Fighting PCOS Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome

Knicname posted a great post to all of us suffering from PCOS and wanting a diet that works. Here’s the post:

Over the last 7 months I’ve lost 45lbs by keeping a food diary of EVERYTHING I EAT & how much; & slowly substituting fattening food with less fattening food. By decreasing the portions of meals & eating more meals but smaller ones.
Eating nonfat yogurt, soy cheese; lean protein; almonds; bran muffin instead of donut;fish, etc. I still eat birthday cake& a slice of pizza once in a while.

I haven’t really done any exercise. I think my weight lose would be greater if I had exercised, but I had torn a Tendon in my ankle.

Take your weight, divide in 1/2 & that’s the number of oz.s of water you should drink everyday.

No carbonated:Reg or Diet sodas. They add belly fat.

I also take Omega 3 fish oils 1000mg after every meal or snack up to 6000mg/day. Green tea EXTRACT capsules, 1 with each meal also.
They both help you lose weight.
Take a good multi-vitamin/mineral.

It is really heartening to read of someone with PCOS actually losing weight!

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I know with PCOS you need to pretty much follow Atkins, South Beach Diet or Fat Flush Plan. All are low carb eating plans. It’s those pesky carbs that kill us. Even starchy vegetables are bad.

I started Weight Watchers last Wednesday for the accountability. When you have to go somewhere (it’s 2 minutes from where I work) and weigh in, the leader knows your name, there are others that have lost a lot of weight, then you get inspired and you stick with it. I’ve tried online only plans, but there was no accountability. Plus the weight watchers community boards are the most helpful of any place I’ve seen and I’ve tried dietwatch, ediet, sparkpeople.

One thing the 100+ board helped me figure out is that eating bread made me immediately starving to death. It is the craziest thing but if I don’t eat the bread, I’m fine. I can eat my points for the day and get through it just fine. But if I eat a whole wheat bagel or multi grain piece of bread, the extreme starvation kicks in and I have a heck of a time. Isn’t it crazy? Even if the bread is 1 point it just kills me.

So I think it’s a PCOS or insulin resistance thing. So from here on out I’m going to eat no bread. I’m still trying the 0 point whole grain tortillas. If I don’t eat them for one day and do better, then those will go as well.

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You know what I really hate about PCOS? The facial hair. I didn’t used to have a lot of facial hair but then it started growing and bam! Now I actually have to wax or pluck or shave above my lip, my chin, jawline. I haven’t done anything about my cheeks but this is ridiculous! What kind of horrible thing is this for a woman to grow hair there? I’m blonde so it’s not as bad as someone with dark hair. But you can still tell I have very long hair on my chin. It’s horrible.

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Dr. Dach has a really good page on PCOS. I didn’t know that PCOS used to be rare and now 6-10% have it. It’s sad because it’s an embarrassing medical problem and so many don’t know they have it. I didn’t know until I got a pamphlet in the mail for the former home owner. For years I battled the huge abdomen, acne all over and facial hair. I thought I just was cursed. Nope, it’s PCOS. Of course that seems like a curse.

Polycystic ovaries symptoms are:
no periods
no ovulation
Weight gain, obesity
excessive hair growth, male pattern
Insulin resistance (pre-diabetes)
Acne
Male-pattern baldness
Multiple small ovarian cysts on sonogram
darkening of the skin at the nape of the neck and under arms

I have all of those symptoms though some didn’t show up till just last year. That’s when I went to a different ob/gyn and asked again about PCOS. This doctor actually listened to me, got tests and said due to the symptoms and test results I have it and need to take Metformin. My acne is pretty much gone and the hair growth has slowed down.

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Ok it’s not exactly a polycystic ovary diet setback, well yeah it is. I didn’t go to the first Weight Watchers meeting because right as I was going to leave, one of our clients sent us Pizza Hut pizza for lunch as a thank you. Free food. So I stayed. Hence the reason I need Weight Watchers.

I don’t know how their plans work but I sure hope they include something for insulin resistance that goes with PCOS. Low carb with lots of fiber is what I think I need, from what I’ve been reading. South Beach Diet and Fat Flush Plan and also the Perricone Prescription would all work for PCOS. But you do those plans on your own. Hence the reason I need Weight Watchers.

It sounds like such an easy plan to just not eat things that mess up your insulin resistance. But it is. It’s really hard to change your eating when you’re eating for emotional reasons and don’t want to punish yourself by not eating your comfort food. Ugh. I really hope Weight Watchers addresses emotional eating.

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