6 month plateau?

Hey everyone! I was wondering if any of you guys have hit a plateau as long as I have? I originally had the lapband for about 6 years, and had it removed in February and went to the sleeve. My weight went up to about 273 before surgery (highest being 308 before band), and I lost about 20lbs in my first month of recovery. However, the scale has not budged at all in 6 months! If I'm being good, I'm staying between 253-256; sometimes if I'm bad, or have water weight it'll hit 258-262 range. I've just started school, and I walk all around my campus two days a week. I also start a labor intensive job in 2 weeks. I'm so happy that my band is gone, because of the problems it was giving me, but even with the band I was still slowly losing at this point! Not having a complete stall! I feel so helpless. I felt so great being under 200lbs! I want to be back there! :(

There is nothing magical about surgery that makes you lose weight.  Losing 20 pounds with a revision is common.  To lose any more weight you need to cut calories.

The sleeve gives you a smaller stomach and will let you be satisfied with less food, but it is easy to overeat with the sleeve.

I basically stalled the entire second year post-op.  Why?  Because I was taking in too many calories for weight loss.  

If you aren't tracking everything that you put in your mouth - start now.  Use something like MyFitnessPal to figure out what your caloric intake is and adjust as needed.  

Weigh and measure every morsel, and drink water.  Protein first, then veggies, then carbs (Less than 40/day).  Journal your food intake.  Good luck!

If you haven't lost in 6 months the calories you are eating are maintenance calories. Hard truth. As others have said eat a protein forward diet, and some green veggies. fruit and carbs rarely/occasionally...not daily while losing weight.

For me it was always 80+ grams of protein

Since you are doing a lot of walking as exercise maybe getting a fitbit would help keep you motivated and help you be consistent.

I have not been avid My Fitness pal user- but I do do what I call 'spot check' weeks where I enter for a week to double check myself. I also weigh daily as part of my accountability to myself, and if the scale is going in the wrong direction for too many days...it makes me evaluate what I am doing....

As White Dove said, revision is harder....

I find planning my menu very helpful as well... even if it changes, it has made me think about what is available, and what I am doing that day.

Also keep in mind normal rules do not apply to you. Having been very overweight and losing a lot, your metabolism slows down a lot. So your resting metabolic rate which would normally be around 1800-2400 calories per day might be really around 1200 or even lower depending on other factors (like thyroid function, cardio capacity, your level of activity, your amount of sleep, etc.). So if you are eating thinking that you will maintain at 2400 calories and lose by eating less than that, you are probably wrong.

Even though I exercise every day and sometimes twice a day my maintenance range is right around 1600 calories so if I really want to lose and lose fast, I need to be closer to 900 or 1000. 

Keep your protein up, water up and stay away from just about everything else. Except green leafy veggies, have it on those.