Long-time lurker w/ significant weight to lose + PCOS

julyflame

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2021
Messages
6
Hi all, I’ve been reading this forum on and off for about 2 yrs now, and as many of you know the amount of info is overwhelming! I’ve had stints over the past 2 yrs when I’ve applied some of that information, but none that have been long lasting (mostly my fault). I really struggle with the consensus that these principals will/should result in weight gain. I am a 5’6” 25 yr old woman, and I currently weigh 255 lbs. In December I weighed in at my highest of 275 lbs., and the terror of inching ever closer to 300 shook me up. I’m currently doing WW (Weight Watchers) simply because it helps me manage the psychological side of calorie restriction and it’s helping me lose weight, but I’m painfully aware that I’m not eating the actual foods I should be for optimal wellness (lots of processed low calorie foods, PUFAs, sugar-free substitutes, etc.). Basically, the MAIN thing I’d like to figure out is how to lose a significant amount of fat while applying the info that Peat and others have provided? Anyone on here had experience with this? I know that there’re many factors when it comes to health, and weight loss isn’t the end-all be-all, and when I’ve searched weight loss on the forum that’s what people tend to say and the information I’ve found is so scattered, but I NEED to not be this heavy anymore. I’ve been very inactive for many years and so I’ve also started walking regularly this past month, and once the weather is warmer I’ll be swimming. I’d also like to add in some kettlebell workouts to my routine.
Secondarily, I’m 99% sure I have PCOS (extremely irregular periods that are heavy and painful, weight gain that began when I hit puberty, hair thinning, acne along my chin, lethargy, and worst of all, hirsutism - we’re talking face stubble that I have to shave every morning if I want to feel like a woman). The symptoms are depressing and have messed with me mentally (particularly the hair thinning and hirsutism, I just feel like an unfeminine freak). Because much of the info on here feels geared towards boosting male health, I’m always nervous that I could be inadvertently boosting androgens? If that’s a thing lol?
Anyways, I know that’s a lot and I know much of this will have be sorted out with trial-and-error, I just feel like I’m drowning in information and if anyone could point me in some direction that could potentially be helpful for my specific set of issues I would be much obliged.
 

PurpleHeart

Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2019
Messages
181
Hello welcome to the forum, I am sure you are already familiar with the general advices of avoiding pufa, hard to digest foods, etc. if you where sneaking around for 2 years.

My advice to lose weight is to use coffee, add sugar and milk and drink it with a meal if it's causing stress, eat low-fat, eat a good amount of protein, don't go overboard with calories, this only helps if your metabolism is good no reason to eat a lot with a slow metabolism you are just gonna get fat if you do.

Get a good amount of calcium, eat nutritious things in general like meat/organs, Dairy, fruits etc. avoid legumes, raw vegetables seeds and other hard to digest stuff.
Although there are some studies that show sesame seeds, flax and other estrogenic foods to be helpful against PCOS, I don't think it is a viable long term solution since these foods will probably make things worse in the long run, so if you choose to consume those maybe do so in small amounts and exercise caution.

I would advise against refined sugar, I think good quality honey is superior in every aspect, a study even showed honey to increase progesterone and help to relieve PCOS.

Maybe use taurine to improve metabolic function and lower stress.

Reducing stress in general is very helpful, enough sunlight and avoiding a sedentary life is also helpful.

Maybe exercising a little isn't a bad idea start with walking more and light exercises that help you improve your body composition without stressing you too much.

That's my advice anyway take it with a grain of salt, like everything else you hear.

Another thing I would like to add is that you seem to have a self punishing attitude towards your body, not feeling feminine enough or feeling like a freak and stuff,
I would advice against that since being a woman is not about the image that social media and society sells well actually that applies to men too and every individual,
Your body is responding this way due to some kind of stress, PCOS is going alongside with adrenal androgen levels being high because your body is trying to get out of stress, so stop shaming your body for this response since it's a response that attempts to save you from stress, respect your body for trying to protect you and assist it the best way you can without judging it.
 
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Peatful

Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
Messages
3,582




Welcome -
I want to encourage you to listen to and read Ray himself if you have not done so already.
Hopefully- we can help support and problem solve; where Ray can educate and guide.
I have not watched nor listened to the YouTube video above- but it touches on the very things you are troubled by.
The second link will also head you in the right direction.
Best to you.
 

YamnayaMommy

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2019
Messages
343
I posted at length about my experience losing a significant amount of weight while loosely peating
Post in thread 'Help with Weightloss'
Help with Weightloss

Big takeaways:

figure out how to do a deficit. Not forever, but until you’re within striking range of your goal weight. I had success with IF and calorie counting. Now I’m maintaining 140lbs (and am almost 5’10”) eating about 2300 calories a day. Best shape and energy I’ve been in since having a bunch of kids.


caffeine if you tolerate it. This will help immensely appetite suppressant. I use coffee and caffeine pills and get about 600mg to 800mg a day.

find low calorie peaty foods that you love and make them staples. For me, it’s low fat dairy and fruit.

My health and well-being improved dramatically after losing the extra weight. Maybe yours will too!
 

lampofred

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
3,244
Eating low fat, avoiding PUFA, eating fruits/fruit juices (especially orange juice) instead of starch to stimulate metabolism and to reduce endotoxin (which can cause severe weight gain if you have bad bacteria in your gut), keeping calcium higher than phosphate intake which means getting most of your protein from milk and cheese, drinking coffee, getting sunlight, and taking thyroid to keep your metabolic rate high (pulse 85 BPM and temperature 98.6) would all be things I think Peat would recommend.

Aspirin and fat soluble vitamins might also help by turning off fatty acid synthase but I think it's safer to focus on diet first because it's hard to know the consequences of pills and supplements in the long-run, except thyroid because it's hard to get temperature up without it.

And there may be more males than females on this forum, but Peat's work actually started with a strong focus on female hormones.

I think fruits and coffee in particular activate female fertility and would be good for PCOS.
 

mostlylurking

Member
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
3,078
Location
Texas
I NEED to not be this heavy anymore. I’ve been very inactive for many years and so I’ve also started walking regularly this past month, and once the weather is warmer I’ll be swimming. I’d also like to add in some kettlebell workouts to my routine.
Secondarily, I’m 99% sure I have PCOS
Please look into thiamine. If you are deficient, and you have multiple signs of thiamine deficiency, this needs to be addressed for your oxidative metabolism to work. I packed on 20 pounds in 2 months last year because my thiamine function was blocked. My thyroid medication provided lots of T3 but it just built up in me and couldn't solve the problem. I had very high out of range T3 test results while I had severe hypothyriod symptoms. Massively increasing my thiamine hcl resolved the problem and I am starting to feel normal and starting to lose the weight (finally).

 
OP
julyflame

julyflame

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2021
Messages
6
Hello welcome to the forum, I am sure you are already familiar with the general advices of avoiding pufa, hard to digest foods, etc. if you where sneaking around for 2 years.

My advice to lose weight is to use coffee, add sugar and milk and drink it with a meal if it's causing stress, eat low-fat, eat a good amount of protein, don't go overboard with calories, this only helps if your metabolism is good no reason to eat a lot with a slow metabolism you are just gonna get fat if you do.

Get a good amount of calcium, eat nutritious things in general like meat/organs, Dairy, fruits etc. avoid legumes, raw vegetables seeds and other hard to digest stuff.
Although there are some studies that show sesame seeds, flax and other estrogenic foods to be helpful against PCOS, I don't think it is a viable long term solution since these foods will probably make things worse in the long run, so if you choose to consume those maybe do so in small amounts and exercise caution.

I would advise against refined sugar, I think good quality honey is superior in every aspect, a study even showed honey to increase progesterone and help to relieve PCOS.

Maybe use taurine to improve metabolic function and lower stress.

Reducing stress in general is very helpful, enough sunlight and avoiding a sedentary life is also helpful.

Maybe exercising a little isn't a bad idea start with walking more and light exercises that help you improve your body composition without stressing you too much.

That's my advice anyway take it with a grain of salt, like everything else you hear.

Another thing I would like to add is that you seem to have a self punishing attitude towards your body, not feeling feminine enough or feeling like a freak and stuff,
I would advice against that since being a woman is not about the image that social media and society sells well actually that applies to men too and every individual,
Your body is responding this way due to some kind of stress, PCOS is going alongside with adrenal androgen levels being high because your body is trying to get out of stress, so stop shaming your body for this response since it's a response that attempts to save you from stress, respect your body for trying to protect you and assist it the best way you can without judging it.
Thank you, especially for reminding me that my body is the way it is because it's trying to protect me from something. I didn't even realize how harsh some of that sounded until you pointed it out, but you're right. Been working on having more self-respect, because I do find that my emotional reaction to my body just makes the self-neglect worse. Appreciate the response!
 
OP
julyflame

julyflame

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2021
Messages
6




Welcome -
I want to encourage you to listen to and read Ray himself if you have not done so already.
Hopefully- we can help support and problem solve; where Ray can educate and guide.
I have not watched nor listened to the YouTube video above- but it touches on the very things you are troubled by.
The second link will also head you in the right direction.
Best to you.

Thanks so much for the resources! I've listened to Peat himself but have somehow missed his information re: PCOS. Second link looks like a great jumping-off point too.
 
OP
julyflame

julyflame

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2021
Messages
6
I posted at length about my experience losing a significant amount of weight while loosely peating
Post in thread 'Help with Weightloss'
Help with Weightloss

Big takeaways:

figure out how to do a deficit. Not forever, but until you’re within striking range of your goal weight. I had success with IF and calorie counting. Now I’m maintaining 140lbs (and am almost 5’10”) eating about 2300 calories a day. Best shape and energy I’ve been in since having a bunch of kids.


caffeine if you tolerate it. This will help immensely appetite suppressant. I use coffee and caffeine pills and get about 600mg to 800mg a day.

find low calorie peaty foods that you love and make them staples. For me, it’s low fat dairy and fruit.

My health and well-being improved dramatically after losing the extra weight. Maybe yours will too!
Congrats on your weight loss, that's awesome! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, I really appreciate the response and link. Very encouraging to see someone lose that kind of weight while aiming for the standard of health referred to by RP.
 
OP
julyflame

julyflame

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2021
Messages
6
Eating low fat, avoiding PUFA, eating fruits/fruit juices (especially orange juice) instead of starch to stimulate metabolism and to reduce endotoxin (which can cause severe weight gain if you have bad bacteria in your gut), keeping calcium higher than phosphate intake which means getting most of your protein from milk and cheese, drinking coffee, getting sunlight, and taking thyroid to keep your metabolic rate high (pulse 85 BPM and temperature 98.6) would all be things I think Peat would recommend.

Aspirin and fat soluble vitamins might also help by turning off fatty acid synthase but I think it's safer to focus on diet first because it's hard to know the consequences of pills and supplements in the long-run, except thyroid because it's hard to get temperature up without it.

And there may be more males than females on this forum, but Peat's work actually started with a strong focus on female hormones.

I think fruits and coffee in particular activate female fertility and would be good for PCOS.
Thank you so much for the response! I think I need to finally try and get ahold of some thyroid.
 
OP
julyflame

julyflame

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2021
Messages
6
Please look into thiamine. If you are deficient, and you have multiple signs of thiamine deficiency, this needs to be addressed for your oxidative metabolism to work. I packed on 20 pounds in 2 months last year because my thiamine function was blocked. My thyroid medication provided lots of T3 but it just built up in me and couldn't solve the problem. I had very high out of range T3 test results while I had severe hypothyriod symptoms. Massively increasing my thiamine hcl resolved the problem and I am starting to feel normal and starting to lose the weight (finally).


Thank you for this. I've never looked into thiamine, but I definitely will now!
 

mostlylurking

Member
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
3,078
Location
Texas
Thank you for this. I've never looked into thiamine, but I definitely will now!
So glad!
links for you:
Ray Peat's info concerning thiamine in his articles is a little sparse: Programmable Search Engine
also search for B1: Programmable Search Engine
There's more in the Ray Peat video search: Ray Peat Search ; search for thiamine, also search for B1.
also:
Elliot Overton's youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c
Elliot Overton's website: Articles | Stafford | EONutrition
Dr. Chandler Marrs' website: You searched for thiamine - Hormones Matter
Dr. Costantini's website: HDT Therapy
 

Nemo

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2019
Messages
2,163
Basically, the MAIN thing I’d like to figure out is how to lose a significant amount of fat while applying the info that Peat and others have provided? Anyone on here had experience with this?

Julyflame, at one point while on a very low-carb diet I had gone from 125 pounds to 170 pounds. I looked like a Cushings illustration photo in a medical textbook, my health was completely screwed up, and none of my usual ways of losing weight worked at all.

The thing I tried to keep in mind was that my weight problem was a matter of screwed-up hormones, not a lack of discipline. Stress hormones had flooded my system with free fatty acids, which made me insulin resistant and made it hard for even supplemental thyroid to work properly.

So while I cut PUFAs out of my diet and returned to eating carbs and drinking milk, I focused on getting those free fatty acids down. A few Peat tricks helped greatly with that. I started supplementing thyroid (both t4 and t3) and I used niacinamide, aspirin, progesterone and DHEA to get the free fatty acids down. I also used an Idealabs product called Pyrucet.

Basically, if you use even a very low dose of Pyrucet (for me, a single drop), or a dose of 50 mg of niacinamide, what happens until the dose wears off is you are hungry for sugar but have no interest in fat at all. It gives you the feeling of what a healthy metabolism is like and what you would want to be eating if your metabolism was working properly. I found myself drinking OJ or sugared and salted skim milk a lot.

If you're relentless about using niacinamide 2-3 times a day, with aspirin or progesterone in between doses of niacinamide, it seems to get your body working better pretty fast. For example, after less than a week of being absolutely relentless about dealing with free fatty acids, I began getting hyperthyroid symptoms from my usual thyroid dose and had to cut the dose in half. I'm now at about a quarter of my original dose because it works so much better without an overload of FFA blocking it.

A typical day would be a small dose of thyroid every hour or two throughout the day. Along with the thyroid, I'd start the day with a little progesterone and DHEA with milk and OJ, then a dose of niacinamide a couple hours later just before breakfast, then aspirin a couple hours after that, then niacinamide just before lunch, then aspirin a couple hours later, and so on until a bedtime dose of thyroid with progesterone.

This schedule tended to make me want foods that were better for my metabolism, kept stress hormones low and let me lose weight. When I wanted fats, I ate them, but I wanted less of them than before, probably because I was full most of the time from sugared skim milk. I refused to count calories or force myself to avoid fats. I ate when I was hungry.

Another trick that really helped was eliminating starches for a while and replacing them with sugar. Instead of toast in the morning, I had watermelon and marmalade with eggs. Instead of a potato at lunch, I'd have peaches with a burger and drink orange juice. Later, you can slowly reintroduce starches if you want, but you should keep in mind that starches trigger insulin (fructose doesn't), your insulin system may be problematic, and you may have to retrain your body to be able to deal properly with starches without putting the weight back on.

So again, I would think of this as a hormonal problem rather than a weight problem and use every trick to get those FFAs down because everything gets easier after that. And all of this will help your PCOS.

I also agree with all of the other advice in this thread. I'm rooting for you.
 

TheToad

Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2022
Messages
35
Location
Vienna, Austria
If you're relentless about using niacinamide 2-3 times a day, with aspirin or progesterone in between doses of niacinamide, it seems to get your body working better pretty fast. For example, after less than a week of being absolutely relentless about dealing with free fatty acids, I began getting hyperthyroid symptoms from my usual thyroid dose and had to cut the dose in half. I'm now at about a quarter of my original dose because it works so much better without an overload of FFA blocking it.
Did you never experience any negative effects at all from all the B3?

I tried this exact routine with Niacinamide too a couple of times and usually somewhere around day 2-3 I'd get organ pain from it. It was as if my organs all contracted for a splitsecond and that happened on and off throughout the day until the niacinamide was out of my system again.

Have you had any experience with something like this?
 

summergirl

Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2022
Messages
41
Location
USA
Welcome to the forum Julyflame,
I am new here too, though I also lurked for 2 years. I am diagnosed with pcos and I am 25 as well. Something that I have found to be really valuable that isn’t really mentioned by Peat as far as I know, but isn’t anti-Peat either, is to take inositol 2x per day. I take the Jarrow formulas inositol powder from Amazon. There’s also the more bougie one that is called ovasitol that is marketed specifically for pcos and fertility but I have found that both work and they have basically the same active ingredients. Ovasitol just has two different types of inositol in it but I didn’t notice a difference in effectiveness between the 2 brands.

I take 1 tsp in the morning mixed with water or a little juice and 1 tsp with dinner mixed with water. I swear to you my periods and hormones were all over the place for years. I started taking the inositol and within a month I got my period back and I’ve had my period every single month for almost 5 years now. Before I started inositol I was going up to 100 days between periods.

Inositol is a sugar alcohol in fruits, veg, legumes, etc but it’s in small quantities. It is needed throughout the body to let insulin bring sugar into our cells. With pcos we are struggling with Insulin resistance, and we are particularly deficient in inositol in our ovaries compared to healthy women. Inositol has also been shown in studies to improve thyroid health and lower anxiety. It’s super mild it just tastes like a little bit of powdered sugar and it generally has no side effects.

So along with doing low pufa, lower fat in general, I think inositol has been so important for me. That was the only thing I was doing for years before I found Peat in 2020 and at least my periods were regular and I was ovulating from the inositol alone despite a high pufa diet.

I know exactly what you mean with the hair loss and the hirsutism and feeling like less of a woman etc. it’s really difficult. My weight has always been normal and I’ve always been more muscular than average women so I went undiagnosed for many years. I had acne for 10 years straight, I get hairs on my chin I have to pluck, my hair was falling out in a male pattern. I have been able to reverse almost all of that and keep it in check, by following a pro metabolic diet and taking inositol, but I still have to pluck my chin hairs lol
 
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