next »

[smoore]

I saw my doctor on December 17th. He was so pleased with my progress that we decided we didn't need to touch my band with any fills on this trip. He said I was losing at the same rate as an RNY patient. 20 pounds per month so far. Of course I didn't mention to him that I had been stuck at my current weight since the 9th of December.....   Anyway I continued my eating and exercise as normal, but have been holding as the same weight.

Got through the holidays just fine and low and behold stepped on the scale this morning and lost 4 more pounds. Finally the slipped off the plateau and starting losing again. One of the girls in the office said that plateau's are really your bodies way of catching up with what your doing.... Anyone ahve any thoughts on this?

[baka]

Finally the slipped off the plateau and starting losing again. One of the girls in the office said that plateau's are really your bodies way of catching up with what your doing.... Anyone ahve any thoughts on this?

Congratulations on your amazing progress and breaking the stall!

I like to call stalls WTF moments as basically that's what your body is doing it's taking a timeout to asses what the frick is going on.

Here's some food for thought too on stalls and breaking them......:

***
Pull back from your ‘daily’ charting, and look at a weekly or even monthly. There are up and down spikes each day, But if you ‘graph’ the highest to the lowest, I’d bet there is still A downward slope over the course of the month.

There’s an 8 to 10lb. volume of "wiggle room" due to water alone. And it comes into play a lot. This has to do with our bodies using glycogen for short term energy storage. Glycogen is not very soluble, But it is stored in our muscles for quick energy – One pound of glycogen requires 4 lbs of water to keep it soluble, And the average glycogen storage capacity is about 2 lbs.

So, when you are not getting in enough food, (Like when you drop down to your calorie intake) Your body turns first to stored glycogen, Which is easy to break down for energy. And when you use up 2 lbs of glycogen, You also lose 8 lbs of water that was used to store it Voila -- the "easy" 10 lbs that most people lose in the first week of any diet.

As you stay in caloric deficit, however, Your body starts to ‘realize’ that this is not a short term problem.

You start mobilizing fat from your adipose tissue And burning fat for energy. But your body also ‘realizes’---- (by way of your liver releasing hormones signaling low Cal intake) ---That fat can't be used for short bursts of energy – Like, to outrun a saber-tooth tiger. So, it starts converting some of the fat into glycogen, And rebuilding the glycogen stores.

And as it puts back the 2 lbs of glycogen into the muscle, 8 lbs of water has to be stored with it to keep it soluble. So, even though you might still be LOSING energy content to your body, (Thus showing negative Calorie load overall) Your weight will not go down or you might even GAIN for a while As you retain water to dissolve the glycogen that is being reformed and stored. Yes? The whole ‘weight-loss’ process is not a straight "Slide" down the scale. More like "Stair-Steps," (Down then forward, then down, then forward, etc... As your body cycles fat out of "deep storage" and through the Liver Into the muscles as Glycogen.

The muscles and Liver can hold about a 3 weeks supply. This is why many people find that their "Stall" or "Plateau" Breaks when adding a bit of exercise And upping their water intake, or in the case of an "extreme exerciser," The total Calorie or Protein Intake, To signal the liver to let go of more Glycogen.

***

Ian

[smoore]

Ian,

What a response. Thank you for explaining that in such a concise and easy to understand way. While I still don't care for the plateau, at least I understand what was (is) happening to me. Thanks Again!

[kiersti]

Ian is the best when it comes to explaining some of the nutritional science stuff - simply... so it makes sense!

[dv8rn]

Glad you are showing a down turn again. Ian thanks for explaining that.

[kiersti]

OK Ian & Forum crew, I have a plateau question for you.  I am on my first REAL plateau.  I do feel lucky to have avoided the frustration up to now.  It all kicked off when I added a short walk to my morning routine (for the dog) and then started working out a little harder in the gym.  Some of my plateau could easily be due to an increase in muscle mass.  I am trying to watch other nonscale indicators like clothing size and I think I am still technically shrinking..but it's in smaller increments now so it's harder to tell in the short term.

I am on week 2 of weighing the same thing.  ~170.  I have flirted with 168, but the next day it was right back to 170.  Technically this is the lowest weight I have been since high school at 16.  When on Weight Watchers I lost 70 pounds to hit this weight. 

I am also getting closer to the goal that the doctors set.  Am I really hitting a plateau?  Is my weight loss stabilizing as I approach goal?  Is this a head trip that I have to fight through since it is associated not only with getting lower than I EVER REMEMBER, but also hitting a personal goal of being half the weight I was when I started this.  Will I likely break this stall after I use up the 3 weeks of Glycogen in storage?

I am trying to take this in stride - but I also want to hit my halvsies goal...it is anguishingly 7 pounds away from where I weighed in this morning.

And I know that the answers to my questions really are - it depends...but I would love to hear the thoughts of my fellow forum fighters....

[Mo-Mik]

Plateaus suck!  It is good to remember that slow and steady wins the race but everytime it happens to me I freak out!  The freak out makes me be uber careful and watchful of my program which usually helps. 

Wow Ian! What an answer.  Are you a mad scientist on the loose?

[HopenToBeThin]

Kiersti,
I don't have any answers for you, but my gosh girl.  I had my RNY just four days after you and you are way ahead of me.  I would say we probably show the different ends of the range.  I hate to exercise, the word makes me tired and that being said I don't do it enough.  You are adding more.  I stall all the time, usually for about a week at a time and this is your first one.  From what you said, over the last 31 weeks you have averaged 5.48 # per week where I have averaged 2.95.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, don't compare.  ( And for those of you who will now fuss at me, don't, cause I am trying to make a point, not whining.)  I am just trying to get you to stop and realize what an amazing job you have done. 

See folks, we all loose differently and that is OK.  I am happy with where I am in the journey.  You have to be satisfied with yourself cause like Charles Stanley says, "You can travel all over the world and see all kinds of things, but in the end you still have to come home and live with yourself".

I know the stall is still a bother and you still want ideas how to break it, but dang girl you have done one hell of a job.

Congrats!!  Just thought you deserved a hand. 

[baka]

Kiersti you have done an absolutely incredible job so far and as Paula mentioned you have been on the high end of weekly weight loss.

Fear not your body is just going through one of it's WTF moments and taking a timeout to assess whats going on.

How long will it last? How long is a piece of sting.....

I just broke a 15 day stall two days ago and even though I knew what was going on those little voices would try and talk to me and I'd catch myself questioning things for a split second... Like I said in another post I treat my stalls as a challenge now.

Am I correct that you kicked up your exercise prior to this last stall? Are your caloric intakes still the same as prior to the beefed up exercise? If they are as strange as this sounds that may have caused/triggered the WTF moment.

Try Increasing your protein intake and adding 16oz of fluid and see how your body handles it (I'd do an 8oz shake and one 8oz glass of water to hit the 16oz if it were me).

Hope his helps

Ian

[kiersti]

Ian.. I had mentioned I upped the intensity of my workouts recently, really digging in to increase the resistance training parts of my routine.  I am seeing a lot of muscle development which is exciting.  (You can actually SEE my muscles - WOW) And is an indicator that I could be packing on the muscle...it IS heavier than fat after all!  I am also attempting to add a 30 morning walk too but the recent rain has curtailed that....need to get a rain slicker I guess!

Once this stall started I went back to religiously tracking my food with Livestrong's DailyPlate (Love it!) and am watching my protein, I am working on keeping it at ~100 grams a day which is about 30 grams above where my doc told me to aim for.  I am also upped the water intake...I had your first post in the string in mind when I did that. 

And as it puts back the 2 lbs of glycogen into the muscle, 8 lbs of water has to be stored with it to keep it soluble. So, even though you might still be LOSING energy content to your body, (Thus showing negative Calorie load overall) Your weight will not go down or you might even GAIN for a while As you retain water to dissolve the glycogen that is being reformed and stored. Yes? The whole ‘weight-loss’ process is not a straight "Slide" down the scale. More like "Stair-Steps," (Down then forward, then down, then forward, etc... As your body cycles fat out of "deep storage" and through the Liver Into the muscles as Glycogen.

I figured I might need to replenish that water and get the scale moving again. 

Having said that I am going to increase my water a bit more...can't hurt right.  If this stall doesn't shake soon I am going to experiment with upping my calories per day by adding more good proteins.  But - since that is honestly scary, more calories (!) - I am going to ride this out a little longer.   After all, as you all graciously pointed out - I am doing great.

That is why I posted here....I KNEW that this was part head trip/part stall.  So I needed to check in and be reminded of how far I have come and that even if I stop losing altogether... I am damn proud of where I am! 

But when you have been losing 5.5+ pounds a week (as HopenToBeThin pointed out) for ~7 months....it is hard to have that loss come screeching to a halt - whether is it time for that to happen or not.  (Queue the "WTF!!") Again - it's all about wrapping my head around this journey.  Thank  you guys for the great replies. 

And apologies for squatting on this post - I have a bad habit of that.  It was just a timely topic for me!

[smoore]

kiersti, No need to apoligize for "squatting" on the thread! It's not mine, I just started it. Besides everytime somebody adds to it, I learn more. Congratulations on approaching your WLS goal. I am still running into these mini plateau's - a couple of weeks at the same weight, then a quick bounce down 2 or 3 more, then another little pleateau. I am ok with it, sometimes I have to remind myself that I am only 3 months post op on my band and 65 pounds is really good. In fact my surgeon told me at my last appointment that I am way ahead of where I should be at this point. He also told me not to focus on the plateaus, but keep on doing what I am doing. Now of ofcourse with the explaination by Ian, it all makes more sense. (Secretly, I knew there was no way I could maintain a 20 pound per month loss, but I am trying to keep it that way). Have a great day.

[Indykitty]

Kiersti and Shawn, you are both doing fantastically!  And Paula, you've lost almost as much as I have since surgery and I was 6 months ahead of your date - so you are SO rocking it, too.  Like everyone said, stalls are normal, though frustrating, but BRAVO guys and gals!   

[dv8rn]

Ya'll are FREAK'n inspirational!

[greebo115]

Hey Shawn! How ya doin' now? 

[smoore]

I am still in the mode of hold a week or so then drop a couple. 68 total, but I feel like I am in a losing week..... (if that makes any sense). Lots going on and I am still getting used to the last fill from 3 weeks ago. I have defiantely learned that if I eat to fast, I get the worse case of burcups. (thats what i call a hiccup that ends with a burp). Anyway, my wife is now keen on that observation and she will make me get up from the table and walk around the house for a few minutes to let that subside before returning to the meal.....   They are very painful. But I am getting better at controlling my speed...  has anyone else experienced burcups?