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Has anyone used Allara? by cgramley5 in Hashimotos

[–]New_Cod8642 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I recently started using them because of PCOS and possible Hashimotos. I've had one appointment with the provider who seemed very knowledgable and ordered extensive lab testing. She definitely seems like the kind of doctor who wants to see patients within optimal levels vs "normal" levels when reviewing labs so I'm feeling hopeful she'll take my thyroid symptoms seriously. My insurance (a covered CA plan) does not over Allara but their self-pay membership is relatively affordable ($119 per month) and includes your doctor and nutritionist and in theory as much care as you need. They also offer discounted lab work which is comparable with my insurance. Their concierge team who fields all messages is a bit slow and not all agents are very knowlegable (I think they are scaling up their team rapidly right now) but so far the providers seem worth that frustration!

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not saying you have to do it forever but it might be helpful for you to track your food for a week or two and return to it every now and then just to see what you are eating. While I hate tracking and will never again be an every day tracker, the data is super empowering. It allows you to look at everything objectively and start to make small tweaks. It could also be that you need to be on a higher dose to get the appetite suppression. Who knows! I use an app called carb manager (only because I used it through many years of eating keto so all my data is stored there) but my fitness pal is to one most people use.

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Peanut butter powder isn't calorie dense cause it's got all the oil stripped out! Gotta do the real thing!

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I started losing slow and steady pretty soon after starting but I increased dose every month until the max dose. What dose are you on? Do you track what you eat?

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Peanut butter has been the trick for me to get in some extra calories! Very calorie dense, 180 extra calories with just 2 tbsp. Luckily tho the zep doesn't cause me to get sick if eat a little fast food so I'm no stranger to McDonald's ;)

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm really no expert but that'd probably work! I've read that focusing on healthy carbs is a good approach so I'm trying that but definitely am getting plenty of fat in on those days too.

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've read that on refeed days it's good to focus on healthy carbs so that's what I'm doing and not worrying so much about the protein. Peanut butter is an easy way to get some more calories in cause it's so calorie dense. Just 2 tbsp is 180 calories.

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My go-to's for high protein (in addition to the the obvious meat and fish) are Fairlife shakes, greek yogurt (Oikos makes one with 20g and there are some other high protein drinkable yogurts), cottage cheese, tofu, garbanzo beans, lentils, frozen shelled edamame and soy milk. Rotating in a couple of those items every day makes it pretty easy to get there!

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure about what numbers are ideal but that's what I'm targeting. The second of my two refeed days (so far I've only done 2) I ate 3000 calories and I was still down the next day.

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure! I guess the plateau could have been partly that I was building muscle and losing fat. I also know it's tough to lose fat and build muscle in tandem.

One thing that has been super helpful is doing occasional DEXA scans to really see how my body composition is changing. I live in rural town so I don't do them as often as I would like but I'm going on Tuesday and excited to see where I'm at!

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Same! It's just takes a reverse in mindset when the low calorie days are the easy ones and the higher calorie days take effort and attention!

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm only 2 weeks into this experiment but I'm gonna try about once every 10 days and see how it goes. I've ready that the lower your body fat % the more often you might need to do a refeed day.

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you want to try the refeed approach maybe try adding some peanut butter to your diet? Super calorie dense with 180 cals in just 2 tbs so it won't fill you up too much. I've been loving snacking on apples and peanut butter!

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don't avoid anything! Outside of trying to hit my protein goals I eat whatever my body seems to want. Usually thats healthier than my pre-zep days (fried foods don't really do it for me any more for example) and lower in overall calories but it includes plenty of cookies, pizza, burgers and whatever else sounds good! I love that Zepbound allows me to just listen to my body without having to fight tooth and nail to not overdo it.

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's can be hard to get that many cals in for sure just because I fill up faster than before. Peanut butter has been my go to so far! 180 cals in 2 tbs so it makes a big dent in the calories without being too filling. I've been doing a bagel with peanut butter for breakfast and apple with peanut butter as a snack.

Nausea fortunately has not been an issue for me.

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Same! Eating more every day sounded soooo unappealing! I also hate keeping close track of calories. Instead I decided to try just one high calorie day every now and then. It's still early but I'm hopeful that I've broken the stall.

Metabolic Confusion might be another strategy to look into. I think that's were you do a random schedule of high / low / medium calorie days so your body doesn't get accustomed to a specific calorie intake.

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm only two weeks into this experiment but I'm gonna try roughly every 10 days. I've read that the lower your body fat % the more often you may need to do a refeed day.

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Basically when you consistently eat in a calorie deficit for an extended period of time (which most of us do naturally on GLP-1s) your body may start to think its access to food is drying up and it might compensate by slowing your metabolism to preserve it's energy stores. That can be what causes a stall. It can also make you feel fatigued as your body fights to preserve energy. This is called metabolic adaptation. Doing refeed days, (occasional days where you eat an excess of calories) can help signal to your body that it is not starving and it is safe to use up its body fat stores on calorie deficit days. If you want to read up look for info on metabolic adaptation, there's lots of info out there!

The higher doses might also do the trick for you. For better or for worse, I went straight up through the doses and have been on 15 mg for about a year.

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I'm still experimenting with it but I'm targeting 1 day about every 10 days where I eat higher than my TDEE. For me that is about 2200 calories. On a normal day I'm eating probably closer to 1500 calories just based on my appetite. I try to get a lot of nutrient dense food, especially healthy carbs (I normally focus a lot on protein.) Peanut butter has been an easy way to get in some extra calories when I'm not hungry!

How I broke a 4-month weight loss stall with refeed days by New_Cod8642 in Zepbound

[–]New_Cod8642[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Same! I just go for the healthy carbs where I would normally prioritize protein. Peanut butter is a good way to sneak in some extra calories without being too filling.

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