Question:
plateau it's been three months since my gastric bypass.. has anyone hit a plateau 2 m

april 2008 i had loss 70 lbs prior to surgery and only 30 lbs since. Do I need more to eat?    — jesamadad (posted on June 20, 2008)

June 20, 2008
You're doing fine, seriously, with 30 pounds since April... I have hit a one plateau (so far), since my surgery in February. It lasted 3 weeks. I read that *not* eating the same amount of calories everyday can help break it, so I ate very little one day, (but drank plenty of fluids and took my vitamins) then for a few days I increased my intake of food. That seemed to break the plateau, but I am not sure. Anyway, they do happen, and they will definitely pass, so hang in there :O)
   — Gina S.

June 20, 2008
Congratulations, you are doing well. I too hit a plateau after the first month. I lost 30 pounds the first month, the second lost nothing and then New Years day, it started coming off again, so be patient and stick with it, it will get better.
   — PAWLLA L.

June 20, 2008
Your body is catching up to your loss....You have lost 100 lbs all together...take you measurements and you will se that you are still losing inches. Then one day you'll hop on the scale and you'll have a huge loss. This is normal. You are doing WONDERFUL! Eat til you are satisfied and not more...You must not eat more unles you are hungry....and then you must listen to your tummy and not your head... Congrats give yourself a year....You're losing faster than you can imagine even though it doesn't seem like it now... Good luck!
   — .Anita R.

June 20, 2008
I have hit 2 plateaus since my surgery March 12 ... they suck!!! In the middle of one right now. I have lost 72 pounds but I can not see it ... yes my clothes or not fitting anymore ... but for me to look in the mirror ... I see the same thing ... no or very little change. I know it is very discouraging ... I get discouraged that is for sure. I guess plateaus are just part of the journey that we have to deal with ... funny how I never heard about them before surgery. Also never heard about the "honeymoon" period with loosing weight ... the first 6 months to 1 year ... then the weight slows greatly and or stops ... then you have to really work out to loose more.
   — Tammy Cardwell

June 21, 2008
Make sure your getting in all your protein. That is very important. It keeps your metabolisim going. There fore you loose weight.
   — nachocheese

June 21, 2008
I began at 417 and lost 104 lbs before my gastric bypass surgery 2/11/08. I have now lost 143 (currently 274) ONLY lost 39 lbs total since surgery... and YES, stuck in what I am calling a plateau. Been making tons of changes, adding cardio to my workouts, but have been told by tons of great people to concentrate on Water, Protein and Exercise. So I am following their suggestions. Would love to know how you do. I have not seen anyone like myself that had lost so much weight before the surgery. Please keep in touch, you can find me in Yahoo under kristacastle, or anyone else that has further suggestions, please any knowledge would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time. Have A Great Day. Krista
   — kristaaxline

June 22, 2008
First off, weight loss is not always a straight line loss. Some times there are plateaus. Some times there are gains. There are a few possibilities that you need to consider. The first is: Are you retaining water? The second is: Are you getting enough protein and exercise. In the FIRST scenario: The issue will probably resolve itself given time. In a few days or a week or so, you will lose the water and lose the weight. The SECOND is actually a GOOD thing if it is occurring! If the SECOND scenario is the case, what is happening is that the protein that you consume is being turned into lean muscle mass on your body by the exercise. Lean muscle weighs more than FAT per cubic inch so you can't measure your progress by the SCALE at this stage of your weight loss but you CAN with a MEASURING TAPE! If you are NOT dropping pounds but ARE dropping INCHES, you are GAINING Muscle! MORE MUSCLE means LESS FAT! The lean muscle mass will help to ACCELERATE your weight loss! There is the possibility of a THIRD option that I did NOT mention before. If one of the FIRST two are not your problem then the THIRD option is likely. The THIRD option is that your body's Metabolism SET Point could have readjusted itself to starvation mode. This IS possible. Give it some time. If things don't start working in a week or so you may want to contact your physician and get PROFESSIONAL advice or go to a nutritionist. A nutritionist will be able to set you up with a dietary lifestyle that will meet your nutritional needs and your dietary preferences so that you are likely to STICK with it. You will also be able to LOSE your weight because he or she will be able to CALCULATE the calories that you need to consume to lose the weight at the maximum rate that your body will allow without triggering your body's metabolism set point. This is probably the problem you are having now. You need to eat a certain number of calories a day or your body starts holding on to all the FAT that it has stored and actually starts robbing your body of it's own PROTEIN instead. What your body takes instead of the fat is MUSCLE. You do NOT want it to do that. Muscle BURNS fat! Your body does not discriminate from WHAT muscle it robs the protein FROM either. It will take it from your HEART muscle as readily as it will from your LEG muscle. You need to eat a certain amount of both PROTEIN and CARBOHYDRATE a day and for each person that amount will be different depending upon what their GOAL is. If your goal is to lose weight, and you are a SMALL WOMAN, the requirements will be different than if you were a large MAN who wants to MAINTAIN your weight. This is why you cannot use someone ELSE'S dietary program to optimize your weight loss. Your best bet is to talk to a nutritionist and have him or her outline a PERSONAL diet plan JUST FOR YOU. In order for you to MAXIMIZE your weight loss, you need to eat the proper amount of both protein AND carbohydrates. For ME, that ratio is about 20 grams of protein per meal to 20 to 40 grams of carbohydrates per meal. I eat 5 or 6 small meals a day. I am a 6 foot 3 inch tall MALE, so my needs are probably going to be different than YOURS. I also have a severely restrictive diet due to MANY severe allergies. Add to that the fact that there are some foods that I will not eat for religious reasons and OTHERS that I will not eat because I dislike them, and my nutritionist had her work cut out for her. Each person should have a diet plan worked up PERSONALLY by a nutritionist instead of using someone ELSE'S information because the other person's information may not hold true for YOU. YOU may be smaller or larger than the other person, and that difference will throw off the calculations needed for your optimal weight loss. They may also have different GOALS or be somewhere ELSE on the journey. If you are trying to LOSE weight, and they are trying to MAINTAIN it, you are going to be very FRUSTRATED if you try to use their diet to lose weight. The GOOD news is that you do NOT have to give up bread and pasta. Unless you find that it causes problems for you after your surgery. Of course, If you INSIST on eating bread or pasta, It would not HURT to make the change from WHITE bread to WHOLE WHEAT bread. The same goes for PASTA. As long as you are going to CONSUME these things, let's TRY to make them HEALTHY. We can only eat SO MUCH FOOD now. We need to make sure that it is QUALITY food and NOT JUNK. Whole Wheat products can count as a protein as WELL as a carbohydrate. The nutritionist will be able to assist you to figure out EXACTLY how much you can have of what item without causing yourself to derail from your weight loss goal. If your weight loss surgeon provides a nutritionist as part of his services, then you are set! If NOT, I would HIGHLY recommend that you look into getting one for yourself. The nutritionist will save you a great deal of headache and heartache in the future, and will serve to make your weight loss a much more productive experience. I hope this helps, Hugh
   — hubarlow