Stalls and plateaus

[Ms.LaTasha82 11]

What’s the longest stall you’ve had?
I’ve been between 224-228 for the last month…..I would really like to see 200…..so somebody please help me knock this last 24-28lbs.
what do you do to break your stall?

please and thank you!

[ilianna 0]

I’m at this exact weight and also at a stall

[redhead_che 824]

Change your diet or your exercise. But not both. If you did that you wouldn’t know which thing worked 🤣

I usually eat a few more carbs or walk a little farther that week to break a weight range.

[summerseeker 2,142]

I am struggling to loose as well. In the last 2.5 months I have only lost about 4 pounds. I still have a have a big restriction so getting a different calorie count would be difficult. Apart from a small amount of fruit carbs and a odd slice of bread, my carb count is low. I think I must be in the slow loss phase now.

Upping exercise would be a cruelty to me. I am so cold already, going out walking more than I do, we are going into the miserable dark, wet, cold, windy part of Winter and I hate it with a passion. Going swimming is not an option as I have so much loose skin now, I would be more embarrassed than when I was 333 pounds. I am considering the gym but its not my thing. Excuses, excuses, I know.

I am going to see my dieticians early next month so will see what they have to say. I always think its something that I am doing wrong rather than right. I love this skinny woman that I have become but I would like to get under 200 pounds also. Onederland is so close, I can see the finish line ......

[kcuster83 1,504]

Do you track your food intake?

I would say if not, start there. If you are eating 1200 calories a day, try to cut it to 1100 a day. Not a huge amount but maybe enough to give your body a push to burn it.

My Dietician says a lot that sometimes people aren't eating enough which will make you stall or gain. He will have people up their calories for a few weeks and then cut them back down to trick the metabolism.

I honestly don't know if any of it works but these are things he has suggested in our support group.

[SpartanMaker 767]

Sorry ahead of time, this is going to be a long post!

Let's talk a bit about what causes stalls/plateaus:

• The most common reason for any stall (including the dreaded 3-week stall), is simply that you are retaining more Water. There are a few reasons this happens, from hormonal shifts, tissue repair, illness, or changes due to glycogen vs. ketone metabolism. This post would be even longer if I spent too much time here, but suffice it to say that for many people (especially early in the process), they are just retaining water and not actually failing to lose fat.
• As you lose more weight, your overall metabolic rate will slow down. People sometimes think fat is not metabolically active, but that's not true. Losing fat means your metabolism slows down, even if you retain the same amount of muscle mass (which most people don't). This means that as you lose weight, it takes less effort to move or even just live, so the amount of calories you burn both during exercise and just living also drops quite a bit.
• On the intake side as you progress after bariatric surgery, you'll be able to eat more. This isn't a bad thing and is by design, but obviously you should be able to see the problem here. Your metabolism has slowed down and now you can eat more. This can lead to you basically eating as much as you're burning. When that happens, weight loss stops.
• Especially if you're not tracking intake closely by weighing and measuring your food, you can easily be eating a lot more than you think. Some studies have shown people underestimate caloric consumption by several hundred calories on average. This is more than enough to cause a stall.
• This one may be TMI for some, but you may simply be retaining more stool. Feeling constipated? That will definitely impact your weight.
• This is going to be hard for some people to hear, but I can tell you one thing it's not, and that's hormones. Yes, various hormonal processes negatively impact weight loss in a myriad of ways, but they don't overcome the basic fact that if you eat fewer calories than you are burning, you'll lose weight. What these hormones can do if they're out of whack, is bad things like slowing your metabolism even more, increasing your hunger, screwing with water weight, or even fooling you into thinking you're eating less than you are.

So, that's all great, but what do we actually do if we're in a stall? Well, I think it depends on when it happens and how long it lasts:

If it's early (a.k.a. the 3-week stall), just keep doing what you're doing and you should be fine. I know people don't like that advice, but as I said it's just water, so don't worry about it.

Later on, especially if the stall is lasting longer than 2-3 weeks. that's when I think it's important that you look closely at what you are actually burning, as well as really tracking what you are eating. If you don't know your RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate), you should. The closer you are to goal, the harder it is to get the balance right between intake and output to make sure you're not eating too much, so fixing this starts with knowing your RMR and accurate food logging.

There's a lot of anecdotal advice thrown around about "ways to break a stall", but there seems to be little scientific evidence for any of it. It certainly won't hurt to try things like breaking up your routine in terms of diet or exercise, but just understand that this change may or may not have any impact. If it makes you feel better to be proactive, go for it.

Longer term, there is one piece of solid advice that's backed up by lots of research: Even if you don't really like working out, do it anyway. Those WLS patients that make a regular habit of exercising for 45 minutes to an hour most days a week are significantly more likely to reach their goal and maintain the weight loss. (One caveat here: significantly changing your exercise routine can make you retain water and possibly even add muscle, so don't freak out if you see a stall or even a gain.)

I'll take that exercise advice one step further and say you really should be doing some form of strength training. This is also backed up by lots of studies, but the great thing about strength training is that it makes your burn more calories even at rest (in other words, it increases your metabolic rate). There are lots of other benefits, but the metabolic benefit is the most germaine to the stall question. Those that do strength training are less likely to stall during weight loss and are more likely to reach and then maintain their goal weight long term.

Edited November 10, 2022 by SpartanMaker

[kcuster83 1,504]

8 minutes ago, SpartanMaker said:

.

• This one may be TMI for some, but you may simply be retaining more stool. Feeling constipated? That will definitely impact your weight.

I am bored at work so I appreciate the long educational post for me to read.

But, this stool comment kind of makes me laugh. For fun, If I haven't went in a few days I will weigh myself before and after a good poop.. it doesn't change. Never has. I always want it to but it never does. I don't think our poop weighs anything. lol

[SleeveToBypass2023 2,607]

I just came out of a 4 week stall. I added weight training, really paid attention to my calories and carbs (added up and wrote everything down...you would be surprised how even healthy food and drinks have calories and carbs we don't even think about) and I changed up my workout a bit. And then my stall broke and I even finally made it out of the 300's.

[SpartanMaker 767]

2 hours ago, kcuster83 said:

I am bored at work so I appreciate the long educational post for me to read.

But, this stool comment kind of makes me laugh. For fun, If I haven't went in a few days I will weigh myself before and after a good poop.. it doesn't change. Never has. I always want it to but it never does. I don't think our poop weighs anything. lol

Well, since you wanted things to read:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1333426/

Yes. people even study how much poop weighs.

[Ms.LaTasha82 11]

12 hours ago, ilianna said:

I’m at this exact weight and also at a stall

I'm only 4 months out.....and just really want the scale to move downward. It's just irritating at times.

[Ms.LaTasha82 11]

3 hours ago, SpartanMaker said:

Sorry ahead of time, this is going to be a long post!

Let's talk a bit about what causes stalls/plateaus:

• The most common reason for any stall (including the dreaded 3-week stall), is simply that you are retaining more Water. There are a few reasons this happens, from hormonal shifts, tissue repair, illness, or changes due to glycogen vs. ketone metabolism. This post would be even longer if I spent too much time here, but suffice it to say that for many people (especially early in the process), they are just retaining Water and not actually failing to lose fat.
• As you lose more weight, your overall metabolic rate will slow down. People sometimes think fat is not metabolically active, but that's not true. Losing fat means your metabolism slows down, even if you retain the same amount of muscle mass (which most people don't). This means that as you lose weight, it takes less effort to move or even just live, so the amount of calories you burn both during exercise and just living also drops quite a bit.
• On the intake side as you progress after bariatric surgery, you'll be able to eat more. This isn't a bad thing and is by design, but obviously you should be able to see the problem here. Your metabolism has slowed down and now you can eat more. This can lead to you basically eating as much as you're burning. When that happens, weight loss stops.
• Especially if you're not tracking intake closely by weighing and measuring your food, you can easily be eating a lot more than you think. Some studies have shown people underestimate caloric consumption by several hundred calories on average. This is more than enough to cause a stall.
• This one may be TMI for some, but you may simply be retaining more stool. Feeling constipated? That will definitely impact your weight.
• This is going to be hard for some people to hear, but I can tell you one thing it's not, and that's hormones. Yes, various hormonal processes negatively impact weight loss in a myriad of ways, but they don't overcome the basic fact that if you eat fewer calories than you are burning, you'll lose weight. What these hormones can do if they're out of whack, is bad things like slowing your metabolism even more, increasing your hunger, screwing with water weight, or even fooling you into thinking you're eating less than you are.

So, that's all great, but what do we actually do if we're in a stall? Well, I think it depends on when it happens and how long it lasts:

If it's early (a.k.a. the 3-week stall), just keep doing what you're doing and you should be fine. I know people don't like that advice, but as I said it's just water, so don't worry about it.

Later on, especially if the stall is lasting longer than 2-3 weeks. that's when I think it's important that you look closely at what you are actually burning, as well as really tracking what you are eating. If you don't know your RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate), you should. The closer you are to goal, the harder it is to get the balance right between intake and output to make sure you're not eating too much, so fixing this starts with knowing your RMR and accurate food logging.

There's a lot of anecdotal advice thrown around about "ways to break a stall", but there seems to be little scientific evidence for any of it. It certainly won't hurt to try things like breaking up your routine in terms of diet or exercise, but just understand that this change may or may not have any impact. If it makes you feel better to be proactive, go for it.

Longer term, there is one piece of solid advice that's backed up by lots of research: Even if you don't really like working out, do it anyway. Those WLS patients that make a regular habit of exercising for 45 minutes to an hour most days a week are significantly more likely to reach their goal and maintain the weight loss. (One caveat here: significantly changing your exercise routine can make you retain water and possibly even add muscle, so don't freak out if you see a stall or even a gain.)

I'll take that exercise advice one step further and say you really should be doing some form of strength training. This is also backed up by lots of studies, but the great thing about strength training is that it makes your burn more calories even at rest (in other words, it increases your metabolic rate). There are lots of other benefits, but the metabolic benefit is the most germaine to the stall question. Those that do strength training are less likely to stall during weight loss and are more likely to reach and then maintain their goal weight long term.

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to submit your response. I am taking it all in. I realize my workout has been the same I just changed that up a few days ago. I have cheat days or 2 maybe 3 being honest.

So I will consider all you suggest.

[ms.sss 15,588]

4 hours ago, kcuster83 said:

I am bored at work so I appreciate the long educational post for me to read.

But, this stool comment kind of makes me laugh. For fun, If I haven't went in a few days I will weigh myself before and after a good poop.. it doesn't change. Never has. I always want it to but it never does. I don't think our poop weighs anything. lol

well my poop must be made of bricks then lol

one of my fave past times a couple years ago was doing before and after weigh ins for poop times (and pees, showers, eating a large meal, menstual cycles, workouts, etc, but i digress lol)

...and in the case of pooping, i almost always weigh less after. mind u i only poop every 3 days or so (a post-wls phenomenon for me), so i get pretty backed up.

there have been a couple/few times i went on vacay (or had surgery) and didn't poop for like 10+ days and when i finally did i would drop up to 2.5 lbs. *shudder*

[kcuster83 1,504]

8 minutes ago, ms.sss said:

well my poop must be made of bricks then lol

one of my fave past times a couple years ago was doing before and after weigh ins for poop times (and pees, showers, eating a large meal, menstual cycles, workouts, etc, but i digress lol)

...and in the case of pooping, i almost always weigh less after. mind u i only poop every 3 days or so (a post-wls phenomenon for me), so i get pretty backed up.

there have been a couple/few times i went on vacay (or had surgery) and didn't poop for like 10+ days and when i finally did i would drop up to 2.5 lbs. *shudder*

Hmm, has me curious. Maybe mine is hollow? HAHAH! Sometimes pieces float and don't flush. ..weird convo but it happens. HMMM... My brain is going crazy now.

I am also regular after surgery which is about the best thing ever because I suffered from MAJOR Constipation before surgery and dreaded what would happen after. Got lucky!

[NP_WIP 274]

7 hours ago, kcuster83 said:

I would say if not, start there. If you are eating 1200 calories a day, try to cut it to 1100 a day. Not a huge amount but maybe enough to give your body a push to burn it.

My Dietician says a lot that sometimes people aren't eating enough which will make you stall or gain. He will have people up their calories for a few weeks and then cut them back down to trick the metabolism.

A previous nutritionist I worked with, used to do this. Every 3 days, you will do 3 days with a lower calorie intake, and the 4th day, you will up by 200 calories, and it seemed to work at that time.

My other nutritionist (yes, I have a few attempts ) will do carb cycling where you consumed more carbs one day/week and then lowered it.

[kcuster83 1,504]

1 minute ago, NP_WIP said:

A previous nutritionist I worked with, used to do this. Every 3 days, you will do 3 days with a lower calorie intake, and the 4th day, you will up by 200 calories, and it seemed to work at that time.

My other nutritionist (yes, I have a few attempts ) will do carb cycling where you consumed more carbs one day/week and then lowered it.

Yes, I have done both of these techniques also. I actually did the carb cycling when I was working with a personal trainer. He suggested it and it did wonders! Soon as I stopped working with him (he moved) I lost motivation and fat again.. so here I am. haha