3 months post RNY and all is well AND Why Weight Stalls
It's been a wild ride, for sure!
I've lost
112 from my high,
62.7 from consult and
43.5 from surgery
My measurements: I'm down another 5.13" totaling 37.75"!!
I learned something, yesterday, about weight stalls. It helped me understand why we have stalls and why we need increase our water. I hope this helps you as much as it helped me.
Thank you all for bearing with me the last few weeks. It was a difficult time and I don't do difficult well. On the up side, I didn't revert to any of my comfort foods. When I "needed" something, I grabbed a protein bar or another glass of water. PROGRESS!!
Hugs,
---jan---
Weight Stalls, Taken from:
http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/rny/a,messageboard/action,replies/board_id,5465/cat_id,5065/topic_id,3750033/
This is what is happening to you, courtesy of Diana Cox:
A "stall" at this point is inevitable, and here is why.
Our bodies use 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, 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 a 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 that fat can't be used for short bursts of
energy -- like, to outrun a sabertooth 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, 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.
When your body begins to mobilize fat, it has to convert that much of that fat into
glycogen (think of glycogen as a kind of "animal starch" which can be rapidly converted
into glucose which is then burned for energy.) But for every pound of fat converted
into glycogen, your body has to hold on to 4 pounds of water. That's why you can
appear to maintain (or even gain) weight during a stall, even though you're still
losing inches: the fat is disappearing, but is replaced by glycogen and a lot of water
weight. Eventually, once the glycogen is burned up, all the water ends up being
flushed out by the kidneys. This explains why many people's weight loss looks like
this: lose a lot of weight, gain a few pounds (!!!!), stall for several weeks, then
drop 5-10 pounds in the space of a few days!
Also, if you indulge in eating too many carbohydrates (especially if you've already
been eating fairly low carb already), your body immediately converts these carbs into
glycogen and holds on to 4 times that amount of water. This explains why "cheating"
can suddenly lead to a gain of several pounds overnight. It's all water weight.
It's always a good idea to keep a food and exercise diary just in case the stall might
be due to eating the wrong foods, or the wrong amount, or too little exercise. The
diary will help you track your daily intake. Many people use thedailyplate.com or
fitday.com to help with this.
If you're not doing anything wrong, as evidenced by your diary, I don't think there's a
whole lot you can do, other than to be patient. You're a recent enough post-op that
your weight loss should resume soon!
Rock on!
I've lost
112 from my high,
62.7 from consult and
43.5 from surgery
My measurements: I'm down another 5.13" totaling 37.75"!!
I learned something, yesterday, about weight stalls. It helped me understand why we have stalls and why we need increase our water. I hope this helps you as much as it helped me.
Thank you all for bearing with me the last few weeks. It was a difficult time and I don't do difficult well. On the up side, I didn't revert to any of my comfort foods. When I "needed" something, I grabbed a protein bar or another glass of water. PROGRESS!!
Hugs,
---jan---
Weight Stalls, Taken from:
http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/rny/a,messageboard/action,replies/board_id,5465/cat_id,5065/topic_id,3750033/
This is what is happening to you, courtesy of Diana Cox:
A "stall" at this point is inevitable, and here is why.
Our bodies use 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, 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 a 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 that fat can't be used for short bursts of
energy -- like, to outrun a sabertooth 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, 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.
When your body begins to mobilize fat, it has to convert that much of that fat into
glycogen (think of glycogen as a kind of "animal starch" which can be rapidly converted
into glucose which is then burned for energy.) But for every pound of fat converted
into glycogen, your body has to hold on to 4 pounds of water. That's why you can
appear to maintain (or even gain) weight during a stall, even though you're still
losing inches: the fat is disappearing, but is replaced by glycogen and a lot of water
weight. Eventually, once the glycogen is burned up, all the water ends up being
flushed out by the kidneys. This explains why many people's weight loss looks like
this: lose a lot of weight, gain a few pounds (!!!!), stall for several weeks, then
drop 5-10 pounds in the space of a few days!
Also, if you indulge in eating too many carbohydrates (especially if you've already
been eating fairly low carb already), your body immediately converts these carbs into
glycogen and holds on to 4 times that amount of water. This explains why "cheating"
can suddenly lead to a gain of several pounds overnight. It's all water weight.
It's always a good idea to keep a food and exercise diary just in case the stall might
be due to eating the wrong foods, or the wrong amount, or too little exercise. The
diary will help you track your daily intake. Many people use thedailyplate.com or
fitday.com to help with this.
If you're not doing anything wrong, as evidenced by your diary, I don't think there's a
whole lot you can do, other than to be patient. You're a recent enough post-op that
your weight loss should resume soon!
Rock on!
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