No weight loss at all- ever?!?

I agree with all the other posters. IN addition to what they have said, I would however, like to look at this from another angle.

Almost everyone weighs more when they come home from the hospital following surgery (than they did before they went in) because of the massive amounts of fluids that were given during surgery. It takes time to get all that out of your system.

Also, at three weeks out you are experiencing the three week stall everyone goes through. This is common and will pass.

Please do follow up on what the others said about the amount of exercising you are doing. Check with your doctor. It does appear you are doing too much.

My big crazy weight loss right after surgery was from eating about 300 calories a day. Mostly from sipping one protein shake for hours. I eat 1000-1300 calories a day for maintenance.

It was three months before I attempted an actual meal of a piece of steak, a salad, and some broccoli. I did not eat fruit until 18 months after surgery.

With your ability to eat so much right after surgery, weight loss seems bound to be slow for you.

I really am in no danger of getting addicted to exercise. I get ZERO enjoyment from it. I have to force myself to do it each day because I know I ought to. Six days a week of 45 minutes of aerobic exercise plus one or two longer bike rides is not excessive. I know people who spend a few hours in the gym each day or people who train for a marathon. They are addicted to exercise. Keep in mind my doctor was actually recommending I add strength training to my exercise plan. My bigger risk right now is becoming addicted to shopping... I love the thrill of bargain hunting.

Am I eating too much though? My surgeon basically said I had to drink 2 protein shakes a day no matter what. That adds up to around 400 calories right there depending on if milk is added or which brand is used, so I would be over that 300 calorie "beginning" mark without any food. It isn't easy to get the shakes down and have any time left in the day... But I manage. I was told to eat 1/4 cup protein plus 1/4 cup fruit/veg at each meal 3 times a day. So that is what I have been doing. I am not eating based on bring hungry... Just doing what I am told. Last week was just the 1/4 cup protein 3 meals a day. Next week I get to start counting grams of protein daily. If I feel pressure I know I am eating too quickly so I pause and then the feeling passes within a few seconds. Even if I am eating at maintenance calorie level now, that should still provide for significant weight loss because I am not at maintenance weight. Also before surgery when I was losing lots of weight I probably was eating at least double the calories I am eating now, if not more.

It is tough to get enough fluids in while exercising. That is why I got the camelbak. I can constantly sip. When I am on the elliptical every 10 minutes I will take a big gulp of water and then let it sit in my mouth and gradually over the next minute swallow it down. This may be TMI but I judge my hydration based on toilet frequency and urine color. So far I am doing well there. I can't claim to be perfect but I have only had a couple of difficult days. They were difficult because of work rather than exercise though.

I still appreciate all the comments. I would really appreciate hearing from somebody who actually didn't lose anything in the beginning who is doing okay now... or not.

I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble, to be honest I haven't heard of anyone not losing weight in the first month. In my professional opinion, I think this could be due to a combination of 3 main reasons, working out so much, eating too much, and losing so much weight pre-op.

You have already mentioned that you have read the research over the lack of correlation between working out and weight loss, but from your initial post, you put a lot of effort into explaining how much you work out. This would lead one to think that you still feel as though working out should be helping you. Really, you aren't burning anywhere near 2,000 calories working out, those fitness trackers are horrible at estimating calories burned and should not be used except as a reference to itself (ie, I burned twice as many calories today as yesterday, NOT I burned 100 calories today). Better just assume you burn zero calories working out, and set your calorie limit that way.

People lose much more slowly the more weight they lose pre-op, we all know that. You lost a massive amount of weight pre-op, so you should lose more slowly. Much, much, more slowly.

People lose much more slowly the less they weigh on surgery day. You only weighed 209 on surgery day, so you should lose much, much more slowly.

Lastly, you are eating a lot more than most people do at your point post-op. The surgeons office (all of them from what I can tell) are the worst at telling you how much you should be eating in the first...well let's say 6 months to a year. I was told to shoot for 1,200 calories a day starting 6 weeks out! That is ridiculous and way too much. They said "well we've never encountered anyone with any problems eating at that level" but I don't lose weight eating 800 calories a day sometimes, so 1,200 would be...stupid.

I recommend 1 protein shake a day (160 calories, 30g protein) and for lunch and dinner stick with preparing the 1/4 cup of protein and only eating until you are full, then stop even if you haven't finished. Also, certainly don't eat the veggies if you aren't hungry! There is no reason to at all. That should get you to 60 g of protein a day with the least amount of calories. Also, take your vitamins and drink so much water, obviously lol

Maybe try this out for a couple of weeks and see where you are?

Best of luck!

Haley

The concern isn't how much you are eating right now, but WHAT. Many people have a very slow progression to solid food, and take at least a month (often longer) before they are eating things like pork.

Your insides are still healing, and pushing things that are too difficult to digest before you're ready can have life-threatening consequences.

...

I only did walking during the weight loss and I didn't do much of that at all. I've really upped it now in maintenance phase. I swim do aerobics and weights six days a week but that is too maintain. I really didn't do much while losing.

I did not have a large weight loss presurgery - I lost 11 pounds the first week and then lost nothing for 3.5 weeks and that was on less than 500 calories a day.

I am amazed you can eat more than ¼ c at a time so early out. I would stick to ¼ cup at this point unless maybe it's yogurt.

Early on you aren't getting enough nutrition to sustain that level of exercise. You maybe losing muscle rather than maintaining it.

Stalls happen to the best of us. Hope it passes soon.

I am eating 400 to 500 calories per day 5 weeks post op. Followed the plan and gained 1-1/2 lbs this week. I was told that might happen. I weigh once per week. I can't wait to weigh next Sunday because I am sure I will lose.

I don't understand how you can exercise that much and be overweight.