here I am 3.5 weeks out and NOT losing. I lost about 10 pounds before 2 weeks out. Now. NOTHING.

I'm eating what i'm supposed to be eating. I'm not drinking as much as I could but i'm doing my best.

I'm not getting a ton of exercise but I am doing some light walking.


you know someone has to fail at this surgery right...

I'm sure you're not failing!!! I don't know much about WLS, but I do know that you are very dedicated and determined. Please don't worry to much, and talk to your dr. if you have worries!

I also know nothing about WLS, but I do know that surgery of any kind can cause you to swell and retain fluids, and that can be a factor for several weeks. If you aren't drinking as much as recommended, that could be causing some of the fluid retention.

Keep following the directions for eating and try to up your fluids to the recommended level, and I'm sure the results will follow!

WLS or not, a week and a half without a loss is not failure (even this early out, especially this early out because of the probability of post-surgery edema and inflammation).

I thought you had the lapband, am I right? I was watching on a lapband documentary not long ago, that some doctors are more conservative than others about the first fill of the band. So you might just need to have the fill adjusted (it seems to be a better outcome than doctors who are overly agressive in the first fill - even a sip of water will make the patient vomit).

Even if the fill was perfect, there's still post-operative edema and inflammation. I think before you can call it a plateau (and long before you can call it failure) it really has to be going on more than a couple weeks.

But, talk to your doctor(s). See what he/she/they think.

no I did not have lapband I had RNY with 150 cm bypassed.

No no no no no no! Don't make me bring out my big long rant about the term 'failure'!!!

You had surgery less than a month ago! I don't care what kind of surgery it was ... that's hard on a body!

You know that you still have areas that you can tweak. Go ahead and tweak!

Be calm my child. Time is on your side.

My mistake. Bypass being far more serious surgery, I would suspect edema/inflammation even more. Being you're not able to get in the water you would like, it may be that you just haven't reached the "tipping point" at which water flushes water.

well i have to get 64g of protein a day and 64 oz of fluids. i can't drink for 30 minutes before or 30 minutes after a meal... and i can't gulp i have to sip...

it's darn hard but i'm trying.

I didn't mean to suggest you're not doing everything right. If I understand it correctly, the recovery/healing process uses water. Edema and inflammation are part of the healing process - they can become signs of something going wrong (but only because they're a sign of the body trying to heal itself). Unless you have symptoms of infection (which I'm sure your doctor has given you signs to look for), or this goes on for weeks and weeks, this is probably entirely normal.

I think that this soon out, you may be losing fat, but water gain is camoflaging the loss. The "tipping point" as I called it, may not come for a while, because the body may NEED the extra water right now. Besides which, water gain issues aside, there is still so much that could be going on, that a premonition of failure is very premature. Yo don't even know yet whether you're going to lose steadily, or will you lose in staggered "whooshes," or by some combination. You could wake up tomorrow and see a 5, 10 lbs or more loss - that happens to be and I haven't had wls.

If you're concerned though, talk to your doctor, and hopefully members who've had similar experiences will share, so that you know it doesn't portend failure. I could be wrong, but my understanding of the bypass experience, is that those who "fail" do so after they've lost a significant amount of weight. They regain the weight later, they don't never lose it in the first place. Again though, your doctor, and members more experienced with wls, can hopefully give you more reassurances.

well it's the doc I'm scared of... if i don't show a decent loss I'll get 'yelled' at.

i also did have that horrible reaction to the steri strips and I was on steroids for 6 days. OMG I was so sick with that.

Steroids... I bet those just added to the water weight.

When I had my BA earlier this year I weighed 10 pounds more the afternoon after surgery than I did the morning of. With next to no eating over the next few days I was almost 20 pounds up by the Saturday after a Wednesday procedure, from swelling and water and such. And, my surgery was much less invasive than yours. Took almost a month for all of that to settle out for me. I would have to imagine that it would take at least a month for your system to equalize back out, too, especially with the challenges you have on the consumption.

I'm sure that you are doing just fine honey. Your body just needs to recover a little before it can buckle back down.

Other than the loss question, how are you feeling?

Between healing from surgery and healing from the steri strips ordeal, it really doesn't surprise me that you are stalled. If you read back through some of the older posts, you'll see a recurring theme - afraid of failing because they haven't lost much (if anything) yet.

I'll let those who have already had surgery chime in on that aspect, but just wanted you to know that you're not a failure and your body is still adjusting. Hang in there!

thanks. I just feel like i should be losing something, i'm off the steroids almost 2 weeks now...

ugh.

Steroids! Yowza. I have autoimmune disease, and when I'm prescribed steroids, it screws with my water/weight balance for weeks. I have to be off of them for a month or even more before my body readjusts and I can "trust" the scale again.

I'm sorry you have a doctor that "yells," that absolutely sucks (wls or not).

"yells" is my term. I don't think he's ever raised his voice in his life. but he will be disappointed if I don't show a decent loss on the 28th I'm sure.