Hi

Firstly, please don't get down. I know it is hard not to. I was diagnosed with PCOS at the age of 18. I am now 25, 5ft 2 and weigh 178lbs. YOU CAN LOSE WEIGHT WITH PCOS, so don't lose hope. Although it is more difficult as our bodies have a slower metablism and messed up body chemistry - we can lose weight. I have lost weight before and then ended up getting stuck back in old ways. I was told by my gynae that by losing as little at 5% of your body weight can improve PCOS symptoms therefore making it easier to shift the excess weight. So the more that falls off the better things should be - well that's the theory!

Many people with PCOS reduce carb intake as we are insulin resistent. But as the poster above has said, I too have not had to resort to this. Keeping a tight watch on my calorie intake has helped me and I have lost 11lb so far.

Feel free to add me as a friend and we can support and motivate each other .

Don't lose hope as I guarantee you it's possible!! x

lrwxo wrote: »

I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was just 15 after not having periods at all for like 9 months. I have never been slim and I'm worried and upset that I never will be. I'm desperate to change my life now so I can claim my self confidence and not feel awful about myself anymore but after reading about other PCOS sufferers and their weight struggles I'm feeing a little hopeless now. I would like any tips you have that can help.
I'm ready to take responsibility and have arranged an appt in 3 days with my GP to look into further advice or anything basically to keep me going! Please give me a reason to have hope :-( I am only 22, 5 ft 8in and weigh a whopping 260lbs and I have spent so many years unhappy with my body, I don't want to spend any more time feeling like this.

First, let me say this - be patient and love yourself. You're only 22. Imagine being 38, having suffered through more than a decade of all the PCOS madness without anyone ever telling me I could actually have something - and not just be messed up. I think I was unofficially diagnosed around 33/34 with ruptured cysts, and even then not told anything. It wasn't until about 2 years ago that my endocrinologist formalized it and put it in my chart and helped me start treating for it. I started cycles very young (I was 9), but I don't remember much until 13-14, and I know I was having all the standard early symptoms then. So literally 20 years of just thinking there was a heck of a lot wrong with me!

A diagnosis early, no matter how frustrating and depressing, makes a universe of difference. I know it would have to me. So I hope you can at least see it as a little of a mixed blessing/curse.

That being said, due to not knowing, believing all the crap you get told, and being emotionally messed up, over those intervening years, I got very heavy. At 19, 5'4" tall, I weighed 140 pounds. At 30 years old, still 5'4" tall, I weighed 335-350 pounds. Nothing had worked as far as diet/exercise. But somewhere in this timeframe, I changed meds, and over the next 3-6 years, I lost down to 300 without realizing it, very slowly.

Then, I got divorced, got my head on straight, and started getting active and gaining health. Doing CICO with REAL FOOD and cutting out junk, I lost 50 pounds in 6 months, and even maintained it for a few years, but there were a lot of factors to this loss...

Fast forward to February of 2014. 1.5 years into a new relationship, I got lulled into complacency and had gained back to 272. I was not doing that again. So I got serious, and in a challenge of biggest loser style at work I got down to the 250 ish mark again by June. But I hadn't put in the mental work, and so this loss was more detrimental than the gains had been. So I spent the next 6 months getting my head on straight.

Turns out that was a critical necessity. Getting my head on straight allowed me to get on the path my doctors had been advising me for years due to PCOS, health concerns, difficulties with other plans, history, etc. - to embrace low carb, high fat, moderate protein as a way of life. Since then, I haven't looked back.

Due to holidays, I was up at 262. Today, I'm at 242. I have lost almost 2 full pants sizes, more inches than I can count, I feel like a normal person, I have lost all the mental fog, sleepless nights, lack of energy, sense of hopelessness, and all of that craziness that I'd lived with my whole life as far as I could remember!! While I'm naturally nocturnal, I no longer have problems getting out of bed at 5-6 am to get ready for work. I have natural energy all day long. The mental fog I have always had is gone. It is literally taking the best feeling you have at the peak of your day and having that feeling ALL DAY LONG. I have banished 95% of my cravings, binges, and emotional eating. My body just hurts less. I sleep better even if I still don't sleep enough. All of my lab results are better. I just FEEL better. I'm sure I'm missing a dozen other improvements or ways I feel better, too.

So please, the majority of this message is - knowledge is a blessing, even if it tries to steal your hope. As long as you keep trying, there is always hope. Others out here know way more than I do, so I'm going to soak in as much as I can. Getting your head in the game is SOOOO much more important than forcing yourself to a diet or exercise plan. When your head is in the game, the body will follow. Focus on gaining health, not losing weight. Obsessing doesn't help your focus. Be thankful you're still young - you have plenty of time to screw up a dozen times before you get it right. Never give up. And always, ALWAYS be willing to try new things. You never know what will work for you!

Best of luck,
Carly

P.S. Let me tell you something, too. And I promise that this is said with absolutely love and no malice whatsoever. I recently read over some journals and revisited some emails from when I was in my 20's. I was obsessed over things to a minute detail that I have since learned are so minuscule in the overall picture. Everything little thing seems like end of the world important, and now, those things I worried most about or beat myself up most about don't even enter the realm of importance to me now. Had I had even 1% of the perspective back then that I have now, my whole universe would have been different. Focus on yourself, your mind, your health. When you figure those things out, you can figure out the rest.

P.P.S. One of the surest signs that I knew I was healing mentally was when I realized that even at 275 pounds, I felt sexy. My confidence came from the inside. And if anyone didn't like it, I didn't care. I still get down, I still beat myself up, and I still doubt/dislike things about myself on a semi-regular basis, but I'm getting better with every breath, every heartbeat! (hugs) Be kind to YOU.

P.P.P.S. And during all this time, I was on different drugs, different plans, different diets, different therapies, etc. I must had tried dozens, if not hundreds, of things in those 20 years.

So many of our journeys have been very similar.

I have to reiterate that loving yourself as you are has to come first before you’ll ever effectively be able to manage this disease.

Let me give you a bit of my story. I was raised in a wonderful home, with loving parents. However my mother had (has) a weight problem, and at 10 when I started puberty and started putting on weight she put me on my first diet. I learned at a early age that thinner was the winner. I starved myself to maintain even close to a normal BMI. What I know now is that I was one of the us that developed PCOS at puberty (some ladies develop it later in life). I had a full blown eating disorder but at 5’3” and 130 pounds no one was the wiser. I’d go days without eating and finally cave and binge, and thought I was weak and less than because I couldn’t lose more than a few pounds only to gain them back rapidly.

After leaving home, getting married, finding a slice of happiness, and eating like a ‘normal’ person, I started to put on weight rapidly. Buy 23 I was about 200 pounds, with little explanation as to why other than I must be a fat lazy glutton. My cycles had never been regular, but they all but stopped by this point. I never thought to go to the Doctor for these things. When I did mention my weight to my Dr I was told, losing weight isn’t easy, and I must not be actually trying. But the thing that finally triggered the ah ha moment was my hirsutism. Not all women with PCOS have this lovely symptom and if you don’t be very thankful, but by 23 I had more facial hair than my husband. Researching into what caused this was the thing that pointed me to PCOS.

At this point I found low carb. With insulin resistant PCOS as an active person in my mid twenties, the weight finally started to come off. I won’t tell you it was easy, but in comparison to what I’ve done in the past it seemed like it was pretty darn easy. I lost close to 50 pounds, but I couldn’t get much below 160 pounds. In my mind this was an unacceptable weight, and so I dieted, and starved myself and over exercised, just like I had as a teen. I gave myself a stomach ulcer, and my body just completely rebelled. With-in a few years I was back up over 200lbs fat and unhealthy as ever. I’d tried losing in this period but it was the typical up and down scenario so many of us lived for so long.

By my early 30’s I was desperate, my mental health was a disaster and I was willing to try anything to lose the weight. I stumbled on a book called the Gabriel Method. I’m not saying this is the end all and be all for mental health during weight loss, but it was what I needed to read. I spent 8 months reflecting, giving up my food obsessions, my scale obsessions, without losing a pound. Then one day everything came together, and I started losing weight. For the first time I wasn’t obsessed, I listened to my body I let it happen. I was still eating low(ish) carb and I learned to love myself as I was at that very moment. I stopped losing weight at around 165-170 pounds but this time instead of feeling a failure, I celebrated it. What I realized this time, is I’m big boned (actually, not just what fat people use as an excuse) I carry a large amount of lean muscle naturally and I was very fit and active. People wouldn’t believe me when I told them how much I weighted usually guessing me at 20-40 pounds lighter than I am. And I started to get delight in seeing the shock on people’s faces when I’d tell them how much I weighted. I thought I had this thing solved, I was finally the winner...

Yet here I am a half a dozen years later. Unfortunately I ran into some other medical issues, and I’ve learned that my body has a very strong desire to hold on to every pound if it’s stressed out in any way. The weight crept back on slowly over several years. What I’ve not lost even at my highest weight was the love of myself as I am. I’m not defined by my pants size. Or the number on the scale. My heaviest weight ever was 6 months ago at 222 pounds. My PCOS symptoms were out of control, I had lost all my strength, endurance, I was a shell of the person I had been but I still loved myself. Who I was at 222 pounds was amazing, the inner strength I had to deal with, some chronic debilitating conditions is something I’ll always be grateful for.

However something you need to realize is loving yourself as you are doesn’t negate the desire to change to change your life style and be healthy. Weight doesn’t define us, and weight is only one factor in being healthy. Six months later, I’ve lost 40 pounds, I’m currently right around 180 pounds, I’m not skinny, I see myself as typical. I’d love to lose 15 or so more pounds, but I’m happy where I am because I’m healthy. For me at least the distinction of gaining my health vs. weight loss is a powerful one.

My journey over the last 20+ years dealing with PCOS has been one of ups and downs for sure, but for me I’ve hope. This journey has made me who I am; a kind compassionate loving understanding person. Do I think I’ve won this time, certainly not, as I know this is going to be a lifelong battle, but, I also know that I’m the captain of this ship, I don’t have control over the weather but I do have all the power to keep my heading strong and in the right direction for the rest of my life!