Anyone who has ever tried to lose a significant amount of weight is familiar with the dreaded plateau. Part of me was hoping that having weight loss surgery would mean no more plateaus. Nope, not even close. I hit them ALL the time. I hit my first one three weeks out from surgery and freaked out. I e-mailed my wonderful nutritionist who told me I was doing everything right and that this was normal.
Her exact words were "Moving forward you will have periods of weight loss for about 3 weeks and a weight plateau for a week to week and half. The average weight loss after 6 weeks post-op will be anything from 8-12 lbs a month".
This is another one of those things that no one mentioned before surgery. I like having all my facts beforehand, but I'm glad to have this information now. It's saved me a lot of stressing out. And she was right, I lose for around 3 weeks then plateau (or stall) for about a week. Then the weight starts coming off again.
The surgeon gave me a goal of 10 pounds per month of loss, which I am mostly meeting. So how do I get the scale moving again? It depends on the situation. The first thing I do is check to see if I'm still in ketosis. What's ketosis? It's a state in which your body burns stored fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. How do I test for it? I pee on a little stick first thing in the morning and if it turns purple, I'm in ketosis. If it doesn't change, I'm not.
If I'm not in ketosis, I spend 2 days on a slightly different diet and test again. The special diet is a protein shake for breakfast, another protein shake for lunch, and 4 ounces of plain meat for dinner. Sounds hard and the first day is, but by the 2nd day it's not bad at all. I check for ketosis again and if I'm still not in it, I repeat the special diet again the next day and repeat the test again the next morning.
If I test and I'm in ketosis and still on the plateau, I maintain my normal diet and change up my activity level a bit. Maybe I'll do a different cardio at the gym or I'll add more weight to my sets. Right now, it all balances out in a week or so and I'm back to losing. Sometimes, I will try having a day where I consume a few more calories to try giving my body a jolt.
I know that as I progress, the weight is going to be harder and harder to lose. I haven't been below 220 since middle school (I think) and I am approaching that zone. Sitting at 232 right now. I see the nutritionist today and am interested to hear what she has to say about my diet. Diet is only one component of this journey and I am working on getting more active. I actually RAN yesterday. Yes, me... I ran. Well, maybe it was more of a jog.
And I SLEPT!!! Okay, so if going to the gym is the cure for my insomnia... I'm going there every damn day!
No comments:
Post a Comment