Attention New-ops- About that first "Stall"

Re-posting this as I'm seeing a lot of new folks stressing over this situation, and others talking about the starvation mode myth, and telling folks it's their bodies holding onto calories.. this isn't true. It's just a normal re-balancing your body is trying to do, which will show holds or even gains on the scale.. altering your diet, dropping calories or taking yourself back to an all liquid diet is not going to help, and will only lead you through more frustration.. as with anything to do with WLS, your best friends are consistency, patience, and TIME. Stay on plan, do not jig around the numbers every time you stall, and don't keep looking for the magic stall-breakers. Stalls happen all the way through, if you stay on track - they come to an end, and the weight comes off.. keep messing around, and you may find yourself in the boat of frustration sailing down the river of disappointment with a Twinkie in your hand! Don't let it get to you. This is normal, you are normal.. just give it time to work.

This is borrowed from a couple wise women on the main board, where occasionally it is bumped to help the new arrivals.. I think if no one objects, I'm going to do the same for us VSGers.. it may help calm the nerves for some of us who are going through this now. You are not broken!

This also can be used to explain that crazy 3lb gain from eating 1 serving of mashed potatoes, or pizza or what-have-you carby goodness if your plan was originally a very lo-carb plan and you deviated for a bit.

When you magically drop x pounds per day or x pounds in the first week, two weeks, three weeks, etc. after surgery, it feels like a dream come true. 

But: IT. WILL. STOP. Because it is NOT fat. It is WATER. This is what is happening, courtesy of Diana Cox, who is a molecular biologist Ph.D. and taught stuff like this in medical school. She makes me look smart :-).

Our bodies use glycogen for short term energy storage. Glycogen is not very soluble, but it is stored in our muscles for quick energy -- one pound of glycogen requires 4 lbs of water to keep it soluble, and the average glycogen storage capacity is about 2 lbs. So, when you are not getting in enough food, your body turns first to stored glycogen, which is easy to break down for energy. And when you use up 2 lbs of glycogen, you also lose 8 lbs of water that was used to store it -- voila -- the "easy" 10 lbs that most people lose in the first week of a diet.

As you stay in caloric deficit, however, your body starts to realize that this is not a short term problem. You start mobilizing fat from your adipose tissue and burning fat for energy. But your body also realizes that fat can't be used for short bursts of energy -- like, to outrun a sabertooth tiger. So, it starts converting some of the fat into glycogen, and rebuilding the glycogen stores. And as it puts back the 2 lbs of glycogen into the muscle, 8 lbs of water has to be stored with it to keep it soluble. So, even though you might still be LOSING energy content to your body, your weight will not go down or you might even GAIN for a while as you retain water to dissolve the glycogen that is being reformed and stored.

 

Thank you for posting this! Good to know!!! So maybe now I won't freak out on my first stall! =) 

 Bumping..

 ... and to the top!

Great information!! Thanks!! I haven't had my surgery yet but this will definitely help when I have those episodes!!

Bumping to the top!

Jo,

THANK YOU for making sure this post was visible this morning!

I did not see this the first few times you bumped it... been busy with work and grad school assignments here lately... and I am really getting discouraged because I'm on day ten of my first stall right now. I wasn't going to post a thread about it, because so many others already have and I figured I would get the same responses they did, so no need to post it again, but it has really been upsetting, try as I am to not let it affect me.

It's funny, because before surgery, I never had those worries of "what if this doesn't work for me?" but now... now I'm finding myself wondering if I really just spent ten grand (between surgery and airfare) to only lose 17 pounds.

I see myself revisiting this post to re-read it frequently in the next few days. Thanks again!

Oh, every single time I stalled I worried in the back of my brain if this was it.. still do. Been sitting a couple pounds up above my ticker for a couple weeks, but that's my usual pattern now.. so I try not to freak! I hear you though! Stalls happen the whole way through for some of us, but that's why I am neurotic about logging and measuring everything.. no room for self-doubt when you have the numbers and the logic to back you up.. then it's just finding patience to wait it out!!

 

Bump..

I remember reading this the first time you posted! How quickly I forget...great idea to bump once in a while, definitely. So the glycogen base is gone and I'm rebuilding. Okay, sounds good. Now listen body: time to remember you've got a LOT of fat cells to work with here so it's time to hop to. Go git 'em!