I am a calorie counter and have been working at this since late July. I've lost 20 lbs so far, which is great, but I've added exercise in the last 2 weeks and the scale has stalled out. I am doing about 300 minutes a week on my recumbant bike, broken up over 5-6 days.

I have been very overweight most of my life and have decided this will be my last TRUE effort at losing before I decide on Weight Loss Surgery. I really am giving this my all because I want to avoid surgery if at all possible, but I always have to fight off the feelings that my body will just not cooperate with me. I have lost weight before, only to stall out after 75 lbs and my body just refused to lose another pound. I wish I would have increased exercise then, maybe I would have been successful, but heck I've added rxercise now and I'm already stalled

Anyway, it's so nice to read all your posts and read about others struggles and successes.

Cindy T
269/248/140
45 y/o, 5'6"

Hi cindy. I know that for me personally when i kicked up the exercise i had to eat about 200 cals more a day to lose. I would try increasing by 100 a day for 2 weeks and if you didnt gain try adding a little more. Also when you start working out your body starts to retain water and sometimes it takes a while for your body to catch up and do what you want it to do. Oh yea and make sure that you are getting enough protein now that you are workin oout. Dont give up!

ETA: How many calories are you getting in a day?

Yep, your body might be needing more calories.

How many calories do you eat a day?

I agree with Candy & Michelle - when you added in exercise you could have taken your net calories too low to continue losing. Sound weird, but sometimes you have to eat more to lose!

How many cals do you eat per day? Exercising about 40-50 minutes per day it looks like?

And, the water retention from new exercise is a good point too - it took about two weeks for that to settle out with me when I just changed my exercise plan, and I had been working out consistently for three months before that. Adding in exercise new could be doing the same thing to you.

A 20 pound loss since the end of July is great! Congratulations!

Thank You All!

Well, I'm on an eating plan given to me by my medical group's health education center. I attended 8 nutrition classes and was told to eat 1200 calories a day. We have to write down what I've eaten on these sheets they gave to us that have detailed out how many servings of eat food group, etc..I'm doing all this as one of the insurance hoops for WLS, but had decided long ago that I'm going to do my best to get this weight off, and keep it off on my own.

My next question would be that if you add calories when you add exercise, how is it increasing my weight loss?

I'm concentrating a lot on protein intake and I've getting from 60-80 grams a day. I'm eating 5 or more servings of veggies, 2 fruit, 2 dairy (although I don't eat all my dairy most of the time). They tell me 6 oz of protein per day, but I often (2-3 per week) use Slim Fast Low Carb (low carb because it doesn't have sugar and has twice the protein), for meats I'm eating boneless skinless chicken and very lean beef. For carbs they say 6 servings and I'm eating mostly whole grains and popcorn (100 calorie bags) for my carbs, with an occassional serving of potato, rice or pasta. I'm allowed 3 added fats per day (1tsp), but rarely use those either.

It is very possible that I've holding water from the exercise. I'm sure it's quite a shock to my body

And Candy, don't worry, I'm not giving up!!

Cindy T

If you are doing heavy workouts and not eating enough calories, your body will start to slow your metabolism down and go into a sort of starvation mode.

It's good to eat a bit more calories to tell your body you're getting enough food and it will keep your metabolism higher.

I liked the suggestion above that you should gradually add some calories a week and see if it jump starts your weight loss and then stay at that level for awhile to see how it goes!

PS..if you are building muscle, it might not make the scale move since muscle weighs more than fat. I know that's my problem right now. I've been doing strenght training and the scale hasn't moved an inch, but my pants feel looser.

Hey Cindy,

Ok, realizing that you were given a diet by a nutrition center, I'm gonna say something that's maybe not intuitive. It's up to you whether you want to consider deviating from what they gave you.

At your weight and height, 1200 calories is NOT ENOUGH FOOD.

1200 calories is the minimum you should be eating unless you're on a medically supervised program and taking supplements for nutrition. If you check out most calorie calculators, they'll tell you that you should probably could consume 2500 calories a day to maintain, and 2000 calories to lose. (Actually I put your stats into this calorie counter and came up with a figure of 1976 calories to lose: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm)

I started out at a little less than your weight - 237 (actually, to be truthful, I didn't weigh myself for the first time until after I'd already started losing, so I suspect I was well above 240 when I started) and I ate 1800 calories a day and lost steadily.

Here's the thing - your body NEEDS nutrition to maintain a level of metabolism. If you slow your metabolism by drastically cutting your calories, then your body goes into what a lot of people call "starvation mode" - in other words your body freaks out that something is terribly wrong becuase you've gone from eating a lot to nearly nothing, and so instead of losing, your body tries to hold on to everything you've got.

It really does make sense, even though it seems counter intuitive at first.

I dont' want to recommend that you go against anything your nutritionist has said, BUT ... if it were me ... I would try raising my calories to 1600-1800, making sure to get plenty of protein, and continuing with the exercise program you've described.

I suspect your body will kick back into gear as soon as it starts getting enough nutrition.

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Thank You both for your responses!

Well, the scale has began to move and I'm down to 245. I am considering what you've suggested and by my own experience, I know I can lose weight at a higher calorie level. Last year I lost 35 lbs in 3 months eating 1800 calories and taking Alli, but I'm just not convinced that stavation mode is really a true theory. I'm not convinced it's false either, like I said, I lost fine at higher calories as well, but if starvation mode is true, why do people lose so well on liquid diets or Gastric Bypass?? I realise they can damage their metabolism in the long run, but in the short run they do lose great amounts of weight on a very short period of time without their weight loss stopping for very long periods.

I also think it's smarter to start at a higher level when your weight is higher so you have room to cut back as the scale drops, but this is the plan my medical group has required me to do as a prerequisite for weight loss surgery. It is supposedly a medically supervised diet, but it only consists writing food logs, exercise logs and weekly goals. I check in every 2 weeks and weigh in. Oh, and they took labs and measurements in the beginning and will in the end (after 6 months). I'm seen by a registered nurse.

I'll watch closely whats going on with my weight the next few weeks and see what happens. Like I said, my goal here is to avoid weight loss surgery if at all possible and I'm willing to put in the work. I'm not above going against what they tell me

I would love to hear your thoughts on starvation mode and why it doesn't affect GB patients.

Cindy T

Heavy calorie restriction does effect WLS patients. From what I've read, 5% of WLS patients will reach their goal weight. 60% will lose some weight and 40% will gain all of the weight back or more. WLS patients do have stalls but with the first few months, their body is definitely willing to let go of calories. I also don't know the details but there is a physical change to the body with GB patients that 'does something' so their stomachs/intestines are no longer the same as someone who hasn't had the surgery.

I've read stories where WLS patients have a quick loss after a month or 2 and then stop completely. Others may be able to go on for a little while longer with losing but then the face the issues the rest of us have with losing/maintaining/etc.

Go read the WLS forum here ... and pay specific attention to the people who are talking about how they have to take nutritional supplements, drink special protein drinks, how they had to deal with things like thinning hair and bad skin and nails for the first few months until their bodies stabilized and they learned how to take in more nutrients on a drastically reduced diet. Read the threads about muscle cramps and gastric dumping.

People lose on those diets because they have to make DRASTIC changes and because they aren't just restricting calories, they are doing so in a medically directed way that gives them the tools to still get the nutrition they need.

And even so, even with the supplements and the vitamins and the drinks and the powders, many of them still have to deal with the above issues - and will have to for the rest of their lives. They will never be able to eat "normally" again.

Just restricting your calories to a pittance isn't enough. If you're restricting that much, you MUST have medical supervision and nutritional supplements. Otherwise you're just killing yourself.

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nelie-yes, gastric bypass patients have a rerouting of their intestines which makes them not absorb some of the calories they eat, but it's only fat calories, not carbs. And yes, some WLS surgery patients find a way to "cheat" their pouches...drinking with food, grazing etc. I still don't see them being affected by "starvation" mode.

Photo chick- my questions were not about the long term effects of WLS or what it does to their body, but as to why weight loss was slow after a month or two dieting. I'm not sure how people getting the nutrition they need keeps them from going into starvation mode if their calories are way low. I also was not trying to start an argument, just trying to make sense of things.

Cindy T

Sorry - I wasn't being argumentative either. I just tend to be more straightforward when I'm being factual rather than frivolous. I'll try to be less focused next time.

My understanding is that people who have WLS are totally retrained on how to eat in order to consume the right amount of calories and nutrients with less food. They are severely limited in WHAT they can eat and many of the things that are available to your average dieter are not an option for WLS folks. I honestly don't think it's that they consume FEWER calories, but they consume more nutritionally dense calories.

Do WLS patient actually consume starvation levels of calories, or do they just consume less food, that's more dense?

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WLS patients only consume 600-800 calories for the first 6 months and many lose close to 100 lbs in that time. Much of their calories come from protein drinks, but for the first couple of months they eat very soft foods like cottage cheese, refried beans with cheese, tuna with mayo, that kind of stuff. After they are through the healing phase, they eat protein first, then veggies, then if they have room they can eat carbs. I believe by the end of the first year they can eat 1/2 cup to a full cup of food at a time.

This is why I question that starvation mode is a valid theory. They don't have special protein drinks or foods, they are just only able to consume small amounts of calories, but their weight does not get stuck for months on end. Now they do experience stalls like most other dieters, but they last a week or two for most, then they have big drops in weight.

Medifast patients only consume 600 calories a day and lose weight very quickly as well. Of course I know that regain is a big issue, but thats not the issue I'm dealing with here. Their weight doesn't stall out for long periods either in their weight loss phase.

Anorexia is another example. Their bodies do not go into starvation mode and hold onto calories that keeps them fat. They lose down to skin and bones.

I don't want anyone to think I'm advocating starving as a healthy way to lose weight here. Don't get me wrong. I'm just looking at circumstances where people are taking in very low calories and they don't seem to be kept fat by a starvation mode.

I absolutely believe that long term our bodies can get used to very low calories and it can make it very difficult to maintain weight loss. What I'm not getting is why 2-3 months into a diet your weight loss stops because you're eating 1200-1400 calories instead of 1800 calories, when WLS patients are eating 600-800 and losing a bunch of weight.

Cindy T

Two weeks of an unchanging scale isn't really stopping though. Let me explain from my experience...

When that's happened to me I either had big losses in previous weeks or my measurements were still changing.

Assuming you started in the last week of July, your average weekly loss is 2 pounds, even with the stall. Assuming you continue on plan and begin to lose again, your average would continue to be optimistic.

I find it helpful for me to look at weekly averages, rather than the smaller picture to keep my sanity and perspective.

Seriously, my weight loss has seemingly stopped many times this year, but I've plugged along and am much lighter for my efforts. It's hard not to get discouraged when we rely on the scale for feedback. Regardless, you're doing a wonderful job.

I can't compare a WLS patient's weight loss to my own, as I don't know any. But I'd be willing to bet there's a fair amount who experience stalls early on as well.

Our bodies are unexplainable mysteries. Just keep at it by treating yours right!