Disadvantages of PCOS Diet?

[Sophie2019]

Hi,

I’ve been on the LE Diet for 5 weeks now and starting very slowly losing weight (from 59kg down to 57kg), but this fluctuates and I haven’t lost any weight this past week. I’m going for a walk of roughly an hour and a half most days.

I’ve never been diagnosed with PCOS, although I’ve had issues with mid-cycle bleeding for a couple of years that doctors put down to hormones. I have always eaten a very high sugar diet.

My question is, as I’m unsure if I would be suitable for the PCOS diet, would there be any disadvantages to going on it? Like it can be bad news for a sway to be on the normal LE diet if you have PCOS without realising, but can it work the other way around, that if you do the alternate diet and didn’t need to, it would be a problem?

[EnglishDame]

I don’t think so, it’s just that the PCOS version is harder to stick to. If you think you have tendencies towards PCOS it makes sense to me but I’m sure Atomic will come along with better knowledge and advice :)

[atomic sagebrush]

The PCOS Diet is right for you. It gets better results and I would actually put EVERYONE on it, but a lot of people would lose weight too quickly on it, and it's harder for people to stick with. No one is harming their sway by doing the alternate PCOS-type diet.

[atomic sagebrush]

I don’t think so, it’s just that the PCOS version is harder to stick to. If you think you have tendencies towards PCOS it makes sense to me but I’m sure Atomic will come along with better knowledge and advice :)

:agree: yep it's harder for people to stick with, it's more expensive and some people can't always afford to do it, and the real kicker is that many people lose weight super fast on it. Otherwise I'd have everyone doing it.

[Sophie2019]

Ah okay. Does that mean I have to do another 12 weeks on the alternate or just count my 5 weeks on normal LE towards it?

[Sophie2019]

And am I right in saying that it’s same calories as LE, but 50-60g of fat and protein, wholegrains instead of white pasta or bread, and fruit in place of refined sugar? Or have I missed something?

[atomic sagebrush]

Ah okay. Does that mean I have to do another 12 weeks on the alternate or just count my 5 weeks on normal LE towards it?

no, just count it toward the full time. You were still eating lower protein, fat, and calories and 7 weeks is plenty of time for the alternate diet to change your blood sugar.

[atomic sagebrush]

And am I right in saying that it’s same calories as LE, but 50-60g of fat and protein, wholegrains instead of white pasta or bread, and fruit in place of refined sugar? Or have I missed something?

Yes, all that is right, but remember to have full fat dairy, no skim, (avoid skim dairy like the plague!) and also that you count the calories in fruit and high carb veg only do not count them towards your protein and fat totals. Low carb veg are free and limitless, have as much as you want, no need to count anything in them.

[Sophie2019]

Hi, I’ve been on the PCOS diet for a couple of weeks now and haven’t lost any weight at all. I’m doing fibre and walking every day still (sometimes exercise videos instead, but exercise every day), and I’m within limits. Not sure if I’m doing something wrong?

Here are a couple of examples of what I’m eating, in case there’s something obvious I’m eating that I shouldn’t be:

Lunch:
Glass of wine
Salad (only counting cals on tomatoes, not lettuce, carrots or cucumber)
Soft boiled egg with 1 slice wholemeal toast and margarine
3 rice cakes with butter
Vegetable finger
Banana

Dinner:
Quinoa with tuna, courgette and green beans (not counting either veg)
Pear
Grapes
Vegetarian sausage

Evening snack:
Salted popcorn
Carrot soup
Apricots
Cashew nuts

Totals: 1520 cals, 56g protein, 60.6g fat


Lunch:
Wine
Salad (as above)
Wholewheat pasta with tomato pasta sauce
Babybel cheese
Pea soup
Toast with margarine

Dinner:
Quorn tikka masala
Fish finger

Evening snack:
2 wholegrain crackers with butter
Coconut yogurt

Totals: 1561 cals, 49g protein, 57g fat

Hope this sheds some light on why my weight has plateaued?

[atomic sagebrush]

What is your BMI??

The diet you're eating looks perfect to me. I would not have you change anything, and so I'd like to know your BMI to see if you even NEED to lose more weight.

[Sophie2019]

My BMI is now at 21.1. I’m normally about half a stone less than I am now though (I put on weight last year some of which I’ve now lost) so I definitely weighed less when I conceived both my boys and I’m about a stone from my lowest adult weight.

[atomic sagebrush]

You dont' need to get to your lowest adult weight. Once you hit 21 just try to hold steady there, and that way if another pound or two sneaks off you will not be risking ovulation, and since you're almost there you should just hang where you're at.

[Sophie2019]

Okay, thank you, I will.
I’m a bit confused though about when to have our attempt. Next month will be 12 weeks on the diet but my husband travels for work and is due to be away for 10 days right in the middle of my cycle. I’m very concerned that we could miss ovulation altogether and that the same thing could happen many months in a row. I know he’s home all this month though so that makes me think maybe we should try this month but it would only be 9 weeks on the diet (and 5 of those were on normal LE before switching to PCOS).

Do I hold off until 12 weeks and hope that I don’t ovulate in the middle of my cycle (although I do normally) and that if I do, maybe August might work better? Or do I go ahead this month at around 9 weeks? Looking back at previous posts, some of the advice says that anything over 6-8 weeks is fine and other times it says it really should be 12+ weeks, so I don’t know what to do for the best?

[atomic sagebrush]

I would probably have you try this month. 8+ weeks was still acceptably good results for us. The reason for the disparity is that many people really want to err on the side of best results which is 12 weeks.