Stopped losing at 9lbs....does PCOS contribute to this?

[Snelson924]

I am getting really frustrated. I finished my first Whole30 a week or two ago. I've continued with it, adding VERY few things in.When I completed my Whole30, I had lost 11 lbs.  I've gained 3 lbs. back.  Nothing has changed except adding a total of 4 cookies in 10 days. That certainly isn't enough to gain 3 lbs. 

 

I have PCOS and endemetriosis as well as PMDD. i've had my thyroid checked almost every year for about 6 years. I just had a complete CBC done Everything looked fine except my cholesterol was a tiny high. 

 

What gives? i'm so frustrated by this. Even with the little weight I did lose, I'm still in the same size clothes that I was in to begin with. I do have much more energy and my blood pressure is stable now, but for heaven's sake, I want to lose some weight and look relatively decent!!! 

 

I have an appt with an endocrinologist next week. I'm not sure if this is the right path to take but It's the best thing I can think of right now. I did 3 months with a nutritionist last summer and lost 9 lbs and then stopped. Same as now. 

 

I'm beyond frustrated and am getting extremely discouraged......

[missmary]

 I've gained 3 lbs. back.  Nothing has changed except adding a total of 4 cookies in 10 days. That certainly isn't enough to gain 3 lbs.

 

Here's the thing: those 11 lbs were not all "fat" when you lost them, and these 3 are not "fat" that you gained back. The scale measures the weight of your muscle, bone and fat, yes, but also the fluid in your tissues and the food matter in your colon. It is unlikely that 4 cookies in 10 days would cause you to gain 3 lbs of "fat" weight, but not unlikely at all that a sensitivity to gluten (or even just refined carbohydrate) could cause you to become inflamed and hold onto 3 lbs more of water/inflammation.

 

Now, it is certainly good to get rid of inflammation, if you can, but changing body composition/losing fat is a long-term proposition. I know for me, it took a good long time eating the whole30 way before the weight started coming off, but it did and did so steadily for a long time. Consistency of abundant nutrition will create the context where you are most likely to be able to lose the weight. Try to hang in there long enough to see the benefits.

[praxisproject]

I have a really strong reaction to gluten, I can easily put on 10 whole kilos (not pounds) of inflammation overnight from being "glutened". Four cookies would be more than enough for me.

 

I get a similar reaction to other grains, especially those in the Prolamin group http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prolamin

 

I'd been eating wheat for over 35 years and never thought it could be wheat that was making me sick.

 

Thank goodness for Whole30! Don't get too hung up on the scale, the stress hormones make everything worse. If you can't stay off it, get it out of the house

[mtnerak]

I also have endo but not PCOS.  I started my Whole 30 the beginning of March, but I also did the AIP.  I decided after I read both the Paleo Approach and It starts with Food  to just jump in with both feet.  I lost 9 pounds during my first 30 days it is now 11 lbs and has plateaued there--which I am very happy with.  This is the weight I was in college.  I do fluctuate up and down several pounds during the month from my cycle still though, but not as much or with as much bloating as I did prior to the whole 30.  About a week and a half ago coming back from a trip we stopped in one of our favorite Mexican Restaurants.  I did not order my usual dinner there because it has cream.  I ordered a different stew and I brought my own plantain crackers that I had made, but it was basically going way off for me since I have not done a lot of reintro's so far and this had night shades and seed spices.  I had no GI symptoms after but I did have two days of my right ovary throbbing which is one of my main pre whole 30 symptoms that I have not had since starting--and I bloated up several lbs.  So what did I do --I just drank more water tried to spend the next several days consuming more veggies and fat --keeping my protein intake where it normally is and the weight still came back down and leveled back out.  When the scale have all of a sudden shifted up I just look back at what I have eaten --what kind of foods and see if I have slipped a bit so I just up my veggies and fat and make sure I am still eating enough protein.   I try and eat 6-9 cups of veggies a day with one meal being more raw veggies.    I don't want to slip back into those pitfalls of counting calories or decreasing my calories.

 

Here are a couple of blog posts to check out if you have not already.

http://www.paleoforwomen.com/flax-marijuana-and-44-other-phytoestrogen-sources-you-might-not-know-youre-consuming/

 http://www.paleoforwomen.com/phytoestrogens-estrogens-and-estrogen-receptors/

[mtnerak]

Also getting your hormones all in balance to work optimally for you may take some time.  I may have started my whole 30 officially in the beginning of March, but I had already not been eating grains for several weeks prior to that. I have been gluten free for 4 years and had been following the To Quiet Inflammation Diet principles for about a year prior to that.