Metformin help

[Wsmcat]

I was diagnosed with Pcos after my first baby. I know that sounds bizarre and over a 17 year period I had 4 children. Although I've always had irregular periods, excess hair and been obese I've never been on metformin. However now in my mid 40's I'm morbidly obese and my dr has suggested I consider it for weight loss but he's asked me to do some research first. Any help appreciated. Thank you in advance. 

[OakTreeBlossom]

Hello!

I do like Metformin.  I have been on it at two different times in my life, the first for weight loss and the second for insulin maintenence.  I have known I have PCOS for nearly 20 years.

Metformin helps your body produce less insulin, which as a PCOS sufferer you struggle to do.  The common symptom of taking metformin are loose and regular stools but that can manifest itself differently in different people.  I personally have not had other symptoms and greatly enjoy the benefits of this medication.  I currently only take it once a day, but the dosage can be up-ed I know.

I stopped taking metformin 7 years ago when I went on a gluten-free diet and managed to shed a lot of weight, the combination of this diet change and the metformin helped me but metformin alone did not.  It will help your body to dispose of fat rather than store it.  As PCOS sufferers our bodies are constantly in starvation mode so store fat. 

Also we have 'insulin resistence' which means we produce insulin in response to the sugar we eat but our bodies can't absorb it so ask for more to be produced, so our insulin is over active but not breaking down the sugar.  Metformin helps us break down the sugar so that our bodies aren't asking for more insulin to be produced.

I give you this detailed picture because we can see a direct relationship between sugar, insulin and our weight.  I then chose to manage my diet with low sugar (I have cut out refined sugar and don't allow substitutes like sweetners) and have seen dramatic changes in how I lose weight.  I am not slim, but when I want to lose weight I can do it more easily because my body is out of starvation mode.

Finally, the last thing I played around with was my eating pattern.  I treated myself as a diabetic would, with the idea that my body was in starvation mode, I made myself throw out the archaic idea that I had to only eat three times a day.  I now eat little and often and would thoroughly recommend this too.

I hope this garbled response made sense.  I think you should try the metformin but explore different dietry changes to work with the metformin.  Otherwise I would not have seen such a change.

Good luck x