Month long stall...then gain!
Hey everyone,
I'm looking for some advice/support with regards to my eating habits and dealing with a stall. I'm 9 months post op VSG and I had my surgery on Sept 16th 2016. My highest weight ever was 310 pounds, my surgery consult weight was 285 pounds, and I was 265 pounds the day of surgery after the pre-op liquid diet. I'm now 183 pounds for a total loss of 102 pounds since my pre-op liquid diet, and 82 pounds since the day of my surgery. My goal weight is 150 pounds and I'm 5' 7".
Now I'm not new to stalls at all - I've gone through every stall in the book so far. I've had major stalls at 3 weeks post op, 1 month post op, 3 months post op, 6 months post op, and now here I am stalling again at 9 months post op. But what has me really worried this time is that I thought I had finally broke my stall a few weeks ago but my weight shot back up again today, and I even gained weight!
I've been stuck at 183 pounds since the beginning of June, but I weighed in two weeks ago at 178 and I was thrilled. I had been eating 600-800 calories a day, 70-100 grams of protein, and below 20 grams of net carbs (most days being around 15). I thought I had broken through my stall but after seeing 178 that one time, I weighed in over the next few days around 180-181 even though my eating habits didn't change. I got really frustrated and told myself I'd do a little experiment...I thought maybe I wasn't eating enough, and even my nutritionist advised me to increase my calories and carbs because I've been eating this way since the very beginning post op. Starting last Friday, I tried for one week to eat 900 calories a day, still keeping between 70-100 grams of protein, increasing my water intake to over 64oz a day, and eating slightly higher carbs (below 30 net carbs per day) to try and break the stall. (By net carbs I mean I subtract both sugar alcohols and fiber from my total carb count). So I did that for a week and promised not to weigh myself for the whole wee****il again next Friday, and lo and behold when I weighed myself today I gained weight and am now back at 183 pounds! I don't know if I'm losing inches because I don't measure myself - but my clothes size has stayed the same and I feel like my progress pics since last month look the same. :/ Maybe that's just me though and I'm psyching myself out, but I'm feeling so upset and frustrated and depressed, I don't know what to do!
I weigh and measure everything I eat down to the gram and track everything on myfitnesspal everyday. I eat clean - no ice cream, pizza, chips, etc. or other junk whatsoever. Some staples in my diet are premier protein shakes, chicken, shrimp, low fat cheeses, nuts, low fat greek yogurt, protein granola, peanut butter, veggies, and eggs. I always stick to non-starchy veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, brussel sprouts, cucumber, green beans, and spinach. Things I eat occasionally are half a slice of a high fibre/high protein low carb pita or loaf, a protein bar on long days at work where I do some heavy lifting for an extra boost, or a high fibre/high protein muffin cake (Smartcakes) sweetened with erythritol as a treat (just tried these very recently though - while they have good stats I don't know if I'll continue to buy them or avoid).
During my little 'experiment' this week, I increased my carbs mainly from healthy sources: small amounts of strawberries, high fibre whole grain cereals, and lots more veggies like broccoli and cucumber. I ate more frequently in the day by adding an extra snack or small meal to up my calories to 900 a day, but I never eat less than 3 hours apart. I never eat and drink at the same time and always wait at least 30 minutes between drinking and eating. On days I'm low in fibre I'll add fibre-enhanced crystal lite to my water to get in enough fibre each day as well (still can't tolerate plain water yet sadly - makes me really nauseous). I cook using cooking spray to make sure I'm using as limited amounts of oil as possible. I take my PPI, multivitamin, Vitamin B12, and Vitamin D3 + Calcium supplements everyday as well.
Here is myfitnesspal account where I have my food diary visible, so any advice on what I'm eating would be really appreciated: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/avatarkorraa
As for exercise, that's been a bit of a challenge because I've been experiencing some severe chronic fatigue and muscle weakness ever since my surgery. I feel really exhausted, light-headed, dizzy, and weak all of the time, and even simple tasks like walking up the stairs has become more much challenging since surgery. I know people are supposed to feel like they have much more energy after WLS, but sadly for me it's been quite the opposite (and I'm very young too to boot - only 21 years old). I don't know if this is because I'm not eating enough or because of some other underlying health problem, though. My labs are all perfect but I do suffer from PCOS sadly, and I have pretty low blood pressure. I'm not completely sedentary though - my job requires me to do some moderate heavy lifting once a week (which is difficult to do in the state I'm in now but I try my best) and I'm certainly not housebound or anything as I'm always out and about running errands. I really do want to implement some sort of formal exercise program into my daily routine though, but sadly I have next to no energy all the time and my muscles and joints are in a lot of pain everyday. Eating closer to 900 calories this week helped me feel a little more energized, but not by much. In the meantime I'm following up with my doctor to see if there's something I can do about this so I can start exercising soon, because I really want to .
Anyways, any advice/support would be really appreciated! I really want to reach my goal of 150lbs but it's so hard not to get discouraged during times like this. Seeing the scale shoot back up to 183 pounds today really scares me and I just don't know where to go from here, and I'm honestly too terrified to eat anything now. Thank you so much for reading and I wish you all the best on your respective journeys!
