Perplexed. Surgeon says no such thing as a "stall"

[RJ'S/beginning 5,358]

It is like asking why the sun comes up every day. Or the science behind photosynthesis. You can search that out on the internet for all the scientific data they have but the simple answer is that it is natural for the body to protect itself from any harm that we do to it. And by losing weight too fast we go into starvation mode and the body says...hey not going to allow this and when it knows you are still feeding it it lets more fat go.

Why does everything have to be so difficult when it can be explained easily by trusting your body to do what it needs to do to get healthy? Your losing you don't need to worry at this point but you will stall. The thing is that if you weigh yourself constantly you will see them.....

The body is an amazing machine and man has only touched the surface of what it is capable of and what it can do.....It will protect itself as long as it can before something happens that it needs help...

I don't agree with his thinking but not offended. Just typical of the medical community at times to expect more from mere humans when they consider themselves gods.

[AmyFromCincy 56]

My surgeon said there can be a stall but your body gets over it.

[kndoster 33]

Thanks everyone.

[Bluesea71 698]

Nfute

[bikrchk 1,313]

ONLY losing 1.5 pounds in a week? No, not a "stall". You lost that week and a loss is a loss even if its a fraction of a pound! Weight loss is going to ebb and flow, and it isn't always about what YOU are doing\eating. Sometimes the machine just needs to catch up\reset. I think by naming it "Stall", "Plateau", whatever, you give this reset more power than it deserves! Maybe what he was trying to say is this is a NORMAL part of the process and you need to view it as such. One thing I noticed is on weeks that I didn't lose much (or stayed the same) I was typically losing inches. That next week was always when I'd drop into the next size. Just keep focusing on the things you can control... nutrition, exercise and the weight will follow.

[LipstickLady 25,682]

Nfute

Nfute to you, too.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

Some people call it a stall just because they arent losing weight. That is not an accurate definition of stall. A stall is when you really are losing but scale doesn't reflect it.

People can be "following a plan" not really losing and it is not really a stall. It means that they either aren't following the plan or it isn't the right plan for them.

My point is that a stall is a temporary state of affairs when the scale is lying. People often lose inches etc during stalls.. it is just the leveling out of Water weight etc etc

[Rovobay 920]

it has to do with glucose and your body catching up and adjusting to your weight loss.... LMFAO....

you have a lot of good theories and answers above. whatever is happening and whatever you want to call it. kick it right in the balls and keep kickin butt. You will keep losing.

[kndoster 33]

it has to do with glucose and your body catching up and adjusting to your weight loss.... LMFAO....

you have a lot of good theories and answers above. whatever is happening and whatever you want to call it. kick it right in the balls and keep kickin butt. You will keep losing.

Haha! Thanks. Rovobay!

[VSGmary 418]

Hi i saw this article posted the other day, has an excellent explanation about stalls

http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.php

[Rogofulm 2,440]

Your surgeon's fulla horse hockey! Of course there are stalls as you body adjusts to what it perceives as crisis mode. Check out the article below. It describes what you're probably going through right now. Just like "stuff", stalls happen. But the better the choices you make, the shorter they will be. Okay, here's my standard spiel...

Congratulations! You have reached The Dreaded Week-3 Stall. It's perfectly normal, and just about all of us have suffered through it. You're not crazy, and your doctor didn't screw up. In fact, you might not lose any weight for two weeks or even longer. But don't worry – after that, the weight will start falling off if you stick to your program. And, the inches will continue to come off even while the scale isn't budging. Here's a good article that explains why it happens and why we all have to go through it. Hang in there. Pretty soon it'll be in the rear-view mirror and you'll be dropping weight again!

(Apologies to BP regulars who have seen this repeatedly, but it's a big deal to those who are going through it!)

[ready2B 263]

Howdy! I'll chime in here. First of all, "stall" is just a word and it has different meaning to different people so it wouldn't be surprising if your surgeon had his own meaning for it that doesn't jive with what you would consider a stall. The semantics really don't matter. What does matter though is his assumption that if people don't lose a certain amount of weight in a specific amount of time, they must not be following instructions and doing what they are supposed to be doing. In his practice, he's probably seen a lot of that - so take it with a grain of salt. Maybe he just wants to nip any excuses in the bud before people start using them. Which I suppose might be good for some people but not a good approach with everyone. But the problem lies with the patients who ARE doing everything as instructed and still don't lose X number of pounds in X number of weeks. There ARE some reasons why that might not happen, some of which people mentioned above, and those things might correct themselves by the next week and the scale will move again.

When I went for my 3 month followup, I had only lost 10 lbs since my 1 month followup. I was so upset! I had stayed within one lousy lb for 2 weeks then had been constipated for the previous 4 days and had gained back 4 lbs right before my weigh-in! It was really frustrating to feel like I would be judged by that number on that one particular day and thought of as not doing what I should when I know I was doing everything as instructed. Fortunately I have a great NUT & doctor who both reassured me these things happen and within the next few days I lost that 4 lbs again and more. That was a month ago and I've lost another 17 lbs since not changing a thing. Go figure. Those things DO happen! Most of the time, you won't really be able to pinpoint any rhyme or reason, so just keep doing what you should be doing and the scale will move again.

However, there are also some rare reasons why someone might not lose. Body chemistry could be totally whacko. Hormones, thyroid, edema, a growing tumor, or any number of other scary things. Your labs would help the doctor see if there is something crazy going on then, so those aren't mysteries but are not because the patient isn't doing things right. But since those are really rare, don't think zebras when you aren't losing for a week or two.

But mainly,just don't dwell on what your doc said. Just focus on your own journey and enjoy the ride! In a year from now, you won't even remember how much you lost the second week. When you get to your goal, it won't matter at all anymore how fast you got there!

Edited March 14, 2015 by ready2B

[MichiganChic 3,262]

Yeah, I was an expert dieter and never heard the word stall before I came here. I made up my own definition based on what I thought people meant by it. I never asked my doctor because I'm pretty sure he wouldn't know.

I know one thing, though. Weight loss is generally not steady and even. If you lose 4 pounds for 2 weeks, and then none, and then 4, you've lost roughly 12 pounds in a month. Even though one week didn't reflect a loss, the other weeks more than made up for it. The truth is that medical science has a long way to go about understanding obesity. (My doc did tell me that).

I am and have always been a daily weigher. I always looked at trends over weeks and months, not days, and you know what? It was more steady than I thought.

[CanyonBaby 1,852]

@RJ'S/beginning

What is the saying? Oh yes, the only difference between God and a surgeon is that God doesn't think He's a surgeon. I think I have that right...

[samuelsmom 670]

@@kndoster I laughed out loud when I read your description of the surgeon and his response to your question. His (IMO) stupid response tells me that he obviously he has no clue about what it is like to actually be a bariatric patient.

Just glad for you that he was a good surgeon!