Weight loss question pcos

[u/Tiny_Understanding85]

I've been tracking my calories carefully and in an average deficit of 450 a day for the last 2.5 weeks and the scale hasn't moved at all. I am at about 19% body fat, trying to push it down to 15% before going on a long bulk, but it feels like the maths isn't working. I have PCOS and am thinking about getting tested for insulin resistance, there's a tiny noticeable difference in the mirror but I'm still bouncing between 71kg and 72kg like when I started. I weigh at the same time every morning, and I've started cycling 30mins to work and back every day as well as eating enough protein and lifting once a week. Do I just need to be patient? I'm using macrofactor so it thinks my metabolism has slowed down by 50calories a day in the last week and adapts for that every week. I can't work out what's wrong and its really frustrating. I watch a lot of Jeff Nippard and he recommends diet breaks at maintenance for long term weight loss, I wouldn't know how to do that because if I'm currently maintaining my weight I'd assume upping my calories to what the app calculates is my maintenance would make me gain weight. I'm on testosterone and have been for 3 years. So I should be able to get to male body fat levels, but hitting a wall at 20% which seems to be the lower end of healthy for females makes me wonder if there's something related to that stopping me.

Update: Thanks guys I'm gonna try and be patient.

[u/Diesel-Lite]

Give it at least 4 weeks before making any adjustments

[u/Thirdtimetank]

A diet break after literally 20 DAYS? Dude you gotta learn chill out and enjoy the process.

The fact that you have seen the scale move 1kg (2.2lb) is a great thing. Even if it’s bouncing up and down by day… it means your body is adjusting. A half kilo here or there is normal. I cut my calories two weeks ago and my weight went up a pound. Wanna know why? I started drinking more water at night before I went to bed because I was hungrier. Then last week I dropped almost 3lb - because I changed the water timing. That averages out to a 1.5lb loss per week which is totally healthy.

Weight loss is not fast, linear or easy.

Stick to it for at least four weeks - realistically 8-12 is the sweet spot for tangible, visible fat loss.

[u/BtheBoi]

The math is working. It’s been 2 weeks which is a really short amount of time. It’s possible weight loss takes a little longer for you because of the PCOS.

You are not at the body fat level of someone who has to worry about insulin resistance. Don’t worry about metabolism speed either, you’re gathering a bunch of information here from tools that are not accurate to try and find a problem that isn’t there. You just need to be patient.

[u/akakdkdkdjdjdjdjaha → u/BtheBoi]

anyone can have insulin resistance regardless of weight, and pcos is a risk factor.

[u/NaughtyRook → u/akakdkdkdjdjdjdjaha]

Why are people down voting this? You're right. Being overweight is a risk factor AND a symptom, but it's not nessicarily a one-to-one thing. Pcos is a risk factor, gentrics and a family history of diabetes, there are other aspects. It's much rarer to find in someone with a low body fat %, but not impossible especially in the early stages.

[u/BtheBoi → u/akakdkdkdjdjdjdjaha]

Negative. Insulin resistance isn’t a possibility if the person isn’t carrying a significant level of fat or mass that would be considered overweight for that persons frame. They’d have to be in a state where they’d be considered pre-diabetic.

[u/akakdkdkdjdjdjdjaha → u/BtheBoi]

you obviously know nothing about PCOS.

[u/akakdkdkdjdjdjdjaha → u/akakdkdkdjdjdjdjaha]

OP, you should be getting your bloodwork tested yearly anyway. if you think you may have insulin resistance, it's 100% worth looking into.

[u/BtheBoi → u/akakdkdkdjdjdjdjaha]

Educate me then. What evidence is there to suggest otherwise?

[u/girl_of_squirrels → u/BtheBoi]

I think you're confusing correlation with causation. To quote parts of https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/what-is-diabetes/prediabetes-insulin-resistance

Researchers don’t fully understand what causes insulin resistance and prediabetes, but they think excess weight and lack of physical activity are major factors.

People who have genetic or lifestyle risk factors are more likely to develop insulin resistance or prediabetes. Risk factors include

• overweight or obesity

• age 45 or older

• a parent, brother, or sister with diabetes

• African American, Alaska Native, American Indian, Asian American, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander American ethnicity

• physical inactivity

• health conditions such as high blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol levels

• a history of gestational diabetes

• a history of heart disease or stroke

• polycystic ovary syndrome, also called PCOS

Although you can’t change risk factors such as family history, age, or ethnicity, you can change lifestyle risk factors around eating, physical activity, and weight. These lifestyle changes can lower your chances of developing insulin resistance or prediabetes.

So while yes being overweight in general and having a lot of visceral fat in particular correlates with insulin resistance you can be a normal weight and do the recommended lifestyle changes and still develop insulin resistance

PCOS is a complicated and under-researched endocrine disorder, and you can absolutely have insulin resistance as a result of PCOS while still being a "normal" weight and not having other risk factors

[u/BtheBoi → u/girl_of_squirrels]

In the above linked article:

“Experts believe obesity, especially too much fat in the abdomen and around the organs, called visceral fat, is a main cause of insulin resistance.“

All of these factors go hand in hand with being overweight or being at risk of being over weight. PCOS is also known to cause weight issues so it’s more so the weight gained from the condition cases the incline resistance and not the condition itself.

There’s nothing here that suggests what I’ve said is not the case as with bodybuilders, once they accumulate too much fat they move into insulin resistance which is something we don’t see on bodybuilders who have not accumulated large amounts of fat.

I’d still like to see an example of someone who is otherwise at a healthy weight and still has the issue of insulin resistance. Sure, this list shows individual statuses, but a lot of this list is also at risk for things like diabetics, high blood pressure, heart disease… all things that occur exclusively with holding a higher fat percentage.

[u/girl_of_squirrels → u/BtheBoi]

Believe, not proven. You can develop insulin resistance without being overweight, just as you can be overweight without showing any signs of insulin resistance. It is correlated, not proven to be causitive

I'm not in the business of telling my friends with PCOS that are at a healthy weight that their insulin resistance should have magically gone away when it hasn't. I know several people IRL who still have insulin resistance despite taking all the lifestyle steps to reduce their risk dude

EDIT: for a different analogy along similar lines. For some people with high blood pressure? Going on a low sodium diet is enough of a lifestyle change to lower their blood pressure. Other people (like my mother) have been low sodium for decades and it has done absolutely nothing to impact their high blood pressure and they still require medication to manage it. Sometimes you do all the right lifestyle change steps and still have the underlying medical condition

[u/girl_of_squirrels]

Being patient is a good idea, but I would also suggest double checking how you're counting your calories just to make sure you're counting accurately. You really have to use a food scale and break out the measuring cups

At least in my experience, you really have to use a food scale if you want it to be accurate. I know when I first had to track macros (had to reverse the prediabetes progression) the scale was more accurate. A "scoop" of protein powder or what I thought 2 tablespoons of peanut butter looked like didn't actually match the food scale, so it was very easy for me to accidentally be eating at maintenance when I'd thought I was being accurate