Hi, not sure if this more of a nutrition or medical forum post so can repost elsewhere if needed. My wife has been working on loosing excess weight after her pregnancy, and she was making some decent progress eating at a decent caloric deficit, lifting and doing some cardio. She started at 154lbs, and over a couple months worked down to 136lbs. Her goal is to get down to ~125lbs, which should also bring her waist measurement down to a healthy measurement, as she is only 5’1”. Recently however she has plateaued and now actually, within ~2 weeks, gone back up to 145lbs despite eating at an even lower deficit than before (currently <1300cal). Before the pregnancy she seemed to have a very high metabolism and now it seems to not be the case. Outside stressors don’t seem to have changed dramatically. She has recently stopped breast feeding though. Any clues as to what has happened to cause the increase, and/or are there hormonal and metabolic changes that could be causing an issue?
How long ago did she deliver and does she work out?
Baby was born in august, and she has been lifting weights and doing cardio since the 6 week mark, including the beginner template.
Got it. Sounds like she is in a Calorie surplus and needs to identify strategies aimed at improving her adherence to a reduced Calorie diet. I know you mentioned that she has gained weight while being in a bigger deficit before, but that’s not really possible.
She may be less active now that she’s not breastfeeding, but the management is the same- identify behaviors (exercise, physical activity, dietary behaviors) that she’s amenable to changing to alter energy balance favorably.
She seems to be doing everything in that area right, but we must just be missing something. Thanks!
Perhaps! With the information I have now, I’m unable to tell you why her energy intake is too high for her desired results…only that it is indeed too high.
Is there any merit to hormonal or metabolic change being an influencer? She has found many different takes on those being major influencers but I’m hesitant to see those as significant.
There are a number of hormones and metabolic processes that influence energy intake and expenditure. That said, it is highly unlikely that there is something with the hormonal milieu or metabolism that is uniquely affecting your wife. An example often cited is thyroid hormone, with the claim being that if your thyroid hormone isn’t optimized, you’ll have difficulty with weight loss or management. Despite these claims, even individuals with severe hypothyroidism (low thyroid) rarely gain weight.
This stuff is more complicated than that.
Ok thank you very much!