Overwhelmed by PCOS

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.

Hypoglycemic symptoms do make you want to ravenously eat absolutely everything not nailed down. However, you have to mindfully treat it correctly, then it won't lead to unnecessary overeating (over correcting) which will just send you right back into the cycle of high blood glucose, need for more insulin, hypoglycemia.... And essentially wearing out your pancreas even more in the process.
Any doctor will tell you to treat hypoglycemia by checking blood glucose first, if the level is indeed low, then treat with 15g of fast acting carbohydrate, like orange juice, or glucose tablets (my daughter likes gummy bears or other fat free candy) then check blood glucose again in 15 minutes.
You have to check blood glucose and be in control of the feeling of hunger the insulin causes because it's common for someone who averages high blood glucose to feel like they are hypoglycemic when they are actually in normal range. This happens to my type1 daughter all the time when she's been running high consistently. She will tell me she's low, we check her glucose, she might be anywhere from 100-170 even and I practically have to stand guard in the kitchen or she will eat everything and sugar will be crazy high again!
My type2 sister has that problem too and she always wants to eat carbs that also have a moderate fat content. The fat will slow down the carbs from acting, therefore in 15 minutes even after eating 30g of carbs her glucose may still read lower. So she eats more. Then in an hour or two her glucose is through the roof!
You have to choose the right thing to treat with. And realize you are treating a medical condition. Your body isn't saying "I'm starving". It's saying "I need glucose ASAP"! But it only needs so much.

Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »

rabbitjb wrote: »

@PeachyCarol ... I admire you.. a lot

Your advice may be difficult for some to take when they are at certain points of their journey .. but if they can absorb the message no matter how unpalatable it is they will start to succeed .. and success breeds success

time to take responsibility for the parts you can take responsibility for .. time to not be a victim or find an excuse. People with IR and PCOS lose weight .. it may be more difficult than without but it's the same rules

Why in the world is this flagged? This is a supportive statement that's basically saying "you can do it! Don't let this disorder make you a victim"!
What's wrong with that?!?!

I understand, as a person with multiple medical conditions myself, that there's a phase you go through during things in which you do feel like a victim, and what's been said in this thread by me and others is not what you want to hear. People who don't want to hear things like that probably flagged posts like this.

Grieving for the old you, the you that didn't have problems, or even the idea of you that didn't have problems is a process.

I do understand that. I understand that different people are at different points along the path that grief takes you down. Acceptance is sometimes years coming. I don't think any of us win the battle with weight that's associated with medical conditions until we come to the point of acceptance, though.