Weight Loss & PCOS

flrancho

I’m a weight loss veteran. Several years ago I lost some 120 pounds until COVID happened and my gym closed down permanently. When everything opened up and I found a new gym, I had to take almost a year hiatus after I tore the cartilage up in my knee. I ended up gaining 30 pounds over the ideal and am looking on loosing it.

I’m getting very frustrated as I’m not loosing the pound a week I used to even though I’m doing everything the exact same way as I was then. I’ve now knocked my calories down to 1200 and am miserable, and still haven’t budged the scale. I was formerly loosing weight at 1600-1700 per day. The only thing that’s really changed aside from me being older is that I now have a PCOS diagnosis, which I am not being treated for as I have contraindications to the treatment.

For the record, I am a 36 year old female and currently weigh 150.5 lb. I work a desk job for eight hours in which I am not permitted to leave my desk aside from breaks/lunch. Outside of work I border on hyperactive. I go for a walk in the morning of at least an hour. I go to the gym five days a week and will run on the elliptical for a half hour to an hour, and lift for 30-45 minutes. I clock in 12k-20k steps per day. I use a food scale and measure everything. I eat back some exercise calories, but only about half, if that. Calorie burn is estimated by my FitBit and linked with MFP. (As of this post I’ve supposedly burned 2415 calories)

I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong since I did this with ease the first time, unless it’s my PCOS. Any thoughts or advice would be helpful.

penguinmama87

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. PCOS is rough, though there are multiple treatment options available and I would encourage you to find a new doctor who's willing to pursue different paths if your current one won't (this is one area where conventional medicine is woefully inadequate for a lot of women).

IMO calorie burn estimates are just estimates. You're not losing the 1lb/week you want, which is frustrating, but are you losing? 0.5lb/week, especially as you get close to goal, is just fine and won't involve as much misery as trying to get enough of a deficit for 1lb.

It could very well be the PCOS affecting the "calories out" part of the equation. It might just require a recalibration or willing to accept a slightly lower rate of loss. But it's definitely possible!

flrancho

Haven’t lost anything in a month or so.

Unfortunately I’m backed into a corner with treatments and I have no options. I’m allergic to estrogen and after being on a progesterone birth control pill for ten years due to endometriosis, I developed a liver tumor associated with birth control use. The type of tumor is infamous for hemorrhaging or turning into cancer. I was taken off the pill and within a year the tumor was gone. Was told I can never take hormonal treatments again due to likelihood of recurrence. My blood sugar also trends low normal, so metformin wouldn’t be beneficial either.

ahoy_m8

Wow. You have been through a lot! Have you ever used a weight trend app like Happy Scale?

It can take >1 mo of data to see loss for menstruating women especially. Sounds like what you are doing will work eventually. Take care of yourself. Eat enough. Don’t be miserable. Don’t get overuse injury.

snowflake954

In my opinion there is always a way--you just have to find it. We always tend to say "In the past I lost doing it THIS way, but now it's not working". Things change and you don't even realize it. The process works. Try something different, even exercising in a different way for awhile. Don't cut your calories too low. Be patient, it's important that you are trending in the right direction. This my be a long-haul so you'll need something you can stick to long term. With your health problems, you'll have to go slow and monitor your health as you go. It's important that you don't create other problems.

Good luck. You can do this.

NickiMazaheri

@flrancho I’m sorry. You’ve been dealing with too much. I was diagnosed with PCOS recently too. I eat about 1200-1500 calories everyday and still only manage to stop myself from gaining. Previously, this had me losing weight quickly. It’s been very discouraging. I’m new to the whole PCOS thing, so I’m still learning and figuring things out. One thing that my doctor told me to try was a vitamin E supplement. She said that it helps release the extra testosterone. I’ve only been using it for a month, so I can’t tell it’s helping, but I thought I’d share with you. Best of luck! I’ll let you know if I come across anything else that’s not birth control.

kshama2001

flrancho wrote: »

Haven’t lost anything in a month or so.

Unfortunately I’m backed into a corner with treatments and I have no options. I’m allergic to estrogen and after being on a progesterone birth control pill for ten years due to endometriosis, I developed a liver tumor associated with birth control use. The type of tumor is infamous for hemorrhaging or turning into cancer. I was taken off the pill and within a year the tumor was gone. Was told I can never take hormonal treatments again due to likelihood of recurrence. My blood sugar also trends low normal, so metformin wouldn’t be beneficial either.

Ugh, that stinks. What progesterone were you taking? I took Prometrium for a really long time and Norethindrone Acetate for less than a year.

I had a hysterectomy last year, after fighting it for a really long time, and trying to get to menopause with my uterus. But I was almost 56 with no menopause in sight and my new GYN talked me into it. My fibroids kept getting bigger despite a 6 month course of the anti-estrogen Lupron, and she was worried about cancer, and there was no test for it until the hysterectomy. (Two GYNs said they couldn't do a biopsy or other tests pre-surgery.)

I would encourage you to see a PCOS specialist if you haven't already. My healthcare is with the VA and they failed me terribly. I finally got a referral to see a fibroid specialist, and am so happy I did, even though surgery isn't the outcome I wanted. But I did get a n eminently qualified surgeon at a world class hospital.