I finally got to see my Endocrynologist yesterday. I waitied three months and drove 80 miles to see the jerk. After all that, he told me "Anatomy is destiny and if you are overweight, you're overweight. No pill, including Metformin, is going to help that."
He said that there is always an initial 5 or 6 lb. drop in weight when you start MET, but that the weight loss stops and it's pretty much a hopeless situation.
He said millions of people are dieting every year and they never lose weight and they never will.
I am 331 lbs. I gained most of that rather suddenly. I had been killing myself to lose weight with no success-- until I started the met.
I have lost 13 lbs so far. I don't know if he is right and the Met stopped doing it or if I am just in a menses related stall.
I haven't lost a lb in over a week.
I wanted to stick my head in the oven when I left his office yesterday, but I decided I would check with you ladies first.
Has anyone had success losing more that just a few lbs on the MET?
Man, I would say that you must have seen one of the same Dr's that I saw, except I know you didn't because mine wasn't an endo. It was a couple of years ago...and I was telling him my symptoms and he immediately got on the defensive because he didn't like that I was "self diagnosing" and I got pissed off and said "I guess I just have some sort of freak disease that noone can figure out then" and he said "Heredity is your freak disease" Okay, this was my first visit w/him and he knew NOTHING about my family. Boy was I pissed. He was just a pcp, and I was telling him that I thought that I had pcos because I have all the symptoms but that I had read that a lot of Dr's didn't know about it (big mistake saying that) and he proceeded to tell me that if I did have it that someone would have found it by now (whatever!) and that that is one of the first things you learn in med school "even if you aren't specializing in gynecology" (oh I am sure, your first day they say "welcome, today we are going to learn about pcos") What an idiot! I left there in tears and never went back, and stopped seeing anyone for a couple of years. I am getting ready to see an RE and I am very nervous about it...4 more days (I'm counting down...lol) Anyhow, I hope that she is good and that after all these years I can finally get something figured out!
Okay, sorry I went off on a tangent there. Please, don't stress too much over this...you said "You haven't had a loss in over a week"...sometimes it takes longer than that. Some weeks you can have good losses, and other weeks there will be a few weeks in between that you may show no loss. It depends on a lot of factors, what you are eating, sodium intake, exercise, water, etc, etc, don't go by a week. I can't help you w/the met question as I am not on it...and never have been. But I do ww, and although I lose somewhat slower than I have in the past, I am still losing...but not a loss everyweek. Sometimes I go two or three weeks w/a maintain. But, ww does work, and I know that I will have to keep doing this for the rest of my life, because once I stop keeping a close watch on it the numbers start creeping back up. You can do this...your stupid jerk dr is wrong and anatomy does not doom you to be overweight forever. Please do not go see him again, find a new doc! Why are there so many IDIOTS allowed to practice medicine! Please hang in there, give it another week or two. Maybe your body is having a plateau...maybe you have been exercising and are gaining muscle mass, maybe you are retaining water, whatever it is, do not give up. If you keeping doing what you need to do, it will catch up, it will have no choice! What eating plan are you following if any? Just curious. Best wishes, and I know these are dreaded words, but hang in there! You will get past this!
(sorry this is so long, I tend to ramble...hence my name! )
My current eating plan.... I eat next to nothing. I have tried everything, but nothing seems to work. Yesterday I tempted fate and had a cheeseburger. Or, I should say, thanks to the Metformin, I short-term rented a cheeseburger.
Lately I try to eat under 500 cals a day and under 10 carbs.
I don't know what else to do.
And I agree-- where the hell do these doctors get off telling people they are hopeless and they should hate their parents. And why are they all men?
I hope your appointment goes well. You will be in my thoughts!
Hi there,
Sorry that your doctor is such a jerk! Its amazing how they become doctors with such horrible manners, so to speak!
Maybe you are not eating enough. 500 calories a day is nothing, especially if you are overweight. The only reason why I am saying this is because I myself am overweight, 251 lbs. and my doctor told me that I have to eat at least 1400 - 1700 calories a day or else your body will go into "starvation" mode and shut down your metabolism. I know this first hand, I did it to myself. She recommended eating 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, sensible meals and snacks. This way your body is constantly running on fuel!! Hope this helps!!
I agree with Nikki. 1200 calories or less will put your body into starvation will conserve it's fat stores. It is very dangerous to eat that low without a Dr's approval.
Met helps, but your Dr, while his explanation lacked compassion or sensitivity is right about one thing...Met isn't a weight loss drug. It helps IR bodies not to gain more weight by storing excess insulin, but no drug will lose the weight for us. I lost 60 pounds, but the met alone was very limited in how it helped me. After a year on the medicine, my periods were still irregular, my weight was barely budging and my labs hadn't significantly improved. When I added a sensible diet that kept my insulin regulated and exercised consistently, My weight started to slowly drop (~3 pounds a month), my periods regulated, my bloodwork steadily normalized. Met was a slow but steady kind of miracle, but it was part of a bigger plan that just taking a pill.
Honey, I know how it feels to feel desperate, but starving yourself isn't the answer. Please consider seeing a nutritionist or someone that can help you eat and exercise so the medicine can help you. You CAN lose weight (I'm proof!) but you don't have to sacrifice your health to do it.
Take care of yourself, ok?
__________________ Christy
33 yrs, 1 precious hubby, 2 miracle kids, At Goal Wt for 4 yrs, Trygly's down 445 pts, Free Androgen down from 20 to 2, 3 half 'thons ran, 2 mtns hiked, 1 crazy run in the Rockies, 4 forest trail races, profiled in 2 magazines...1 woman determined to kick PCOS butt!
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Your doc needs to take a remedial "bedside manner" class. What he said to you is not only cruel but downright dangerous; if you buy what he is saying, then it is dangerous because you will lose all hope and give up, when your situation is NOT hopeless at all!
Yes, losing weight weight is difficult, particularly for PCOS'ers, and keeping it off is even 10 times more difficult, but it definitely can be done. I have read countless success stories that prove your doc is WRONG!
I have lost about 130 pounds with Met, diet, and exercise (my starting weight was 343). It definitely isn't easy, and I have encountered a lot of obstacles along the way, but I refuse to ever give up. The more I keep at it, the more success I experience, albeit slowly. One source of motivation for me is the anger I have at docs who gave me no hope, no helpful advice, and who made me feel that I was a fat, lazy, slob. I can't get back the years I lost to binge eating, yo-yo dieting, and misinformation about my "Stein-Leventhal Syndrome" (that's what PCOS was called when I was first diagnosed in 1983). But thanks to soulcysters, I am now armed and dangerous, lol. Keeping my blood sugar and insulin levels stable is the key for me, and ever since I discovered that missing link I am hopeful that I will lose the weight and keep it off. Doing that will be the ultimate revenge for me!
Ear, I remember a few weeks back how excited you were when the doc prescribed Met for you. It sounds like it definitely is working, and you just need to keep working along with it. As we lose weight, our bodies take time out to adjust, and we all invariably stall out for periods of time. During these times, we often will lose inches even though it doesn't show on the scales. That means our bodies continue to burn fat, but as the fat is squeezed out from the fat cells, our bodies replace it with water temporarily, in the hope of filling those cells back up again. Once your body realizes that isn't going to happen, it lets go of the water, and you get a nice whoosh on the scale. So, it's best to use your tape measure instead of the scale, or at least limit weighing yourself (if you do it daily it will drive you insane!). Keep in mind that the dietary changes you are making are contributing to your overall good health, not just to weight loss. Get back that excitement you had initially, and try to envision your doc's reaction each time you return to him and your weight keeps on dropping (or get yourself a more empathetic, knowledgable doc, and just send a note and pic to the other jerk next year proving him wrong).
Linda
__________________ dx pcos 1984, type II diabetes 2001, also hypertension
Met 2000mg since 2001, started Glucophage XR 4/22/04, then switched to Met ER 6/04; also: multi, Vit. C, Vit. E, B12/folic acid combo, fish oil & borage oil combo, garlic capsules, cinnamon, Vitex, calcium with magnesium/zinc, biotin, CoQ10, selenium,iron
Other meds: Verapamil and Altace(for blood pressure)
Started laser hair removal 7/29/03, completed 3/04 (it works!)
UAE for fibroid 3/24/03 and 3/16/04
I agree with the other posts, you need to eat or your body wont function correctly. It seems that most people believe that if you are having weight problems it must be because you eat to much. But I disagree, especially those of us with PCOS. If you really think about it, it makes since, your body needs so many caleries to get through the day, if you are not giving your body enough, it's natural response is to hold on to every thing it can so it has a reserve.
Anyway, I have been on met for two years. I have had slow weight loss, but at least it's not going up. I think my slow weight loss was a result of being on avandia as well as the met, the avandia has a side effect of weight gain. But I have found that on the met, my body still needs the carbs just in moderation. I am not on any special diet, I just try to eat well balanced meals and to stay away from the foods that don't agree with me. I was 220 pounds when I started the met and am now 170.
My little sister just started taking met, she has been on it for three months now and she is dropping the weight pretty steady. In the three months that she has been on it she has lost 30 pounds and is doing great. For me, the first six months of met, I got dizzy and light headed, I felt like I was going to pass out, the only thing that helped was to eat small meals throughout the day. After that six months I was able to eat regular meal with my family. I advised my sister not to change her diet at all for at least the first 6 months. My thinking on that was that her body needs to adjust to the meds before it has to adjust to a diet, JMO.
But I do strongly believe that no one can exsist happily on 500 calaries, you really might want to rethink that, again JMO. I have also read that if your body is in a starvation mode, it will take it awhile to come out of it, so if you do decided to up your calaries, try not to expect overnight results, give it some time for your body to adjust. As far as the Dr. goes, find a new one, there are so many out there, you don't have to stay with one that is so insensitive. I wish you the best of luck, keep trying, you will find what works for you.
Desperately Desprate! Please, please, please advise. 
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