This issue is obviously one of the most frequently posted, and I read all of them because I am right in the middle of my first stall. Yep, I had my RNY on 8 November, lost a quick twenty pounds and just like clockwork hit a stall around three weeks. I have read all the posts regarding stalls but I have not seen a good, scientific/technical explanation of this: How is it possible to not lose anything when one is only consuming 600-700 calories/day over a two or three week period? I mean what is going on? What is the medical explanation of what is happening? It is almost unbelievable that this is possible, but obviously everyone goes through this! Help me understand (and not get too bummed out)!

Mine was at 3 weeks also : ( and I rarely eat over 4oo cal. It sucks, but I'm at almost 10 weeks now and haven't had a stall since.

My Nutritionist said the body has to catch up with itself. Stop weighting yourself and measure now and measure after a week. You my be losing inches and Weight. Test the hypothesis.

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@@wittyusername I hope you see this post and try it. Let me know if it is true. I have not stalled yet, but I know it's coming. Hang in there.

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I had my RNY 11/22, lost 20 pds and now nothing. Very depressing.

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I had my bypass Nov 7th and I have hit a stall. It's so depressing because I'm doing all the same things I did at the beginning and nothing is happening I have heard this happens to everyone but I truly hope it passes soon!

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Yes, frustrating and depressing! If I could understand the clinical reason why this happens would help me deal with the frustration. Surely there is some medical person on these boards who can chime in. I have always read that 1 lb of fat equals 3,500 calories and therefore if you create a calorie deficit of 1,000 calories/day you would expect to lose around 1 lb every 3 or 4 days. What is happening during a stall? I am only feeding my body 4,500 calories per WEEK! Why/how is this calorie deficit is not resulting into lbs lost???

I had my bypass Nov 7th and I have hit a stall. It's so depressing because I'm doing all the same things I did at the beginning and nothing is happening I have heard this happens to everyone but I truly hope it passes soon!


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I am about 13 weeks out RNY. I also went through the following: fast weight loss (30 lbs in three weeks) then hit the brick wall and lost nothing--I mean nothing--for two weeks. I recommend the following: keep working your program to the letter of the law. Get your Protein, drink your Water, eat your Vitamins. The stall stops; you, though, can't stop. I know it's scary and frustrating, but it will pass.

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From my understanding your body puts the brakes on weight loss (the stall) because it is trying to recover from the surgery and the extreme calorie deficit it's experiencing. Most people discover that they are still losing inches even if the pounds are not coming off on the scale.

Also, your body will go into starvation mode if you are not consistently getting enough Protein and Water. Or you may stall if your exercise is burning more way more calories than you are taking in. You may have to up your protein to compensate.

I've looked into this quite a bit because it's always been mystifying to me. More out of curiosity than anything else as I only had one stall, for about 2 weeks, shortly after surgery (the famed 3 week stall).

The bottom line is that there are a lot of reasons, and no one knows exactly. The most often cited reason is glycogen. The short version of this is that your body is very efficient, and it will get energy where it can do so the easiest. Short term, the easiest way is by burning sugar stored in you body in the form of glycogen. Glycogen binds with Water at a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio. So, let's say your body burns a pound of glycogen for energy, it will also release the water, so you could drop 3-4 pounds in a day. Once your body gets low on the easy energy source, it realizes you can't live without these energy stores, so it start burning fat and restoring your glycogen (and the water). So, while you may lose 4 pounds of fat, the scale will not budge as you are re-storing the glycogen and water.

But there are a lot of other factors - did you change your diet recently? Are you drinking enough fluids (ironically your body holds on to fluids if you aren't consuming enough)?Hhas your salt intake changed (again, water retention)? are you constipated? Do you have your period (well, you and I are male, so we can probably rule this out!), etc, etc.??

All of these things are factors, and it could be any combination of them, or something else all together (medication?).

Regardless, it still seems unbelievable at times. I know when I had my stall I was only consuming maybe 400-500 calories a day, which should have created at least a 2,000 calories deficit based on my body weight. I should have been at a 14,000 calories a week deficit, so not losing for 2 weeks just seemed mathematically impossible!

I wasn't overly stressed during my stall, but I hate when I don't understand things, as I'm a very logical and data driven person.

Remember though, this works in reverse as well. I lost 50 pounds in 6 weeks pre-op. And I was probably eating 1200 calories a day. Averaging 8.33 pounds a week also doesn't make sense mathematically. However, no one ever seems to question that math, right :-) !!

Thanks msujester for the well thought-out discussion and explanation of the "stall phenomena", this is exactly what I was looking for! Like you I don't like it when I don't understand things and this explanation helps a lot. Its easier to "accept" the stall when I understand what is happening at a bio-chemical level in my body.

I've looked into this quite a bit because it's always been mystifying to me. More out of curiosity than anything else as I only had one stall, for about 2 weeks, shortly after surgery (the famed 3 week stall).

The bottom line is that there are a lot of reasons, and no one knows exactly. The most often cited reason is glycogen. The short version of this is that your body is very efficient, and it will get energy where it can do so the easiest. Short term, the easiest way is by burning sugar stored in you body in the form of glycogen. Glycogen binds with Water at a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio. So, let's say your body burns a pound of glycogen for energy, it will also release the water, so you could drop 3-4 pounds in a day. Once your body gets low on the easy energy source, it realizes you can't live without these energy stores, so it start burning fat and restoring your glycogen (and the water). So, while you may lose 4 pounds of fat, the scale will not budge as you are re-storing the glycogen and water.

But there are a lot of other factors - did you change your diet recently? Are you drinking enough fluids (ironically your body holds on to fluids if you aren't consuming enough)?Hhas your salt intake changed (again, water retention)? are you constipated? Do you have your period (well, you and I are male, so we can probably rule this out!), etc, etc.??

All of these things are factors, and it could be any combination of them, or something else all together (medication?).

Regardless, it still seems unbelievable at times. I know when I had my stall I was only consuming maybe 400-500 calories a day, which should have created at least a 2,000 calories deficit based on my body weight. I should have been at a 14,000 calories a week deficit, so not losing for 2 weeks just seemed mathematically impossible!

I wasn't overly stressed during my stall, but I hate when I don't understand things, as I'm a very logical and data driven person.

Remember though, this works in reverse as well. I lost 50 pounds in 6 weeks pre-op. And I was probably eating 1200 calories a day. Averaging 8.33 pounds a week also doesn't make sense mathematically. However, no one ever seems to question that math, right :-) !!

@wittyusername No problem! One other thing worth noting, is that you can actually witness this happening. That's why so many people tell you to take measurements, or focus on how your clothes are fitting while in a stall. Often when I am losing the slowest, I drop clothes sizes the fastest. I have also noticed this tends to be when the Body Fat % on my scale drops the most. Anecdotal, but worth noting.

Yes, I am actually seeing this! While I am not losing weight I am losing inches. Almost defies logic (but I'll take it)!

Same here. my surgery was 10/31.. lost 22 first week, 5 more between then and 3 week checkup.. then stopped. even gained 3 lbs but i think/hope that was from my cycle. I don't know where I am at right now. FEEL like I have lost, hope I have lost... but not going to even check until my next appointment.

I had my RNY 11/22, lost 20 pds and now nothing. Very depressing.

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