheese alone or with something like cut up cantaloupe. I do TRY and have fruit most days too, like an apple or Halo, etc.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I feel like this is going to help me out alot. Do you know anyone that has went Vegan while getting the WLS

[FiguringItOut 5]

20 hours ago, ms.sss said:

You asked so...here's some detail, lol.

Below I've included screenshots of what I ate for 7 consecutive days at my 4 month post op mark. I realize that the calorie counts are quite low compared to what some others may have been eating at the same time, but it was totally normal for me as I just wasn't a big eater for a really long time after surgery. I wasn't suffering as far as I can remember, and was generally in a good mood all the time. I had had probably 3 labs done by this time and all came back satisfactorily. In fact, all my other labs since then to today have all come back satisfactorily.

For reference, I started out at BMI 43 (235 lbs) at the beginning of the 2 week pre-surgery liquid diet, and was BMI 29.6 (160.9 lbs) at this 4 month mark. I'm a 5'2" female, and was 46 yrs old at 4 months post op. I was exercising pretty regularly at this time, mostly fun classes 2-3 times a week (dance, zumba, hot yoga) and walking for about 5K a every day. I did some strength training, but not much. I drank Water like it was going out of style. I didn't really have set meals (still don't, really). Just sorta grazed all day. I didn't eat before noon, nor after 7pm (again, something i still mostly do at almost 3 years post op today, though I am less of a stickler about not eating after 7pm, as my nighttime gas issues are much better now).

I dunno why I always feel hesitant to say this, but: I did not stall once. But I mean, I realize I was eating VERY FEW calories so how could I not lose, right? There was one week in month 3 where I lost less than a 1/2 a lb, I remember, but its still a loss so...yeah.

P.S. Today, I'll be 3 years post in October, have been maintaining my current weight (+/- 5 lbs) for over 2 years, and probably consume an average of 1800-1900 cals a day. I am still pretty active. At my peak activity levels I was eating like 2000+ cals a day regularly.

Anyhoo, here is a consecutive week's worth of food diary entry screen shots at my 4 month mark:

Yes!!!! Thank you! This is very helpful. I am going to use this, and you did the pre-op diet a lot during your post op?

[FiguringItOut 5]

On 9/10/2021 at 10:29 PM, Arabesque said:

Stalls are so frustrating but you really just have to let your body take the time it needs & your weight loss will start again. I never changed what I was doing, stuck to my plan, & the stalls always broke.

constipation is a constant companion for many of us. Are you adding a soluble fibre to your diet? I used to take a stool softener if I got to day 3 without any movement. This stopped me getting to bound up & then having painful movements. Are you still meeting your daily Fluid goal?

Do you track your calories & measure & weigh your food? Were you given caloric goals as well as Protein? if you are just guessing or eyeballing it, it can be easy to over estimate. Not everyone is given caloric goals. I wasn’t but I was given advice on portion size progression. At four months I was eating about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of food. I did random checks of calories & was around 700 at that time. Many eat much more than I did.

I prepped & cooked almost everything I ate myself so I had control over the ingredients & how things were cooked.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs (cooked two eggs & took 2-3 days to eat) or rolled oats (3 days to eat a single serve).

lunch was meat (chicken tenders, white flesh fish, smoked salmon, pork sausage, dinner leftovers, etc.) Often that was all I ate - just the Protein. Sometimes I’d have a little cucumber or green vegetables.

dinner was basically meat (pork, lamb, chicken, beef, fish) with vegetables (combinations of green Beans, cauliflower, asparagus, sugar snap peas, cabbage or broccolini). Sometimes I made Soup with meat, vegetable Beans or lentils. I made rissoles (meatballs) a lot - easy to portion, freeze & reheat - & zucchini noodles bolognese. I portioned & froze a lot of what I cooked. Made it easy those frequent nights I wasn’t very interested in food - just defrost, reheat & only prep vegetables if needed. Easy & quick.

I ate two snacks: a high protein yoghurt or yoghurt drink & either cheese or fruit.

Good luck.

Yes!!!!!!!! This what I was looking for, everyone in these comments have been so helpful!

[FiguringItOut 5]

22 hours ago, catwoman7 said:

it's been a few years so I don't remember what exactly I was eating, other than I stuck to my clinic's plan pretty much 100% that first year. And yes - I hit stalls along the way. I just doubled down on eating according to plan and stayed off the scale for a few days when I hit them - and they always eventually broke. They did become more frequent and lasted longer the closer I got to goal, though.

Thank you for your feedback! I was wondering when you say double down, do you mean that you double your calorie in take and ate more food ? Because I feel like I eat too much! I was told to repeat the liquid diet but idk.

[ms.sss 15,581]

46 minutes ago, FiguringItOut said:

Yes!!!! Thank you! This is very helpful. I am going to use this, and you did the pre-op diet a lot during your post op?

Sorry, I don’t really understand the question? Do u mean did i do the liquid pre-op diet AFTER surgery? Cuz no, I didn’t…i just tried to eat what I could given the circumstances.

[SummerTimeGirl 582]

1 hour ago, FiguringItOut said:

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I feel like this is going to help me out alot. Do you know anyone that has went Vegan while getting the WLS

I personally do not. Sorry!