Ugh, So discouraged.

I am so very upset. I was only going to weigh myself ONCE a month but having had doctors and dietitian appointments things changed. My weightloss is terrible. It has me so depressed. Don't get me wrong, the first week I was amazed, so excited and jumping off the walls with my 12 pound loss. Then the second week I lost 4 pounds and was kind of bummed. Now this week I have ONLY lose ONE pound. I'm so upset. At first I thought it was because of my "friend" but she has since come and gone and the weight is still coming off so slow. I don't know why. I hate this. Really, I could have lost one pound a week by myself. Why is my weightloss so slow???? I can't stand it. It is soooo discouraging especially when you read about everyone elses GREAT weightloss. I am doing everything that I am supposed to. I'm sorry if I'm whining, I just needed to vent a little. This has been hard one me..... Kelley

When did you ever lose 17 lbs in a 3 week period? You are about even with me. I seriously slowed down week 3-4, but it seems to be picking up a bit in week 5. It is just the nature of things. We did not gain this weight overnight, we won't lose it that way either! You seem to be able to eat a bit more than some of us. Be sure you stop when you are satisfied, before you are "full". (I couldn't eat 2 eggs--1 is a bit much). Check with your doctor's office to see how much you should be eating and measure if you have to. However, it sounds like you are eating the right things, and you WILL lose. In fact you ARE LOSING! It will not keep up the pound a day pace, no matter what you do, but you are moving in the right direction. Joy -26 lbs / 31 days

Hi Kelley, Yes, you could have lost one pound a week by yourself, but think of this: could you have lost 17 pounds in 3 weeks by yourself? You have to think of the weight loss as cumulative. Weigh whenever you have to, but only concentrate on the losses per month! And believe me, according to that weight loss chart I posted it can get depressing at times - for six months that lady lost only about 2 to 4 pounds per month! That's not much at all! But she hung in there and the weight started moving again. I know we all had in mind that the weight was just going to fly off. The statistics aren't reliable because everyone is different, different weights and metabolisms, different intake and output. If you thought you were going to lose 100 pounds in the first year, would that be enough for you? Because you probably will, that seems typical. Go easy on yourself. I know that for SO LONG we have all had our focus on weight: Will I diet today? Will I start tomorrow and eat what I want for today? Will I work out today? How much have I lost or gained? How do I look in this outfit? What size do I wear now? Arrrghhh! It's too much!!! I want to cultivate the other areas of my life and not think about WEIGHT all the time anymore! And that's difficult, because we DO have to think about this stuff - especially every time we eat. Just remember - two pounds a month is a plateau. I think you're doing really well!!! -Eve

Kelley, I am feeling much the same way. I have only lost 20 lbs. and I am almost a month out. A woman who had the surgery the same day I did at the same hospital lost 32 lbs. in the first 2 weeks! I don't really understand how any of it works. I am trying to focus on the fact that I've lost 39 lbs. since I first met my surgeon in his office in November. I am trying to focus on getting under the 300 lb. mark for the first time in 17 years (I have 13 lbs. to go). But it is discouraging. Part of it is the myth that WLS is the cure-all. It isn't! I thought of it this way just a few days ago, which is as simplistic as it gets. I still have to do the things that will enable me to lose the weight -- regular and rigorous exercise, and eating healthy foods in smaller portions. I would have to do this no matter what WL method I was doing -- Atkins, WW, South Beach, any of them! The only difference is I have this new TOOL -- my pouch (Reenie's Teenie Wonder). My stomache is smaller so that IDEALLY I will not want to overeat. Also, I can't eat many of the things that made me morbidly obese in the first place, otherwise I will get very sick! The weight will come off but I have to stick to it, just like any other weight loss method. Concentrate on eating well and exercising. Just look at your weight loss on a monthly basis. Believe me, I am feeling as down and as frustrated as you are and I'm even a little scared that I may be that 1 in 1,000 that fails at losing despite surgery. I'm really scared about that. Keep us posted, ok? We're all hear to listen and to help. Take care, Maureen

I understand how you feel. I only lost 14 pounds my first 2 weeks. Now that is slow. I must look at it a bit differently. I have lost more than 10% of the weight I want to lose in a period of 2 weeks. I am considered a light weight only having to lose 100 pounds so 14 pounds is not so bad. I just have to keep saying that to myself.....

Okay - I'm right there with you guys - 17 lbs down in 3 weeks and I haven't weighed today but my hands are swollen so I don't expect it to be good news. There IS good news about this though and that is that when I posted about this on my surgeon's forum, EVERY person *****sponded said they stalled between 2 and 3 weeks and one said she stalled between 2 and 4 weeks. They are all great and fantastic losers and the weight loss resumed full force later. I remember this being the case when I was on Atkins that I would lose for 2 weeks then stall. I knew then it was the body adjusting to the weight, but for some reason I figured this was so low-cal and low-carb that it couldn't possibly allow a stall like this, but the body is quite sneaky like that! As for the questions "could you ever lose this on your own in 3 weeks?" I am sorry and don't mean to be sounding like a downer, but yes - I can and did several times. The first time I did Atkins I lost 18 lbs in 2 weeks. The second and subsequent times I went on it was 15 lbs in 2 weeks. So it's not unheard of at all. But what this highlights to me is that our bodies are adjusting and we need to just let it do it's thing and try not to get wrapped up in the loss just yet. It will continue to come off - we just have to look toward the future and forget about our temporary stalls... Dina

Hi Kelley, I feel frustrated also - I had only lost 15 lbs in 14 days (as of 3/29). I am addicted to the scale so I was weighing myself everyday like I always did when I dieted and the scale never seemed to change! So now the willpower I used in the past to keep on track with my diet I am using to keep away from the scale so I don't continue to beat myself up if I don't see a difference - hopefully I will be able to weigh-in once a week and stick to it. Someone posted a while back that with having this surgery we are guaranteed to lose a significant amount of weight in the first 6 months and that we need to use this time to change our eating habits permanently so that by the time 6 months comes around we already have changed our old eating habits for good - which will allow us to continue to lose until we reach goal. Thats the theory that sounds logical to me so I have to believe I will lose alot of my excess weight within this time - maybe it will take 3-4 months but I still think it will happen. I also think that my body is still thinking that this is just another starvation diet I put myself thru over and over before surgery so its going to take a bit of time before it realizes this small amount of food is all its ever going to get! Keep your chin up - I think we will catch up to all the quick losers eventually! Debi F

As you can see from all these posts, a lot of us are not losing gigantic numbers in the first weeks. However, I'm now a month out and all of a sudden it's picked up. Inches, too, I've had to throw out clothes and am a size I haven't seen for a while. I was absolutely convinced for a while this would not happen and I was in tears after my first post op. I'm going 12 POUNDS, JUST TWELVE POUNDS!!!! Read lots of bios right now. You'll see this a lot and what happens down the line and it will make you feel better. The bios kept me from despair. Focus on eating EXACTLY what you should and exercising and seriously consider throwing the scale into a local river or lake. You sound like you really need to stop weighing, a hard habit for many of us. If you're not exercising, get some ideas here about what would be good. If you're snacking, don't. Even little snacks can mess you up. Get candles or books or something else to make you feel good. If you're a) eating what you should and b) exercising, the rest WILL take care of itself. It's terrible what has happened to all of our heads through a lifetime of dieting. But it's spring (or almost in some areas of the country), so clean out your head. Oh, and don't get arrested pitching your scale in a public body of water. Be stealthy. Gano

Kelley, I with you, too. I thought I was going to be a weight loss super star and I am NOT! According to the scale in my house, the morning of my surgery I weighed 259.5 and today I weigh 245.5, so that's 15 pounds in a little over three weeks. My 'friend' arrived three days after surgery and decided to stay until the regularly sheduled visitation time so I'm looking forward to some relief this weekend. I've been worried that I'm eating too much so I started using fitday.com this week to track my nutrition. I also haven't been excercising as much as I wanted but I just went back to work on Tuesday, and today was the first time that it was just uncomfortable instead of painful to bend over and dry my feet after my shower. Keep your head up. You are totally motivated, your head is in the right place, just keep at it and whatever barrier there is that's holding you back will fall. Jen ps- don't pay your doctor until you lose at least 40 pounds! (just kidding). We'll make it.

Kelley, I actually had to stop reading messages on the board for a while because I was getting so frustrated about everyone else's big losses. Don't torture yourself. Everyone is different and weight loss depends on so many different factors. Just try to concentrate on getting the protein in and doing some walking during the day. You'll find your loss will come at its own pace. Keep your chin up! Joann