Weightless and PCOS

Hiya. I also have PCOS. Losing weight with PCOS is challenging. I'm losing weight but it is happening very slowly. It's taken me 6 months to lose 15lbs. But hey it's still a loss and it's my halfway mark. I've been focused on lifting weights more than cardio and I'm enjoying how I look and how strong I'v gotten.

I'm 34 and was also diagnosed with PCOS earlier this year. For other reasons I started on a journey to regain my health and fitness and I have lost about 40 pounds since the midpoint of this year. I have another 35 or so to go until I hit maintenance (I think?) and I've been struggling recently. Part of it is the time of the year and part of it is that my body has changed a lot and now I'm not *seeing* the same progress since I'm further along.

To start, it was absolutely calories in versus calories out... I didn't pay any attention to macros and was eating like 50% carbs. Now I'm really focused on trying to lose weight in my mid-section and I've been targeting carbs which I think my body processes differently because of the PCOS. I am having mixed success with this, I find that I'm cranky if I push below 30% carbs, but I'm really trying to get back to 20% - some days I'm more successful than others. As with most things the % of carbs is highly debated but it seems like 20-30% carbs is the number most articles on the topic come around to - who knows.

I have also fluctuated between eating to lose two pounds a week and now eating to lose one pound per week. I adjusted that around the time I joined a gym and got a personal trainer once per week. I made the switch because I don't like to eat back the calories burned at the gym - I don't even track them in the app because I hear they over-estimate the burn and I don't want to derail myself by thinking I can consume more calories.

As far as the gym goes, I don't do a lot of running or elliptical or anything like that - mostly strength/resistance training. A lot of core work. I do a cardio class which contains a core component every week but my other visits are focused on strength and endurance. I never believed I needed to join a gym to lose weight, and I still believe that, but the truth is that I did need an education on how I could use my own body to lose weight and tone up. I always thought I needed to run and that was a miserable prospect for me because I don't enjoy it so in that regard, my trainer has been a tremendous asset.

Each of my last official two weigh-ins (once a month) I have lost 6 pounds and I have another next week which I'm confident will show similar progress (my at-home tracking indicates I'm on pace). Part of it has been adjusting my own expectations - the first month where I dropped 16 pounds won't happen again no matter how much I hope for it. If that trend continues then I'm losing about 1.5 pounds per week which puts me ahead of where I want to be given my eating plan (but... that's just CICO not factoring in exercise). So all in all, despite feeling like I'm struggling - I also know it's mental. The numbers indicate it can be done and I'm constantly testing and checking in spite of the PCOS.