Plateaued and need to start losing weight again...
There are a lot of factors involved that determine what you need to do,..if anything.
Basic answer, go back to basics: protein, water, and exercise. You may already be doing that.
Review your intake: are you grazing too much or taking in too many carbs, fats, sugars; more calories in than being burned?
Are you working out/exercising regularly? You could be toning, tightening, or even building some mass if you are, that is causing a gain of muscle weight while losing fat weight but the scale only shows total weight and not the conversion in body fat to muscle ratio.
I am benefiting from the Tom Venuto, Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle (BFFM) (website: burnthefat.com) material that include how to maximize your metabolism and eat "Clean" foods that are high in protein, low in calories, have fiber and natural sugars and vitamins that I have substituted from some of the things I was consuming. For example: breakfast was a fruit smoothie with protein powder, then a PB and banana on wheat bread sandwich. Now it is oatmeal with a banana, protein powder, and a tbsp of clover honey. Lunch is a plain baked potato with some ****tail sauce that has horseradish and garlic in it (watch some brands have a bunch more sugar than others), dinner is brunswick stew or boiled shrimp. Between meals include healthy snacks such as protein bars (Pure Protein Chocolate Deluxe), Nature Valley Honey and Oats granola bars, a peeled apple (I have trouble digesting the skin as I also peel my baked potato for the same reason). Of course I still get a minimum of 4 bottled waters a day, I actually try to get 6 daily.
With my running and other exercise, my weight went from my low of 224 to 238. I missed running for a month in Feb and my weight went up to 247. I did the BFFM thing and I am back in the 232-236 range and working to get down to my original goal of 200. But slow loss, especially with my running is a good thing for the long term so I have to be patient.
Lastly, plateaus are normal in the weight loss journey as you get lighter, but thay normally last 3-6 weeks. Your body should be changing dimension during this time (smaller wasit, butt, feet, legs arm, head/cheeks/neck, etc) during these period if you are still heading to a lesser weight. It the plateau last longer than 6 weeks,...it isn't a plateau,..it is stablization and you've gotta do something different to get it going again,...which is what I think you are asking.
Best of luck and keep us posted on your progress and success as we could all benefit from your experince if you are willing to share. Plateaus are a pain for all of us.
Joe
Thank you for posting this...I was just going to ask the same question...I've plateaued at 175 (down 72lbs)...and have been up on my water, protein, and exercise...And the scale is not moving for weeks now. Joe... what if we aren't getting ENOUGH calories? I'm 5.5 months out and still between 600-900 cal/daily...but still working out 1-1.5hrs/3-4 days a week. Is my calorie intake too low in your opinion?? Is it possible to stop losing because I need MORE calories?
IIben79,.....I regret my info is hard to tread between my typos and the paragraph breaks/hard returns seem to have been disabled, no matter waht I've treid, my writings are all pushed into one big paragraph,....so besides that,...to answer your concern(s)
At 5.5 months out and 75 pounds down, post WLS, plateaus are a natural and desireable progression. The body takes the opportunity to fallback and regroup with what you are doing to it nutritionally and chemically. It is working to determine if you are not starving it, how to deal with the deficit of calories and demand for energy. It is redistributing the stored carbs and fat and adjusting your metabolism (hopefully increasing it). During this time, your body shape and size should be changing even though the scale doesn't reflect any change. I lost shoe sizes, shirt sizes, took links out of my wris****ch, had to get my glasses frames reduced,.....all wow moments.
Taking in fewer calories than are being burned is essential for weight loss, post op or otherwise. Exercise, besides burning calories; tones, tightens, and can encourage your body to even build additional muscle mass (depending on what kind of exercise you are doing and for how long). Protein is required, it is mandatory for your body to maintain, repair, and build muscle tissue.
Your body prefers to burn carbs during work/workouts/physical exertion. If it cannot, it will convert protein and burn it. If it cannot find either of those, it will convert and burn fat. To recover from physical exertion, you body seeks protein. If it cannot find it, it will digest existing muscle tissue to gain the glycogen it needs to repair itself and breakdown the lactic acid buildup. Muslce loss can provide weight loss but it is not good long term as muscle is the furnace for burning calories, so you minimize your calorie burning capability if you are not getting your protein and exercising during your weight loss.
It is not possbile to stop losing becasue you need more calories. It may becaome an issue that you feel to exhausted or fatigued becaue of a lack of calories or becaues of the type of calories you are taking in. Here, your vitamins and supplements are essential. Lack of iron, B vitamins, and potassium will all make you feel weak, pooped, and/or drained. Remeber to take your calcium citrate and iron at least 8 hours apart. Take itamin C with your iron (multi-vitamin) to maximize the efficiency of oxygen absorption into the blood and from the blood into the muscle tissue. Take vitamin A with D and D with your calcium to maximize its absorption into your bones and joints.
If anything, you may need to eventually increase your protein intake to give your body the fuel it needs to keep working at the pace you are demanding of it. I went from 60 gms (male post-op minimuim) to 120 then to the 180-200 a day I current ntake, only to learn that post op wls absorption capability is about 60% on average. Therefore, the 180-200 gms I am getting, I only really benefit about 120 gms worth because of my post wls malabsorption situation, as do you.
I will stop here. If I have not answered your question or confused you, please let me know either on the board or PM me or you are welcome to email me at [email protected].
Good luck, you are certainly being successfully and are not half way of your wls journey at 5.5 months. Good things are still comng if you stick to the program as you seem to have so far.
Joe
Second response,..........after giving your question additional and deeper thought, and in addition to my original response, IS IT POSSIBLE TO STOP LOSING BECAUSE I NEED MORE CALORIES,...it is possible to send your body into starvation mode if you are not getting enough calories which would be contradictory to the effort you are trying to make, in relearning how to eat properly, with healthy choices, as your body heals and as it re-learns how to digest food based on what you are putting into it. Starvation is anytime you got long periods without eating at all. This can be like the 18 hours between dinner and lunch if you skip breakfast just the same as if you skip dinner until the next breakfast or lunch. So it can be the timing of meals and the amount you eat, and the type of foods (calories) you are taking in,...they are all separate yet related factors. Now, starving your body will cause you to lose weight but it will also set you up to quickly regain weight if you EVER start eating more. It is a built in body mechanism to protect us from starving to death during lean times or crisis. The goal is to eat so the body is getting minimum calories but not detecting starvation, hence the 5 or 6 small meals or snacks a day type meals body builders use to trick their body and increase theri metabolism. Think of it this way, digestion requires the body to do something and doing something requires calories. So keeping your body churning on digesting some low calorie high protein something throughout the day, keeps the machine working, burning calories and not starving. Too much food or bad foods at that kind of frequency and you exceed the calories in versus calories burned equation and inflict weight gain,...so we have to find the happy medium. Concersely, it is also possible to increas your intake, build and tomne some muscle, opossible gain or rearrange some wieght but still lose inches in yuor butt, waist, thighs, etc., depending on your type workouts and current conditioning. Simple but not easy. The concept is easy, calories in versus calories used. The how-tos of doing it correctly and consistently,...not so easy. So,...good question!
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