How much do you hate TOM weight fluctuations?? So freakin' lot!! You deny yourself all sorts of food, make sure you eat right, obsessively track your calorie intake and exercise etc then step on the scale in the morning and instead of weight loss, the scale is gone up. So try harder, eat better, walk longer and drink more water, step on the scale the next morning and its gone even higher! THen you go to the office and they are having morning tea of cream cakes and you think "what is the bloody point?? Im being good and denying my sugar craving and all I get is weight gain" but still, you resist, drink your tea and eat your low fat protein lunch. Step on the scale the next day and it has gone even higher!! Arrrgh!! This sucks!!

I know my period is due in a few days, I know this happened last month and the month before and pretty much every single month but it still gets into my head and makes me depressed and hopeless and panicked that I am never going to get below 80kg ever again and its so hard to not stray and eat my depression. I just want this to end!!

Anyone else goes through this torture???

Me too. Going through it right now. I feel exactly the same. I am guzzling the water, getting my exercise, and eating well ( except for the unexpected chocolate chip cookie yesterday, but it was only 1) and I wake up with swollen fingers, sore tata's, and a gain on the scale. Oh the joys of being a woman~!

i usually gain 5-7lbs but i know its water weight, not extra fat and when TOM is gone so is the extra on the scale, so i dont worry about it

I stop weighing during that time. I still track calories and exercise, but I don't step on the scale again until it's all over. It's too frustrating!!

I hate them too. Funny thing, when I lost weight before, I never noticed I had any fluctuations, probably because I didn't weigh regularly, so I assumed that my weight didn't change much during that TOM. Imagine my shock when I got on it for the first time around my TOM this round of losing weight and saw a like 5lb gain. I freaked, and when I moaned about it in my online ournal everybody told it was probably just TTOM but I was insistent that my weight didn't fluctuate for that. But apparently it does because that 5lbs went away. Now it doesn't bother me too much since I expect it, but it still sucks to see that higher number.

Stupid question: What is TOM?

I'm pretty sure it stands for time of the month

LOL duhhh TY! I was racking my brain trying to figure that out lol

Haha sorry ghlover! It stands for time of month

I know its best to take it in stride. But I also know it's a drag.

I just got off the peak TOM-gain point (I think) and I lost a whole inch off my waist and my fingers aren't all puffy. The weight on the scale is coming down, but not all of is gone yet.

So I can stop wearing my looser "period bras" and "period pants" and "period dresses" and feel more normal.

Hang in there -- we all go through this. Even the non-PCOS folks in the other forums too!

A.

Ah...Aunt Flo's visits. Aren't they fun? (kidding of course!)

Before I got on the BC I'm on now, I always knew the week before my period...my cravings for sugar were unbelievable! It would be so bad I'd go to the store and buy a HUGE bag of some kind of candy like Skittles or something, eat it ALL in one day and the next day need another one! Of course now I regret doing all that, since I have a better understanding of Insulin Resistance in PCOS.

Then there's the weight gain and bloating...GAH! I so know what you are talking about! The only way I found to deal with it is to simply not get on the scale the week before my cycle. Why stress yourself out for no reason when you know the weight gain is temporary? No need to set yourself up for failure that way.

Whenever I have my TOM, I don't tend to gain a bunch of weight, but my body refuses to drop any weight either - no matter how few calories I eat, or how much exercise I do. It doesn't change after the week's up either... it's always just been a lost week in any weight loss plan I've ever done. Because birth control pills were giving me migraines sometimes, my doctor encouraged me to stop having a monthly period... skip the sugar pills and just take the active pills for about 3 months, then have a period. That seems to help a bit - now I only lose a week once every few months, instead every month...

One thing to remember - that is as high as you can get... if it is still lower than your starting weight... just give yourself a 'high five' - that even on your heavy days you are still lighter.
for me on TOM - which is a pain because I was just starting to loose weight and then I put on half a kg. Hanging to see how low it goes when this retention is over.