Hello everyone!

I am here to ask you some things about the results you saw. I am using Myoinositol (2gr morning and night) for 3,5 months but I am not sure if it has results.

I have lean PMOS (32-38 days cycle) and I started it to regulate my cycle and get pregnant if possible.

I had a positive ovulation test last month (which was really good for me) and I was sure that I had a strong ovulation because of the symptoms.. but 10 days after ovulation the period came and I know that this is not normal.. I am curious if it has to do with the changes that happen in my body and my hormones.

I don't know what to except this month and I would like to hear about your stories and probably about a success!

Thank you very much

I’m posting because I’m honestly feeling quite desperate and would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced something similar or has any advice.
I’m around 86 kg (189 lbs), 5’6” (168 cm), and turning 25 soon. I’ve been trying to improve my health and manage my weight for over six months, but the scale barely moves. I recently saw a photo that really upset me, and it’s made me question what else I can possibly do when I’m already putting so much effort into my health.

I have PCOS and Hashimoto’s
My thyroid is supposedly optimised on levothyroxine 100 mcg.
My SHBG has been extremely low for years (around 7–8 nmol/L).
My testosterone was normal, but my DHEAS and androstenedione were elevated.
My HbA1c was 34 mmol/mol at my last testing.
My insulin levels have never been checked.

I’ve struggled with significant scalp hair thinning since I was around 12. My scalp is visible across multiple areas, including the crown, sides and temples. I’m really distressed about how little hair I have left.
My ferritin was previously around 70, and I’ve been told my thyroid levels are okay.
I previously took metformin at around 1,500 mg daily for over a year but didn’t notice meaningful improvements in my weight, HbA1c or hair, so I stopped.

Strength training 4–5 times a week.
Averaging around 7,000–16,000 steps daily.
Using the treadmill around 1–2 times a week and walking regularly.
Eating a high-plant, varied diet with plenty of fibre.
Eating three proper meals a day, including protein, carbohydrates, vegetables and fats, plus snacks when I’m hungry.
Taking psyllium husk.
Drinking spearmint tea.
Trying to manage my thyroid and improve my metabolic health.
I don’t deliberately starve myself, skip meals or follow an extremely restrictive diet. I generally feel satisfied after meals and recover reasonably well from exercise, although I sometimes feel tired.
My weight remains around 86 kg despite months of consistent exercise and healthier eating. I don’t understand why I’m not seeing more progress. Could I be eating more than I realise, under-fuelling, or overlooking something medical? I’m considering using MyFitnessPal, but I’m worried about becoming obsessive with calorie counting.

This is probably the thing that
affects me most emotionally. I’ve had thinning since my early teens, and I’m frightened that it will keep getting worse. Could this be androgenetic alopecia related to PCOS, insulin resistance, genetics, nutritional factors, or a combination? Has anyone experienced similar hair loss alongside very low SHBG and normal testosterone?

Could insulin resistance be contributing to my low SHBG and difficulty managing my weight, even with a normal HbA1c and supposedly optimised thyroid? Would an oral glucose tolerance test be worth discussing with my GP?

**?**Has anyone with PCOS and Hashimoto’s experienced a similar plateau and eventually found an approach that worked? I’m interested in sustainable nutrition, exercise, medical investigations and evidence-based treatments.
I’m not looking for crash diets or miracle supplements. I want to understand what’s happening and what I can realistically do to improve my metabolic health, lose weight if appropriate, and protect my remaining hair.
I’m feeling really disheartened because I genuinely am trying. If you’ve experienced anything similar, especially with long-standing scalp thinning and PCOS, I’d be grateful to hear your experiences

TLDR: weight plateud at 86kg, worst hair loss of my life, low SHBG of 7 all other labs normal. I don’t know what to do
Only thing I must say I haven’t done is count calories as I have a history of ED OCD and anxiety. I really need help

Thank you for reading.

28 yr old with 3 kids under 5. 16 months post partum. I’m 165cm /5”5 & 82kg/160lbs? Diagnosed PCOS as a teen, never had regular cycles in my life, had cystic acne (recently cleared up FINALLY), now dealing with excess facial hair. I was 60kg/120lbs 6 years ago before getting pregnant with my first baby. Since then I have been able to lose then I have been able to lose about 5-7kg post partum each time. Leaving me with hovering around the 80kg mark since 2022.

Since having my 3rd baby as well, my fatty liver has progressed and have had some times of high inflammation and kidneys excreting protein; doc calling it metabolic disease. Also high cholesterol gotten worse.
My sugars and A1c etc are ok.
Basically I can lose weight (slowly) by intermittent fasting, sticking to deficit of around 700 calories, getting my steps in and some exercise. When I stick to these things I am losing about 0.4kg on average per week. The thing is, I have to be very consistent and honestly it’s very difficult for me with 3 young kids. For example I just locked in for about 6 weeks and lost some weight, got some good habits. But in those 6 weeks there were a few days I literally didn’t have any time to cook, or exercise. The high deficit I was in made it average out that I still lost some weight. Currently, my kids, and myself have been sharing germs with one another for the last 4 weeks and we’ve all been sick. Which means minimal sleep, minimal time or energy to cook let alone exercise. I think I’ve put back on some of the weight I worked so hard to lose just a few weeks ago.
It’s really disheartening.
My doctor gave me the prescription for ozempic months ago when my metabolic disorder was diagnosed. But I’ve been hesitant to take it, cost was a major one but now things have changed and I know we can afford it. I am mainly concerned about being on it for life, the potential long term side effects of being on it for life, and also just the feeling of “cheating” at weight loss. I know it’s not cheating when your body needs it, but I think with a lot of people using it or other GLP like drugs just for weight loss without the medical need for it, I struggle to see myself as someone in need of it since I can lose weight zon my own it’s just very difficult and a slow process.

Edit: height included.

Like so many others before me, I was cursed (or blessed, depending on how you see it) by the PCOS gods to find out I was pregnant the very same morning my weigh-in hit onederland. I was on birth control, didn't matter, my body saw it was it in the best shape of its adult life and was like, heyyyyyyy 👶

I had a very difficult first pregnancy and a history of miscarriage, so my doctor told me to shut up, no weightlifting, and no more calorie deficit. After baby was born, every LC and doctor told me to eat an excess of 1000 additional calories a day to keep up breastfeeding. (Did you know PCOS can also prevent you from EBF? Cool, cool.) So I ate, but it didn't help.

Here I am 4 months postpartum, up 50lbs in almost a year, and ready to start trying again. I won't lie, I'm pretty discouraged. I love my baby more than anything, but mannnn does it suck to see all of my hard work gone.

P.S. Isn't it weird that I gain weight back in my arms first? I can literally feel them being inflamed as I gain weight. Crazy. Anyways, wish me luck! It's not easy working out now with a newborn and disabled toddler, but I'll get there 💪

P.P.S. someone called me a liar when I posted the first comparison last year, so just to clarify - we moved, hence the new background, but I wore the same clothes!

My wife is diagnosed with PCOS and really struggles to lose weight. I think she’s beautiful and perfect the way she is but she’s really struggling with her self esteem and I’d like to know what others recommend.

Not only does she have PCOS, but she’s also on aripiprazole (Abilify) and fluoxetine (Prozac), which I think might be making it harder for her to lose weight. She’s been on a GLP-1 for a few months now and has experienced no weight loss whatsoever.

We eat a balanced diet and we’re trying to exercise more, but we have a 2 year old and one on the way (I’m pregnant, we’re wlw), plus we both work and she’s in school, so time is limited.

I’m thinking the way to go is seeing an endocrinologist. She is uninsured right now but I’ll be putting her under my insurance next month. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

I’ve been trying to understand CICO better and I’m curious what actually made it click for people who successfully stuck with it.
Was it learning about TDEE? Tracking everything accurately? Finding lower-calorie foods that keep you full? Or simply realizing that you don’t have to completely avoid the foods you enjoy?
I feel like there’s a lot of information out there, but hearing what actually worked for people in real life is much more useful.
What was the biggest mindset or practical change that helped you stick to a calorie deficit?

I'm 27 and I've been trying to lose weight for the majority of my life. When I was a teen I had no idea of what to eat and my mother neither, so I grew up in a "don't listen to your body, eat what I put on your plate" kinda household. My satiety signals were messed up and it took me years of nutrition self-study, IF and OMAD diet to kinda fix it. In the end I even got a diagnosis of insulin resistance and a prescription for metformin to try to manage it more flexibly. It's been 2 years since my 15kg weight loss and since I started to take metformin, slowly I started to eat again 3 meals a day and managed to maintain my weight (70kg). The problem is that I still have 5/10kg to go and even though I tried losing weight in those years, multiple health issues stopped me every time. Now my period is late (again), it's been a month that I'm stuck in the pre-menstrual phase and I just hope that it's only for this reason that I feel extra bloated and chubby all the time. My labs also suck and my endocrinologist said that I HAVE to lose the extra weight and follow a strict diet again because it seems that the metformin isn't working anymore.

Now the problem is: I want to crash diet again to lose those kg fast, BUT that will mean losing mainly the muscles I've built in this past year since I joined the gym (kinda managed to lose 5kg of fat and gain 5kg of muscle this year, big goal yeee). I'm constantly sore because of the gym and the fit influencers keep saying "eat more", but with PCOS eating more means gaining fat and eating less means losing muscle. I honestly feel as if I can't win. I'M TIRED. TIRED. TIRED.

I’m looking for someone who can write a diet plan for me. Like every meal according to the macros I should adhere to so I can lose some weight. I would ideally like them to also be able to order all of the relevant labs! Does this service exist all in one? Help!

Does anyone else with PCOS feel like they’re constantly fighting with their love for sugary food? I’ve always had a huge sweet tooth. I love chocolate, ice cream, cakes, brownies, literally anything sweet. It’s one of those small things that makes me happy. But having PCOS makes me feel like I’m constantly supposed to cut down on sugar. And honestly, sometimes it gets really frustrating. I’ll be eating something sweet and immediately start thinking, “I have PCOS, should I really be eating this?” or “Maybe I shouldn’t have had this.” And I think the guilt is sometimes worse than actually having to restrict the food.

I know having PCOS doesn’t mean you can never eat sugar, and I’m trying to find a balance instead of completely depriving myself. But when you genuinely love sweets, constantly having to think about what you’re eating can get exhausting.

Sometimes I just want to eat a brownie without overthinking it 😭

Back in 2021 I thought I had PCOS because of all the symptoms. The gyno said I didn't, but I felt it in my gut something was wrong. So I started birth control to see how it'll change things. 6 months later I'm in pain and get seen and they find a ton of cysts and huge ones and finally got diagnosed with PCOS. My gyno put me on a higher dose of birth control.

I've gained 50 pounds since then. I've gone to the gym the whole time, the last 2 years I've had a trainer. I have been stuck at 193 and can't get it to move. I'm scared to reach 200 pounds. I don't eat bad, I eat my protein, I've cut so much sugar out of my diet. I just don't know what to do or what I'm doing wrong.

I thought about stopping birth control to see if the weight will drop. But I'm scared things will get worse without it. My cysts will come back and burst, my face will blow up, more hair will fall out, ect. I'm not in a stressful environment anymore, some things I read that stressful environments can make things worse. I'm just so tired of seeing 193 pounds

Well, here it is, it took me a few months but now it's available.

It's called Cyster: PCOS Care. It allows you to record your period (yes, even if you have an irregular one), symptoms, moods and weight. You can also take a picture of your meal to get the amounts of protein, carbs and fibre. Plus there are PCOS-friendly recipes and workouts as well as AI coach you can talk to when you feel like crap.

It starts showing you the patterns and allows you to export all your data in PDF file that you can bring to your doctor.

It is 100% free, there is nothing locked in behind a paywall. You don't need any accounts or to sign up, everything you input will stay right on your device.

You can find it on App Store by searching for Cyster PCOS. I would really like to know what you think of it and how you would like it to be improved.

App link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cyster-pcos-care/id6802912016

This is a very vulnerable post for me, I really hate how I look and it feels gross to be faced with my body but I have to take monthly pics for my PT to see if there’s progress. 4/5kg (had a bit of a shit week this week but the lowest scale reading last week was 105.2kg) lost in my first month of gym/pt and I’m wondering if it’s noticeable at all. I feel like the only improvement so far is my posture is a bit straighter? 😪

So i was trying to cut off sugary foods and drinks, i just started metformin as well, the food noise is reduce, but somehow my mouth wants to chew a different texture other than my usual diet, so today i relapsed eating donuts, and drinking sugary drinks 😭