At what point would you see the doctor about a Plateau in weight loss?

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  • eldamiano
    eldamiano Posts: 2,667 Member
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    No such thing as a plateau. It is just simply eating at a maintenance level
  • theocine
    theocine Posts: 36 Member
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    caednkat wrote: »
    blues4miles wrote: »
    caednkat wrote: »
    I'm exhausted all the time, freezing cold and randomly loosing a lot of hair. That has been going on since October. Which made me wonder if it had something to do with why the scale isn't moving.

    Well that's concerning...have you had your thyroid checked recently? The cold could be from weight loss and the exhaustion could be from eating at a deficit while working out...but hair loss is not normal.

    They checked it back in August I think. Could look up the date to be sure. I had small bald spots on my eyebrows and was loosing a lot of hair. Reminded me of what I went through after each of my 4 kids were born.
    My main doctor was out on maternity leave so I had to see someone else in the practice. She sort of brushed everything off as I need to lose weight. She did run a blood test to check my thyroid level. The doctor told me it was on the lower end of fine but nothing to be worried about. Then told me I am low in B12. I've been anemic since I was a teenager and first had it checked. I'm also Vit D low. Very low at the time but that was up close to a low normal in December.
    Anyway the doctor I had to see said it was all because I needed to lose more weight and eat and healthier diet. She said that cutting carbs and being low in B12, Iron and Vit D would make your hair fall out and since I did cut my carb amounts a lot to control my blood sugar I just went with that.
    It goes through periods of falling out and not growing and then all of a sudden I have tons of "baby hairs" and things seem normal. 3 or 4 weeks later it's coming out in handfulls again. I was blessed to have very thick hair so it's only noticeable to me and my hairdresser. Especially since my hair dresser cut it shorter to help conceal it.

    Because you are focusing on carbs and blood sugar, I assume you are diabetic (or at least pre-diabetic). If so, are you on metformin? There is some evidence that long term, metformin interferes with B12 absorption. I'm glad your doctor recommended an endocrinologist, who can help with both diabetic and thyroid issues. Be patient: often it takes time to get thyroid issues under control.
  • caednkat
    caednkat Posts: 38 Member
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    [/quote]

    Because you are focusing on carbs and blood sugar, I assume you are diabetic (or at least pre-diabetic). If so, are you on metformin? There is some evidence that long term, metformin interferes with B12 absorption. I'm glad your doctor recommended an endocrinologist, who can help with both diabetic and thyroid issues. Be patient: often it takes time to get thyroid issues under control.
    [/quote]

    @theocine
    Yes Type 2 diabetic. Technically on my medical file I'm just pre-diabetic but my doctor says that is a case of "6 of one, half dozen of the other". Especially given my family history on my dad's side of the family. I was diagnosed last March with a A1C of 6.6 and was on Metformin for 6mths. I've been off the Metformin since September. Last A1C in December was 5.4 just with diet and exercise.

    Right now I don't take anything but a handful of vitamins that my Dietician and Doctor have either prescribed or put me on.
  • caednkat
    caednkat Posts: 38 Member
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    EvgeniZyntx wrote: »
    The hair loss, the absence of weight loss and fatigue issues all suggest that you may need a few weeks of eating at a higher level (and a better variety). You've been dieting well, lost a lot and breaks are needed to allow the body to reestablish hormonal balance.

    You may indeed be the rare case of under eating sand not losing weight due to bloating.
    Look to your macro goals - make sure you get enough protein and fat.

    And yes, see your doctor, other conditions could be responsible for these issues.

    Thanks @EvgeniSyntx . My doctor hinted at the same thing. Switching my diet up some. Bless her heart she spent a good 45 minutes with me yesterday and went over most of my food logs on here. She thinks it couldn't hurt me to add some variety to my meals and that maybe I should try getting closer to the calorie goal MFP has given me daily for a while.
    The thought of that terrifies me though. I certainly don't want to go back to where I was a year ago.
    I think my doctor could see that on my face when she mentioned it. lol She told me to just hold steady with what I've been doing until I can see the Endo and then if everything there tests normal I can try adjusting how I eat.
    So we'll see.
  • size102b
    size102b Posts: 1,370 Member
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    I lost 71lbs a couple years back but as I lost I had to lower my calories I never ate exercise calories as I never had a hrm I only lost when I dropped my calories I was doing 12 cardio high impact classes a week walking 2 hours 5 days a week gym 3 days a week and c25k on 1500 calories at 170lbs
  • mischief_managed_22
    mischief_managed_22 Posts: 3 Member
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    I haven't read every comment so sorry if someone has already said this but the hand weights and yoga, and possibly even the walking, are likely to be building muscle and toning you up. This could go some way to explaining your loss of inches but no weight loss because muscle weighs more than fat - in other words you are losing fat but you're gaining muscle. Having said that though, as everyone else has said, being as accurate as you can when logging is the best way to be sure you're getting the right amount of calories and not going over.
    On the bright side, you've managed to control your blood sugar, lost 83 pounds, and you at least haven't put any back on overall this year! So congrats!
  • ClosetBayesian
    ClosetBayesian Posts: 836 Member
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    mischief_managed_22 wrote: »
    I haven't read every comment so sorry if someone has already said this but the hand weights and yoga, and possibly even the walking, are likely to be building muscle and toning you up. This could go some way to explaining your loss of inches but no weight loss because muscle weighs more than fat - in other words you are losing fat but you're gaining muscle. Having said that though, as everyone else has said, being as accurate as you can when logging is the best way to be sure you're getting the right amount of calories and not going over.
    On the bright side, you've managed to control your blood sugar, lost 83 pounds, and you at least haven't put any back on overall this year! So congrats!

    No. For starters, muscle is more dense than fat, but a pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat.

    Additionally, it is highly unlikely that yoga, hand weights, and walking are causing enough muscle gains to cause weight loss to stall. Building that amount of muscle takes time and heavy lifting.
  • bellabonbons
    bellabonbons Posts: 705 Member
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    I could never lose weight on 1600 to 1700 calories. Your body is requiring less calories now. I consult with a registered dietician and my personal physician who recommend 1200 to 1350 calories per day for 2 pound per week weight loss. I studied nutrition in college. My professors recommended changing every other day calorie intake to ensure that metabolism remains stimulated. I vary daily 1200 to 1300 per day and I never plateau. I recommend that you see an internal medicine specialist for a complete blood panel that includes thyroid testing. Other's here may disagree. Each metabolism is unique to every individual. Now that you've lost a great deal of initial weight your body requires less calories to continue weight loss. To confirm. Definitely make an appointment with a physician who is a weight loss specialist.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    bellabonbons wrote: »
    I could never lose weight on 1600 to 1700 calories. Your body is requiring less calories now. I consult with a registered dietician and my personal physician who recommend 1200 to 1350 calories per day for 2 pound per week weight loss. I studied nutrition in college. My professors recommended changing every other day calorie intake to ensure that metabolism remains stimulated. I vary daily 1200 to 1300 per day and I never plateau. I recommend that you see an internal medicine specialist for a complete blood panel that includes thyroid testing. Other's here may disagree. Each metabolism is unique to every individual. Now that you've lost a great deal of initial weight your body requires less calories to continue weight loss. To confirm. Definitely make an appointment with a physician who is a weight loss specialist.

    Nonsense. I lost all my weight eating 1650 or more.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Francl27 wrote: »
    bellabonbons wrote: »
    I could never lose weight on 1600 to 1700 calories. Your body is requiring less calories now. I consult with a registered dietician and my personal physician who recommend 1200 to 1350 calories per day for 2 pound per week weight loss. I studied nutrition in college. My professors recommended changing every other day calorie intake to ensure that metabolism remains stimulated. I vary daily 1200 to 1300 per day and I never plateau. I recommend that you see an internal medicine specialist for a complete blood panel that includes thyroid testing. Other's here may disagree. Each metabolism is unique to every individual. Now that you've lost a great deal of initial weight your body requires less calories to continue weight loss. To confirm. Definitely make an appointment with a physician who is a weight loss specialist.

    Nonsense. I lost all my weight eating 1650 or more.

    I've lost 134lbs eating around 1700.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I was going to suggest updating your goals in MFP.

    It's supposed to revise your calorie limit down when you lose a certain number of pounds, but mine never has.

    I have to go into Goals and change my weight that way on the website to get my calorie limit to update after weight loss.

    It could be that your limit needs to be revised down a bit.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Yeah I was losing weight at 2200 cals (high activity, and loved calorie dense food). I wouldn't see why the OP could not lose weight on 1700 properly logged calories

    So that said, the hair loss made me think about not consuming enough fat. Using the 0.35 X body weight (lbs) in grams as a minimum, OP you should be consuming at least 95g of fat per day. And that's a minimum! Now fat tends to be something that's somewhat easy to reduce when you're dieting. A little less oil/butter, drain the grease when done cooking, salad dressing on the side, log the whole packet of a condiment but really only consume a few dabs etc. Great for weight loss, But if you're regularly consuming below your minimums, your hair, skin and hormones (that control all kinds of things) may start to suffer. Check it out with your logging and eating patterns and see if any of this rings true

    As for weight loss, I don't know. You've lost 83 lbs so your body clearly knows how to lose weight. Some people do gain muscle in a deficit - it's just not very common and definitely not the first thing one should jump to if they're not losing weight. All that said, I'm not 100% sure what's causing your stall of 2+ months, assuming you've been logging the same way and losing 2 lbs per week. I hope you figure it out, but like a lot of people are saying, I would try to sort out the basic, obvious things first. Who knows, it is possible that your body is functioning perfectly fine and doing a great job for you day in day out :)

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