Slow metabolism after VSG?

 I lost 20 pounds in two weeks on the preop diet.  I have lost 20 pounds in 5 weeks since surgery.  Do our metabolisms slow down?  What gives?

I am confident this is my long term weight loss solution, so not pouting.  I am just curious. 

Check out the stall discussions here: http://vsgfaq.wordpress.com/

Just keep doing what your doing your body will figure it out. Congrats on being down 40 lbs!!

 Thanks, Sarah. Some of that makes me feel better, however the author of the first stall post  posts later at 14 weeks to say she has only lost 26 pounds. Yikes!!!!

 I guess I wasn't thinking of this as a stall because I have lost 4 pounds over two weeks I assume stall was zero lost but I guess this could qualify.  It is frustrating and scary although I am not scared I know I will lose more weigh I just assumed I am officially slow.  I hope I am wrong but still wonder why this happens.  I know they say we are healing, etc. Not sure what that has to do with weight loss.  In the past week I have been meeting my protein goal of 60 and water goals and calories right around 600. Carbs usually always under 40. 

It sounds as if you are doing things right.  I would ask some follow up questions:

 

1.  Are you logging exercise and food?

2.  Are you walking?  Doing light exercises?

3.  Are you going to support groups?

 

The term "stall" can be misleading.  Even in the same person stalls can behave differently from time to time.  Sometimes you wont lose a pound, but you are losing inches.  Sometimes you will gain slightly, sometimes just nothing happens.

Stalls are very complicated biologically and different things may trigger them.  The infamous three week stall is most often caused by your body going through glycogenesis to rebuild glycogen stores depleted through the prep-op and immediate post-op diets.  Its the point where your body is actually balancing the books - ketosis has caused you to burn fat and you have lost real weight, but you start putting it back with stored glycogen and the water that holds.

Other stalls happen when your body needs to just take a break.  A lot of changes are happening and it has to move stuff around and try to figure out what the heck to do next.  These are the stalls that you commonly see your body shape changing a lot when the weight doesn't.

Some people see different stalls occur when general health changes start happening.  For example, a lot of people stall when they come off BP meds or Diabetes meds.  I saw stalls when I would have to start amping up my exercise programs.  These break in their own time.

The best piece of advice I could give you is to make sure you get as much water as you can in.  Water is the fuel our body uses for all of the processes needed for losing weight - ketosis, glycogenesis, everything.  64 ounces is a minimum hydration level not a goal.  You should be getting 1/2 of your body weight in oounces of water (i.e. if you weigh 150 lbs you should be getting 75 ounces of water).  I notice that if I fall below my hydration goals I may not only not lose weight but may gain it.  When your body starts to feel dehydrated - even slightly - it will start a process to hold on to water.  You may even see yourself gain weight purely from your body holding on to water.

Also, as you start to lose you will have to ramp up your exercise to continue to lose.  Right now at your heavy weight your body burns a ton of calories just moving.  You are burning 600 calories just breathing. As you lose, your body doesn't have to work as hard just to live.  You burn less calories in normal activities.  This is referred to as your basal metabolic rate.  

To continue or accelerate your weight loss you have to burn more calories.  There are two ways to do this - strength training and aerobic exercise.  Strength training adds muscle mass that burns more calories just sitting there.  Aerobic exercise works out your cardiovascular system and burns massive amounts of calories during the workout and improves the overall efficiencies of your bodies engine in general.  Both are important.

Typically you should aim at working out 6 times a week.  Three days of cardio alternated with three days of strength training.  This doesn't mean going to a gym or being a body builder.  Cardio could be taking long walks or hikes. I started by just walking near my house.  Strength training could be doing chest presses against the kitchen counter while waiting for your food to heat up.  Work something into your life that makes sense for you.

Heres some advice for getting started:

1. Get a fitness tracker like a FitBit or a Striiv.  Start with a goal of walking 10,000 steps per day.

2.  Continually push yourself just a little bit further.  Don't try to hurt yourself or ever work through pain, but if you walk 4000 steps today, go for 4500 or 5000 tomorrow.

 

 

 Rob, you're awesome.  I am such a "why" person and this info is excellent.  I was having a hard time with the - "it happens etc."  

Thank you thank you!  I have mostly been walking for excercise, not logging but I will.  My doc's office gave me the 64 oz "goal" but makes sense I should strive for more. I usually get more but not much more.  I will push for it this week and see if that helps.

Thanks, again. 

I can't add anything more to Rob's excellent post,except to try to raise your protein consumption to 80-100 gms a day if you can. That seems to help some people also.

also,you have lost 4 # a week this last 5 weeks and that is nothing to sneeze at!

Hang in there and try not to stress about it. stress raises our cortisol levels and high cortisol makes us retain weight! ACK. Cortisol is the "flight or fight" hormone,and if we are stressed our bodies start holding weight,for extra fuel to burn,  in case we have to "fight for our lives or run like hell" lol.

 Good points.  I am not stressed really. I can also say I don't even weigh myself every day - too hard emotionally. I only lost 4 lbs in the last two weeks, but I am happy that I have lost weight.  Very happy.  I will try to up my protein if I can.  I know eventually I need to anyway probably.

Check out this article on what is happening to you in these early weeks of our weight loss -

http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.html

Adding to the glycogen starvation induced stall, once you go thru this initial loss phase of burning primarily glycogen, you really start to burn the fat. However, that glycogen, being primarily carb based, burns faster at a rate of about 2000 calories per pound lost, while after that initial loss phase you start burning primarily fat at a rate of about 3500 calories per pound - so fewer pounds lost for your caloric deficit, but it's the fat that's going now, which is what we are here for!
I never had a real stalls, speculatively because I wasn't on an extreme low carb diet so kept the body in better balance and never got into as severe a case of glycogen deprivation to create that stall, but certainly did experience the slow down in loss rate that would be expected by those different burn rates.

Mine was slow for about 6 weeks, and then it took off! Just hang in there.