Hi everyone!
I've been watching this forum for a while now, and I figured that it was time for me to make an account myself and share my story here. I am having a difficult time losing weight and I would love to be able to talk to people who are going through the same thing! My friends and family members try their best to be supportive, and even though I appreciate that so much, they will never understand what it is like to struggle with weight issues since they are not in the same situation.

I'm Mary and almost 22 years old, I live in the Netherlands and I'm a medical student. I've been struggling with my weight for as long as I can remember, with me being at my highest weight at the age of 13-14, I weighed about 200 lbs during that time. And I managed to drop about 50 lbs by making changes in my diet alone. However, when I started university at the age of 18, I slowly started gaining weight again and I am now at 165 lbs. I am not that tall, I'm 5'4 so as you can imagine, every excess pound shows immediately..
Moreover, I am struggling with certain symptoms that are seen in PCOS patients. Difficulties with losing weight being one of them.
Sadly, I have not found an endocrinologist that was able to help me with this, but I have done research and found that low-carb is the best way for me to lose weight. I hope there are women with PCOS out here that have accomplished to lose weight by following a low-carb diet, because I would really love to hear what you did to accomplish your goals!

As for exercise, I do Bodycombat/cardio exercises 3 times a week and strength training about 2 times a week (trying to increase the days I go to the gym, though!)

I am hoping to lose about 40 lbs this year (and reach my goal weight of 125 lbs), I know it's quite a lot, but hopefully this will be the last year that I'll be seeing that number on the scale. Would love to be able to write a success story myself on the site one day so I can be an inspiration for others as well

Feel free to message me whenever you like, I'd love to help others out as much as I can, too!
Mary

Hi Dreamer!

I'm new to this forum too. I've also struggled with my weight my whole life. Like you, I'm in college. It's a hard change to make, but I have no doubt we're strong enough to do it.

WaterLillies thank you so much for the support! Welcome to this forum as well and yes we can do this, I'm sure! I don't care how fast or slow I go, I just want to get as healthy as possible and reach my goal weight along the way

Terra1984 Thanks for your motivating words We can do this!

I hear you, Dreamer. I'm doing this mostly for my mental health. This is day 1 for me. I can see you're already well on your way from the weight loss in your stats. Keep up the good work!

Exactly! Aww, thanks If I can do it, so can you!