Getting Frustrated!!

I am 8 weeks out from surgery and have lost a total of 51 pounds from my highest weight.  I had lost 19 pounds previous to surgery.  After five weeks post op, I had lost an additional 22 pounds and was feeling great.  Over the last three weeks, I have lost only 10 pounds.  I feel like I should be so much further along that this and it is discouraging me very much!  I am not sure if I am eating too much or too little.  I know I shouldn't be a slave to the scale but I cannot help myself at this point, I just want to see it move.

I would love some advice from the bariatric veterans from this forum.  I am staying strong and keeping up the good fight but I just want to cry from frustration.  Please help!

Thank you!!!

Look at what you posted!!! You posted that you have lost 51 lbs!!! 51 lbs is a lot of weight to lose. I think you're doing great! You have to be realistic. We didn't put the weight on over night and we're not going to lose it overnight. Stay the course, do what you're supposed to and you'll see amazing results. I have never been a big scale person and when I first started this journey I only weighed myself at doctors appointments. I went by how I felt, how my clothes felt, how I felt on the treadmill. Remember the scale may not move but your body will be changing. 

You lost 51 lbs! That is en enormous amount of weight! Try picking up 50 lbs of anything and try carrying it around for a while.

You are doing great. My doctor said to get rid of the scal and to only weight myself once a week. I had the same obsession with the scale but weight loss does not go in a straight line down. You will plateau several times on this journey. I had my first one when I went from my liquid diet to soft foods and i gained 2 lbs which completely freaked me out. Pick a day and a time in the morning when you weight yourself once a week, and no cheating :) The scale will move again, but not on your command so you might as well stop obsessing with it.

In the beginning the weight comes off very rapidly, 10 lbs in 3 weeks at 2 months post op is nothing to complain about, it's what I was told is about average at that stage. You're doing fine, keep going, stop beating yourself up and stressing out and stop weighing yourself every day. You have absolutely no reason to be frustrated. I can only hope I will be at the amount you lost when I hit 8 weeks!

Honestly the best advice I can give you is to adjust your expectations. "Only" is absolutely the wrong word to use when talking about how much weight you lost in three weeks. 10 pounds in three weeks is fantastic and I'm not saying that to be nice or try to cheer you up. Congrats and keep going.

I sometimes have the same feelings that you do. At 15 weeks out, my weight loss has slowed down quite a bit and I sometimes get frustrated. The way I deal with it is this: most diets and doctors say you're doing good if you lose 1 pound per week, so if I've lost that much or more, I know I'm doing ok. I know we want to continue seeing the big 4 or 5 pounds of weekly loss (or whatever), but the reality is that the more we've lost, the less there is to lose and it comes off a little slower.

Just keep plugging along, following your doctor's plan and it'll come off.

((Hugs))

I hit a three week period where I did not lose a pound. If you look on this board you will find a lot of people hit a "stall" period where they do not lose anything or very little. Besides you have lost 51 pounds and you are still losing.

Honest to goodness, newly post-op VSGers! Lock your scales in the closet for at least 2-3 months post-op. No one is going to call Protective Services because you're being cruel to your scale. In fact, your scale is being cruel to you. During recovery, your body is going through all manner of adjustments, all of which seem to affect the number on the scale.

Just "stick to the Code" (and they're not just "guidelines"). Eat or drink your protein in the required amounts, drink your 64 ounces or more of liquids, do as much exercise as you can comfortably manage and forget about that damn scale. You will lose fat; there's no way you can't lose fat if you're sticking to the Code. 

And don't compare yourself with other VSGers. The tortoise and the hare both reach the finish line. The when is irrelevant because it isn't a race.  

Here endeth the rant. 

psychoticparrot

You've set unrealistic expectations and are letting the scale dictate your emotional well-being.

If the scale makes you want to cry at this point, put it away and weigh yourself once per week.  The closer you are to goal, the slower the weight loss will be.  Recognize that there will be days/weeks, when you won't lose any weight.  You might even gain.  As long as you're following your plan, the weight will eventually come off. 

I am 8 weeks out from surgery and have lost a total of 51 pounds from my highest weight.  I had lost 19 pounds previous to surgery.  After five weeks post op, I had lost an additional 22 pounds and was feeling great.  Over the last three weeks, I have lost only 10 pounds.  I feel like I should be so much further along that this and it is discouraging me very much!  I am not sure if I am eating too much or too little.  I know I shouldn't be a slave to the scale but I cannot help myself at this point, I just want to see it move.

I would love some advice from the bariatric veterans from this forum.  I am staying strong and keeping up the good fight but I just want to cry from frustration.  Please help!

Thank you!!!

at one month out,it is WAY too early to be frustrated. This is a marathon not a sprint. It is the rest of your life and has to be managed that way. 

Getting all in a wad is not going to help AT ALL. Your body is going to do what it is going to do and there is really nothing you can do about that but stay on plan and work it every day,just like it is day one.

I don't know how much you have to lose, but after the first couple of months, 3 pounds a week is a really good loss. You won't average much more than that. It will eventually slow down even more.

But 3 pounds a week adds up to a lot over time. Keep grinding.