Hey everyone! I started this group to gather people from the RGV who are on a weight loss journey and are using MFP. I've been at this for almost a month now, and I realized that I am constantly seeking advice, support, and motivation. So, feel free to add anyone who is from the RGV to this group so they too can see the advice, motivation and friendship they need.

Introduce yourself! You guys know ME, but don't know each other. What are your lifestyle changes, goals, advice?

I was at my heaviest last year at 237 lbs. My size 18 jeans could hardly button. I bought a size 20 jeans BY ACCIDENT, tried them on and they FIT. Needless to say, that was my motivation. So I started hitting the gym, and lost about 14 lbs quickly. But I was still not eating clean, not serious, and not motivated. I gained most of the weight back shortly thereafter.

I have been struggling with PCOS for all of my life. I am now taking Metformin for that, which aids in weight loss.
Here is a quick, simple summary of PCOS is.

See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycystic_ovary_syndrome#Pathogenesis

and even more simply this: http://www.pcosjournal.com/irregular-menstrual-cycle-pcos-hormone-imbalance/

Those links cleared up every question I had about it! Here's my synopsis.

PCOS sends you into some pretty bad loops it's hard to get out of. Basically your ovaries start acting like balls, for lack of a better analogy, and making a bit too much androgenizing hormone (such as testosterone.) When this happens your eggs (what they call follicles) don't mature. Thus, that month- no period!

You probably also make too much Luteinizing Hormone all the time. LH is what makes you ovulate, thus eventually giving you a period, but it's the SURGE that makes you ovulate. In PCOS, there's no surge because you have too much all the time.

The problem is that making too much testosterone, in turn, makes you insulin resistant. Being insulin resistant makes your body produce too much insulin to try to overcome your body's resistance to insulin (ignoring it, if you will.) When you have high insulin in your bloodstream, since insulin is an anabolic hormone, this makes you produce even more testosterone! Make sense? So the damn testosterone makes your insulin increase which makes you produce more testosterone which.....well you get the picture.

Ironically, fat tissue produces an enzyme which converts androgenizing hormones to two different kinds of estrogen. So you have too much estrogen (estrogen dominance) all the time as well as too much androgenizing hormones. Double whammy.

Progesterone is made by mature follicles (eggs.) With PCOS, your follicles aren't maturing, thus no progesterone for you, thus no menstrating to speak of (or at least irregularly) for you.

All the while, this loop is making you fatter and making it even harder to lose weight. This is why for many people, metformin (the diabetes drug) is very helpful in losing PCOS weight and reducing other symptoms. Because it breaks the cycle. Incidentally, losing weight, PERIOD will lessen the PCOS and as far as I know can render it nearly asymptomatic if you really achieve significant fat loss. And you CAN lose weight without metformin, it just takes discipline and more than likely a low GI diet (but use whatever works- low calorie might also be effective.)



I've already lost 17 lbs since last year (10 lbs just this past month!), so I am at 220 lbs right now. I want to be under 200 lbs by October, and hopefully at 180 lbs by December! My final goes is to be at 140 lbs (which is still tentative, as I don't know how I'll look. Maybe I'll want to lose more.) I'm on a 1400 calorie diet, eating as clean as possible(which is so difficult), and exercising almost every day.

Hope to hear everyone's stories!