[nina125]

So my company is offering free WW for all employees and I am tempted to join. My question is, has anyone with PCOS tried WW and successfully lost weight? Or will I be wasting my time?

[Rana]

It will work! I know of people who used WW on PCOS and lost weight. It's all about following the program, though, and still sticking to whole grains and lower carbs.

Points = calories

WW was also recommended to me by doctors. I never did it because I just calorie count/carb/protein/fat count.

[Lovely]

It works for me.

WW is about keeping track of food intake, encouraging healthier food choices, adding activity and having support.

You can "do both" by sticking to lower/healthier carbs if you need while still keeping track of food intake with WW.

It's a solid, healthy, level-headed plan.

[gsb126]

So far, it's working for me, too. I tried it back in 1990, before they even knew to prescribe Metformin for IR, and had no luck at all. Started this past January, and I'm doing very well! It's very easy to follow. If you have a smartphone, I'd highly recommend downloading their tracker app. Makes it much easier to track meals during the day.

Good luck!!

[astrophe]

It wasn't for me. The group setting made me bonkers. The points thing -- well, I guess I'm just too trained to diabetic exchanges and counting calories because it seemed harder to me than just doing my thing. (This was about 5 or 6 years ago.)

But you know -- it doesn't hurt to try! I know others have done well on it.

A.

[nina125]

Well, I went to the kick off meeting today. The first session starts next week. Right now I am not losing any weight no matter how little I eat or how hard I work out, because of the corticosteroids & high estrogen BCP. So I am desperate to try anything at this point.

Astrophe, thanks for your input. I tend to do better when I have structure and accountability, as opposed to doing my own thing. So I am hoping that this works out for me.. And I guess I have nothing to lose I am not paying for this out of my own pocket.

[gsb126]

Nina, just remember: As with any other weight loss method, you didn't gain all of your weight quickly, you won't lose quickly. It will take time. The important thing to bear in mind is that you are replacing old, unhealthy habits for good ones. That, too, takes time. The best thing you can do is to be kind and patient with yourself.

[nina125]

Thanks gsb, my weight came on literally overnight. I had to take corticosteroids (decadron), which caused me to put on 20lbs in about a couple of weeks. My biggest problem is that I do not know how to take it off sensibly. I had never been overweight in my life before I started taking the steroids, and if I felt like I needed to lose a couple of pounds, I just skipped meals.

So right now I am struggling to learn how to eat healthy.. I always do well for a couple of days, and then slide back into my bad eating habits. I was doing so well this week, but I got busy at work yesterday and skipped breakfast and lunch and was starving when I got home. So I ended up getting a greasy cheeseburger with chili cheese fries and strawberry milkshake for dinner I suck

[gsb126]

I had the same experience with Decadron back in the late 80's. I ballooned up, literally overnight! It was awful!

One of the best things about WW is that they teach you how to get back on the plan if you have a bad day. As dieters, we are very bad about throwing in the towel too quickly. We start off our week fine, get to mid-week and something causes us to go off our plan - unexpected stuff at work, extra stress, etc. Our response? We just say, "to heck with it!" and vow to start again on Monday. We don't have to do that. As my WW leader says, if you drop an egg on the floor, do you throw the rest of the dozen on the floor, too?

Just take things one day, one meal at a time. The biggest motivator for me is seeing that scale go down. Also forgiving myself if I screw up, and having the courage to get back on the plan. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, tastes as good as seeing that number on the scale get smaller and smaller.

[nina125]

Decadron is awful. How long did it take you to start losing weight? I have been off it for 2 weeks now and my scale wont budge.. but at least I have stopped gaining weight.

[gsb126]

That was many years ago, so I don't remember exactly. Seems like it took close to a year, tho. It was exceptionally tough for me since I wasn't on any other meds to help with the IR.

[museumchick]

I lost some weight when I was in high school and my whole family started doing WW. That was back when they were doing the old points system though. Eventually I gave up on it because it was too complicated to calculate the points all the time. Plus back then they were just based on calorie counts for the most part.

Now that I've been told I have PCOS and I'm dealing with that, they changed the WW points system!! My mom gave me her books on how the new system works, and I found a website (after MUCH searching) that tells you what your new daily point value is; WW considers that proprietary information unless you pay, but I don't have the money to do that so I cheated

I'm basically following the WW Points Plus system using the things I learned from South Beach about glycemic index control. It's actually pretty easy to combine the two systems, and now that I have a smartphone I found a free points calculator so I can easily calculate things. So far so good