Overwhelmed by PCOS

There are so many women on here who have PCOS who have lost weight and kept it off. I don't have PCOS, so I hope those ladies come here to provide some encouragement.

However, I suggest you look for a doctor who specializes in you particular medical condition.

3AAnn3 wrote: »

I have PCOS. You can totally reverse the condition by changing the types of food and amount of foods you put into your body and by getting adequate exercise.

Not the ovarian cysts, if they're present, I don't think but the other issues, yes, that's the standard advice I've heard.

SLLRunner wrote: »

There are so many women on here who have PCOS who have lost weight and kept it off. I don't have PCOS, so I hope those ladies come here to provide some encouragement.

However, I suggest you look for a doctor who specializes in you particular medical condition.

I think there's a group, if I'm not mistaken?

You doctor is a fool, and he's wrong. A HUGE percentage of morbidly obese women have PCOS, and yet EVERY SINGLE PERSON who gets bariatric surgery loses weight...at least initially, before they learn to cheat it.

Cut carbs to deal with insulin resistance. Everything else is the same. You can lose weight like everyone else.

angiekauffmanlpca wrote: »

I'm an irritated PCOSer as well. I can work my butt off and lose 100 lbs, 50, 60 lbs here and there and then it comes right back. I can eat the perfect foods and then just watch the weight creep back on slowly and slowly. The only way I have been able to lose a lot of weight is by extreme exercising and not quitting. It is the quitting that has me back at square 1 again. I decided a few days ago that if I was going to be in pain anyway, I may as well be in pain losing weight. My doctor told me that daily exercise for at least 1 hour was going to be my PCOS prescription for life....It is a bit depressing

You are not counting all your calories.

PCOS doesn't magically slow your metabolism. The NICE thing about insulin resistance is that you can actually lose weight safely FASTER with it because it spares your muscle.

You don't have to exercise an hour a day if you can control your portion size. The problem is that most people who go up very high in weight tend to badly, BADLY underestimate how much they eat, so those who don't have a rigorous, calorie-counting program by weighing ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING end up eating a ton more than they think they do and needing to exercise a lot to keep it off. YES, if you overeat, you're going to have to exercise an hour a day to stay slim.

I've had any number of obese friends tell me that they ate soooo much less than I do. Seemed plausible when we went out together. But once I'd go on any trip with them where we were together all the time, the mystery disappeared very quickly. They were eating more than me--a ton more. So while I'd arrange my meals so I could scarf down 3 pieces of pizza while we were together and they'd only have one, I'd eat hardly anything else a day I had 3 pieces of pizza, and they'd graze or have extra snacks, so they'd end up eating solidly double what I would in any given day.

Watch these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA9AdlhB18o
She would have to exercise 1.5-2 hours a day HARD to stay slim on that diet!!!

And this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYJrC3RTtgQ

It might sound like I'm being mean. I'm really not. What I'm saying is that this means that this is 100% in YOUR control, idiot doctors notwithstanding.

OP what was the idiot dr who told you this? The first and most important treatment steps for PCOS are losing weight, via controlling calories, and getting physically active. PCOS might be to blame for a few extra lbs clinging to your belly area. That's it. The end. The rest of the weight, it is from overeating. So the good news are, you have control over it. Count your calories and start moving, and you will be impressed.

ellesMFP93 wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

OP what was the idiot dr who told you this? The first and most important treatment steps for PCOS are losing weight, via controlling calories, and getting physically active. PCOS might be to blame for a few extra lbs clinging to your belly area. That's it. The end. The rest of the weight, it is from overeating. So the good news are, you have control over it. Count your calories and start moving, and you will be impressed.

The rest of the weight is not just from overeating. Insulin resistance means that there's a fault in the lock and key mechanism that takes glucose into the cells in the muscles. When it struggles with that it produces more insulin to compensate, converts the glucose to glycogen and stores it as fat. This drops your blood sugar quite quickly and you can get hypoglycaemic symptoms. This obviously makes you crave more sugar or carbs which continues the cycle on again. If it goes undiagnosed for a long time this can cause obesity and diabetes. It's not just 'overeating' like your eyes are bigger than your stomach. Your body is telling you it needs more.

I've found the best way to combat this is making sure to eat fats and proteins at the same time as carbs if I do eat them. This slows down the absorption. Eating low GI carbs obviously helps too.

No. I'm sorry, but that's standard low-carbing gospel, and, as a rational being, you had it in your power to do something somewhere in the process to not be powerless to the cravings.

You overate.

What I'm saying is that there's a point where we all ignore the fact that we're overeating for whatever the reason is as the weight piles on.

We can see that we're getting bigger and bigger, and some people manage to stop before it gets to a certain point and get help by either going to a doctor and finding out what the problem is, or finding other ways to address it.

I know other people with PCOS, and not all of them get overweight to such a point.

Similarly, I know other people who have shared the issues I had with my weight, and they weren't as overweight as I was (I'm in the middle of losing my weight).

Stop blaming the food, please. I'm trying to help you here, I really am.

There's a part of the whole equation you're missing. PCOS was just the beginning. It got to a certain extent because you let it get there. This is true for everyone who has put on weight and buys progressively larger clothes.

So the 7 years, 18 doctors and numerous fad diets it took to diagnose my PCOS and insulin resistance is because I was ignoring my weight gain?

Not everyone with PCOS is insulin resistant so I'm sure not everyone you know who has PCOS is overweight.

I'm not blaming the food. I'm saying I was told for years I was eating the right things until one day that information was incorrect.

I was explaining the reason why the overeating happens. Which I think is a lot more helpful than 'stop overeating'.

I was trying to help the OP to understand what goes on in the body of an insulin resistant person and the kind of foods to eat to combat this as she asked what she should eat.

I've found everyone else of MFP to be really positive and good at encouraging each other to eat better things. I can't say the same for you though PeachyCarol.

shell1005 wrote: »

I think we all have reasons and factors that led us to be at our beginning obese weigjt, however for me, it does no good to focus on those unless it is in the realm of techniques to reduce and eliminate those reasons or factors.

The idea that it is the overeating that brought us all there and that eating at a deficit is all that is needed to overcome this, is super helpful to me. I used to look for more answers and when I realized it all boiled down to that, it was an epiphany. So while I find it sad that you don't find that type of advice helpful, I am so grateful it exists on the forum for those like myself for which it is.

Yes. Exactly. And if you wish to reduce carbohydrates while creating that deficit? Have at it.

But make no mistake that the PRIMARY problem was that you chronically overate because you liked to/were in the habit of it and the food tasted good.

The carbs didn't "make" you do it. Neither did the insulin, or your hormones.

You have the power to fix it, and I'm not dissing your choice to low carb to do it, just your reasoning.

FTR? I moderate my own carbs to manage my energy levels thanks to a medical condition. That's my choice. I have nothing against the way someone chooses to eat to deal with their medical issues. I don't think it serves someone well in the long run to not fully address the root cause of their issues with their weight, though.