Hitting a stall?? Wondering what's going on??? A repost...

cabin111
on 12/8/10 7:49 am
Below is a copy and paste from DX...very knowledgeable man.  It might help.  He had said after WLS it is like decending stairs...

Still staying on-track calorie-wise? And the scale shows you stopping? Or Even Gaining?!?!?--Re-Post Unsolicited advice/info… -------------------------------------- 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. Fear not, many people who are now enjoying life at a normal BMI Once had a few weeks or so of thinking- "...my weight loss has been awfully slow, has it stopped..."? Hope this helps some. You are doing Great! Keep it Up! Best Wishes-Mike Wazowski Dx

Grandpa-G
on 12/8/10 7:58 am - Grandville, MI
 Great POST...thanks for re-sharing.  This is a good one for all of us, especially you newbies and recent post-ops.  Thanks Cabin!
Eating junk food and CRAP is not a reward...it's a punishment...
  it's a DEATH sentence...Reward yourself with Good Health!
Highest Weight: 287 Lbs-January 2010; Reached Goal 195 Lbs - Dec 2010 
Total Lost: 92 Lbs;  Completed FULL MARATHON (26.2 Miles) 10-16-2011
           
Jeff Gudim
on 12/8/10 8:19 am - Gonic, NH
 so in other words JUST BE PATIENT RIGHT????  Thanks for this post 
 

Highest weight-544/Started WLS program -520/Surgery weight - 457/ =Goal weight - 287
cabin111
on 12/8/10 9:30 am

Yes, just be patient.  In a few days (weeks) you will be dropping again and big time!!  The stalls are the normal process in weightloss.  I will say also that men lose the weight faster than women...We have a larger muscle structure.  So yeah, chill...Do what you know you need to do, and the weight will drop.

Paul C.
on 12/9/10 2:07 am - Cumming, GA
Lets go out run some Saber tooth tigers!

This post really helped me last time it was posted.  Mentally we can understand what is happening but, it doesn't make the stalls any easier, or the gains.

Thanks for the repost I needed this after gaining last week from having my calories increased.
Paul C.
First 5K 9/27/20 46:32 - 11 weeks post op  (PR 28:55 8/15/11)
First 10K 7/04/2011 1:03      
      First 15K 9/18/2011 1:37
First Half Marathon 10/02/2011 2:27:44 (
PR 2:24:35)   
First Half Ironman 9/30/12 7:32:04
Jim Parker
on 12/9/10 2:59 am - TX
RNY on 11/02/10 with
This makes a lot of sense...  After 3 weeks of great weight loss, mine slowed pretty dramatically for two weeks.  I was pretty sure I was doing everything the surgeon and nutritionist told me to do, but the weight was coming off a lot more slowly than before.  Thanks to the advise on this forum to be patient, I wasn't really worried or bothered by it, because I knew that I was doing the right things, and that it HAD to work...eventually!  LOL

So now we're 3 days into a new week (I count from Tuesdays, since that's when I had my surgery), and I've dropped 6 lbs already.  Go figure!  

Looking back at it, I realize that I started walking a mile and a half every morning with the dogs about the time the weight loss slowed.  But that's also about the time that my pants literally started falling off.  So my body was probably trading a good bit of fat for some additional muscle.  I also realized that I was having trouble eating much more than 800 calories a day for a while there, and that probably convinced my body that I was trying to starve it.  And I've actually upped my calories to between 1,000 and 1,200 per day (though it's hard to get to that upper end...).

You gotta love this roller coaster ride we're on!
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