To think losing weight is a battle I just can't win

[starshaker]

I am trying so hard and it's not working. If anything I'm putting weight on. I go to the gym 3 times a week and follow a meal plan. On the days I don't go to the gym I do exercise at home and will walk at least 4 miles a day with my dogs.

I have pcos and am on anti depressants. I feel like I can't win against them

If you do 5:2 you don't overeat because you are practically starving two days a week.

I found it easy to do and a really quick way to lose weight. I actually felt lighter at the end of the day and my stomach felt flatter.

I used my fitness pal to keep a check on calories.

Try it for two weeks.

Have you seen your gp re your weight issues? I know a friend who did, and got a meal plan done for her by a nutritionist (or poss dietician) I can't remember the difference but it was done through referral.

I know at my gym I wouldn't trust the PTs to come up with a proper meal plan particular for my issues.

but you seem to contradict yourself in that post, where you say that fewer calories are what's needed to lose weight, when before you said she needed to eat more.

I never said earlier that she needs to eat more, I was explaining how starvation works, i.e. you can actually eat too little and gain weight.

The OP may be putting undue stress on her body through too little food and exercise and causing it to go into panic mode and create fat from whatever nutrients it is getting. Sometimes you can wait this period out (but it has it's downsides such as lowered immunity, pressure on heart and other organs), or you can try and eat a little more (100 or 200 more calories a day) and offset this.

And yes people living in situations with scare food aren't overweight. Because generally they are eating far, far below starvation levels for very long periods of time, and because of this they are also more then just "thin" their teeth and hair fall out, they have weak hearts and organs, they have little to no immunity. etc.

There is a reason why all sensible diet plans do not recommend below 1200 calories a day.

It's the fact I'm feeling no difference. Clothes aren't looser or anything. I'd care less what the scales said if there was some sort of difference

I should have said. My gym has a in house dietician so it's not the pt who does the meal plans.

I did go to my gps but the nurse kept saying eat less until I was down to about 600 a day and still was losing nothing. She said in her experience fat people always lie about what they eat and to prove I wasn't I was to take photos of my meals. I didn't go back

I never said earlier that she needs to eat more

You said, I would say that you may need to eat more.

Anyway, I don't want to derail the thread.

OP I second the advice to try MFP. It helps you keep the calorie deficit even if you want to experiment with different ways of achieving it. Also it's free. I think the best advice you've had is to have a chat with your doctor (or practice nurse?) about it.

Sorry I cross posted with you. I'm not surprised you don't want to return to that nurse. However, look where you are. What's the harm in trying to talk to another one?

Not many people win in this game so you are not alone!

Having said that, if you really are sticking to that, at more than 6 stone overweight, the weight should be dropping off.

I would go and chat it through with the doctor.

At the surgery there is only 1 nurse. I've spoken to the doctor about it and he has said he wants to get me settled on an AD that works then we will tackle the weight loss. Which is fair enough since it's better to be alive than it is to lose weight. I just don't want to put more on in the process and really want to lose

I'm so sorry Starshaker. Imo people are very disbelieving of the fact that some bodies are just totally resistant to weight loss.

With pcos and an anti-depressant medication then you are fighting a really difficult battle. I wonder if its worth it in the long run, because it must be causing you a lot of stress.

Has your weight been going on gradually over the years or has it leapt up at certain times? Did you notice a further increase when you went on anti-depressants? How old are you?

I put on 3 stone when I quit smoking (18 year habit and for the last few it was 40 a day) that was 3 years ago now. I put on another 2 when I got pancreatitis and was put on a low fat diet which turns out to be high in sugar. After surgery I struggled to do much for a while. And now I've put on a stone in the past few months while changing AD

I'm 35

You haven't mentioned the timescales, my dis has lost three stone but it has taken almost three years.

All that is within the last 3 years

Well there's obviously something going on there! I put on a stone when I gave up my 25 year smoking habit, another stone between the ages of 49 and 52 (menopause), and was a stone overweight to begin with.

Hence I am now obese.

It's easily done so I have every sympathy .

I think your thyroid needs checking. Sorry if I've missed other mentions of that.

the only thing that ever worked for me was weight watchers, and I was religious about points and tracking.

There are various approaches to weight loss and you have tried one of them. Some people do well with intermittent fasting. Some do well with restricting different food groups (vegetarian, low carb). Some succeed with various exercise regimes.

I do think that you should have seen a difference by now, so this isn't working for you.

You can try to increase calories slightly, and see if that works. You can also try something else.

What sort of exercise are you doing at the gym?

I really sympathise with you as I was (and am again) in a similar situation - I managed to lose weight low carbing after spending almost 2 years seeing an nhs dietitian who specialised in hormonal conditions. I tried everything in that time - sw worked for a while but then I stalled and started putting on weight. I know low carbing doesn't work for you but even if I cut out bread and pasta it makes a real difference and if I eat carbs I go for the non-processed variety such as potatoes. Also you don't have to eat lots of fat to low carb... its not in keeping with the 'low carb high fat' thinking on mn but I do things like add butter and stuff to my cooking and eat the chicken skin but I don't add additional fat to things like coffee iyswim? I also eat lower carb fruit such as berries and limit it to 2/3 portions a day and eat plenty of non root veg to snack on.

Insulin resistance is linked to pcos and really messes with the bodies ability to process carbs - it was explained to me as eating a carby meal will trigger something so that instead of turning that meal into energy it will just dump it and your brain won't recognise you've eaten and so will still be hungry. On more than one occasion I can remember eating a healthy carby meal and feeling really hungry an hour later.

The other thing I know from my experience is that if I eat less than about 1600 cal a day I don't lose weight and like many overweight people I know I often eat a lot less than this especially when dieting. Perhaps try eating more around 1700 -1800 and see if that helps?

It's really hard. People don't understand how much having a hormonal conditions impacts your metabolism and pcos is the worst for this as it effects so many of thr bodies other hormone functions not just the ovaries. combine that with medication and it's an uphill battle.

I'm at the point where I need to lose weight but certain recent events in my life have meant I've neglected it - not that I necessarily eat badly just not in keeping with my condition.

I hope some of this helps... didn't mean it to be so long...

You have my sympathy OP. I have PCOS and really struggle with weight, have done for most of my life. I share an office with an incredibly thin woman, she eats more than me yet remains thin. If i was to eat what she eats every day, i would be about 3 stone heavier.
My diet consists of banana and yoghurt for breakfast, soup and bread for lunch and a main meal in the evening. I occassionally have a snack in the afternoon or evening. My weight continues to creep up. I am 100% honest about what i eat, not kidding myself. I can't understand why my weight continues to go up, particularly when i compare it to my diet in the past or the diets of people around me.

OP it sounds like your current regime will be staving off further weight gain, rather than helping you to lose weight. That may well be down to your medication, which you already know has weight gain as a side effect.

The only thing you can realistically do is to keep on the diet that you have been recommended (I am assuming here recommended by a doctor), to keep up the exercise, and to keep changing your medications until you find the right one for you.

I know it must be frustrating, but if you can, try and see now as an "intermediate" period - you are doing everything you can to avoid getting bigger. Once you have found the right medication, then if you are already exercising and eating correctly, you will start noticing the weight falling off.

Try not to give up - Imagine how much bigger you would be if you hadn't made any of these changes!!

Good luck xxx

save the money from the gym. Use it to pay to see a dietician who understands and works with patients with PCOS. Take metformin. Be consistent with your exercise (try fitnessblender on YT). Above all, be patient with the process. And remember, what works for others will likely not work for you due to the PCOS. You can lose weight with PCOS but it will be slower and more difficult for you. Godd luck

I also think insulin resistance is probably an issue for you.

I've lost my baby weight by low carbing, but you have to cut out carbs in all forms - so it wouldn't just mean no bread products, but things like houmous as well (pulses are carbs).

I know it's easy to blame your meds and PCOS, but I think you need to look again at what you're eating.

Here's a link:

www.dietdoctor.com/yes-a-low-carb-diet-greatly-lowers-your-insulin

Hello OP. I have PCOS too, and at one point was nearly 8 stone overweight following a stint on anti-depressants. I've now lost 6 stones over the last year, and am confident that I'll lose the rest.

What switched things round for me was doing a Whole 30 - you can google it and get all the info, you don't need to buy any books. Basically you commit to 30 days of a super-clean exclusion diet - no sugar, no grains, no dairy, no soy, no legumes, no sweeteners, no alcohol. This basically excludes all processed foods. Just meat, fish, eggs, nuts and loads of vegetables (including potato) and some fruit. You can then try adding in one of the excluded elements at a time and seeing how you feel.

I felt amazing on my first one (I also lost over a stone in that 30 days and my PCOS related hormonal cystic acne vanished too), and I've done several since, and this now forms the basis of how I eat now. Sugar and grains do not agree with me. I have really cut back on dairy - couldn't live without cheese now and again. I'm OK with pulses say three times a week. I no longer touch anything with artificial sweeteners in - I used to drink low-calorie drinks all day.

Sorry to be embarrassingly evangelical, but it has really transformed my body and my life. PCOS is an absolute bastard, and I don't think people who have experienced it have any idea how hard it can be when the usual advice just doesn't work. I kept steadily gaining weight on a regime of low-fat diet and tedious amounts of exercise, and would merrily have flattened the next skinny person who told me to eat less and move more.