Stalls

[orthoman 114]

I was sleeved on 12/28 and so far I'm down about 23 pounds. But I lost most of that in the first three weeks. For the last two weeks I've only lost about 2 pounds and its driving me crazy!

I know about the three week stall and I hope that's all it is. I'm 5'9" and started out at 260, now at about 238, but the scale actually went UP a pound over the last few days which really kills me!

Anyways, do these stalls break themselves? Do you have to exercise to break out of one? Do you have to go ultra low carb to break out of one?

This stall is why I always failed at diets in the past - when they inevitably occur, it's just so demoralizing!

This

[VSGKirk 855]

Hey Ortho - it's normal! I just completed week 4 and I might only record a 2-3 lbs loss and I'm a BIG guy. Just let your body do it's thing and have faith that this process works. Go watch youtube of all the successful real people who are 6mos-1yr out. They all experienced stalls along the way and they look great!

[RickM 1,753]

Here is a great article on what's happening -

http://www.dsfacts.c...or-plateau.html

You will note that she mentions that the depleted glycogen and the Water that keeps it soluble accounts for about ten pounds of body weight, so there is that much in play that your body is trying to restore, so a bit of gain is not unexpected. I routinely gain 3-4 lb when I travel for a week, which is primarily Water retention from (presumably,) the higher sodium in restaurant food and my altered exercise and activity routine - there is no way that my caloric deficit has shifted the 10-14,000 calories to account for that being genuine weight gain (and it drops off a few days after resuming normal routines at home.) Glycogen and sodium influences are just two factors in our biochemistry that influence water retention that can create temporary scale weight stalls or minor increases. Stair step loss is usually the word of the day - some will lose more smoothly while others will be a 2-3 down, 1 up type of loser.

Ensuring that your water consumption if in good standing, (the classic 64 oz per day, more if exercising or in hot, humid conditions) will counter-intuitively help relieve such water retention as the body tends to hold on to water more aggressively when it is in short supply.

These early stalls do tend to break themselves since it's hard to get the calories high enough to stop the genuine weight loss. Later on, the main thing to watch for is that your calories haven't crept up to the point that you are putting yourself into maintenance before intended. There are all kinds of advice on how to break stalls and I don't know if any of them have any real validity (it's tough to measure the effect of a change when it takes some time to recognize that you are in a stall, take some action in response and allow some time for it to take effect - how much of the break was your response to the stall and how much was your body's normal response had you done nothing?) Lots of ideas are out there - ultra low carb, higher carbs, carb or calorie cycling, increasing or changing exercise routines, etc. From my experience (with a study sample of one!) I never really had any stalls (my definition being a week without loss,) and I maintained a moderately high carb intake (relative to the classic low carb under 40g rule) in the 70-100g range, and somewhat higher later on during loss when I selectively added a bit more complex carb to improve exercise endurance, Speculatively, I never let that glycogen level totally deplete and maintained a more constant fat burning rate - the hypothesis behind the Atkins/ketogenic diets is to keep the glycogen levels at a minimum so that it depletes and forces the body to burn more fat more quickly to make up for it. As I was also a relative lightweight (5'10" and 290 to start) I didn't feel the need speeding things up any more than what the VSG already does on its' own, and didn't want to get involved in the common side effects of those diets (I lost the 105 lb that I needed to lose in about seven months, and have been maintaining that for the past year.)

A further note - once you do start losing again, your loss rate will be somewhat lower as the glycogen that you burn initially burns quite quickly, while the fat that you start burning after the glycogen depletes burns more slowly, but you will be doing what you are here to do - burn fat!

Good luck!

[lisa2job 130]

I totally feel your pain, It seems like I am more on stalls than weight loss, I am no longer or at least trying not to weigh myself on a daily or weekly basis.... I found that my body seems to only loose once a month for about a week the lbs melt off me then for three weeks nothing..... So at 5 months out I am just following my plan given to me by my doc the lbs are still melting off me ... make sure to get your Protein, Water and Vitamins in, excercise as perscribed by your Doc and the lbs will leave you.

PS the weeks that I don't loose weight are the weeks that I loose the most inches and I see a change in my clothes.

dont give up YOU CAN DO THIS !!!!

[New1 201]

This is probably weird and not the right response for your post but I never really focused on the stall. If you can see my sig you can see how my weight loss has been. I have never compared my weight loss to other sleevers either. Looking back at almost a year out I think I would have gone insane doing that. I guess by looking at purely numbers and the scale I'm an extremely slow looser. And there were plenty of times that I wasn't losing pounds at all. I don't know that I ever did anything different to start the scale moving again. Most days I follow the plan to the letter <60 g carbs, >60 g Protein, 64oz of Water my calories tend to stay between 800-1000 cal per day. I guess all this to say just wait and watch if your following the plan the weight will come off. I still weigh everyday knowing that some days I'll stay the same and some days I may gain a pound but eventually I'll lose my 5 pounds for that month. But I try not to let it dictate my mood- that's the hard part! Good luck.

[arthritis_me 12]

I am in a stall 3 weeks after having the sleeve. I'm def only eating between 500-700 calories and walking/yoga every day. Today I'm going to the gym to see if I can shake it up a little and get that scale to move. I hope your stall ends soon.

[Imabeskinny 31]

I was sleeved 12/31, just a few days after you and am experiencing the same thing! Today I broke up with my scale, he is a jerk. I am going to focus on getting in Protein, Water, and Vitamins. I will weigh in when I go to the doctor 2/16. Good luck to you, based on everything I am reading, we will get through this!

[Facing50 21]

"This stall is why I always failed at diets in the past - when they inevitably occur, it's just so demoralizing!"

The great thing about being sleeved is that a stall will not make you fail at this. Like you, in the past it was really easy to fall off the wagon when it seemed like good behavior wasn't doing any good anyway. But now I eat a certain amount and that's it, no more space. So it makes it a lot easier to ignore a stall, at least w/r/t engaging in negative reactive behavior.

It seems like the stall question is the one that is most often asked, by far, by us newbies. I can't wait to get to the point where I look back (several stalls later) and realize how much energy I wasted worrying about them.

Rick, that was a super well considered, well written post, thanks for sharing it with us.