Hello Laila,
The fact that you suffer from PCOS will place you at a disadvantage, in terms of your ability to lose weight as quickly as you’d like. However, the condition doesn’t wholly limit your ability, since your previous attempts to lose weight have demonstrated that it can be done.
With regard to your dietary intake, although you’ve stated that you’ve stuck to it, firstly, is your calorie intake sufficient (see BMR calculators), that it allows you to create a daily deficit and secondly, does your daily dietary intake include sufficient levels of macronutrients to support your weight-loss and current level physical activity?
More importantly, since your condition encourages insulin resistance, when it comes to your carbohydrate intake, try to avoid as many simple, refined carbohydrates as you can (sweets/cakes/pastries) since they exacerbate the symptom that prevents you from losing weight as easily as others.
That said, you’ve chosen well, in opting to commence the 30 Day Shred programme, since the exercises in the program are designed to use your body’s anaerobic system (think HIIT training), as a means to achieving weight-loss.
As your body switches to its anaerobic system, you begin to exercise in the absence of oxygen. Consequently, in order to fuel your endeavour, your body relies upon carbohydrate stores/reserves within the muscles to repeatedly allow you to perform movements at a high intensity.
After those reserves have quickly been depleted from within, your muscle cells begin to draw in excess energy stored around them (fat), which is utilised to repeatedly fuel your endeavour.
Through the repeated utilisation of fat during intense exercise, not only do you quickly begin to observe shape developing in your muscles (as less fat surrounds them), you also increase your sensitivity to insulin. Your increased insulin sensitivity means that less needs to be secreted by your pancreas, in terms of ‘unlocking the door’ to allow glucose to enter the muscle cells. The added benefit of such means that you’re less likely to store carbohydrate as fat while following a programme such as the 30 Day Shred.
Moreover, as opposed to steady state cardio, which can raise insulin sensitivity for up to 24 hours, HIIT can raise insulin sensitivity levels for up to 72 hours afterwards, due to the massive energy deficit that HIIT creates.
Although you may not have enjoyed the weight-loss that you’d hoped for after week one, stick with the programme, since it’ll have begun to bring about physiological changes (the majority of which you can’t see). Do the exercises feel easier after day seven than they did during day one?
If they do, it’ll be due to the many physiological changes that are taking place, not least the increase in muscle density and endurance.
Simply standing upon the scales and observing the figure shown isn’t necessarily a true measure of your health, since basic scales fail to take into account bone density and muscle mass, for example.
As you continue upon your journey once again, Laila, don’t obsess so much obsess over your desire to drop down to your goal weight. Instead, use your wardrobe as an indicator, since you may reach 60kg, for example, and find that you’re happy with the appearance of your body.
I am doing the Jillian michaels 30 day shred workout 5 times a week and i walk everyday for 1 1/2 hour at a distance of 6-7 kms per day. Why wont my weight drop, i want to be 55kgs 