PCOS and weight loss (or lack thereof)

onmyway214now wrote: »

I was diagnosed with PCOS at a young age. I was put on metformin and birth control. My periods were regular with that, but I was so sick from the metformin. I felt deathly ill every single day for 7 years. I finally took myself off of it. I got back on birth control for a short time and metformin in a lower dosage but even one pill a day makes me so sick. About 5 years ago, out of the blue, my periods came back regularly. They have been ever since. But.... as I was taking the metformin, no matter what diet I was on or what I did, I gained weight. I ballooned up to over 200 pounds before I graduated high school. I gained again when I took it the second time and I am sitting now at 262 from 278. I have tried everything under the sun to lose this weight and nothing has worked. I will gain and lose the same 5 pounds over and over. What got me down from 278 was hours a day at the gym, and that's just not feasible for me long term. Who has 3 hours every day to devote to killing themselves at the gym, this isn't The Biggest Loser.

So, my question is... what actually works with pcos? I have tried atkins, keto, low carb (no they aren't all the same, I learned that the hard way), weight watchers, calorie counting, paleo, vegan, vegetarian, cutting out white things, and nothing works. Has any of you tried 1200 calories a day, not restricting anything? If any of you have tried this, please let me know. Or if you have any other ideas let me know. Please don't recommend counting carbs because as soon as I do that, my weight loss stops, completely, until I add carbs back into my diet. Thanks in advance.

I also have PCOS (as well as hypothyroidism). I was prescribed Metformin in December 2015 (on top of my Synthyroid) - it's important to realize that Metformin is not a weight loss pill. Personally, I have not cut out any food groups or restricted myself. I follow IIFYM with my carbs at 140g on days I work out and 110g when I do not. I also lift heavy for 45-60 minutes 4-5x a week plus 4 cardio sessions (2 20 minute HIIT sessions, 2 30 minute steady state sessions). I am finally losing weight, slowly but surely.

Everyone is different though - you may have to experiment a bit until you find what works for you. Also - you should speak with your doctor about the Metformin making you sick... when I started on Metformin my endocrinologist said to call her ASAP if I had any issues while taking it because you do not have to live like that! There are other options.

Good luck

onmyway214now wrote: »

bellaa_x0 wrote: »

onmyway214now wrote: »

I was diagnosed with PCOS at a young age. I was put on metformin and birth control. My periods were regular with that, but I was so sick from the metformin. I felt deathly ill every single day for 7 years. I finally took myself off of it. I got back on birth control for a short time and metformin in a lower dosage but even one pill a day makes me so sick. About 5 years ago, out of the blue, my periods came back regularly. They have been ever since. But.... as I was taking the metformin, no matter what diet I was on or what I did, I gained weight. I ballooned up to over 200 pounds before I graduated high school. I gained again when I took it the second time and I am sitting now at 262 from 278. I have tried everything under the sun to lose this weight and nothing has worked. I will gain and lose the same 5 pounds over and over. What got me down from 278 was hours a day at the gym, and that's just not feasible for me long term. Who has 3 hours every day to devote to killing themselves at the gym, this isn't The Biggest Loser.

So, my question is... what actually works with pcos? I have tried atkins, keto, low carb (no they aren't all the same, I learned that the hard way), weight watchers, calorie counting, paleo, vegan, vegetarian, cutting out white things, and nothing works. Has any of you tried 1200 calories a day, not restricting anything? If any of you have tried this, please let me know. Or if you have any other ideas let me know. Please don't recommend counting carbs because as soon as I do that, my weight loss stops, completely, until I add carbs back into my diet. Thanks in advance.

I also have PCOS (as well as hypothyroidism). I was prescribed Metformin in December 2015 (on top of my Synthyroid) - it's important to realize that Metformin is not a weight loss pill. Personally, I have not cut out any food groups or restricted myself. I follow IIFYM with my carbs at 140g on days I work out and 110g when I do not. I also lift heavy for 45-60 minutes 4-5x a week plus 4 cardio sessions (2 20 minute HIIT sessions, 2 30 minute steady state sessions). I am finally losing weight, slowly but surely.

Everyone is different though - you may have to experiment a bit until you find what works for you. Also - you should speak with your doctor about the Metformin making you sick... when I started on Metformin my endocrinologist said to call her ASAP if I had any issues while taking it because you do not have to live like that! There are other options.

Good luck

I did talk with her about it. She said some people just can't tolerate it. We changed dosages and added supplements and probiotics and and nothing helped. After I took myself off of it, she she didn't put me back on it seeing as I react so differently. My periods and symptoms are more managed now than when I was on the meds. I've counted macros but if I don't restrict calories I don't lose. How many calories do you eat per day?

i'm 5'10", 187.6lbs to date and eat 1650 calories on workout days, 1485 calories on rest days with one refeed day a week of 1760 calories (carbs are higher).

As we age (and I realize you're still young) our bodies kind of make a last ditch effort to get pregnant. My cycles started spontaneously at age 35. I've been on Metformin forever and that never did it. Sometimes our hormones just straighten themselves out a bit.

As for weightloss, if you don't have undiagnosed/untreated thyroid issues, you should be able to lose weight by restricting calories. With PCOS, you'll get a bigger bonus out of working out too as it tends to have a similar, albeit smaller effect, as Metformin in increasing your response to insulin. Working out is critical to my weight loss. As for calories (I don't do low carb as it only served to make me moody), I follow MFPs guidelines. When I started, that was just under 1700 calories a day, plus exercise calories. Now, when I'm about 20 lbs from goal, that's 1200 a day plus exercise calories. That doesn't really equate to good, steady loss for me though (it's a pretty small deficit which is easy to erase by misjudging calories) so I'm trying to stick to eating back only half of my calories. I'm still working on making that work though.

Here's a PCOS group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/3070-p-c-o-sis

I'm on metformin. I take it in the middle of each meal. Seems to help reduce the nausea and diaherra that way.

It's the only drug I am on and by keeping within my calories-and just causally eating less sugar and lower carbs it is working.

Not earthshaking dropping but 5 lbs a month. I try to walk at least 15 minutes a day and I do 2 1 hour yoga sessions each week. I do not eat all my exercise calories back.

I weigh the lowest I have for a year and can live with the slow rate of weight loss.

10 years ago was my diagnosis with PCOS. I was put on Metformin right away. I spent about 3 months curled up in bed unable to eat anything and crying because the pain was so great in my stomach. I refused to take it anymore and haven't dealt with my PCOS since then. I ate what I wanted. I gained weight. For about three months last year, I began working with MFP and lost about 12 pounds. I gained it back from stress.

I have a binge eating disorder and an emotional eating disorder on top of PTSD and PCOS. I struggle every day. I am learning that I have to eat foods that will not spike my insulin in order to lose the weight. It's been 13 days and I am already at 4 pound loss. Perhaps you could look into foods that spike insulin and see if that evens out your weight issue. It is super hard to deal with aspects of PCOS.

I find it frustrating that there are some people who want to coat your experience with their own. Unfortunately, PCOS effects each woman differently.

What I chose to do is continue just restricting my calories and eat how I want with pre portioning, weighing everything, and restricting as much sugar and processed food as I could. If I do not stick to 8-10 pounds a month, I am going to try KETO. From what I have read recently, PCOS is affected most by dairy (raises Testosterone), gluten, and sugar (raises insulin). That is the Keto diet reductions.

The last aspect I read about is that you have to exercise EVERY SINGLE day for at least 30 minutes. Some people can just lose the weight. Others have to struggle through it. I am part of the ones who has to exercise EVERY day along with restricting my diet.

aggelikik wrote: »

onmyway214now wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

onmyway214now wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

Set your goal weight to MFP. Log your calories, using a food scale and logging everything you eat. Stick to your calorie goal.
I do not know if this is what you want or not want to hear, but PCOS is not to blame for your weight. You are eating way more than you should. And I say this as someone who has both PCOS and is hypothyroid (basically not functional thyroid at this point) plus have several other less common hormonal disorders. PCOS can be to blame for a few extra kilos not shifting easily from the belly area. The rest, it is your lifestyle.
And exercise daily, it helps a lot with symptoms, regardless of weight loss.
Also, I would strongly suggest you find a reproductive endocrinologist. Birth control pills are not treatment for PCOS, if this is what you were told, this was already outdated advice 20 years ago when I first got diagnosed.

First of all, I started what made me gain. Metformin did, hence why I stopped gaining when I quit and why my gyno discontinued the prescription. I do exercise and and did while while I was gaining. Also, I didn't say say the birth control was the treatment. It was too regulate my cycles. Plus, I never stated how much I ate or didn't eat. Please read my discussion further before assuming something that isn't true.

Metformim causes weight loss not gain.
You stated you have tried several different diets and you do link your weight to PCOS.
Once you realise it is not PCOS, you are not somehow "broken", but all the diets you tried did not result into eating less calories than you burn, then yoy can lose weight. Assuming an average height and some very light physical activity (i.e. not confined to bed) You have not been on 1200 1400 or even 2000 calorie average intake and ended up at close to 300 lbs. It is not possible, regardless of any medical conditions.
You asked what actually works for PCOS. The answer at your starting weight is restricting calories. Even restricting at something like 1700-1800 will be effective. Once you get close ot goal weight, then PCOS might come into the picture into how to finetune the details. But where you are, it does not matter. The key is knowing you are at 1700 and not going over. Which is very easy: eyeballing food and estimating portions, not counting everything into a meal, forgetting to log, having cheat days, it can very easily all add up to several hundred calories above goal. Set a realistic target (1200 is not realistic) and stick to it. Be honest to yourself and accurate in your logging and you will find out that it does work.
As for counting carbs, if your dr told you to, do it. If you are insulin resistant, you need to. No, counting carbs will nto stall weight loss, do nto lie to yourself.

OK you need to stop replying to this. You clearly don't know what you are talking about and are just spouting at the mouth. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

I know what I am talkign about because I have lived with it for decades.
You want to hear "poor us, how terrible this condition is, it defies the basic laws of energy"? Several posters will give you exactly that. But is this what is going to help you, telling yourself that PCOS is a terrible illness that condemns you to being obese by defying physics? Will this help you lose weight and improve your health?
Or do you really want help on how to change things? If it is the later: log accurately, count calories, be honest in your logging, count carbs, watch the scale move in the right direction. That simple, and that hard.

I find it a little funny how you seem to be spouting like you are an expert on PCOS. Unfortunately (if your doctor hasn't told you), PCOS affects EVERY woman differently. Clearly, you have lost the weight by simply restricting your calories. That's great. But to sit here and practically say that the way to lose weight is by logging accurately and weighing your food defies the very question she was asking and the truth of PCOS. There is no set way to lose weight with PCOS. You continue on and on in an aggressive way that is completely off putting.

Congrats on your weight loss. Leave the "know-it-all" to the real experts...who don't even know everything when it comes to PCOS.

PCOS can cause insulin resistance making it harder to loose weight. Metformin helps to regulate the amount of glucose (sugar) in your blood. Metformin makes your body more sensitive to insulin, and decreases the amount of glucose your liver releases. Have you had your HbA1c checked?

I'm dealing with insulin resistance by limiting my carbs per meal (30 gr per meal, 15 gr per snack) and eating around 1200 calories per day. And I'm loosing weight. You can experiment to find out how many carbs per meal you can handle. It's a process. Good luck.

Dandelie wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

onmyway214now wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

onmyway214now wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

Set your goal weight to MFP. Log your calories, using a food scale and logging everything you eat. Stick to your calorie goal.
I do not know if this is what you want or not want to hear, but PCOS is not to blame for your weight. You are eating way more than you should. And I say this as someone who has both PCOS and is hypothyroid (basically not functional thyroid at this point) plus have several other less common hormonal disorders. PCOS can be to blame for a few extra kilos not shifting easily from the belly area. The rest, it is your lifestyle.
And exercise daily, it helps a lot with symptoms, regardless of weight loss.
Also, I would strongly suggest you find a reproductive endocrinologist. Birth control pills are not treatment for PCOS, if this is what you were told, this was already outdated advice 20 years ago when I first got diagnosed.

First of all, I started what made me gain. Metformin did, hence why I stopped gaining when I quit and why my gyno discontinued the prescription. I do exercise and and did while while I was gaining. Also, I didn't say say the birth control was the treatment. It was too regulate my cycles. Plus, I never stated how much I ate or didn't eat. Please read my discussion further before assuming something that isn't true.

Metformim causes weight loss not gain.
You stated you have tried several different diets and you do link your weight to PCOS.
Once you realise it is not PCOS, you are not somehow "broken", but all the diets you tried did not result into eating less calories than you burn, then yoy can lose weight. Assuming an average height and some very light physical activity (i.e. not confined to bed) You have not been on 1200 1400 or even 2000 calorie average intake and ended up at close to 300 lbs. It is not possible, regardless of any medical conditions.
You asked what actually works for PCOS. The answer at your starting weight is restricting calories. Even restricting at something like 1700-1800 will be effective. Once you get close ot goal weight, then PCOS might come into the picture into how to finetune the details. But where you are, it does not matter. The key is knowing you are at 1700 and not going over. Which is very easy: eyeballing food and estimating portions, not counting everything into a meal, forgetting to log, having cheat days, it can very easily all add up to several hundred calories above goal. Set a realistic target (1200 is not realistic) and stick to it. Be honest to yourself and accurate in your logging and you will find out that it does work.
As for counting carbs, if your dr told you to, do it. If you are insulin resistant, you need to. No, counting carbs will nto stall weight loss, do nto lie to yourself.

OK you need to stop replying to this. You clearly don't know what you are talking about and are just spouting at the mouth. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

I know what I am talkign about because I have lived with it for decades.
You want to hear "poor us, how terrible this condition is, it defies the basic laws of energy"? Several posters will give you exactly that. But is this what is going to help you, telling yourself that PCOS is a terrible illness that condemns you to being obese by defying physics? Will this help you lose weight and improve your health?
Or do you really want help on how to change things? If it is the later: log accurately, count calories, be honest in your logging, count carbs, watch the scale move in the right direction. That simple, and that hard.

I find it a little funny how you seem to be spouting like you are an expert on PCOS. Unfortunately (if your doctor hasn't told you), PCOS affects EVERY woman differently. Clearly, you have lost the weight by simply restricting your calories. That's great. But to sit here and practically say that the way to lose weight is by logging accurately and weighing your food defies the very question she was asking and the truth of PCOS. There is no set way to lose weight with PCOS. You continue on and on in an aggressive way that is completely off putting.

Congrats on your weight loss. Leave the "know-it-all" to the real experts...who don't even know everything when it comes to PCOS.

No. To believe that PCOS defies the laws of physics this is what makes no sense. Talk to your drs. Google medical sites about PCOS and weight loss. Not random blogs of crazy people or con artists trying to sell their fad diets and books.
PCOS gets much much worse with weight gain. As every medical site and dr will tell you. Which is why many women with PCOS are obese: because obesity triggers or worsens PCOS, not the opposite. Does PCOS affect weight loss? Absolutely. Especially when accompanied with insulin resistance, lifestyle restrictions (more physical activity, carb counting) might apply. Does it mean the body finds a way to survive and store fat when you do not eat enough calories? Definitely not. Energy has to come from somewhere.
We are all gaining weight by eating more than we burn. There is no other way. When we have an illness that lowers BMR, this might mean we should be eating a bit less than someone who does not suffer from this condition, or that we need to become more physically active. Unless a hormonal disorder is so out of control that we end up sleeping literally all day, there is no such thing as not losing weight on a low calorie diet, especially when being obese. And obviously there is no such thing as carb counting causing weight gain. These are both claims made by OP. And these are both excuses.
Check the replies on this and other threads by anyone who has PCOS and has successfully controlled weight: eat less, keep an eye on carbs, exercise more is the common theme. There are no special snowflake PCOS cases. It is not an exotic condition that has science buffled. It is one of the most common conditions women suffer from.

And talking about experts, here we go:
http://press.endocrine.org/doi/full/10.1210/jc.2013-2350
The theme is "lifestyle changes", "weight loss through calorie restriction", "exercise".

Repeating what persons said, pcos symptoms are different for everyone. I was diagnosed about 10 years ago and it's been a struggle.

What works for me is counting calories and weighing my food (I love my kitchen scale). It was only when I started weighing foods I realised true portion sizes and was able to make better decisions. I pack my own snacks and do food prep. I limit myself on white flour and sugar as I tend to gain weight in my midsection when I indulge.

Exercise is a must for me as well at least 5 times per week for 30 mins minimum. I do a mix of strength training and cardio. I find little ways to be active during the day ...always take the stairs, park a bit further from stores, etc.

Fortunately this worked for me. I am now in maintenance mode at 5'4 at 113 - 117 lbs. It's easier to work with a range.

Of course as indicated, everyone is different. You need to find what works for you and this may take time and different meds as well.

No one here yet seems to have mentioned (apologies if they have and I've skimmed over it) slow release metformin. I used to be on 1500mg, loaded as 3x500mg tablets a day, and I stuck out the nausea for two years before giving it up. I recently had a big spike in difficult PCOS symptoms and went back to the GP, who has now given me slow-release metformin that I take just once a day before breakfast, and I've not had a single ounce of sickness or tummy trouble since day 1. If any of you are struggling with digestive issues on your current metformin, it might be worth asking for the slow release version. (I don't know how it works the US with doctors, but the NHS are readily prescribing it without trouble).

As for weight loss, and ignoring the more b*itchy posts which have arisen, there's truth in all of them really. PCOS DOES make weight loss more difficult, but it's not the only reason stopping weight loss. I find that I often feel I've not lost a pound, then find out I've lost a few - but I still feel flabby (and am still considerably flabby with more than 50lbs left to go!) and I think it's because with PCOS we're prone to holding our weight around our lower tummies more than anywhere else. So you feel still beached-whaleish when actually your arms and legs are slimming out rather quickly.

For me personally, I've found lots of protein and restricting my starchy carbs does seem to work (I still have them, just less), and I go for lower GI options. Most of my carb intake comes from vegetables etc, which seems to work well. However, one of the hardest things is willpower - when your body is saying 'YOU NEED THAT DOUGHNUT BECAUSE THE INSULIN GOBLIN SAYS SO' it's difficult to always say no, and practice makes it easier.

Exercise stops my cravings a significant amount, and I've found weight training more efficient for weight loss than cardio which I know doesn't work for everyone but seems to work for me. I train 5 times a week, and force some cardio in there every other day mostly to improve my asthmatic lungs than anything else! I often don't eat back many of my exercise calories, although MFP is designed for it, but that's partly because I don't weigh my food either and like to have a buffer of around 500 cals a day (including exercise cals). I've lost 11lbs since Jan 4th so it works for me.

PCOS sucks, and is so misunderstood. Sometimes your hormones will go against you, and sometimes less so - it fluctuates, as it the nature of the beast! Keep going, you'll get there eventually.