| I
had my first plateau three weeks after my surgery.
This hardly seemed fair.
I had gone through the drastic step of having surgery. I
should be exempt from plateaus.
Isn’t that a Right of Passage?
But it is like getting a blemish after menopause! These are
truly cruel jokes of life! Unfortunately, plateaus are as much a
fact of life after surgery as before.
I
often hear from people who say that they have lost 100 pounds in
their first 3 months and then stop losing.
With this surgery, the maximum that most lose initially is
20 pounds per month. After
a few months the average is 15 pounds per month.
If you lose in excess of that, your weight loss is getting
ahead of itself and it has to catch up.
And plateaus happen.
Sometimes
we get comfortable with our routine of eating. We are pleased with
the massive amounts of weight loss and think, not consciously,
that this will go on forever no matter what we do.
So we start to eat a little more just to see if we will
continue to lose weight regardless of how much we eat.
We eat a little more here and eat a little more there, not
really realizing what we are doing. And then the plateau happens.
The
best way to guard against plateaus is to follow the 4 Rules of
Success:
1.
Eat protein first at any meal and try to limit your daily
carbohydrate intake to 20 grams.
2.
Drink water. Strive for 64 ounces per day.
3.
Don’t graze. You will soon find out that you can out eat
this surgery by snacking.
4.
Exercise. This is the most important way to avoid plateaus.
If
you still plateau and you are following these rules then you know
that a plateau is just a plateau!!!
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