TC26 FEMALE WINNER  ·  $10,000  ·  12 WEEKS  ·  −25 LBS  ·  PCOS MARKERS RESOLVED

She Lost 25 Pounds, Resolved Her PCOS, and Won $10,000. Meet Rachel.

"When I came to Marek, I had a small amount of hope that my health could improve. What I didn't expect was how quickly things would begin to change."

When Rachel Gutierrez-Nash joined the Transformation Challenge, she wasn't chasing a number on the scale. She was trying to find her way back to her own body.

After months of unsuccessful fertility treatments, the woman who showed up at Marek Health on day one was 188 pounds at her peak, inflamed, exhausted, and disconnected from a body she no longer recognized.

"My biggest pain point has been dealing with infertility. My husband and I have been trying to conceive for over 2 years with no success. We are in decent health, but I have a diagnosis of PCOS and was told it would be very difficult to conceive naturally. We tried a fertility clinic but unfortunately we were not successful. With a little Marek magic through coaching and supplementation, I hope to get my body back in shape and ready for new life."

Twelve weeks later, Rachel was 25 pounds lighter, ovulating naturally for the first time in years, and most remarkable of all, her labs no longer showed markers of PCOS dysfunction.

This is her story.

The Before: A Body She No Longer Recognized

Like so many women navigating fertility, Rachel's path had been long, exhausting, and full of medications that brought their own consequences. The treatments she hoped would help her grow her family instead left her with significant weight gain, chronic inflammation, and a sense of disconnection that no scale could measure.

After pausing treatment, Rachel gave her body about a month to recover and lost around 10 pounds, then hit a wall. The strategies that had worked for her in the past — years of strict plant-based eating to manage her PCOS — no longer seemed to help. Her energy was inconsistent. Getting dressed was discouraging. Looking in the mirror felt worse.

"Infertility can be lonely too. It's often not talked about, and carries a lot of shame. I found myself always worrying, or concerned, and carrying anxiety throughout a lot of my day."

She came to Marek with a small amount of hope, and not much else.

The Work: Rebuilding Trust, One Lab at a Time

The hardest part of Rachel's 12 weeks wasn't the workouts, the consistency, or even the injections that initially made her nervous. The hardest part was deeper than that:

"The hardest part was rebuilding trust in my body after years of extreme dieting and months of failed fertility treatments."

Under the guidance of her Marek Health coach and medical provider, Rachel's protocol was built from her labs up, not from a generic playbook. Hormonal markers were tracked. Thyroid function was tracked. Insulin sensitivity was tracked. And every adjustment was tied back to a measurable change in her body, not a guess.

"I worked with Colleen Patrino and Dr. Heather Schwall, and I am incredibly grateful to have had them guiding me throughout this process. What made their support especially meaningful is that both women have personal experiences that allowed them to understand many of the challenges I was facing."

She didn't just lose weight. She rebuilt her relationship with food. With training. With recovery. With her own reflection.

The Numbers Behind the Story

"My thyroid and insulin function improved, and my most recent lab work no longer shows markers of PCOS dysfunction. Based on my progress and follow-up lab work, my protocol will continue to evolve."

The Transformation That Mattered Most

Twenty-five pounds is a striking number. So is a 6.5% drop in body fat. So is a 55-fold increase in progesterone, the hormone she'd spent years trying to coax into a normal range.

But ask Rachel what the real win was, and she won't lead with any of those.

"The biggest gift wasn't losing 25 pounds. It was regaining trust in my body and believing that motherhood is still possible."

That's the transformation TC26 was built to celebrate, not just a physique, but a person reclaiming what they thought was lost.

Why Rachel Won

Rachel did not come to Marek Health looking for a trophy. She came looking for answers she had not been able to find anywhere else.

For years, PCOS had shaped nearly every aspect of her life. It shaped how she ate, how she thought about her body, how she measured hope, and ultimately how she measured herself as someone who wanted to become a mother. The weight she carried into this challenge was not just physical. It was the accumulated weight of failed treatments, unanswered questions, and a body she had learned not to trust.

What happened over the next 12 weeks was not a dramatic overhaul. It was a careful, data-driven rebuilding. Her progesterone, which had sat at 0.1 ng/mL, climbed to 5.5. Her insulin sensitivity improved. Her inflammatory markers moved in the right direction. And for the first time in years, her labs no longer showed the markers of PCOS dysfunction that had defined her health story for so long.

"My most recent lab work no longer shows markers of PCOS dysfunction. Based on my progress and follow-up lab work, my protocol will continue to evolve."

Twenty-five pounds lighter. Six and a half percent lower body fat. Ovulating naturally. But more than any of that, she left with something she had not arrived with: belief that her body could still surprise her.

"Today, I feel stronger, healthier, and more optimistic than I have in years. Most importantly, I feel hopeful again about pregnancy, motherhood, and the future my husband and I have been working toward.

Ready to Write Your Own Story?

Rachel's transformation started with a single lab review.

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Congratulations, Rachel — and thank you for letting us walk this journey with you.

This blog post is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult a healthcare professional before making changes to your health routine.