Destined to be fat.. but healthy?!

xtina1129

Hello!

Although I've always lived a very active lifestyle and ate healthy, it didn't seem to matter much in the weight dept. I was diagnosed at 12 years old with PCOS. I became more strict with my diet, and increased physical activity. Didn't matter.

Then, at 16, I was told I had glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. I lived very low carb/carb free for years. And ran 5 miles a day. This only helped me maintain the weight I was at.

At 18, I took 2 days off, and ate "regular food" while on spring break with my friends. I gained 12 lbs in that 2 days. It took me 5 weeks to re lose it.

After having my daughter at 19, I was told my labs came back that my thyroid was extremely under active. My updated labs was no bueno. The Dr. is thinking it may be best to "knock it out" with iodine.

Over the years, I've seen several Doctors, Specialist, tried numerous diets, pills, and fitness routines.

Living life without carbs (including fruit) can become very bland. I've been told it's probably time that I accept that diet and exercise will only make me more healthy, and will probably never get me to a size I desire... (which is only to an 8!)

I refuse to accept this.

There has to be someone out there who is in a similar situation that has found something that works!!!! Anyone?!?!? Any insight or tips would be greatly appreciated!

xtina1129

Wow... I'm the only one with these issues? Guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. LOL

RoadsterGirlie

I don't have any experience with PCOS, but according to your ticker, you look like you've lost around 30 lbs, so you obviously are doing something right!

Don't give up or give in. Even if you don't achieve the size you desire, you are doing your body good by giving yourself good nutritious food.

RoadsterGirlie

One thing though - when I cut out fries and fast food, and added fresh whole veggies and fruits to my diet in place of it, the weight came right off. I know a lot of people are afraid of the calories in fruit, but it did wonders for me.

Again, I'm not very familiar with PCOS along with its limitations, but I wanted to add my personal experience.

courtneywiens

I've had an EXTREMELY hard time losing weight. And even when I was extremely overweight, all my levels (blood sugar, cholesterol, etc. were all in the healthy range, so I think you can still be somewhat healthy when overweight, but not completely healthy, there are varying degrees...) I rarely lose more than a pound a week and I track every calorie and workout. I have even put it all into a spreadsheet and calculated how many calories my body uses to maintain and then try to cut calories from that. Mathematically speaking, I should lose weight faster than I do, considering 3500 calories is a pound and I cut calories and work out a lot, but it just comes off rather slowly. There are so many factors, like water retention, inflammation, cortisol, etc. I also have an underactive thyroid and I take levothyroxine for that. It's subclinical, meaning it's not very underactive, and my endocrinologist says that's not the reason for my weight gain nor that the medicine would help me lose weight. For me it has taken eating a lot of super healthy foods, but keeping it at or under 1400 calories a day, and working out 6 days a week. I do strength training every other day and 1 hour of cardio every day that I work out. It pains me to take a rest day because I feel like I'll get derailed. I know I've come so far but it certainly has not been as easy as I would like! It's made me stronger though. And I'm determined to get there! You will too!

Dianescraps

Sorry, I am not familiar with much of the diagnosis that you describe. Though I have dealt with hypothyroidism for over 10 years.

I was able to get some help with avoiding the Goitrogens

sophie_wr

dont know about the thyroid, but I know for PCOS some Drs prescribe anti-diabetics drugs like metformin and it helps pcos ladies to loose some weight...

ihad

Try searching the forums for PCOS - there are a lot of posts on this. It could be a good way to find others.

xtina1129

Thanks for the responses! I am not willing to give up, it just takes an extream amount of time and effort ( more than most) which can be discouraging. I am on metformin for the PCOS but I haven't noticed that it helps very much. I guess I should have noted what the glucose intolerance/ insulin resistance means.. basically , if I eat carbs.. including fruit it is automatically stored as body fat. So it's not really one thing thats hindering , it's more the combo of what I have going on. I guess the only thing to do, it to keep working at it... I just wish it didn't take what some consider extream dieting to get the scale to move. heh... such is life I suppose. lol

tripful

Hi xtina. I just joined MFP today and this is my first post ever! But contrary to why most people join, I'm just using it as a food diary and ignoring the calorie counting, for the way that I have come to adjust my intake pretty much flies in the face of calorie counting (more on that later).

So first off, full disclosure. I am male, 30 yrs old and have been in good to excellent shape my whole life, I would say a consummate athlete, but mostly blessed by excellent nutrition (without really knowing much about why until somewhat recently). Please keep in mind, though, that I, like much of westernized society, have a history of diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimers, cancer and stroke in my family, on both sides. So even though I may appear to be "in shape" on the outside, my concerns about what's going on inside (metabolically and hormonally) are just as present as they hopefully are for you, or anyone else who I would hope realizes that there's more to this weight loss and health thing than meets the eye.

Now onto the good stuff. Let me warn you, this may shock you a bit but just know that I speak from experience when I say we're in the midst of a paradigm shift back to common sense and away from calorie counting and the notion that exercising more and eating less has anything to do with a healthy, balanced way to "lose weight". Don't get me wrong, there are lots of reasons to exercise, but broadly speaking, losing weight is not really one of them. You might be able to emaciate yourself to whatever degree with cardio, or make a fat-for-muscle exchange with resistance training, but out and out, if you don't change the QUALITY AND MAKEUP OF WHAT YOU EAT (NOT the amount!), it's game over health-wise.

Rather than lecturing on and on, I'd rather just pass along the following topics, books and people in the field of nutrition and endocrinology that will completely change your life for the better. So without further ado, please check out the following stuff ASAP:

SlimIsSimple.org - A Non-For-Profit public service video done by Jonathan Bailor (Author of The Smarter Science Of Slim)
Why We Get Fat, And What To Do About It by Gary Taubes
Sugar: The Bitter Truth - Dr. Robert Lustig (search for the YouTube presentation from UCSB in 2009)
NuSI.org (Gary Taubes & Dr. Peter Attia)
Andreas Eenhardt on YouTube (The Diet Doctor)
YouTube presentations of Dr. Peter Attia through JumpstartMD
TheLivinLowCarbShow.com & Livin' La Vie Da Low Carb podcast with Jimmy Moore
Dr. Johnny Bowden
Dr. Terry Wahl

The above list is just a smattering of the phenomenal, life-saving stuff being done right now that will literally blow your mind. If you take nothing else away from my post, know this: please, please, please at least watch SlimIsSimple and give WWGF a listen or read and consider at least the possibility that it might be worth trying for yourself. I can and I *will* lay it on the line that if you can let yourself naturally gravitate back to eating high quality, nutritionally dense foods, *including* FAT, and only as many carbs as do naturally occur in non-starchy vegetables, you will literally multiply the goodness of your health and simultaneously return yourself to the 24/7 fat burning machine you were born to be (instead of the carb-burning, fat-storing beings you and I became as a result of an entire 2 generations of nutritional misinformation).

I wish you the best of luck, but I do know that if you and the rest of the membership here give the above concepts a look, luck won't be necessary. Lets keep in touch!

Best Regards,
Trip