Hi, all:

I've been a relatively slow loser since my surgery, which was 7.5 months ago. I've lost about 60 pounds from 265 to 205-ish. I've been ok with I, not weighing myself very often--concentrating on eating well, drinking a lot, and exercising. I feel great and have started training for a 5k.

It's been almost two months, however, since I saw any weight loss. I was patient for a while, embracing the stall, focusing on doing the work, but I'm starting to wonder if this is more than a stall and I'm just not going to lose any more weight unless I reduce my calories significantly. I really don't want to do that because I am getting in my Protein, not eating anything "bad" and feel pretty good. I also enjoy not ever feeling too much hunger. I tend to eat three small meals and two Snacks (usually a yogurt.) I hit at least 80 grams of protein a day.

So, my question is: how long until you declare a stall not a stall but rather the end of your weight loss?

Thanks!

Mary

My dietitian said that two months without weight loss means that you're in maintenance, not a stall. If you do hit that two month mark, you may have to decide whether you want to stay where you are or whether you want to keep going in your weight loss, and if you want to keep going, what you are willing to do for it.

If you have recently increased your activity (training for the 5k), you may need to eat more calories. I didn't stall for that long, but when I increased my activity they told me to increase my calories, especially carbs, and I started loosing more weight.

My NUT said that stalls are generally caused by not eating enough Protein. She said once the body uses up the protein stores in the liver and kidneys, it will slow the metabolism down because it thinks its in starvation mode. You are training for a 5K. Could it be your are not eating enough to support your level of activity?

Note: I have not had my WLS yet. This is just what I learned from my NUT.

My NUT said that stalls are generally caused by not eating enough Protein. She said once the body uses up the protein stores in the liver and kidneys, it will slow the metabolism down because it thinks its in starvation mode. You are training for a 5K. Could it be your are not eating enough to support your level of activity?

Note: I have not had my WLS yet. This is just what I learned from my NUT.

I think you may have misunderstood. Your body doesn't store protein at all, except in your muscles and organs. We store glycogen in the liver and muscles, with smaller amounts in the kidneys and intestines. Glycogen is the stored form of glucose. The reason we need protein in our diets is because our bodies can't either manufacture it, or store it.

For me, I had to eat more to start losing again after implementing a running program. Just don't add bad carbs--complex carbs will get you losing again.

Do you measure and track every morsel and sip? If not, I would spend a solid 2 weeks being very diligent about tracking. This data will be your evidence of how to correct course.

It is my opinion that 2 months is way more than a temporary stall.

My weight loss slowed to a crawl about 7-8months post op. I made a course correction and went back to steady losses and made goal in 14 months. For me, it was a good decision and I have maintained for 3 years now.

Cowgirl Jane, what kind of course correction did you make? And how did you know what to do?

I tracked carefully for a period of time, and recongized I was letting small things in. 2 Quest bars in a day, when one would surely suffice. Crackers with meat and cheese.... and probably more crackers than was reasonable. Having half sandwiches for lunch, snacking on a nuts and other calorie and carb dense food. It's not like I was binging or anything... just was eating more than I needed if i wanted to keep losing. My ambition was to lose150#, so I felt a certain sense of urgency needed to make my goal.

The last meeting I had with my excellent nutritionalist before she moved.... she told me I was sliding into maintenance unintentionally. She advised completely eliminating Protein bars since i was struggling with controlling the frequency and quantity. The other thing we talked about is I had to face my own... ambivilence. Here is what i mean - I had lost enough that I was no longer super obese, health much improved, people were wowed by my appearance etc. But I think I was still a size 14-16 or something like that. I was proud of what i accomplished, but i also recognized I looked a bit matronly and I still felt kind of safe, emotionally, with the fat. i had to ask myself what i really wanted. i think that self reckoning was more important than ditching the quest bars....

So, once my food was back on track, the losses returned to pretty good. Then, some folks on here started talking about High intensity interval training. I had become aware that i would do hours on the elliptical, did weight machines and the gym etc but I wasn;t really making leaps and bounds fitness progress. so, i tried my first spinning class. I found out why everyone put a towel under their bikes! i have long thick hair and by halfway through the class, my hair was soaked and dripping sweat on the floor. I learned more about HIIT and abandoned my old "low to med intensity" workouts in favor of the high intensity intervals, and shorter duration. That was like lighting a fire to the metabolism and I went back to losing 10-12 pounds a month again!!!! Of course, I was still very diligent about the low carbs and really managing my food because the food intake is really critical.

I have always said I had to do hand to hand combat with the last 40 or so pounds and it is the truth... but i made it to my goal of losing 150# in 14 months, even with that lull in progress while I got straightened out.

So, i think you do really need to decide what it is you want and what you are willing to do to get it. Not everyone just slides into goal doing the same old thing - we are all different. Many of us found ourselves off course... even a little can slow down progress. There are also plenty of people who are quite okay with losing say 100-120 when they need to lose 150 and i think that is perfectly valid too. For me, it was a lifelong dream to be normal size and I felt like that was my big chance so it was worth the push to make it happen. That is a very personal decision.

I do think it starts with self awareness and diligently tracking for a period of time makes you much more aware. BTW, I am a rare one that does not normally track, I have learned to eat more intuitively, but that is a subject for another day. I think tracking is an outstanding tool - whether you do it all the time or more as a spot check.

So, three wonderful things happened today:

1) I weighed myself and had lost 4-5 pounds.

2) I discussed this with my husband and he told me that, about two weeks ago, he had adjusted the scale and added five pounds to it--because it was set to below zero as a starting weight. This was around the time I woke up and had found that I had gained 5 pounds in a day. It seems clear now that I did not actually gain five pounds, but it just looked like that because of the scale adjustment. It took me several weeks to lose those five pounds again. Which means my starting weight was higher than I thought, most likely, given the scale was set to five pounds minus zero, but I've also probably lost a few more pounds than I thought. All in all, it's clear that I was not stuck for a full two months. But I am definitely losing more slowly than most, and I am ok with that as long as I am losing something

3) Best of all, I read CowgirlJane's post and re-committed myself to tracking and staying on course. Thanks for the support, folks! This forum is great.

My NUT said that stalls are generally caused by not eating enough Protein. She said once the body uses up the protein stores in the liver and kidneys, it will slow the metabolism down because it thinks its in starvation mode. You are training for a 5K. Could it be your are not eating enough to support your level of activity?

Note: I have not had my WLS yet. This is just what I learned from my NUT.

This is what my NUT and the surgeon have always pounded into our heads. If your losses stop, UP your protein intake to kickstart the losses again. It can't hurt to try?

I just wanted to tell you all that I've been tracking more carefully and have started losing again. Feeling really great! I could see now that I was snacking too much--nothing bad, but too often. Tracking is sort of magical for keeping you on the right path. Thanks to everyone!