I stopped having periods when I was about 17. My doctor put me on the Pill to balance my hormones. I have always been a little overweight. I used to be able to lose weight by dieting, but in the last few years however hard I try I just can’t shift the weight. It isn’t fair. I eat the same as my skinny friends but I’m putting on weight. And the fatter I get, the more facial hair I get. There are days when I just can’t face the world and want to hide from everyone.
Emma, 33
Your metabolic rate is the rate at which your body burns calories. The faster your metabolic rate, the more you can eat without putting on weight. The slower your metabolic rate, the more you need to watch your food intake. Metabolic rate is increased by any form of activity, including eating. The rate at which food is metabolized after a meal is called postprandial thermogenesis.
For most people, postprandial thermogenesis accounts for a large percentage of their daily calorie burning. But studies show that postprandial thermogenesis in women with PCOS is significantly reduced.8 Basically, after you eat a meal your body doesn’t burn up the calories as quickly as it would if you didn’t have PCOS. Your slower metabolism means you store more calories from the food you eat.
And if you have PCOS and insulin resistance, you also have to deal with the consequence of insulin preventing you from burning the calories off. According to Dr Richard S Legro in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, women with PCOS showed as much as a 40 per cent lower response to the stress hormones that trigger the breakdown of fat than did healthy women, whether or not the PCOS women were obese.9
So not only does being overweight make you more likely to develop an increasing number and severity of symptoms, but if you have polycystic ovaries you are more likely to put on weight.
The PCOS Catch-22
The inability to lose weight can lead to stress, which in turn leads to comfort eating. You can end up feeling trapped in a vicious cycle, with the pounds piling on.
Losing weight can be frustrating if you have PCOS, but by making specific changes in your diet and the way you eat it is possible to regain control of the situation, to maintain or lose weight and feel good about yourself. Hopefully this book will help you make weight-management problems a thing of the past.
SELF-HELP SATISFACTION
Another reason food is so important if you have PCOS is that it is something you can control. A feeling of powerlessness can be overwhelming if you are dealing with a long-term health condition which requires visits to health-care practitioners and involves dealing daily with unpleasant and disheartening symptoms. The symptoms of PCOS (see Appendix) can often strike at the heart of your femininity and batter your self-esteem. Many women have experienced unhelpful attitudes from health-care practitioners who have simply insisted that losing weight is the key to better health with PCOS, without understanding the difficulties this involves.
My doctor told me that if I wanted to improve my symptoms I would need to lose weight. As if I hadn’t been trying all those years! Did he think I wanted to look and feel like this? I can’t remember a day of my life when I haven’t been dieting, restricting calories or exercising to burn calories, but nobody believes me. They all think I don’t have enough will-power or discipline to lose weight.
Lucy, 34
Feeling powerless, hopeless and not listened to can be crushing psychologically and make you feel low and depressed. Changing your diet can transform your feelings of powerlessness into a more positive outlook, because it’s something you can take charge of every day.
I remember being showed the scan and seeing dark blobs around my ovaries. I was told that I had polycystic ovary syndrome and this was causing my irregular periods, acne and weight gain. ‘That’s it,’ I thought, ‘I’m going to be fat and spotty for the rest of my life.’ I felt completely hopeless until my doctor told me that I could, to a certain extent, control my symptoms through my diet. I wasn’t at the mercy of my hormones. There was something I could do to help myself.
Clare, 28
Since the age of 9 I started to gain weight uncontrollably. I became very depressed and lost a lot of confidence. I got my first period when I was 12, but after one or two more they stopped. I went to doctor after doctor and they all blamed my lack of periods on my weight. This made me feel even more depressed. It wasn’t until last year that a fertility specialist diagnosed me with PCOS. I have all the classic symptoms – high insulin, weight gain, rough dry skin, acne, excess body and facial hair and just about every other thing that can make me feel like a boy rather than a girl.
When I was diagnosed I was relieved, but I was also angry. Why was this happening to me? I asked my doctor what I could do and he said that I should visit a dietician with specialist knowledge of PCOS to design a diet which could control my insulin levels. That was the incentive I needed. The weight started to come off and it gave me the confidence to start exercising and make other lifestyle choices, like stopping smoking, drinking less and taking multivitamins, which ease my symptoms.
Looking back, I think PCOS has made me a stronger person. It has helped me understand that the most important thing in life is your health. A lot of people don’t realize how many risks they are taking with their health when they don’t eat well. But I do.
Bryony, 17
Eating well is something you can do every day to nourish your body and mind. The positive lift you get from feeling that every day you are doing something to alleviate your PCOS symptoms, boost your energy and enhance the power of any medication you may be taking is a great feeling to have when you’re battling with so many emotions. Having a daily dose of self-help on a plate is really energizing and motivating.
Eating healthily every day gives you the opportunity to re-invent yourself. With every breath you take, every meal you eat, every drink you swallow, you are literally building a new you by supplying your body with the raw materials it needs to repair your skin, generate new tissues, balance hormones and create more cells. Your food is the building block to better health.
So every day, as you feed your body with what it needs to work at its peak of health, remind yourself that you deserve the best. Many women with PCOS notice striking improvements when they take matters into their own hands and embark on the right diet and exercise plan.
Remember: If you have PCOS, what you eat or don’t eat is absolutely crucial and, more importantly, within your control.
GETTING WHAT YOU NEED
Food isn’t just important to women with PCOS because it helps with insulin resistance and gives you back a feeling of control over your health. Food is also vital because it contains essential nutrients which the human body needs in order to function properly.
Nutritional deficiencies – when you don’t get enough of all the essential vitamins, minerals and other nutrients you need to keep your body running efficiently – can be caused by diet or outside forces like stress and pollution, which make your body use up more nutrients in order to
