Plateau already?

[lellow 1,713]

I'm two weeks out from surgery, and from the pre-op diet to the end of my first week after surgery, I lost 9 kgs (about 19lbs). This week, I moved to mushies, and the weight loss has slowed down considerably.

I am using Fitday, so I know that I am only having about 1000 calories a day (sometimes less) because it's all I can manage to eat and I am exercising - either walking or cycling - everyday. By my calculations, I am definitely burning more calories than I am eating. So how come I have only lost about .5 of a kilo this week (about a lb)? My scales seems to be all over the place, sometimes putting on weight and sometimes losing. It feels like I'm plateau-ing despite the fact that I'm eating well and exercising.

I know a loss is still a loss but I am feeling disheartened when I know that I'm really working with the band. I weigh myself at the same time everyday (mornings, without clothes and after going to the loo), and in the last week, it's gone up and down and up each time. What's even more disheartening is that I'm still on leave from work, and have the time to exercise. Once I'm back at work, at a desk job, exercising will be restricted to lunch breaks only, and I'm worried I'll actually start gaining.

I just don't understand why, if my caloric intake is less than my output, it's so hard to shift the weight? Last year when I was eating well and exercising like this, I actually consistently lost a kilo a week.

[Laurinda 1]

Remember your still in the healing phase of all this! :biggrin: It is very common to slow weight loss or even gain during mushies. I promise when you get through this part and then your first fill you will see the weight come off again. Good-Luck to you!

[danasuze 0]

I know how you feel! I had my first fill yesterday and was gritching about not having lost anything for almost 2 weeks and the nurse practioner explained it to me in a way that FINALLY made sense. I explained that I was only eating about 800 calories a day and that it didn't make sense that I wasn't losing. She asked if when I ate if I still felt like I could eat more than what I was and I said yes I could but that I honestly wasn't. What she told me was that my body was going into "starvation mode" and that because I was not ever getting that full feeling my brain was not getting the signals that it had gotten enough food. Therefor it was holding on to everything because it felt that it wouldn't get anymore. Once they do a fill and the pouch was actually getting full and food not passing as quickly because the band was too loose my body would start sending those signal again to my brain that I wasn't being starved and to start burning the calories again. It may take a couple of fills to get it to just the right spot but that it would get there. For some reason the way she said it to me (and hopefully my re-telling to you) made it all finally "click". I left so upbeat and I had honestly been really discouraged when I went in. Keep up the momentum of eating the right foods and small amounts! Once they get the band adjusted it will start coming off again. Oddly enough I also dropped 3lbs from when I weighed yesterday before the dr's office to this morning when I weighed again. LOL!! Hopefully this helps!

[lellow 1,713]

It does help, thank you! That does make sense to me. I actually do eat until I'm full atm, but low cal stuff, so maybe my body is not getting enough calories. <shrug>

I was talking to my BF about it today when we went for an hour's walk, and she said you're changing your lifestyle, remember? So don't eat well and exercise to lose weight, but eat well and exercise to get healthy. And that too made me realise that it's not all about the scales. I feel better now. And a 1/2 kilo loss is still a loss, and should be celebrated, I think!