No weight lose from week 3 to 8!

I had my surgery on 12/29/2011 and lost 40 lbs in the first 3 weeks.  From there, I am just hovering at the same weight for the past 5 weeks.  I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not "broken".  I haven't had problems with any foods bothering me so I can eat whatever I like.  I'm eating proteins first and then greens and veggies, some starch and carb if there is room.  Certainly not what I ate before surgery!  I was very wea****il week 4 and then suddenly started to get my strength back and have resumed water aerobic exercise 4 days per week this past week.  Could I be losing fat and gaining muscle so no affect on the scale?  I've heard there are plateaus early on but this just seems to be more than that.  If it comes down to calorie counting again, what daily number should I be looking for.  In the meantime, I'll work on getting an accurate number of what I am taking in calorically but I can't imagine it's more than 1200 pd. 

I wouldn't count calories but I would count carbs and increase the protein. If you can drink protein shakes, even better. They are great right after exercise. Hang tough, sounds like a temporary slow down and your body getting its second wind.

--gina 

Then what number for carbs should I be shooting for? 
 

I'm only pre op so  I hope someone else will chime in here but most try to keep it 50 mg or under for the carbs.

You want to get 50 or less grams of carbs a day while you're in the losing phase. 

I had my surgery the day after you did and stopped losing weight after 4.5 weeks (I lost 32 the first month).  Then after a 3.5 week stall I started losing again last Friday.  I eat almost no carbs and have been getting 80-100 g protein and at least 64 oz. liquid.  I was very disappointed with the stall but happy to see the scale moving again.  As I understand it the stall is normal.  I was also told to eat under 50g carbs per day.

Just because someting doesn't bother you doesn't mean you can eat "whatever you want" and lose weight. To take advantage of your weight loss window you must work the DS - meaning high protein, low carb, lots of water.

Forget about calories - you're not on a diet. I've never counted calories in 9 years. At 2 months post-op you should be getting in a minimum of 60 grams of protein a day. Carbs should be at a bare minimum (others have pointed out 50 grams per day should be your target).

I said that I can eat whatever I want meaning that nothing bothers me, not that I literally eat whatever I want!  I am getting min of 60 protein, I'll have to check carbs but I don't think that they are over the 50.  That is my concern is that there is this weight loss window and my body is not doing what it should be while in it.  I'll try to be patient but we're going on 5 weeks here and I feel like I need to be doing more or this isn't going to work.  Just wondered if anyone else has had this experience. 

Everyone stalls around week 3 or 4 post-op and then starts really losing about a month later.  It's perfectly normal.  Near the end of the stall I think we all felt the same as you do now!

I lurked 7 years on these boards before finally getting my DS and even with all my prep "the stall" still took me by surprise.

 Start trying on smaller clothes.  I'll bet you dollars to donuts you've gone down a size or two.  That's what happened whenever my weight stalled the first year.