Exercise and temporary stalling of weight loss

mglewis3

I’m a 56 yo woman. 5’3” tall and currently about 143 lbs. Since mid June I have been on a medically supervised very low calorie diet and have lost 27 lbs so far. It was tough to exercise much at first as my body needed to adjust to the difference in diet as well as a much reduced caloric intake. I took it very slow and easy until I figured out exactly what my body needed. I really started walking and some stretching exercises on a daily basis about a month ago. What I have noticed is when I first stepped up my exercise and every time I make an increase of some kind, I experience a slight stall in my weight loss. Nothing very significant. Maybe a week or less with little or no loss on the scale. But other than sore muscles, I feel better and stronger. I am assuming this slight stall is perhaps due to some inflammation that subsides as my body adjusts to the change. My workouts are limited to walking and slow jogging on a treadmill until I reach my goal (per doctor recommendation). At that point I will add some light weight lifting and other more muscle (and bone!) strengthening exercise. I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced what I’m seeing. My sisters looked at me like I was crazy! Lol

callsitlikeiseeit

when you increase the amount of exercise, your muscles retain water, which shows on the scale. a bit later, it stabilizes out and that reduction also shows on the scale.

in other words, its normal.

kshama2001

Your doctor wants you to wait until you reach goal before starting to lift weights? What was the rationale behind waiting? Assuming you are close to or post-menopause, I would think preserving bone density would be a concern.

I didn't have a stall when I started lifting weights - my scale went UP 7 pounds. But because of these forums, I knew it was water weight and to not freak out, and it came back off in a few weeks.

belleflop

How much sodium/potassium/magnesium do you get in your low calorie diet?

mglewis3

I take a magnesium supplement so that should be ok. I track every bite on My Fitness Pal app and never exceed the sodium recommendations so I guess I’m fine there. The doctor does encourage exercise. Just advises to postpone real weight training to avoid weight increases. Most of his clientele are much heavier than I was at the start so I can understand his point. I use some light hand weights while walking a few times per week but not actual weight lifting.

Seffell

I've strated (and subsequently stopped for various reasons) regular strength training three times in the past 2 years. All three times my weight loss gets stalled by 6-7 weeks. Usually I stop (for various health reasons, 2 out of the 3 times I cracked my back and then had to spend 2 weeks on bedrest...) and all the weight that I was supposed to lose is gone in a span of a 3-4 days in several big whooshes. All three times the whooshes have been of about 5lbs, considering that my weight is around 135lbs. In other words very big whooshes.

The weight is gone in the end indeed but during these 6-7 weeks where you workout and keep a deficit and it isn't budging it is very demoralising. I hate it.

ETA: Attaching a screenshot of my Libra data. The weight is on the left in kilograms. I started working out and deficit at the same time the first week of August. As you can see my lowest weight is 62.8kg at that time. And so it is for 7 more weeks. At the end of September I stopped and the weight dropped as you can see.