Is this really the after 40 curse? Weight came on suddenly, won't budge

UKalicia

New member
If one more doctor tells me to just accept this because I'm "getting older," I'm going to scream.


About three years ago, I put on weight pretty suddenly. Like... 40 pounds. I felt sluggish, fatigued beyond, and just all kinds of not right. Exercising was almost an impossibility at the time, although I was always active before.


Every doctor I went to wrote it off to "being older." (I was 37.)


Long story short, I have a new doctor, who changed medicines (at this same time, I was diagnosed with hypertension despite no family history at 37!!!!), AND added some supplements (just over the counter D-3 and magnesium), which actually helped my symptoms tremendously.


I am now running 3-4 times weekly, and watching what I eat. (But... I am in grad school, so I do slip and often have to eat away from home. I try to opt for Subway to be at least quasi-healthy.)


Yet... I've lost only a grand total of 5 pounds. For real.


What gives?


I've lost weight before, after having children. (I have three.) The last baby really took some doing. I couldn't get the weight to budge for three years.


I don't know what the problem is now, but I'm wondering if anyone else is having this problem? Has anyone solved it? If so, how?
 
Man! My story is quite similar, but for different reasons.


I was always thin, until around the time I turned 40, and started packing on weight despite no marked lifestyle changes.


Year after year, I gained weight, and no amount of diet or exercise would shift even a pound. I would kill myself for weeks, but with no loss (and sometimes gain) I'd eventually give up.


When I, once again, decided to give it the old college try last September, it was my continued failure that actully led to my ultimate success.


You see, I was exercising 1-2 hours every day, and eating 900-1,500 calories. Yet I gained weight. Yes, gained weight. It was never much, but always a few pounds above my starting weight. I knew I shouldn't eat less, and was skeptical of my ability to increase my already arduous workout schedule. In pure desperation, I typed something like, "exercising like crazy and starving myself but gaining weight," into a search engine. When I began reading the results, the common thread among those echoing the same problem was polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).


That's when the light went on. I was diagnosed with PCOS over 20 years ago but, because I had no real symptoms of the disorder, I all but forgot about it.


No doctor ever told me that PCOS could lead to weight gain, or make it next to impossible to lose weight. More specificlly, no doctor and no fitness/diet "expert" ever mentioned that PCOS is linked to insulin resistance, or that my inability to lose weight might be a sign I was insulin resistant (IR). I found this out on my own.


Purely as an experiment, I decided to try a known treatment for insulin resistance. It turns out that cinnamon is a natural insulin sensitizer. My research suggested a dosage to try and, literally from the day I started taking it, I began losing weight.


...Years of failed weight loss attempts, and specifically two months of intense, but fruitless, effort were all erased with this discovery. I lost 3.4 lbs that first week. It's been 3 months since I started taking a cinnamon supplement, and I've lost just over 30 lbs to date.


When I was still in the WTH stage, I theorized all sorts of popular reasons why I wasn't able to lose weight. I'd been keeping a diet & activity journal, so I had proof I wasn't lying about those. I thought maybe I was hypothyroid, but had more symptoms in common with hyperthyroidism. I've had life-long insomnia, and thought there might be something to the theory that lack of sleep can lead to weight gain. I suspect that if the cinnamon experiment hadn't been successful, my next step would've been to have my thyroid levels checked. I'm just so, so relieved that my problem seems to have a cause, and I seem to have found a viable solution. I, too, gained almost 40 lbs over about 5 years. I've almost lost it all...and it all started from the day I began taking cinnamon.


So, the cinnamon thing is only relevant if someone is insulin resistant. And cinnamon, on its own, won't result in weight loss. What it does is make my body respond more normally to insulin. With diet and exercise, I can finally lose weight. I will soon hit my pre-IR weight, and may even push for more.


My only advice would be to figure out what works for you. If you know you're exercising hard and sticking to a tight diet, then there's some other wrinkle, if you're not losing weight. Try different tactics to discover what that wrinkle might be. Don't give up.


Good luck! :)
 
AWow. There was so much I resonated with in your story!!!
And you know what... A decade ago, a really witchy gyn told me that I had a 3:1 ratio of... Something, and that was a marker for PCOS, but she said she was writing that off (despite the fact it runs in my family) because at the time I hadn't lost the weight from my third baby, and she blamed the weight for my symptoms. ( worth noting that I couldn't lose weight then either, but when the next doc put me on a super dose of hormones, two rounds, my gyn issues cleared and my weight dropped like magic.)

Hmmm... I've run the thyroid tests. Negative, but I have a lot of symptoms on both hyper and hypo. So, that didn't shock me.

Gosh, I'm wondering how I would know if I'm insulin resistant?

But even if I'm not, I am inspired by your story. Thank you so much for sharing!!!
 
Since having such difficulties with weight loss myself, and finding the solution on my own, I tend to get a bit miffed when I hear stories like you described. I don't know if it's arrogance or ignorance (or a little of each) that allows some people to act as though they not only fully understand every aspect of weight maintenance in the human body, but specifically someone else's body.


Just as an example, awhile ago, I was trying to lose weight, and my husband announced that he was going to join me. We had to go to our cottage one weekend, and I ate salad with balsamic vinegar as dressing; a few almonds here, and an apple there... You get the idea. My husband, I guess, forgot about his pledge, and ate chicken wings and fast food. He ate an entire package of Oreo cookies himself, that weekend. When we returned home, I'd gained 2 lbs while he lost 3! So...tell me our bodies respond identically to calories. I dare you. (giggling)


But I should mention that I was diagnosed with PCOS because I had the one, main symptom: inovulatory dysfunction. I had just 1-4 periods per year from the time I started menstruating to...ironically...the time I started gaining weight. Until age 39, I had no other symptoms that are said to be common of PCOS (excess body hair, thinning head hair, weight gain, inability to lose weight, etc.). I started gaining weight when my periods became regular. So, my one and only symptom of PCOS went away at the same time the next, most common PCOS symptom began (that being weight gain and inability to lose weight). And the weight issues are down to the fact that PCOS is linked to insulin resistance (IR). It is the IR that causes the weight issues. I'm guessing I wasn't IR for all those years I had inovulatory dysfunction, as I ate whatever I wanted and didn't exercise, and maintained a very low weight, naturally, without trying.


Did your father go bald early, by any chance? As part of my research, I came across information that suggests PCOS is linked to the gene that causes early balding in the fathers of PCOS women. In short, PCOS may be attributed to the father's side. And yes, my father did start balding early in his life. Fascinating, huh?


While it is always the best idea to seek medical advice, I just went ahead and tried the cinnamon experiment on my own. I'd researched insulin resistance, and how it relates to PCOS, and how the cinnamon connection was discovered, and how accepted is the science behind cinnamon as an insulin sensitizer. There are loads of respected sources that, at least at this time, recommend cinnamon as a treatment for IR. So, with that, and having learned the clinical study dosages ranged from 1-6g/day (but that many PCOS women found success at 3g/day), I just went ahead and tried it. I'd read the potential side effects of taking cinnamon, and was comfortable that I wouldn't be putting my health in danger. It's cinnamon.... If it had taken weeks to work, I wouldn't quite be so "sold". But I literally took 3g of cinnamon one day, and had lost something like a pound and a half by the next morning's weigh-in. But, you know, I'd lost a pound or so in a day before. I just always gained it back over the next day or two. Not now, though. I lost weight the next day, and the next day, and the next day. I continued losing. I had already been keeping a chart of my weights, and it was so obvious that the cinnamon was the difference. It's really undeniable.


Similarly, I've tried twice, now, to reduce the dosage down to 2g. The result is just as undeniable. My weight loss stalls. I don't lose any weight while I'm only taking 2g. When I go back up to 3, the weight loss begins again.


If you go to the 'Weight Loss with Medical Conditions" section and scroll to my POS/PCOS thread (It used to be called POS, back when I was diagnosed.), you can see how I began...all defeated and unsure, ready to try almost anything...and then the immediate results.


But, I'm always worried that someone will read my story, and think they will lose weight by taking a cinnomon supplement. And it just won't happen. Cinnamon merely improves fasting glucose levels in IR people. In studies where non-IR people were given cinnamon, they had no improvement in fasting glucose levels. In studies of IR people taking cinnamon, there was no weight loss without caloric deficit. The point is, if you are IR, then taking cinnamon may normalize your body's response to insulin, thus allowing good, ol' fashioned diet and exercise to do their thing. And that's EXACTLY what happened to me. I was dieting and exercising pretty aggressively, and only gained weight. I started taking cinnamon, and the weight finally began coming off, but literally from the day I began taking it. I didn't do anything else differently.


I hope that gives you some more insight. Good luck! :)
 
Actually, yes, it did. And... I'm more freaked out than before! LOL Here's the thing: prior to having my daughter, I had probably... 7 periods a year or so. I was not at all unhappy about this, so I never mentioned it. When the docs asked, "Are you periods normal?" I said, "For me, yeah." Because it had been that way since I started having them. I was thin, thin, thin. I ate whatever I wanted. Never an issue. After my first two pregnancies (boys), the only huge change was that my cramps were somewhat alleviated, but... my periods got somewhat more regular, which I didn't like. (My periods are very, very long, always. 8-10 days). I went up to probably 9 periods a year or so.


I did some reading after I read your post. And... here's the thing. I am unreal hirsute. Always have been. I grow a lovely mustache and a soul patch as well. And... it doesn't stop there. Hair removal has been a routine part of my life since... well, at least since my periods started. Again, to me, this is normal. In our family, the women all grow them. In my 20s and 30s I had terrible acne (but never in my teens). That started as soon as I had my sons and had more regular periods.


It was after I had my daughter that things went awry. Since then, I now have a period roughly every month, but there's no predicting when they come. I chart it all, but there's not much rhyme or reason to it. I also spot heavily for 2-5 days prior to the period starting.


At the time I went to the doc who said, "Oh, this 3:1 ratio of luteinizing hormone to follicle stimulating hormone is a marker of PCOS, but... I still think it's just because you're fat!" (never mind, I was doing all the right things then too!), I was bleeding about three weeks out of every month. When I went to the other doctor, he gave me progesterone (I think) in a mega dose, two rounds (1 pill a day for 30 days... you think you'll lose your mind b/c of the hormone blast! AND they tell you to be very careful or you'll get pregnant). That stopped the bleeding, and... subsequently, the weight came off. I ignored the PCOS news because she claimed the main feature was infertility and I clearly didn't have that problem. So, I thought, who cares?


I can't recall how my periods were from that time until three years ago super clearly (I was very busy... three kids and all). But, yes, I do recall that around the time the weight gain started, my periods got much more regular. Oh, wait. I DO remember. That guy put me on birth control pills! And... I would skip the water pill week and not have a period most of the time. Then suddenly my blood pressure went sky high (160/110, with NO family history whatsoever) and I had to come off of them. But my periods were coming every month whenever they pleased--with the spotting--and... the weight has crept up.


Right now, it doesn't seem to matter what I do. I can eat like a maniac, and sit on my arse and I'll put on 5 pounds or so. I can exercise like a fiend and watch every morsel, and I *might* lose a few pounds in the course of a few months. Or... I might even gain some more weight. Hard to say. There's no real rhyme or reason.


My father had a full head of hair until death. But my mother's father went bald, as did my uncle. And I do have several cousins on both sides and aunts on both sides with diagnosed PCOS. (Two of the cousins had multiple kids like me; all of my aunts were infertile.)


As I read up on it last night, the results of that test she ran (I looked it up in my own files to confirm that it was luteinizing and follicle stimulating) are suggestive. And according to the Rotterdam scale, I met 2 of the 3 symptoms up until I had my daughter. Now I have frequent periods, but they're irregular. (Like right now, the program on my phone that charts it says, "you are four days late!" Big surprise! (Well, I guess under one of the explanations I read, the irregular nature of my periods would still meet the burden) and the body hair is worse than ever before. (Good thing my aspirations were not porn or stripping b/c I'd be out of luck!)


Weirdly, last summer I read a book called THE HORMONE DIET, which had a number of quizzes, etc. in it. (A specialist in Canada, who apparently has a long, long waiting list for women from all over to see her, wrote it.) And the quizzes did say I have an insulin resistance issue, and low progesterone. (It wasn't super helpful because she had swallowing so many supplements that... geez, you might as well just go onto the nursing home!) Plus, what she recommended (not cinnamon at all. She recommends ALA, magnesium, biotin, and CLA) didn't help me at all.


So... anyway... What I think I'm going to do is try out the cinnamon. I read up on it and if I'm not IR, it won't hurt me (and in fact they apparently recommend it to folks with hypertension--which is also apparently a risk issue with PCOS). I will obviously continue working out (I run 3-4 times a week for at least three miles) and dieting (always, always on a diet!). If it doesn't work, then shrug... I'm no worse off.


In the interim, I will try to find a gyn here. (I just moved in August to start my Ph.d. so I don't have all of my doctors lined up, etc.) And I will mention the blood work from before, as well as the history. See what she says. However, I will say... the health care here in this city is not stellar. (Oh, let's be honest... I've lived in 7 states and here in the U.S. the health care is just not 'all that.' Before I moved here, I was in Austin, TX, a LARGE metro city and had terrible doctor after another. They missed all sorts of things. Then I moved here and lucked out with a pretty good D.O. internist. They lady who tested me and then blamed it all on my weight--which I'm now reading is a feature of PCOS itself--was in Philly, another large city, which is where one would imagine quality doctors to be.) So, who knows. But from what I read online... it doesn't appear to be super easy to treat. (Oddly, I'm already on a drug they recommend for PCOS from my current doctor for my hypertension and the subsequent swelling, Spirnolactone.)


I understand your fear completely. No, I don't think cinnamon is a wonder cure-all. And I realize that it may not work for me at all. But based on the data at hand, it's possible it might.


I found the same dosage info you did. Is there a particular brand you recommend? (I know with my D3 and magnesium, brand matters because you want high quality.)


I will continue on with my diet and exercise and if this doesn't indicate IR, then I will keep looking for answers elsewhere.


It helps me tremendously to know there was someone else out there with weird symptoms and this same problem and... there was an answer. It's not just what the doctors in Austin said (age). To be honest, when I posted, I was pretty low. And, yes, I was asking myself, 'why keep killing myself like this, and taking time from my studies to run if it really won't make a difference?!' Even if the cinnamon doesn't work, I will persevere to try to find another solution.


So, even if I don't have IR, you've definitely helped me.
 
I want to clarify that I tell my story for two reasons:


1. To help any other PCOS or IR women who may be unaware of some of these issues, but also...


2. As a reminder that we are our own best advocates. My story happens to be about PCOS and IR. But others are failing in their weight loss attempts for countless reasons, some of which may not be solely about calories in/calories out. If I had just gone along with the suggestion I needed to eat less (less than 1,000 calories/day???) or exercise more (more than 2hrs/day???), I'd likely still be where I was so many times over the past 6 years, and all of September and October 2011. Being my own best advocate is what has made the difference for me. ...Knowing there had to be more to it, and then doing some research. Others need to figure out what is that missing piece that's keeping them from being successful. No matter what it is (even if it's just being more careful with their diets), they'll never find it if they don't put some thought into it. I (seem to) have cracked that nut, and only want the same for everyone else. :)
 
I completely agree!!!


For decades, I did not advocate for myself. A doctor said something, and that's how it was.


My middle child had pediatric GERD, which was a nightmare. And through the ineptidue and lack of true caring of doctors, who were more invested in being 'right,' than in solving the problem (I have more respect for you if you tell me you don't know than if you keep telling me something we both know is not true). As a result of advocating for him, I lost faith in the medical profession, stopped seeing them as infallible gods, AND, I began to self-advocate.


It's the best thing that's ever happened.


I still go through periods of not being able to solve a health issue--like now--but I don't keep paying the same doctor to say things to make me think it's my fault.


Case-in-point: the female gyn who found the 3:1 ratio, yet blamed the symptoms on my weight gain. I said to her: "You know what, if I'd been heavy my whole life, I'd probably believe you and leave here and go home and cry. And I'd keep coming back and paying you for your bad advice. But since I've been thin all my life until this problem, I don't have the body issues many lifelong weight sufferers have. So, I'm going to tell you what they should tell you: You're flat wrong, and you're kind of a jerk."


Okay, maybe I shouldn't have called her names. (In my defense, my hormone levels were clearly--as evidenced by what fixed the problem--WAY off.)


I'm not saying go in and call your doctors names. But do do what I did: Leave and find someone else who can and will at least try to find out what's wrong.


With this current situation, I saw numerous doctors in Austin, all of whom swore it was my age. No one fixed anything. I never gave up. I found this lady here and even though the weight piece isn't solved, a lot of the other symptoms are. (With this recent weight gain, there have been all sorts of thyroid-like issues: crushing fatigue, hair loss from my head, insomnia, other things...) She got my blood pressure under control. She got the swelling under control. My fatigue is SO much better. (Now I can run! Before, I couldn't even walk around the block, I was so tired.) I am sleeping much better. Things are getting better. And she's still working on some things. (I go back next month.)


So, yes, I agree 2000%. You cannot let doctors blame YOU for your own conditions. And you cannot let them fall back on your weight as the cause of whatever's going on. (I would argue that if you are sincerely doing your part with diet and exercise and your weight is still an issue, then something is CAUSING the weight gain and the doctor needs to figure that out.)


So, yes, thank you for sharing your story! You're right on!
 
(I posted my next comment before reading your follow-up.)


Wow! So much in common, yet so much at odds!


When my doctor diagnosed me with PCOS, he mentioned the potential for infertility issues, but said, "One of my patients gets pregnant every time her husband touches her, so..." I never wanted kids, so I didn't care at all about fertility.


When the weight gain began, my periods became regular. But mine are now uber-regular. ((You know...there's a running joke about PCOS women - that we should own stock in pregnancy test manufacturing companies. If you are sexually active, no matter how "careful" you are, you're doing those tests probably a few times a year...since the usual sign of pregnancy (a missed period) is of no value to you.)) In any event, what I was getting at is, I could now actually predict my periods. They were every 34 days, then 31, then 30, now they're every 29 days. Now I'm looking forward to menopause. I sure do miss my period-free lifestyle! Also, my periods were always the full, 7 day deal. It was like a miracle when I discovered o.b. ultra size tampons, as I could reliably go a few hours on days 1 and 2, without having to change them. I could actually DO things. Then, it was devastating when o.b. discontinuted the ultra size. Super plus just doesn't work the same.


Here's the other thing about periods. I read that the only real concern about long-term use of cinnamon was blood thinning. Some of the IR women said they go off cinnamon during their periods. That first period on cinnamon, I was very curious to see what was going to happen. But you know what? It was the shortest, and lightest period of my life. I've had 2 more since then, and they've been the same. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


Other PCOS stuff... I do have oily skin and large pores. That makes my skin acne-prone. But I don't have acne, per se. Many people compliment me on my skin, actually. I'm often presumed to be in my 20s. While I have lots of shiny head hair, the rest of my body is virtually hairless. Plus, I'm a natural blond, so what hair I do have is not very noticeable. (Double-edged sword there... If I go out without mascara and eyebrow pencil, I look like a cancer patient.) Oh, and PCOS women are said to have more masculine physiques. I couldn't be more feminine, with my huge rack, small waist, and womanly hips. I think I've always kind of longed for a more boyish body shape...the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence.


Well...I'm just rambling now. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. When I first started taking cinnamon, I was exercising pretty hard every day, and eating a very healthy, low-cal diet. Still, I mostly only lose a few tenths of a pound per day, most days. That's still adds up. But I have to remind myself that if I just keep chipping away at it, I'll get where I want to be. I mean, I've lost over 30lbs so far. So, it is working. I bet, though, if I weren't IR, that I'd have lost that weight faster, given how hard I'm working at it.


Anyway, best of luck!
 
Okay...I'm all caught up now. ;-) I buy my cinnamon supplement at the grocery store. They are 500mg capsules. All the stores I've found which sell cinnamon in supplement form in my area carry the same manufacturer. You can also buy cinnamon supplements online. But I have no info. about the efficacy of different brands.


The one I buy is cinnamomum cassia. "True" Sri Lankan cinnamon is the cinnamomum verum variety, if I recall correctly. My cassia variety is working fine, but I would love to try the verum, if I could find it available at retail, locally.


When I was growing up, I'd always intended to become a doctor, actually. Back in my late teens, I talked to many doctors, to see if it was truly for me. The GP's said, "Don't do it," (they see a lot of hypochondriacs and people with tennis elbow, all day), while I wasn't interested in most of the specialties. I considered switching to veterinary medicine, then life happened, and I switched fields entirely. I've always been keenly aware of the limitation of medical education, though. Doctors aren't omniscient. I tend to be the wet blanket in my family, because I don't hypothesize all sorts of exotic causes for health problems. Doctors, for the most part, are giving it their best guess, based on education and experience. Unless it's something obvious, like a broken leg, or a disease for which you can test, they're going to go with the most likely culprit, and work from there. Doctors don't get much nutritional training, either. So, I try to put it all in perspective. I don't dislike doctors by any means. But I just don't assume they actually know what my problem is, or that they'll care enough to investigate, if they don't know.


That said, I rarely see doctors. I know. I know. You don't have to tell me. But without any real health problems, I see little need. "I'm as healthy as a horse!" (It was a running joke with my last GP, before he retired in 2005. I would go about once every 5 years or so, and his receptionist would have to fetch my records from the inactive files.) And while some might argue that my weight gain and inability to lose weight is a health concern, I would counter that no doctor ever told me about a link between PCOS and IR, or possible solutions for IR. Honestly, I suspect most of them simply don't know. So, I, in no way, feel like I would've been better off seeing a doctor.


I also don't like pills, medication, etc. I strongly believe in healthy eating as my "medicine." It would've taken me much longer to screw up the nerve to try a pharmaceutical insulin sensitizer. I tried cinnamon because it's...well...cinnamon. And as I mentioned to someone else, you can just eat regular, old cinnamon, and get the same result. I didn't want to grow tired of the taste of cinnamon, and didn't eat many things to which it would be appropriate to add cinnamon, plus I wanted an exact dose. But I could have just started spooning cinnamon on everything, based on what I've read.


Again, more info. :) Ciao!
 
I don't know that I think we're at odds at all. We have a lot of similarities actually. I, too, have a very feminine physique. Womanly hips, super small waist. People compliment my skin as well and tell me I look like I'm in my 20s. (But I would argue that's because I'm a bookworm and have stayed out of the sun! LOL. I don't break out much now at all. But in my late 20s and 30s, I'd have one or two places nearly all the time.) I have a full head of hair as well, am natural blonde so most people have no idea that I even *have* a body hair issue. You can't see the hair that grows on my face unless I'm in the light the right way. But, of course, I'm still very self-conscious about it. Incredibly so.


Yes, the pregnancy test thing! Oh my goodness! If I hadn't had my tubes tied, I'd be worried constantly.


But the big news!!! I started the Cinnamon! I cheated and weighed in today a few days early for my once a week and I've lost 2.5 pounds. So... maybe... this will work? I hope it's not just a fluke!


Besides the weight loss, I'd been having terrible sugar cravings for the past several weeks. I constantly craved sugar! And I've been ravenous around the clock, tired and yawning like my blood sugar is low. But now... I'm fine. I eat normally and between meals I am not thinking, "GOSH, I would LOVE to have a _____" (insert super bad for you food here). I fought the cravings, but they were pretty constant. Now, they have all but went away totally. (That's actually fabulous news, because that was something very new for me! And I kept thinking, What in the world is wrong with me all of the sudden?!)


So, I'm hopeful for the first time in a long time. I just got back from my 3-mile run, planning out a healthy lunch. And I'm hopeful this Cinnamon will continue to make those efforts count and the weight to keep dropping!!!!


Thanks so much for sharing your story. I think when I go in for my check-up for hypertension, I will mention the previous PCOS tests and see what my doc has to say. (Like you, I rarely went to the doctor until my blood pressure went wacko overnight.) She's pretty good, so maybe she'll also have some other suggestions about shifts to make, tests to run, etc. I never mentioned it before, but maybe it's worth checking into now. If it's not that--and if the Cinnamon doesn't end up really doing anything--then we'll keep plugging away at it.


But today, I am encouraged.



Hope all is well with you!
 
O...


...M...


...G!


So, you're my sister from another mister! I had no idea we had THAT much in common!! Wow!


Congrat's on the early success of the cinnamon. Like you, I was really skeptical about it, even with good, initial results. (Did you get a chance to read my PCOS thread?) But I just kept losing weight, with the same diet and exercise program that'd previously only led to weight gain. It was so obvious it was the cinnamon that was finally allowing me to lose weight.


It's been a couple of months now, and what's working even better is cutting out nearly all simple carb's (as they spike insulin production most), and doing at least 45 minutes of cardio per day. That really gets me in the fat-burning zone. Coupled with getting more sleep, I'm a bit of a weight loss machine, right now. I'm right on-track with my projections, and then some.


I suspect your doctor won't know anything about cinnamon as a natural insulin sensitizer. I'll be pretty impressed if he/she does. Lots of PCOS women have never tried (or been told about) cinnamon, and are prescribed chromium supplements or Metformin.


Well, I hope you have continued success. Please let me know how it's going after a week or month or so. :)
 
Hi! Been reading you're posts and can identify with so much of what you are saying i am 46 and at the biggest i have been possible signs of pcos as does my daughter who is 18.. going to look into cinnamon for sure!

Anne
 
Hello ladies, I lost weight due to an ED (over the age of 9-40, I'm afraid) then gained too much inrecovery, and am now 114, looking to lose to 110 which is my 'happy' weight, so I can see what you all mean. My GP also told me I would 'naturally' gain from 35 to 50, but I see no reason for this, and intend to fight!
 
A Howdy, UKalicia! Any updates? Is the cinnamon still working, not working, anything? I'm curious. ;-)
 
AI too started gaining weight after turning 40...im 43 now and have gained 25-30 lbs that I can't get rid of. I recently had blood work done and the only abnormal labs were my vitamin d levels.....** found out that can cause weight gain and fatigue.(and I have been exhausted for past 2 yrs) I joined a gym last week and started taking 3000iu's of vit D supplements daily. Hope to lose 10 lbs by April 1st...Fingers crossed!!! This getting older thing is no fun.
 
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