Question:
I'm 8 monts out from gastric bypass surgery and have only lost 97 lbs, I seem to be

stuck at this 97 lbs i work out at least for days a week is that I'm gaining muscle or eating too much..everything is full of carbs and i have a hard time finding healthy and good snack choices, mmy goal is to lose 22 more lbs. please help.i also can nor get my meals in i often just still drink my protein please help!!!    — minkii68 (posted on June 23, 2008)

June 23, 2008
97 lbs in 8 months? You should be very proud! that is an average of 12 lbs per month. Overall, that is wonderfull. If you stoped loosing, the problem maybe be in you not eating enough, not eating enough protein. There are a lot of healty, protein loaded snacks. Just look for them. Staring at protein bars, protein snacks, etc. It is no excuse not to eat your meals. That how I gained my weight before surgery. Go back to basics. Exersice more, and the pound will melt away.
   — H.A.L.A B.

June 23, 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 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

June 23, 2008
It's great you still have restriction and that's why you can't get in all your meals. I have to eat severl small meals a day myself (even 4.5 years later) Protein drinks are a great supplement, but you are literally drinking your calories and not gettig enough dense protein. You need to try to eat more meat, fish, pork, chicken, beans, soy if you can handle it. You will stay fuller much longer on dense protein with much less calories that a protein drink meal replacement. Try it...You can eat moist meats til you can handle more dense meat such as canned or crockpot meats...try eating meat with a little broth or well cooked veggies...Carrots help chcken go down easier until you can handle it better...Applesauce and porkchops... a little mashed potatoes and beef...Or try ground beef for a softer easier meat...ground tuurkey makes great chili with beans or taco type meal in a low carb roll up....Boiled eggs...great snack...lunch meat and string cheese...soy nuts, almonds, jerky turkey chicken, beef) Put protein powder in SF pudding...or mix a packet of sf instant pudding in ricotta cheese and whip it smooth...or try it in cottage cheese (whip the lumps out of the cottage cheese first (it tastes better) I use greek yogurt for it's low sugar, high protein content...I use it like a sourcream or with fresh pureed fruit and SF sweetener of my choice...Soy chips and hummus or greek yogurt make a great chip and dip...celery and peanut butter. I'm hungry now...try more dense meats even though you can't get much down...It stays with you MUCH longer than protein shakes! Good luck
   — .Anita R.

June 24, 2008
You're doing great so far. The further out you get, the more difficult it will probably be to see consistent loss. On the other hand, you already see yourself going in the wrong direction with foods. You must get back on track with eating healthy, appropriately proportioned foods. I don't think you want to drink protein supplements for the rest of your life. Find a local support group and keep coming here for help. See out a nutritionist if you don't already have one. As tough as it is, you have to get disciplined and make healthy eating your new habit. Trust that you can do it!
   — gonnadoit

June 24, 2008
Well, first, give yourself a pat on the back for loosing so much weight and for working out 4 days week!!! Great job! The other responses about lean muscle mass weight lsee and to gauge your success by the measuring tape are on the right track. I know exactly what you are going through. My wieght stays at a point for weeks and yet my clothes are getting baggy. So I know I am loosing weight, or fat, so I TRY not to get frustrated, but I know it is difficult. HEre's some advice. 1. Yes, use a measuring tape and the fit of your clothes to see how you are doing. Also check out your BMI to see how much you have improved. 2. Toss the scale. You don't need it. Use the one at the gym and only weight yourself one time a week. That will help with the frustration. 3. You wrote about it being hard to find things to eat - ordering in, etc. I find that most places don't think anything about me ordering a side of chicken or a small salad with a side fo meat (Like Rubio's, Green Burrito, El Torito, Applebee's, etc.) Or I order a kid's meal to go and eat a bit. I haven't had any problem at all with this. I also get friends to share a meal with me at times, but that is not as easy. Or I order a sandwich and eat the meats and skip the bread. Subway lets you order sanwiches as a salad - you get the meat, cheese and then any other things and there you go. The real key though, is being organized and to always have a meal and a few snacks with you at all times. I bought a small thermal lunch bag & ice packs and always bring a protein shake, and a few meat & chees rll ups, cottage cheese, tuna, etc., with me to work. So, good luck, toss the scale, and pack some eats every day. Vickie
   — vippie

June 24, 2008
I've been trying out different snacks to carry with me, my blood sugar gets low late afternoon or if don't get home for dinner on time. Nuts are good if you can handle the fat, i get the 1 oz bags because i have problems with portion control (hard to believe, right?). beef & turkey jerky are good & lofat and most varieties lo carb, there are nitrite free brands at whole foods and online. a lot of the protein bars are junk food, lately i've been eating the kashi crunch bars, they're lo carb and have lots of protein and whole grains, luna bars are good too, even an occasional zone bar. with the protein bars i check the labels, and often eat half a bar, that can tide me over for a couple hours. plateus are frustrating, but keep up the good work
   — Susan C.