Wife stalled on weight loss page

[Anivair]

My wife is eating primal (she eats paleo with maybe one meals a week containing some rice and regular diet soda consumption). Her progress is stalled and has been so for about a month. I can tell her to take out the diet soda, but she is eating what I think is calorically a bit thin and doing regular work per the primal blueprint and still seeing very few results. Not maybe abnormal for someone smaller, but her body fat is probably a bit above 25%. She's really like to slim down some before we have a baby (she's not pregnant, but I can't say I mind the attempt).

Here's why I'm posting here instead of just hammering her on the diet soda and controlling food. She just (like 2 weeks ago) came off birth control (she'd been on the pill for almost 20 years) and is also detoxing carbs, lowering stress, etc. Is it possible that the hormone shift is just stressing her body out and preventing weight loss? Might this go away? What sort of experiences have the rest of you ladies had coming off birth control? Was it haywire? Or should I just hammer down on the nuts and diet soda?

[RitaRose]

I haven't been on regular birth control pills in literally 20 years, but I know from other hormones I've taken (progesterone) that they can make a huge differences in how easy it is to gain or lose weight. Also, the diet soda really can be a major factor as well, more than you would think. On top of that, eating too few calories can make your weight loss stall as well.

It could be any of these things or something completely different, but ditching the diet soda and adding in more calories are easy fixes and worth a shot.

[Dragonfly]

I was on the pill for 20 years, too!

Hormones are the key to easy fat loss. It may take some time for hers to regulate now that she's off the pill. Or not--everyone is different!

"Hammering" her on anything is counter-productive, IMO. Decreasing her stress levels will definitely help, though!

She should make sure she is sufficient in Vitamin D, Magnesium, Vitamins A & K. She should have her D levels tested and supplement to sufficiency.

Vitamin D is essential to a healthy pregnancy and to ease fat loss. It is a hormone pre-cursor, so essential for hormonal regulation.

Many people are deficient. Pre-natal vitamins don't have enough Vitamin D.

Ditching the diet soda will help. My understanding is that the body will produce an insulin spike in the presence of sweet-tasting foods, whether or not they have calories. Also, a good idea to start eating (quality, not quantity!) as if she is pregnant and most aware moms don't want to expose their child to "unnatural" ingredients.

That said, one a week won't hurt her or the (future) baby, so if she really needs the soda for now, ask her to try one sweetened with stevia & see if that works for her.

Check out some of the Paleo/Primal Parent blogs for inspiration:

Paleo during pregnancy | The Paleo Child ... pregnancy/

Paleo from Pregnancy | The Primal Parent ... pregnancy/

Hawaiian libertarian ... -baby.html

[PaleoMom]

Definitely try to wait a bit to conceive. I believe I read that it is best to wait 6 months after getting off the pill to conceive. The hormones just really need time to settle. Of course kick the soda too, especially after conception.

Tell your wife that I think she is lucky to know about primal/paleo before her pregnancy. There is nothing in this world I wish I could change more than to have been eating this way for my pregnancies. Cod liver oil is super important at that time too, along with all that Dragonfly said. Best of luck to you!

[Paleobird]

See if you can get her to swap out bottled kombucha for her diet soda jones.
As has been said above, the fact that they are zero cal is irrelevant. The tongue tastes sweet and the body starts ramping up for a big influx of sugar. Then when it doesn't happen, this can often cause binge overeating. The body wants that sugar you promised it and it's going to go find it.
Also the chemicals in diet soda are seen by the body as toxins (they are) and so are processed in the liver taking the liver's time and energy away from more important things like metabolizing supper.
There is a ton of literature on the negative effects of caffeine during pregnancy. If you are even trying, that would be a good reason to ditch the soda. Who knows when your trying will succeed.

[RitaRose]

If you are even trying, that would be a good reason to ditch the soda. Who knows when your trying will succeed.

Very true. With my 1st kid, I told my doc that I "felt" pregnant and had missed a period. He gave me a urine test that said I wasn't, so I got a huge lecture on "wanting to be pregnant too much", which wasn't the case and pissed me off. 4 weeks later, I was back at the doctor's office and now I'm suddenly pregnant. The ultrasound a week later, when I was supposedly about 7 weeks along, showed I was 11 weeks pregnant.

So even when the tests say you're not, you still can be.

[Digby]

See if you can get her to swap out bottled kombucha for her diet soda jones.
As has been said above, the fact that they are zero cal is irrelevant. The tongue tastes sweet and the body starts ramping up for a big influx of sugar. Then when it doesn't happen, this can often cause binge overeating. The body wants that sugar you promised it and it's going to go find it.
Also the chemicals in diet soda are seen by the body as toxins (they are) and so are processed in the liver taking the liver's time and energy away from more important things like metabolizing supper.
There is a ton of literature on the negative effects of caffeine during pregnancy. If you are even trying, that would be a good reason to ditch the soda. Who knows when your trying will succeed.

+100000000

[Sue]

Has you wife lost any weight since starting? Does she know her macro amounts and calories or not tracking? I do find it useful to know these as you can then make changes.
Also re being on the pill for 20 yrs I would do a liver cleanse or take some supps to cleanse liver to improve clearance of oestrogen.

[Anivair]

Has you wife lost any weight since starting? Does she know her macro amounts and calories or not tracking? I do find it useful to know these as you can then make changes.
Also re being on the pill for 20 yrs I would do a liver cleanse or take some supps to cleanse liver to improve clearance of oestrogen.

Since starting paleo? Yes. She's lost in the vicinity of 30 pounds. but she's been stalled for almost a month and she's getting frustrated. I'm trying to help her out, but I was also worried about the possibility of hormones being a big issue after the pill. If I knew that it took some time for hormones to get back in line, then she could stress less about the stall (and have a better hormonal balance for it!)

[Strozyk]

I feel funny jumping in here, as a newbie, but I can definitely speak to coming off the pill. It makes a HUGE difference. HUGE. Her body doesn't know which way is up in some sense. There is absolutely NO sense in getting worked up about it. Why not just support her riding out this change? If she's worried, she should talk to her doc and maybe an endocrinologist, if appropriate. But detoxing off the pill - dude, I did it a few months ago, and I don't even smell the same as I used to. It affects all our systems. It's not hormones being an issue AFTER the pill. It's just a change. It's not necessarily better or worse - but I'm sure she's not where she'll be in six months. Her norms are going to change.

She should not be beating herself up. And thirty pounds is a good chunk! What if the pill has nothing to do with it? It seems like the word plateau pops up all over these boards for a reason.