Is there a diet solution for PCOS?

PCOS is a theme here, for reasons previously mentioned. Today, we tackle the question of whether there's a diet solution for PCOS. We'll have to take this in a few parts, as the answer is 'it depends'.

Firstly, it depends on what you consider a solution to PCOS. Is PCOS solved when you have a baby? When you stop losing hair (or gaining it?) When your ovaries are free from cysts? When you have control over your weight?

Weight loss in women with PCOS does resolve many of those issues. It improves fertility, even without added treatment, it results in head hair regrowth, and reduces cysts on ovaries. So, if those are your parameters, yes, there is a diet solution for PCOS. It's the one that will lead to weight loss.

While difficulty losing weight is part and parcel with PCOS, study after study after study proves that reducing calories leads to weight loss in women with PCOS. So, what's the difficulty? I have long suspected that the problem with losing weight with PCOS is hunger. I suggest that we have trouble losing weight not because we eat too much, but because we are hungry too much.

Combine that with the revelation that overweight people often underestimate the calories they're eating and you have the answer. If we're always hungry, and it seems like we're eating fewer calories, then we are doing what we should be to lose weight - but it doesn't work. Because we're actually not reducing caloric intake enough. But it sure feels like it.

This leads to failure, because there's only so much hunger a person can tolerate while seeing little or no result on the scale (or waistline).

So, if this is true, then what is the diet solution for PCOS? The one that keeps us from being over hungry. Imagine that in order to lose weight with PCOS, you didn't have to be starving all the time. Imagine that you would see consistent weight loss, and correlating consistent reduction in PCOS symptoms.

There are people who succeeded in managing their PCOS with any of a number of diets: Weight Watchers, South Beach, vegetarian, and on and on. For me, the real key was New Glucose Revolution's guide to the glycemic index. In fact, it's worked so well that I've regained trust in my 'hunger' signals, something I couldn't trust before.
For more info, check out Losing Weight With PCOS, a simple 3 step plan.

How much exercise do I need?

How much exercise you need depends on what you're hoping to get from it. One has to be aware of practical matters, too - like whether you'll keep doing it and whether you have the time to keep up an 'exercise program.'

If you found out that you needed 27 hours of exercise a week to make any difference, chances are good you'd shrug your shoulders and turn on Oprah (or the game). It's human nature - if you need to make radical changes to find any benefit, you are less likely to make any changes at all.

There seems to be very good news, though. A new study found that a minute increase in exercise can have measurable results. The result is that the answer to the question "How much exercise do I need?" is "Some."

That's not to say that you are definitely not getting enough exercise - just that if your question is how much exercise you need to lose weight or to increase health, any exercise you regularly do will give results.

Researchers asked hospital employees (who were admittedly sedentary) to commit to not using elevators. On average, the subjects went from traversing 5 flights to 23 flights per day. For the study, one considers any one way trip, either up or down. Practically speaking, they climbed and descended one flight of stairs 9 times more every day. In terms of time, This exercise likely took less than 5 minutes total per day. That's not much.

But such a small change over 3 months added up to measurable benefits - parameters for lung capacity, blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, body fat, waist measurements, and aerobic capacity were all improved.

So if you want to improve your health or just lose weight you will likely find real benefit from any exercise you can do - even if it's just 5 or 10 minutes a day. Park further from the door, climb the stairs, walk around the block - it all adds up to real, measurable improvement.

Who can you trust?

I love the internet. It's a useful tool. But I recently was reminded of just how misguiding the internet is if you don't doubt everything.

I stumbled upon an article about Oprah's nutritionist's appearance on her show where the subject was the Glycemic Index.

If you've read even a few posts you'll know that I am a big fan of the Glycemic Index and low GI eating. I believe in it - low GI eating works. Being such a believer, I read everything I come across and so it was with the article about Ophra's nutrition expert.

The author presented the information as if it was what the nutritionist had said - explaining in an authoritative tone what the Glycemic Index is and how it works. Except she got it totally, completely, absolutely, unforgiveabley wrong. Dead wrong.

What she said was that eating low GI means not eating sweets or sugary foods, and she went on to explain how easy it was to intuit which foods were low GI. As an example she mentioned that sauteeing chicken breasts would raise their GI. !!!!

Web 2.0 means that I can reach out and touch her, so I did. If I'd presented myself as knowledgeable on a subject then gotten it as wrong as she did, I'd be mortified - hiding under my bed or changing my name. But that's, apparently, just me. When I explained (as nicely as one can explain that someone else is simply wrong) that she'd flubbed it - for example, chicken breasts contain no carbs so are not on the Glycemic Index and sauteeing them wouldn't change that - she wrote back to 'thank me for my comments.'

Which brings me to my point. You shouldn't trust me. You surely shouldn't trust her. Who can you trust? There is only one (perhaps three if you count your parents) person for whom your wellbeing is top priority. Everyone else should be held in doubt, until their theories are proven out or at least supported by an authority source.

Trust no one. cue ominous music.