Nova, if it weren't for the fact that I do not have PCOS, it could have been me writing your posts - just about everything you said applies to me as well. I am at that stage where I am not really doing Atkins, but I haven't given up either, I just don't know what I am doing. Having "only" lost about 9-10 pounds in 6 weeks and having what the doc considers "bad" blood results, I am trying to decide which way to go. So I feel for you, and I hope it works out.

veggie and fruit fan said basically: "no, I don't really want to know wht you are eating. What matters most is that you are losing lots of weight and look and feel much better. Let's just see what the blood work shows."
When the blood work came back, his secretary/staffer called and said "everything looks great, keep up the good work."
So, not all doctors are the same and like anything else you buy, you should make sure you are paying for something you really want. Me, I'd change doctors if I were you.

Left a doctor's office once feeling DIRTY--whew, that was a hard one to shake off!! Wonder how effectively she worked with people who didn't have my demographic advantages... Also noted she worked in a university hospital, and so didn't have to have the same bedside manner skills that a private practice MD would need or else face an empty waiting room.

Then there was the Christian MD who didn't see why single women needed birth control... Or the guy who wouldn't give me a test for an STD because I didn't look like I was at risk?

Sigh.

I don't take financial advice from poor people and I don't take weight loss advice from tiny people. They have no clue. This fact is the reason all of the 12-Step programs work; we BELIEVE people who have "been there" because they KNOW what it's like. If trying harder worked for me, it would have worked by now.

One day, she'll get hers, maybe. She simply hasn't encountered anything that won't fall to willpower. But life is long and sometimes the lessons come later. Could be that your lesson is to carry away the memory of being on this side of someone's lack of compassion, and you'll be more understanding the next time you encounter a different situation where willpower hasn't solved it.

Good luck!

I get along just fine with the current staff, so I wouldn't be doing this. But after I posted the last item, I thought, "What she needs to do is write out a different response:"

"&%*# YOU! Just WHAT do you know about being fat, anyway? What have you EVER tried to do to lose this much weight? Is anyone in your life fat, or are you all picture-perfect yuppies who shop in 3-5-7 and Talbots? Do you have CLUE, or are you just being an over-educated SNOT with no foot in the real world? That advice is COMPLETELY useless to me and indicates that you have NO idea of what it's like to be me."

You probably don't want to send that letter. But it might feel better if you wrote it.

And as I write it, I think that maybe her mother is fat, and she hates it, and is terrified of fat, and lives in a world of restriction and fear because she doesn't understand her mother's life or why it turned out the way it did.

(No lack of imagination here.)

Again, good luck.

What suprises me the most about the medical community is that they are highly educated, and yet cannot but 2 and 2 together. They know that, for example:

• they can prescribe a drug-person consumes it
• breaks out in hives
• oh, they must be allergic
• logical conclusion= don't take that ever again.

• Prescribe a narcotic for pain
• person consumes it-person develops an addiction, can't control consumption(which is another type of allergy)
• -logical conclusion=don't take that ever again

Yet, a person presents themselves to them with obesity:

• Prescribe low-fat high carb diet
• person develops addiction, can't control food consumption, along with oodles of other horrible side effects (allergy again)
• Logical conclusion: clean out the cabniets, moderate, willpower, make better choices

Okay, so you tell me how smart they are? Yup, that's logical.

Hi Nova, I can only agree with what everyone here said: any doctor who says "all you need is more willpower" should not be listened to regarding weight loss. It is so much more complicated than that. Some doctors would rather believe that all of their patients are lying slobs who want to be fat, than to re-examine their preconceived ideas.

(By the way, when I told my doctor I was on Atkins he said "Good, then you're taking care of yourself." So not all doctors are against low carb!)

I'm sorry you're feeling frustrated with your progress, but I would give Atkins at least a couple of months. After all what does it hurt to stick with it? Low carb isn't a quick fix, it's a totally different way of eating, and if you've been dieting a lot before, your body may need a little time to heal itself. I lost for the first 2 weeks and then nothing for 6 weeks. I thought Atkins wasn't working for me and wanted to give up. But a friend convinced me to give it three months. I could kiss that friend

well, my doctor recommended atkins a couple of years ago and i tried it and it worked, but like most everything else i do i figure i'm cured and went back to eating like a carb feind and: wa-la!

in may, he suggested it again and this time i made it a priority and am doing great...at least i think so...this was my primary care physician!

i finally fessed up to my cardiologist in august and he was quite amazed, and said to keep up the good work as long as i am working with a doctor doing it...you see, i have coronary heart disease...have already had open heart surgery 10 yrs. ago, and my cholesterol levels were one foot from the grave for me...since i started the program, my cholesterol levels have all droped to near normal levels...there is a huge genetic factor with my heart disease and my eating habits were killing me...and i was trying to eat low fat...low protein...high carb foods...go figure?

...one more thing: i have a very close personal friend in florida who is a doctor...family practice with a specialty in ob-gyn...she is on atkins herself now...

I don't take financial advice from poor people and I don't take weight loss advice from tiny people. -cscarver

Thank you for making me laugh out loud, cs! I would LOVE to send that letter, too. What great posts these have all been, and they've honestly put a smile on my face. I'm still bouncing up and down on the same initial 5 lb loss, but I think I'll give it more time. AND I think I will find a different doctor. (Just started seeing her a few months ago, so there isn't a big history either)

I'll leave y'all with one last quote from my 'genius' doctor-
"I'm willing to BET that your waist is bigger than 35 inches. You need to do something about that."
(thank God that after posting, I can just laugh about that!)

NovaMusic9

Oh man, see now THAT burns me up

Just a few thoughts right after reading it would be how I would have left the office.
"Well Doc, I have a few bets I'm willing to make as well, because I'm great with numbers too. I'm willing to be that your ego is 20X the size of your brain. I'm willing to bet that your book sense outweighs your common sense by a few tons. I'm willing to be that the amount of money I just paid for this office visit would have been better spent at the county fair where I can get my weight guessed for 2 bucks by a drunk lofer and he'd come closer to having it right."

Laughing my a$$ off, IThinkICan!

NOVA - looky what I found, support for low carb people with PCOS. Here is the link to the page of links. Hope it helps! AND here's the best part, apparently from what I've read from some of the links, some even published by MD's, low-carbing can be VERY helpful to the PCOS sufferer. Pffffffttttt again to you MD!

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~cp391990/carb.html

My doc is also in favor of me being on Atkins because I have the type 2 diabetes and I have to get this weight off.

i don't want to sound stupid, but what exactly is PCOS?

...i'm an anthropologist, not a doctor...

I went to my doctor's appt. expecting some negative attitudes to my new diet, and it turned out he was also on a LC diet! I wonder if you are on any medications that might stall you. My wt. loss is very slow because of meds. And maybe because of Russell Stover sugar free chocolate.

There's a whole 'nother thread for discussion, too.