Weight Stalls After Bariatric Surgery *Video*

If you’ve had Gastric Sleeve or Gastric Bypass Surgery but are frustrated with stalls in your weight loss, this video is for you! Few things are as upsetting as when your weight loss stops, especially when things had been going so well. Take a moment and watch. I hope you feel encouraged afterwards and also equipped with a few tricks you can do to get the party started again.

Transcript:

Why is My Weight Stalling? The #1 Most Asked Question After Weight Loss Surgery.

Hi, I’m Steph Wagner, Bariatric Dietitian on FoodCoach.Me.

If you are feeling frustrated and wondering why your weight loss has stalled, this video has been made just for you. In fact, the #1 phone call and email I get is about a stall in weight loss. Which means, you are not alone in your frustration!

Sometimes there is nothing you can do…but sometimes there is. So keep watching while I get to some tips on what we can do to get you moving again. First I do want to focus on just how NORMAL a stall in your weight loss is. Especially if you are in your second month after surgery. Don’t get me wrong, stalls happen all the time throughout your weight loss journey, but if you are 2 or 4 or 6 weeks out of surgery? You’re probably hitting your first big one and wanting to throw the scale out of the window. Going from a liquid to a soft to a regular diet doesn’t help anything either. That’s a lot to put your body through.

Stalls happens for several reasons. For one, your mind has gotten so used to the scale going down that you aren’t used to or comfortable with it not moving. Meanwhile, your body has gone through so much changing in a short amount of time that it’s hitting the breaks to catch up with everything that has gone on. Fluids and water shifting in your body is probably a big culprit to why the numbers don’t change. But just because because there is more water in your body, doesn’t mean it isn’t burning off fat. Because the other thing to remember is that the scale can not tell you everything about your body. Your clothes will fit looser and you feel like you’re losing weight even if the scale wants to tell you that you aren’t. Take measurements or pay more attention to your clothes than your scale for a little while. Trust me, it’ll help keep you sane.

Another quick and important note about the scale – I cannot urge you enough to NOT let the scale allow you to make conclusions about your diet and your weight loss. For example, you might think to yourself you can’t eat past a certain time or you won’t lose weight. Or that you can eat fish anymore or that chicken is the only food that let’s you lose weight. Do these things sound a bit off? They do until you eat chicken and see the scale go down and then think to yourself “chicken it is!” Weigh yourself once per week and stick to your postop eating plan. Trust yourself and your postop guidelines and avoid living by rules you’ve made up because of the scale.

So what can you do if you’re in a weight plateau? Sometimes you can’t do much more than you are doing except get your mind onto something else. BUT I can say that having a faithful walking routine can see you through a plateau. Low heart rate exercise is a great way to get the scale moving. Drink PLENTY of water in case you are holding onto water due to dehydrating. Set your goal as high as 96 ounces of hydrating fluids. And of course, keep that dreaded food journal close by. On your phone or however else you will keep it. The accountability is helpful and this also allows you to look at the areas you could improve. Weight stalls are not forever if you stick with it, on day at a time. And don’t forget to celebrate how far you have come instead of focusing on how much more you want! It will come, patience grasshopper :)

Thanks for watching, I’m Steph Wagner and remember to make every bite worth it.