Triple H

Frustrated by a weight loss plateau? You need a combination of patience and a plan to push through it.


It happens to everyone sooner or later. Your bandwagon stalls. You’ve been going great guns, fired up with enthusiasm, working that tool, doing all the right things, and losing weight. Then one day the weight loss stops. One day, two days, twenty days go by…you’re still stuck, and you’re wondering what happened. And because you’ve spent so many years failing at dieting, and being told that obesity is always the fault of the patient, you start to wonder what you are doing wrong. You even think, “Is my band broken?”
Chances are, you’re not doing anything wrong, and neither is your band. What’s happening is that your body is adjusting itself to the many changes that have happened during your weight loss.
The human body doesn’t know what you’re going to do next, be it climb a mountain or relax on the couch, so it has to continually adjust and readjust your metabolism to make the best use of the calories you take in. It looks at the history of what you’ve been eating and how much you’ve been burning off through physical activity and comes up with a forecast of what you’ll need to stay alive for the next week or so.
THIS MONTH’S WEIGHT LOSS FORECAST IS…
At work I’ve had to prepare sales forecasts for various jobs through the years. How many widgets will we sell in the month of April? How many defective widgets will be returned by unhappy customers who want a refund? Will all this income and outgo generate enough cash (in our case, energy) to cover the payroll and the equipment maintenance and the CEO’s country club membership? I once had a boss who joked that we might as well toss a deck of cards down a flight of stairs to come up with a prediction of which new product (represented, say, by the joker card) was going to be the best-seller. That suggestion didn’t go over big with the finance guys. Like us, they were trying to follow the rules, keep everything identified, counted and categorized. And like the bean-counters, we count our calories, carbs, fats, Proteins, liquids, solids, income, outgo, with faith that this accounting system will help us win the weight game.
Meanwhile, our bodies have a different agenda: survival. When we decrease our food intake and increase our physical activity, the body watches to see what will happen next. As our purposeful “starvation” continues, the body struggles to accommodate the changes we’re making. It makes some withdrawals of funds from our fat cells and fiddles with our metabolism to prevent an energy (calorie) shortage. Gradually it becomes acclimated to the new routine so that it’s making the best possible use of the few calories we’re consuming. It’s keeping us alive, but it’s also putting the brakes on weight loss. Eventually we find ourselves stalled on what seems like an endless weight loss plateau. And unless we change our routine and keep our bodies working hard to burn up the excess fat, we’re going to grow to hate the scenery on that plateau.
AND ON THE FLIP SIDE
I’ve suffered through countless weight loss plateaus but by varying my exercise, my total caloric intake, my liquid intake, my sleep, and so on, did manage to finally arrive at my goal weight. For the past few years, I’ve felt mighty smug that I finally got promoted to the Senior VP of Weight Management here at Chez Jean. Maintaining my goal weight +/- 5 pounds seemed effortless. But it didn’t last.
Turns out it was time for me to learn another lesson about my body’s fuel economy. When I had all the fill removed from my band to deal with some bad reflux, my eating didn’t go berserk. I didn’t pig out at Burger King, didn’t drown my sorrows in a nightly gallon of ice cream. I was definitely eating more because I was so much hungrier than before – perhaps 500 extra calories a day, which would amount to a weight gain of one pound a week. Imagine my dismay when I gained seven pounds in 2 weeks – the equivalent of an extra 1750 calories a day! There was a time when I could have overeaten that much without any effort at all, but as a WLS post-op, I’d have to work hard at eating that much extra food. I was flabbergasted. And frightened. Obesity was a mountain on my horizon again – far in the distance across my weight maintenance plateau - when I thought I’d left it far behind.
So at the end of a visit with my gastro-enterologist during that scary time, I asked him if my sudden and substantial weight gain was the equivalent of my body shouting, “Yahoo! We’re not starving anymore! Let’s get ready for the next starvation period by hanging on to every single calorie she takes in! Let’s store those calories in those fat cells that have been hanging around here with nothing to do! C’mon, troops, get to work!”
I’m pretty sure that’s not the way Dr. Nuako would have explained it, but he smiled, nodded, and said, “Oh, yes.”
I felt like I was facing the flip side of a weight loss plateau: I might be in a weight gain plateau. All I could do is keep on keeping on with exercise and healthy eating, enjoying some of the foods, like raw fruits and veggies, that had been harder for me to eat with a well-adjusted band.
PUZZLING OUT THE WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAU
So the good news was that my wonky metabolism following that complete unfill wasn’t my fault, but the bad news was that my metabolism wasn’t in a cooperative mood. I was going to have to start playing much closer attention to the details of weight loss and maintenance again. What a pain!
But hey! I’d already had a lot of practice at that. I had the tools – a little rusty maybe, but still in usable condition. I ended up regaining 30 pounds between that unfill and my revision to VSG, but I have a suspicion that without those weight tools, it could have been 60 pounds. And that’s one of the reasons that even today, bandless for 14 months now, I don’t regret my band surgery. The band helped me lose 90 pounds and learn a host of useful (if uncomfortable) things about myself, my behavior, my body, my lifestyle.
What about you? How can you get your weight loss going again and avoid regain? So many factors can affect your weight that sorting out the reason(s) for your weight loss plateau can make you dizzy even if you’re not a natural blonde like me. To help you assess what’s going on and what might need to be changed, I created a Weight Loss Plateau Checklist. To access the checklist in Google Docs, click here: https://docs.google....emtSYjJLRnVGTFE
The checklist includes a long list of questions about you and your behavior, with answers and suggestions for each question. I can’t claim that it will give you the key to escaping that plateau, but it should give you some food for thought and perhaps some ideas to try. Use that to come up with a plan to deal with the plateau, and work that plan for at least a month to give your body a chance to get with the new program.

it's still iffy for me when I eat salad or raw veggies--especially lettuce...I try to minimize lettuce salads, even though I love salads, because it will sometimes go right through me, if you know what I mean

My first 'selfiie'. My heaviest on the left 3 months after my daughter was born. Right... Today. My birthday an a little over 2 months out. 188lbs. 51 lbs down. Woohoo!

Can always find something n the appetizer menu, but I still get sad about not being able to sip a good glass of wine AND eat dinner. We eat out a lot less and invite friends in a lot more since surgery because I can sip wine and no one notices that I have not eaten because I just put appetizers out on the counter and everyone , except me, grazes.... I am not heavy drinker, but at the end of the week, I like a good glass of wine with friends.

Meant to thank EVERYONE for your words! It helped me a lot.. more than you can possibly know. Still struggling but I'm losing weight pretty quickly now. Down to 284!

Meant to thank EVERYONE for your words! It helped me a lot.. more than you can possibly know. Still struggling but I'm losing weight pretty quickly now. Down to 284!

I had my surgery on January 23, 2013. Since then, I've lost 119 pounds and I have 30 to go to reach my goal. I am 5 feet tall. My highest weight was 274. My weight now is 155. Before, I wore a size 24/26 jeans, now I'm in a 13/14. I used to wear size 3X shirts and now I wear Medium. Before, I was miserable. Now I feel great! I love my sleeve.
I do have a lot of saggy skin though. I'm hoping it will tighten up at some point. I do exercise a lot so I hope that helps. You can't really see the saggy skin in this pic but if you look closely at my thighs you can see it a little. You can REALLY see it from the front. I don't like it at all, but maybe someday I can get it fixed if it doesn't tighten up. My boobs are very very sad. I'm wearing a good supportive bra in this pic...but my boobs are just...bad. I'm definitely getting them fixed if at all possible!
Something that I think is interesting is that in the before pic, my thigh is 2 inches bigger than my waist is in the "now" pic! Seems so unreal!

I have to vent about the gym.
I can.not.stand the:
super tan 50 year old ladies (I am 47 by the way)
who park their convertible BMW
in the corner of the park lot so they don't get scratched
wearing full make up when they show up at the gym
with matching
headbands
sneakers
and outfits
who come into class and complain about the instructors
and the routines
and how the old instructor was so much better
UGGGGHHHHHH! We are here to stinkin' workout, get or maintain health and
get stronger. Please, I can't stand it.
Thank you, now back to your regularly scheduled programs.
And I hope I didn't offend anybody.

I'm with JessicaAnn! I imagine myself in a hot lbd with some badass shoes! Also can't wait to wear tight jeans with a sexy halter type party top!

My doc said the carbonation causes stomach stretching gas. Hence, no more carbonation ever. Ima miss seltzer.

oh Lordy do I chew gum!!!! I quit smoking two months before surgery .... so ya...chewing gum is fine it's the scare factor of accidentally swallowing that that the rule.... no gum chewing is based on!

Sleeved 7/8
No preop diet.
Day of surgery - 278
Today - 239
DOWN 39 POUNDS!
Loving my choice stalls and all.

I've had gum. Oh my gosh we weren't supposed to??

Thank you soo much. Now at least I have a window lol. You can't have a bonfire and no beer. It's un-American

I was told carbonated beverages were a no go for the duration of my life.

Hey girl! I feel you. My surgeon told me no alcohol for 6 months but seems it's because of calories rather than safety. I'm 7 weeks out and I've tried wine, beer and liquor (I've told y'all I'm a rule breaker....but I'm 100% honest with my support group and medical team) and beer was by far the worst. I mean two drinks and I was hurting.... thik it's the carbonation. Wine and liquor I did fine with but I'm VERY careful about the amount and I drink extra Water. Good luck!

You aren't alone! It is because most of us have tried EVERYTHING and it didn't work, so we think we are the one exception to the rule and that we will always be overweight and doomed for life. I was CONVINCED it didn't work. About week 3 I had a stall and I was like "see....it didn't work and I'm gonna be fat forever!" then the next week I lost 9 pounds. I have lost 29 pounds in 6 weeks thank you Jesus! You will lose, but don't expect it to be all at once or like 50 pounds in a month which is what I was led to believe from my time spent on VST! You will do great!

You aren't alone! It is because most of us have tried EVERYTHING and it didn't work, so we think we are the one exception to the rule and that we will always be overweight and doomed for life. I was CONVINCED it didn't work. About week 3 I had a stall and I was like "see....it didn't work and I'm gonna be fat forever!" then the next week I lost 9 pounds. I have lost 29 pounds in 6 weeks thank you Jesus! You will lose, but don't expect it to be all at once or like 50 pounds in a month which is what I was led to believe from my time spent on VST! You will do great!

You aren't alone! It is because most of us have tried EVERYTHING and it didn't work, so we think we are the one exception to the rule and that we will always be overweight and doomed for life. I was CONVINCED it didn't work. About week 3 I had a stall and I was like "see....it didn't work and I'm gonna be fat forever!" then the next week I lost 9 pounds. I have lost 29 pounds in 6 weeks thank you Jesus! You will lose, but don't expect it to be all at once or like 50 pounds in a month which is what I was led to believe from my time spent on VST! You will do great!

You aren't alone! It is because most of us have tried EVERYTHING and it didn't work, so we think we are the one exception to the rule and that we will always be overweight and doomed for life. I was CONVINCED it didn't work. About week 3 I had a stall and I was like "see....it didn't work and I'm gonna be fat forever!" then the next week I lost 9 pounds. I have lost 29 pounds in 6 weeks thank you Jesus! You will lose, but don't expect it to be all at once or like 50 pounds in a month which is what I was led to believe from my time spent on VST! You will do great!

You aren't alone! It is because most of us have tried EVERYTHING and it didn't work, so we think we are the one exception to the rule and that we will always be overweight and doomed for life. I was CONVINCED it didn't work. About week 3 I had a stall and I was like "see....it didn't work and I'm gonna be fat forever!" then the next week I lost 9 pounds. I have lost 29 pounds in 6 weeks thank you Jesus! You will lose, but don't expect it to be all at once or like 50 pounds in a month which is what I was led to believe from my time spent on VST! You will do great!

Hi there I am 6 weeks post op. My surgeon told me to follow the 30 min rule above but I am a rule breaker to the core of my being! I have tried it all, so I find that I can not eat as much if I drink up until I start eating. If I try to drink even a literal SIP of anything after I've eaten, I throw up. It's very frustrating because you get so thirsty after you eat! I carry gum or sugar free hard candy to combat the desire to drink. Good luck!

You aren't alone! It is because most of us have tried EVERYTHING and it didn't work, so we think we are the one exception to the rule and that we will always be overweight and doomed for life. I was CONVINCED it didn't work. About week 3 I had a stall and I was like "see....it didn't work and I'm gonna be fat forever!" then the next week I lost 9 pounds. I have lost 29 pounds in 6 weeks thank you Jesus! You will lose, but don't expect it to be all at once or like 50 pounds in a month which is what I was led to believe from my time spent on VST! You will do great!

I found the coolest site, ladies! You enter a height and weight and are shown a gallery of photos of real women with these stats. This may be a useful tool in helping determine your desired goal weight.
http://www.mybodygal...com/search.html

I am 25lbs from my goal and I refuse to buy any new clothes or panties until I reach it. Idk why I am so excited about buying skinny girl panties!!!! Maybe it's because I've always had to wear granny panties and there is nothing sexy about that lol. My poor hubby ha.The ones I have now are old with holes but I will not buy any until I can fit in the sexy ones like what I envision myself in!!