Stalled! Again, like every other week!

The scale will NOT break 240. For over a week. This is maddening. Mentally, I know all of the reasons, blah, blah, blah. Emotionally, it makes no freaking sense. How can a person exist on 600 calories a day and not lose an ounce?? My metabolism is either a miracle of or a freak of nature. During the famine, I will be the last surviving human.

At nearly six weeks out, I don't feel like I am losing that fast. When I read reports of people who don't lose much or who gain the weight back, I panic. What if this doesn't work? How can this NOT work? The band was not a total failure. I lost some and kept it off. Never reached my goal, but it got me part way. THIS has to work!! This is my last chance to be "normal."

Just trying to get my head in a decent place today. Yeah, stay off the scale, measure my waist, try on clothes, yadda, yadda, yadda. Up the protein. Drink more water. I know, I know, I know. One main takeaway from years of psychotherapy: You can "know" stuff in your conscious mind; that is different from internalizing that "knowing" into your being.

The mental battle of weight loss is way harder in my opinion then the physical battle. Just hang in there and keep doing what you should and it will all catch up on the scale eventually.

One of the reasons for recording my weight daily was to learn my weight loss patterns.

Back when I had my first WLS it was before I went through menopause and I learned how my cycle affected my weight loss. After several months of recording my weight daily I saw a pattern.

For me I would have a big loss on day one. Maybe a smaller weight loss by the end of the first week. At the end of the second week it would slow down dramatically and by the third week I may have even gained a bit.

Then at the end of the month a huge weight loss again and I would start all over again.

After several months of this I began to be comfortable with those weeks of slow loss or even small gains. I knew what was coming.

Right now you are still early out and you don't know how you lose weight. Keep a record of your weight daily and look for the patterns. Then you won't freak out with the little losses or gains.

This last time was after menopause so it was a bit trickier but I still found patterns. I told myself that weighing daily was for information purposes only and if I ever found it to be destructive for me I would stop and only weigh myself weekly or even monthly. I would not allow myself to get upset when things looked slow. I had to take my emotions out of it entirely for it to be beneficial.

Now, after nearly 7 years I still weigh myself daily. It is the only feedback I have to learn how to maintain. I watch for little fluctuations to become bigger and to end bad eating patterns early out before they become too ingrained.

Since I have been maintaining I have never had a large regain. I am about 15 lbs higher than my lowest but that was intentional and monitored closely to make sure it didn't get out of control.

If used properly the scale can be very a very useful tool in our weight loss journey but as soon as it becomes a negative factor and starts to affect my emotions and how I feel about myself it is time to back off. Thankfully I have never had to back off and I credit daily weighing with being one of the biggest reasons I have been able to maintain.

As long as you know you are eating correctly than try not to worry about the smaller picture. It is the long term that you are looking for. If daily weighing leaves you feeling depressed on those days that the scale doesn't reflect your hard work then it is time to consider putting it away for a while and only weighing yourself at the doctors or other places.

Of course I have to be careful because every time in the past when I have regained the weight I lost it was preceded by my avoidance of the scale. So I don't allow myself to be able to go into denial about my eating habits. But if you know you are eating properly and the scale isn't moving every day the way you want it to you may need to step back and weigh differently for a while.

That is precisely why I am in the habit of weighing every day at the same time (even though they say don't). For the past two years (since the band removal) that is how I kept the weight gain in check; i.e., rather than gaining 30 pounds a year, I managed to keep it to only 10 pounds a year rocking back and forth. I am post-menopausal and grateful that I no longer ride the 8-10 pound monthly gain and loss. My pattern since surgery is pretty much the same pattern I had before: only fluctuating a pound here and there for fluid gain. I knew going in and coming out that I would not be one of those who experiences rapid weight loss. My husband said, "What if you lose too much?" BWA! I told him if that happens he'd better take me to a cancer Dr.

I have lectured myself about staying off of the scale for a few days or only checking in once a week. I'm finding it a hard habit to break. And as you said, this is a strategy I will use when I do reach goal to keep myself from regaining. I will not allow more than five pounds to creep on. I know what happens.

I think a big part of this is that I am hyper focused on the weight loss process. It is the center of my life right now. I need to get back to doing other things and not focus so much on it. It's not like I have to resist eating, so it shouldn't really occupy my mind as much as traditional dieting, right? Right? Ha!

Rather than staying off the scale, I would recommend that you get one that measures fat, BMI, muscle, water, and bone weights.

It is interesting how much of a role water weight plays in your weight.

Sometimes my weight is higher, but so is muscle weight. Sometimes it is higher and water is lower.

The RNY does not necessarily make you lose faster than a diet, but it gives a tool to keep it off once you lose it.

Actually, my scale does all of that. I just have not been using that feature. I'll start using that tomorrow. Totally forgot about it! Thanks!

That is so cool, I want one. Tell me how it measures all of that by just standing on it?! I mean how does it know?!

April, I don't really know how they work. You do have to stand on it barefoot. My guess is that it performs some sort of sensory reading through the soles of your feet. I picked mine up at Wal Mart.

It figures your BMI because your height is stored in the scale. It sends some type of current through your body to measure water, fat, bone and muscle. You cannot have socks or anything on your feet. Must be barefoot.

I have confirmed mine with DEXA scans and it is very accurate. Mine is the Garmin Index Scale.

I understand your frustration. I am 8+ months out. For the past 4 months my body has a 3+week stall--3/4 to 1 week losing phase. My monthly weight loss total is really what happens in that single week :(

It is frustrating to battle with the scale, even when the tape measure number is dropping. If you measure and and drink by the rules you will lose, but your own body will decide how fast.

Comparing our own journey to other's is so easy but counter productive, and I have to remind myself of this every single day.