Stalling

[Leighanne12 8]

Has anyone ever had weight loss "stalling"? The scale has not moved for almost a month (it has not gone up either). I doing everything I can think of: exercising, eating correctly, measuring food portions, food journaling, more Water, daily Vitamins. EVERYTHING. Is the end of the road for me? (I am 10 months post-op. ) Anyone else go thru these times?

[summerseeker 2,139]

Stalls are inevitable. If this is your first one then you have been lucky. Just follow your plan and you will get your weight drop eventually. You can't force it.

[FifiLux 435]

Yes, I had one for a couple of months right as I got close to my goal weight and then poof one day the scales showed I had lost a couple of kg even though I had done nothing different. Body is just coping best it can as it looses so much of its reserves of fat etc.

[The Greater Fool 2,024]

Isn't it amazing how a number on a scale can drive us to take action when none is necessary. How it can control our emotions. We tell ourselves we won't give the scale such power over us yet here we are.

We can get there from here without a scale.

Good luck.

Tek

[NickelChip 1,212]

Yep, I'm 9 months post-op and may or may not just be coming out of about a 3-week stall. It's very normal and expected to start slowing down, stalling, and having small weight gains at this point. I hit a low of 170.2 toward the end of October, immediately bounced up a pound, and didn't drop below that low point until 3 days ago. Personally, I find that whenever I hit a new low after a little bit of a stall, especially if it involves a large one-day drop (I went from 170.8 to 169.0 in a day), I'll usually bounce around a little before seeing any steady declines. Most people continue losing weight until at least 12 months, and sometimes a little bit more until 18 or 24 months. But with a lot more stalls, especially the closer you get to a "normal" BMI. (I'm about 14 pounds away from not being considered overweight by the medical charts).

The important thing is to develop a healthy eating and exercise routine that is sustainable no matter what the scale says. If you're doing what is reasonable and recommended, keep doing it. There's no need to change what isn't broken. On the other hand, if you know you've been straying from your good habits, focus on getting back to where you know you should be. Eating healthy foods in the correct portions on a regular schedule, moving your body throughout the week, getting the right amount of Protein, taking Vitamins, and drinking Water are all things you will be doing for the rest of your life, even though at some point the scale will stop going down.

The advice I am giving myself these days is to try to separate those good things I am doing from the number on the scale. Because for me, if I start seeing weight loss as a "reward" for "being good", it makes it harder to continue the good lifelong habits when that "reward" inevitably goes away. It also won't do you any favors in the long run if you try to introduce a bunch of things you know you will never be able to maintain just to get the scale moving faster. I might be able to drop a few pounds really fast if I went back to 500 calories per day or re-did my 2 week liquid diet, but I can't live like that forever, so it's a false victory.

I think we all have to find the right balance of habits we can maintain fairly steadily for a lifetime and a healthy weight we can maintain without torturing ourselves. And remember that just because you hit the 12-month mark doesn't mean the game is over. You can always introduce improvements to your nutrition or your exercise that will result in slow and steady changes over time. You don't have to workout 5 days a week for 2 hours a day if that isn't your thing, but if you add some resistance training a few times per week or an extra walk after dinner, you will see those results down the road.

[NeonRaven8919 366]

19 hours ago, Leighanne12 said:

Has anyone ever had weight loss "stalling"? The scale has not moved for almost a month (it has not gone up either). I doing everything I can think of: exercising, eating correctly, measuring food portions, food journaling, more Water, daily Vitamins. EVERYTHING. Is the end of the road for me? (I am 10 months post-op. ) Anyone else go thru these times?

I had a stall during my pre-op diet which took about a week to end. Then at 3 weeks post op I had stall. But in week 4 suddenly 10lbs was gone. I get more stressed about it if I weigh myself every day, so I try not to, but it's really difficult not to.