What is wrong with me?

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  • MarcieSwitzer
    MarcieSwitzer Posts: 18 Member
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    The PCOS is a beast. You have my sympathy. I suffered with it for years--ended up with a complete hysterectomy at forty. I found a few of the standard birth control pills that helped not only the pain but the weight, but when I went off the pill to have kids the weight came on big time: 40 pounds in six months. Definitely try what Magical Giraffe says about measuring your food on a scale rather than cups. It is far more accurate. An 8 oz glass of milk is pretty standard, but other foods really need to be weighed.
    My doctor gave me great advice and when I listen to her I do much better: don't eat food other people have prepared.

    I have a gazillion food allergies (PCOS is also an autoimmune thing, so you may want to look at food allergies) and when I eat foods that are iffy for me I can't lose anything. Wheat is a big offender for me (not gluten--actual wheat--I itch when I knead flour).

    I have to get back off the artificial sweeteners, but my doctor also said to get far away from Nutrisweet (aspartame). It not only messes with your body chemistry and can cause health problems, but it tricks your brain into thinking you want more sweet. Its hidden in an awful lot of prepared weight loss foods, so you have to look carefully and now there is talk the manufacturer has applied for a different chemical name because of all the bad press. My problem is, I happen to like the taste of Diet Pepsi.
  • MarcieSwitzer
    MarcieSwitzer Posts: 18 Member
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    A dietician or nutritionist is a great idea. I wish I could see one. Our insurance will only cover it if I'm Diabetic--so much for prevention. You'd think being 70 pounds overweight would justify it! So, my husband is diabetic and the endocrinologist has referred him and he won't go. Go figure.

    But since everyone's body is different, that is a great place to start.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    I actually do have a scale and I weigh everything I eat. Even though my family eats what I do for meals I still weigh out my portions individual and prepare mine seperate from everyone's. It's just really frustrating to feel like I'm doing good one day and then the next have it all go away. I'm at my wits end already. I have only been doing this for 23 days, so not too long. I will look into seeing a dietician, my doctors office has one that comes in on Saturdays for her "weight loss clinic" but I honestly thought if I cleaned my diet up I would be ok. I don't see how I was at a steady weight for so long consuming 3000+ calories a day and drinking dr. Pepper and sprite to consuming 1500 a day and drinking nothing but water! My OBGYN also told me if I was on birth control pcos wouldn't interfere, is she wrong? Another thought is, with me being on beta blockers would that change my TDEE or BMR?

    I don't think you've given it enough time, and you seem to be going by day to day changes in weight... the human body simply does not lose fat that quickly... if you lose or gain overnight, then it's water. Fat gain happens slowly, you need to weigh yourself just one day a week, in the same situation (e.g. first thing in the morning, before breakfast, after using the bathroom) and look for changes week by week... even then bear in mind that some weeks water weight might mask any fat loss... look for the trend over time. Look at the change month by month. Otherwise you're going to be driving yourself insane tracking day to day, where changes in water weight seriously mess with your head.... scales should come with a health warning because of this lol... you may actually be making really good progress but if you're seeing an overnight gain of a couple of pounds as a failure then that's when it's messing with your head... it's impossible to gain 2lb of fat overnight eating and tracking 1500 cals/day. If you see a gain like that, it's water. drinking more water and eating fresh fruit and veg can help with water retention.

    Also bear in mind that if you've gone from being sedentary to doing exercise, your muscles may be retaining water which can stop the fat loss from showing in the scale. You need to use other measurements besides the scale, e.g. waist and hip circumference (your waist circumference may be affected by bloating so bear that in mind) and also what you look like in the mirror and how your clothes fit... it may take longer than 23 days to notice these changes. So you do need to be patient.

    Success is the scale weight slowly moving downwards week by week (ignore what it does in between) and slowly finding that your clothes fit better, then get looser, and also over time inch measurements going down. Success is also getting fitter and stronger.

    If you're tracking week by week but not seeing the scale go down OR any changes in inch measurements, then try doing more exercise while eating the same number of calories. Note: if the scale stays the same, but inch measurements are going down, then don't change anything, that is success and the failure of the scale weight to go down is just from your muscles gaining water, and it will start to go down after a while.
  • jessilee119
    jessilee119 Posts: 444 Member
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    It's been about 3 weeks. Hang in there and see what happens in another 3 weeks.

    My first three weeks, I didn't lose anything either.

    ^This. When I worked on my diet first without exercising I lost weight more consistently; then I was able to add exercising into my routine and continue to lose weight. But before when I did both at the same time, it took almost 2 months before the weight started coming off. Almost as if my body was in shock because I was doing so much so fast so it took a while for my body to stop fighting me and realizing I was doing something good for it.

    That's just me though...

    As other suggested, it might help to see a nutritionist/dietitian if you have specific medical conditions that could hinder weight loss.
  • Mischievous_Rascal
    Mischievous_Rascal Posts: 1,791 Member
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    Secondly, I see you have entries for house cleaning and other types of exercises that are not steady state cardio. You might want to not include those activities that would pretty much be in your daily activity. For example, I have my activity setting at active even though I have a desk job, but I move around quite often with the job, work to/from car about six blocks from work, walk to the mall or downtown during lunch, heavy weight lift, but I don't count any of these as extra. The only exercise I count is steady state cardio, such as running or spinning. I use a heart rate monitor because the MFP database, gym machines, and internet exercise sites tend to grossly overestimate calories burned. When I used the machines and MFP for calorie estimations, I didn't eat all those calories back.

    This is a big one. I don't count anything I did in my normal routine while I was overweight as exercise now. Exercise is the extra movement I added to my life once I decided to lose weight. I (HIGHLY) recommend eating back your exercise calories, as well. You need to fuel your workouts, and MFP has you set at a deficit already. Creating a bigger one can actually be counterproductive. MFP and machines do tend to overestimate calorie burns, so maybe eat back 50-75% of them, to start. I also agree with seeing a dietitian if you can. Also, your body can take up to 3-4 weeks to get use to anything new you throw at it, including exercise and calorie reduction.

    I'm also a firm believer in figuring out your own personal numbers and finding what calorie level works best for you. (BMR, TDEE, etc.) MFP is a great starting place, but the number it gives you is very generic. The best part about this site is the knowledge of the people on here who have done the work you're looking to do now. This link, and all the links referenced in it, will give you a really great place to start to customize your weight loss to you as an individual.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/833026-important-posts-to-read

    Best of luck!
  • kbags420
    kbags420 Posts: 3 Member
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    Lots of people have given some great advice already (don't weigh yourself every day, weigh everything you eat with a scale, and don't expect super-dramatic changes after just a few weeks of tracking), but I just wanted to emphasize the importance of seeing a dietitian with experience in PCOS patients. I also have PCOS (diagnosed 11 years ago at age 14) and have struggled with my weight for about 10 of those years, regardless of birth control method or Metformin treatment. I was told by my gyno that the birth control treats some symptoms of PCOS like irregular periods and cyst formation, but doesn't actually prevent insulin resistance or weight gain. It wasn't until I saw a dietitian experienced with PCOS patients last year that I was able to get a handle on my weight. As others have said, some foods can be problematic (for me it was eggs and dairy, no problems with wheat). Also, some PCOS patients can't just go by a calculator to determine their BMR/TDEE, even if they are not insulin resistant. I've been tracking calories according to online TDEE calculators for 3 years now, and weight loss was barely noticeable. Not a lot of research has been done that I can find, but my dietitian pointed me to this study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18678372

    My dietitian had me go get my BMR measured and it was almost 150 points lower than the online calculators. Once I quit eggs and dairy, and adjusted my calorie intake to take into account my lower BMR, I finally started losing weight.
  • Mrs_K_
    Mrs_K_ Posts: 23 Member
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    Thank you all so much for your advice and support! I will find a dietician and go from there. If I still have problems I will go see the doctor for a full work up and see about treatment for pcos. Thanks again :)
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
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    Try actually measuring your food rather than using cups as that is not an accurate form of logging for solids. Just from looking at today I found: "Peas - Green, frozen, unprepared, 0.13 cup ". How on earth did you measure 0.13 of a cup?? You could be eating more than you think you are.

    I don't know if this is the case for the OP or not but I can explain why I have measurements like that. Some packages will give a cup measurement with the grams in parentheses. If I weigh out 56 grams, for example and I find that item in the database but without the grams, I just do the conversion. 1 cup = 75 grams, I got 56 grams, so divide 75 by 56 and that percentage is how much of a cup I ate. (that's an example, i have no idea how many grams of peas are in a cup, :laugh: )