PCOS Diet

[carmella_marie]

Ive recently switched to the PCOS LE. I swayed in 2011 for 12 weeks with tranditional LE and I've been following LE 2 months already this time around so I am having a hard time switching over to PCOS diet. I feel like I am just eating too healthy! But the good news is I lost 1 lb this week after gaining on tradition LE (even with 60 mins cardio a day and 1500 calries!!)

Is anyone else doing PCOS diet? I feel like I am eating so much and so healthy I'm scared! Does this look ok, this was yesterday:

Breakfast (since I work out I have to eat something)
--2 egg whites

Lunch
--cream top brown cow yogurt
--coconut water
--rye krisp crackers with 2 T hummus
--1 apple
--1/2 cup black beans with salsa

Dinner
--1/2 cup brown rice
--corn on the cob with margarine and parmesean
--iceberg, cucumber, bell pepper, cherry tomato salad with low fat dressing
--2 glasses white wine

[shree]

I am so glad u have posted this. I am also strating
the le alternative diet. Can I ask where u are getting your ideas from for breakfast lunch dinner. I am struggling to know what to eat as I am alsi vegetarian. Do we need to eat a certain number of cals, fat, protein etc?
thank u

[Nahri]

Im on the PCOS LE version (suspected insulin resistant) with more of a veggie lean just based on some additional medical studies I've read. I cant say no to a cup of raw green beans as a snack when I feel I just need something more. I always do a salad for lunch with my coconut water, In the "morning" ,since I stick to the no breakfast 16 hours between dinner and first meal of the day, I do the graham cracker and peanut butter or yogurt or egg whites, Dinner Is usually a half cup of rice or pasta with the sauce.

The protein amounts etc are all listed on the diet plan page so you know what to shoot for.

[bluebonnet22]

carmella - I tried the PCOS diet for a week or so and from what I remember what you're doing looks great. I dropped it because like you said, it felt too "healthy" to me and was throwing me off! I know you've done LE before, but I will say in my experience I wasn't able to lose weight on "traditional" LE at first. For the first month I think I lost mb 2 lbs in an entire month, then mb 4 lbs the next? Since then I dropped 8 lbs each of the next 2 months. I was so frustrated at first because I was convinced traditional LE + cardio didnt' work for me. I think my body had to get used to the crazy high level of cardio and was holding onto the weight first. Additionally I gave up sugar (or mostly) and that seemed to help a ton! I'm still eating mostly carbs (and I stuck with white rice and white pasta) but I'm not eating any desserts or sugary drinks or things like that.

[carmella_marie]

I have PCOS tendencies., although not officially diagnosed: cysts on ovaries, cystic acne, high cholesterol and LH, irregular cycles, etc.

I'd been doing 60 mins cardio and LE for 2 months so I think my body had adjusted to the cardio

Avoiding sugar us actually something suggested in the PCOS version of the diet.

[carmella_marie]

I lost 15 lbs on the LE diet last time I swayed. I only have 10 lbs to lose this time.

I'm not as concerned about weight loss as I am about the LE diet swaying blue for me. While not officially diagnosed, I do have a lot of symptoms of PCOS and the LE diet may raise my testosterone and insulin and sway blue! So AS said there's no harm in trying the PCOS diet this time.

if you research the foods on the PCOS diet-peanut butter, beans, brown rice, whole grains-- you'll see that while a bit healthier than traditional LE foods, they actually still have very very little nutritional value, so that makes me feel better. The powerhouses of nutrition are really meat and whole eggs and the vibrantly colored fruits and fats like avocado, coconut oil, tree nuts, etc.

[atomic sagebrush]

Looks great to me!

[atomic sagebrush]

I am so glad u have posted this. I am also strating
the le alternative diet. Can I ask where u are getting your ideas from for breakfast lunch dinner. I am struggling to know what to eat as I am alsi vegetarian. Do we need to eat a certain number of cals, fat, protein etc?
thank u

Shree, this should be in your plan but sometimes I drop the ball and forget to put it in there.

The cals are 1500-1800 (altho some with a stronger insulin resistance or a lot of weight to spare may wish to drop to 1200-1500)

Protein is 50-60 g

Fat is more like 30% cals from fat and NOT the 20-25% range that some eat on the standard LE Diet. The reason is that you will drop carb intake to some extent and you will need cals from somewhere to make up for that, so we get a bit more fat. This is also better for egg quality and one of the reasons why the alt. diets are better for fertility as well.

CArbs should be primarily from wholegrains and higher carb fruit and veg, UNLESS you drop wheat all together. If you drop wheat all together you can get away with white rice (which seems to be tolerated a lot better than sugar and white flour and may actually be better for fertility than brown rice is)

Sugar should be dropped

Low carb veg are as always free on all diets. YOu can have as much as you want.

[atomic sagebrush]

carmella - I tried the PCOS diet for a week or so and from what I remember what you're doing looks great. I dropped it because like you said, it felt too "healthy" to me and was throwing me off! I know you've done LE before, but I will say in my experience I wasn't able to lose weight on "traditional" LE at first. For the first month I think I lost mb 2 lbs in an entire month, then mb 4 lbs the next? Since then I dropped 8 lbs each of the next 2 months. I was so frustrated at first because I was convinced traditional LE + cardio didnt' work for me. I think my body had to get used to the crazy high level of cardio and was holding onto the weight first. Additionally I gave up sugar (or mostly) and that seemed to help a ton! I'm still eating mostly carbs (and I stuck with white rice and white pasta) but I'm not eating any desserts or sugary drinks or things like that.

Here's the thing tho. IF you're gaining weight or not losing it on standard LE, that means something. It means you aren't tolerating carbs as well as you "should" be - your blood sugar is staying higher for longer and that in turn raises your testosterone. This can make your cycles go nutty in a bad way and lower egg quality, and perhaps most important for our purposes here - it sways BLUE. So healthy, not healthy, dismiss that from your mind if you aren't reacting well to the straight LE Diet - it is bad juju for you even if the alt. diet feels like a little more nutrients.

(Aside - if I had a time machine I would travel back in time and change the name of Low Everything Diet to SUPER HEALTHY swaying diet because honestly that is the main reason why I made the darn thing to begin with. It pains me when people are scared to eat SOME nutrients on LE because it's not NO nutrients, it's LOW nutrients, and it's even really not that LOW in nutrients. IT's low-normal.)

But, what happens (and your experience demonstrates this perfectly, thx for sharing) is that even if you do have some insulin resistance going on, losing a small amount of weight and exercising help to fix that. It's ben the case for many people that they start off on one of the alternate diets and then are able to gradually add in more empty carbs over time - and in fact HAVE to because they will lose too much weight otherwise.

[atomic sagebrush]

I lost 15 lbs on the LE diet last time I swayed. I only have 10 lbs to lose this time.

I'm not as concerned about weight loss as I am about the LE diet swaying blue for me. While not officially diagnosed, I do have a lot of symptoms of PCOS and the LE diet may raise my testosterone and insulin and sway blue! So AS said there's no harm in trying the PCOS diet this time.

if you research the foods on the PCOS diet-peanut butter, beans, brown rice, whole grains-- you'll see that while a bit healthier than traditional LE foods, they actually still have very very little nutritional value, so that makes me feel better. The powerhouses of nutrition are really meat and whole eggs and the vibrantly colored fruits and fats like avocado, coconut oil, tree nuts, etc.

Funnily enough, a couple of the foods that I think are pretty good pink PCOS sway foods, like seeds, beans, almonds, and nut butters were originally thought to sway pink because of the acid-alkaline diet. So you can def. get a girl eating them (not because the acid-alkaline diet works, because it doesn't, but because small amounts of those foods will STILL be much better for a girl than a steak taco with guacamole and a blueberry milkshake. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good and the reason why those old-school sway diets have endured is because they did get some things right just from sheer luck, even tho their explanations were wackadoo.)

[carmella_marie]

I have to remind myself people got girls before poptarts and little Debbie cakes and fruity candy were developed. It's shocking how few nutrients are in some foods we think are so healthy: whole wheat bread and pasta, rice, potatoes, cucumber , mushrooms, zucchini, even apples.

[bluebonnet22]

I have to remind myself people got girls before poptarts and little Debbie cakes and fruity candy were developed. It's shocking how few nutrients are in some foods we think are so healthy: whole wheat bread and pasta, rice, potatoes, cucumber , mushrooms, zucchini, even apples.

Totally agree. I'm normally more of a primal style eater myself and think of all grains (rice, pasta, etc) as being unhealthy. I guess I've been doing more of a hybrid of PCOS style and "normal" LE style 90% of the time since May. I eat white rice, white pasta, white bread (I just find the wheat kinds gritty and not much healthier!), fruits, veggies, very rarely anything with added sugar. A mix of small amounts of full fat dairy and low fat dairy. I eat the upper limits of normal LE (40-45 grams of protein, 30% of fat, 1500-1800 calories), and I think that's more PCOS style anyways.

Normally in my LP my weight stabilizes pretty well and seems to be doing that now so I guess I can give up eating the crappy empty carbs again (thank goodness!) and resume eating them again next month only if I really have to. Agreed that cakes and candies can't be necessary to get girls or the gender balance in ancient times would have been way off!

[shree]

Shree, this should be in your plan but sometimes I drop the ball and forget to put it in there.

The cals are 1500-1800 (altho some with a stronger insulin resistance or a lot of weight to spare may wish to drop to 1200-1500)

Protein is 50-60 g

Fat is more like 30% cals from fat and NOT the 20-25% range that some eat on the standard LE Diet. The reason is that you will drop carb intake to some extent and you will need cals from somewhere to make up for that, so we get a bit more fat. This is also better for egg quality and one of the reasons why the alt. diets are better for fertility as well.

CArbs should be primarily from wholegrains and higher carb fruit and veg, UNLESS you drop wheat all together. If you drop wheat all together you can get away with white rice (which seems to be tolerated a lot better than sugar and white flour and may actually be better for fertility than brown rice is)

Sugar should be dropped

Low carb veg are as always free on all diets. YOu can have as much as you want.

Thank you. so does this mean that if i eant to eat wholemeal then I mustn't eat rice & vice versa. I'm assuming wholemeal and wholegrain come under the same category?

Also stopping sugar is fine but what about sugar that is part of foods such as sauces, breads etc? Wld that be ok ?

[carmella_marie]

I'm avoiding added and excess sugar like candy and desserts and full sugar pop. Not minuscule amounts in bread and pasta sauce.

[bluebonnet22]

I'm avoiding added and excess sugar like candy and desserts and full sugar pop. Not minuscule amounts in bread and pasta sauce.

This.

[atomic sagebrush]

I have to remind myself people got girls before poptarts and little Debbie cakes and fruity candy were developed. It's shocking how few nutrients are in some foods we think are so healthy: whole wheat bread and pasta, rice, potatoes, cucumber , mushrooms, zucchini, even apples.

this x a million!!! :)

[atomic sagebrush]

Thank you. so does this mean that if i eant to eat wholemeal then I mustn't eat rice & vice versa. I'm assuming wholemeal and wholegrain come under the same category?

Also stopping sugar is fine but what about sugar that is part of foods such as sauces, breads etc? Wld that be ok ?

I posted a more thorough explanation in your custom forum. These are just goals to shoot for, no need to carry to extremes (especially for you since I have you on this diet as more a preventative and for egg quality and not for PCOS full-blown.)

[atomic sagebrush]

Totally agree. I'm normally more of a primal style eater myself and think of all grains (rice, pasta, etc) as being unhealthy. I guess I've been doing more of a hybrid of PCOS style and "normal" LE style 90% of the time since May. I eat white rice, white pasta, white bread (I just find the wheat kinds gritty and not much healthier!), fruits, veggies, very rarely anything with added sugar. A mix of small amounts of full fat dairy and low fat dairy. I eat the upper limits of normal LE (40-45 grams of protein, 30% of fat, 1500-1800 calories), and I think that's more PCOS style anyways.

Normally in my LP my weight stabilizes pretty well and seems to be doing that now so I guess I can give up eating the crappy empty carbs again (thank goodness!) and resume eating them again next month only if I really have to. Agreed that cakes and candies can't be necessary to get girls or the gender balance in ancient times would have been way off!

:agree: and thanks! Please ladies always keep in mind that the LE Diet is NOT like the IG and FGD type where everything is meant to be this precise thing followed to the letter and if you don't, then your sway will fail. The variations on diet are more examples (and I only made them because people insisted, would have preferrred not to for this very reason - because people start getting too hung up on specifics) of what you MIGHT do and not what you MUST do.

[carmella_marie]

We'll I caught my kids cold and the last few days have been yuck. Basically been eating hot water with honey, tons of cough drops, peanut butter sandwiches and chicken noodle soup. I was craving eggs so I have had a few scrambled eggs (I probably wasn't getting enough protein or fat and that solved both) but on the positive side I've lost 2 lbs!

[Mum4life]

Ok, so i have only started this a few days ago, but today i managed to get in at 1467 calories! I haven't counted my fat or protein yet, so we will see... i can definitely see me going over protein a bit too :/ oh and i haven't been hungry either :) feels strange to be on a specific diet and not feel hungry lol

[skillet04]

Posting here in case someone down the road has the same question:

After reading the best-worst foods and post on fats and how they sway,

I wonder about making baked goods with almond or coconut flour....would one or the other be pink and AFD friendly? Or if one forgos wheat in favor of white rice/potato, would rice or potato flour work in recipes and still work the same way?

Of course any "baking" done this way would have egg whites that need to be factored into the days tally (unless egg replacer or equavilant could be used?)

Any bakers out there and others with macro know how have tips?

TIA

[maidentomother]

Yep, rice/potato flours in place of wheat in baking is the same principle. Tapioca flour is another good replacement for wheat that is pink friendly.

I'd say both almond & coconut flour sway blue, with almond being more pink friendly. Some almond flour/meal in moderation is fine for pink though. Garbanzo bean or other ground legume meal would be a good pink alternative to nut/coconut flour, and works well in baking.

Any egg white used in baking needs to be counted, yes.

[skillet04]

Re beans for flour...probably not ok on AFD since it says no beans or legumes...?

But if anyone is having an egg white as a protein source here is a recipe to have chocolate cake...no flour...says can use milk of choice...and sweetener too as I have used Splenda packet.

“All for One” Grain Free Chocolate Cake (http://www.foodiefiasco.com/all-for-one-grain-free-chocolate-cake/)

[maidentomother]

Oops yep no legumes on AFD.

[atomic sagebrush]

Posting here in case someone down the road has the same question:

After reading the best-worst foods and post on fats and how they sway,

I wonder about making baked goods with almond or coconut flour....would one or the other be pink and AFD friendly? Or if one forgos wheat in favor of white rice/potato, would rice or potato flour work in recipes and still work the same way?

Of course any "baking" done this way would have egg whites that need to be factored into the days tally (unless egg replacer or equavilant could be used?)

Any bakers out there and others with macro know how have tips?

TIA

On the AFD they are ok to use but I would probably not have them more than 3-5 times a week. Jsut because they are very nutritious.

Potato and rice flour are ok. But if you are on AFD for PCOS, it might be better to eat whole potatoes instead because they ahve the fiber and will be better for your blood sugar levels.

Egg whites do need to be counted but are a good way to get protein if you are lacking it.

[skillet04]

Had another thought ..I know it says to have yogurt once a day...but yogurt has probiotics in it...and this forum says probiotics sway blue...just confused is all...thanks for understanding how I could be confused.

[atomic sagebrush]

The probiotics that are in yogurt are virtually all killed off by your stomach acid and do not make it into your intestines to set up shop. Probiotic PILLS are designed either to be the type of microbe that can withstand stomach acid or else in a pill form where the pill is designed to survive the stomach acid and not dissolve to release the microbes until it's in your intestine.

It is not the probiotics alone that sway, it is that they hang out in your intestines and make nutrients and also help you absorb other nutrients.

The reason why I have you guys do yogurt is because it is well tolerated by virtually everyone. People who are lactose intolerant can eat yogurt but not milk. The trick is the full fat dairy, it does't have to be yogurt if you don't like it.

[skillet04]

Atomic thank you for clearing up how the different forms of delivery to the gut ensure the probiotic live a bility...now activia has been debunked hahaha

Does stomach acid kill the good probiotics in kombucha or other fermented food/drinks?

[atomic sagebrush]

Well, a little bit makes it through but not enough to affect a sway. Most people are eating yogurt but it was only the probiotics in pill form that seemed to be affecting sways negatively. So Activia may help over time with stomach issues and it may have the kind of probiotics that are more likely to surivive stomach acid in them.

Yes, it can kill probiotics in other fermented foods as well but there are tons of different types and we are not sure how any of them sway.