PCOS/Insulin Resistance Support - new to insulin resistance

So first of all I am a 24 year old male, i'm not even sure if i'm supposed to use this site, or if it just for women, if i'm not just tell me and i wont post again. I was recently diagnosed with Insulin Resistance after gaining 150 pounds in the past 2 years, the doctor still is not sure why exactly i've gained so much but says the reason that I have be unable to lose any weight even after consistently dieting and exercising. Anyways i'm basically looking for tips on how to lose weight with Insulin resistance, i'm not even quite sure why it affects weight loss. I am currently taking glucophage for it, and will be increasing my dose on that soon, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

welcome. I too am new to the insulin resistance prob. and would love some advice on how to lose some weight while battling to get it all under control.

As for you being a guy, who says women have the entire corner on weight loss issues? As far as I'm concerned, post away!!!!!:cool:

After searching for years to understand why I could not lose, despite diet and exercise, I too was diagnosed ( finally! ) with Insulin Resistance...Metabolic Syndrome to be exact.

All you have to do is google either subject and will find plenty of in depth explanations as to how we got here and how to slow the progression. Ultimately, that is my goal.

I can tell you from my experience only, that after 5 years of being unsuccessful, after diagnosis ( and I'm not on anything for the IR such as the Metformin ) I began the South Beach diet in January. Although my loss has tapered some, I've successfully been able to remove 33 pounds off of this 5'2" frame!

It can be done! Don't give up...man or woman!

Susan

:welcome2:


Definately do some research. Insulin is directly related to hunger and fat storage.

Besides putting you on meds, did your dr steer you in any direction for changing your eating habits? Most people with insulin resistance do well on a controlled carb diet like South Beach, Insulin Resistance Diet, Glycemic Index Diet, or Atkins. You will probably find that you can't tolerate many refined carbs on the Glucophage.

Good Luck!

Welcome to IR!

Something you wish you never had to say to anybody BUT now you know what's wrong, you have a chance of conquering it!

The best types of food for Insulin Resistance are complex carbs. You don't have to go the Atkins or South Beach route altho they are fantastic eating plans for IR.

Both my hubby and I are IR, he is undiagnosed but he has every symptom going but he decided he would join me on my healthy eating plan and so far I have lost 33lbs and altho he is too heavy too weigh on our scales (or his docs) he has lost 10 inches from his waist, no more afternoon sleepiness, fatigue, boils (they were the bane of his life).

Basically all we do is not eat anything 'white', we buy no sugar added/low carb food. A no sugar added pudding can be a saviour when you have a sweet craving. We try not to eat too much processed food, make sure we get plenty of veggies and lean meat. Whole grain cereals like Honey Nut Cheerios are a bonus for breakfast if we don't have time to make bacon and eggs. We eat wheat and rye bread, the occasional potato and we give ourselves a treat every few weeks eating out whatever we want. We end up totally sleepy afterwards but we are always good and get right back on the wagon as it were.

The Glucophage will make your body do what it is supposed to do with insulin. When you body becomes resistant to insulin it just keeps making more and more and stores it as fat - it thinks it needs to hold onto that fat cos of the insulin prob and that's why it is so hard to lose weight with IR.

Good luck with finding an eatling plan that suits you and works. If you need any advice just PM me!

Sarah

Hi everyone,

Sarah has done a great job saying what I would've said. The only suggestion I'd like to add to her advice is to check out Weight Watcher's CORE plan. WW has two plans, and the Core plan has a list of food to choose from. At first it's tedious because they are foods most of us aren't used to eating (if we binged on bulgur wheat chances are we wouldn't be on this site), but after trying them and investigating some recipes for a few weeks, my IR related headaches were gone, my sugar addiction was in control, and I was LOSING WEIGHT! I was/am also using Metformin (glucophage), so that helped, but the CORE program is working wonders for me. IR is a horrible disease... especially when you know something is wrong with you and no one can figure it out! Now that you've got it figuerd out, I wish you the best in finding what works for you!