What Are The Best Foods For Weight Loss With PCOS?

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“What are the best foods for weight loss with PCOS?”

I get asked this often.

Food can be just like a double-edged sword (and sometimes we all fall on our blade).

On one hand, poor food habits can cause or exacerbate your PCOS. On the other hand, the correct PCOS diet plan can heal your body, mind, soul… and your PCOS. Food is absolutely among the best medicines.

Modifying your eating habits helps to empower your thyroid, normalise your gut, detoxify your liver, and balance your mood and energy levels. Each of these is crucial for you to lose weight and maintain it. The right food choices set the foundations for success in optimal health, not just in weight loss.

Strengthening your body is one of the best ways to help yourself. Often more potent and safer than the hormonal treatments traditionally given to those with PCOS, which not only treat one symptom and may leave behind a legion of side effects, but also increase insulin resistance and inflammation–the drivers of PCOS.

The “right” food for your PCOS

Low Glycaemic Load (GL)

You need to look to food to overcome the metabolic mess that is PCOS. Some PCOS diets may make tall claims about their miraculous successes; however, few will optimise your health or fix your PCOS. Do not consider yourself to be on ‘a diet’. All the word diet really means is ‘the usual food and drink a person consumes’. Think of your new food habits as your life-giving, optimal, healing food plan.

What are the best foods for weight loss with PCOS?

Look to nature!

Nature provides the right mix of nutrients. It also provides a low glycaemic load (GL). The food plan proven to deal with PCOS and obesity is a low glycaemic load (Low GL) food plan.

Why Low GL?

A low glycaemic load is the best way to combat insulin resistance and obesity, two formidable challenges in PCOS. Low glycaemic index (GI) foods are now quite well known. However, as helpful as this tool is, it does not take into account the number of carbohydrates eaten. Fantastic foods, such as watermelon, are high in GI but low in GL and perfectly healthy. If we look at GI, we would avoid this great food. GL provides a more accurate measure of the effect a food or drink will have on your insulin levels.

Do not be misled into believing that low-carb food plans, often disguised as meat, egg, and cheese diets, are healthy for weight loss. You need nutrients to successfully and healthily lose weight and maintain it.

A food plan that includes foods consisting of complex carbohydrates is essential. Complex carbohydrates are those that break down slowly during digestion and release a steady supply of sugar in our body, rather than causing sudden spikes.

Due to the insulin resistance associated with PCOS, it is crucial for you to manage your blood sugar levels effectively. Including foods like fresh fruit and vegetables, gluten-free grains, nuts, seeds, beans, and legumes is very helpful.

Avoid starving yourself to lose weight. This is neither sustainable nor healthy. Very low-carbohydrate food plans are often successful for short-term weight loss, but can have adverse effects on your health. And a very low-calorie diet means stress on your arteries.

A word of caution

Choose your low GL foods very carefully. As close to nature is best. Many of the low-carb foods on the supermarket shelf are loaded with harmful fats, artificial sweeteners, and additives. Trying to avoid one harmful item may land you with another. Ensure your low-GL foods are high in healthy proteins or fibre, while being free from additives and artificial fats.

Tip: Milk has been shown to spike your insulin levels as much as wholemeal bread. This really is best avoided. If you are a dairy addict and can’t go without, choose A2 only.

Protein power

Good lean proteins are essential when trying to lose weight.

Proteins have a low GL.

They help maintain the balance of your blood sugar levels and assist in lowering insulin fluctuations at mealtime.

Research studies have proven that including good lean proteins along with low GL foods boosts your body’s metabolism, helping in weight loss and insulin resistance in women with PCOS. Proteins provide your body with a steady supply of amino acids that help in building and repairing all of your body tissues.

Also, they are one of the essential ingredients in the manufacturing of our hormones and enzymes. Protein helps maintain your muscle mass, which is vital for your metabolism. Plus, they keep you full longer.

How to meet your daily protein goal?

There are many ways to incorporate healthy proteins into your daily diet.

Starting with breakfast, try an omelette made with organic, free-range eggs, and mix in some broccoli and cauliflower.

Snack on delicious (unsalted) nuts and seeds as you zigzag through your daily routine.

Try some healthy dips, like hummus – a savoury Middle Eastern dip.

Steamed fish seasoned with fresh herbs, lemon, and a dash of extra-virgin olive oil is packed with lean protein for a delicious dinner. Toss in some cooked black beans, sprouts, grilled organic chicken or turkey breast or chopped hard-boiled eggs in your salad, and voila, you have met your daily protein goal.

And include a healthy, organic, gluten and dairy-free protein powder. Most women do not receive enough protein, which can make a significant difference.

Friendly Fats

I cannot overstate the importance of including good fats in your daily food plan. This is pivotal in weight loss. The right type and proper amounts of fats, such as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, are essential. Good fats help improve insulin sensitivity. You cannot lose weight healthily without consuming enough good fats.

Where can you get the “good” fats

Oily fish, such as salmon, mahi mahi, tuna, mackerel, and sardines, are rich in healthy fats. Organic free-range eggs are very beneficial. You can also choose a variety of vegan sources for your healthy fats, such as olives, avocados, nuts like almonds, pistachios, chestnuts, cashews, and pecans, as well as seeds like sesame seeds, flax seeds, and sunflowers. However, stay away from unhealthy fats, such as those that have been heated, exposed to oxygen, or damaged during processing.

Going nuts

Nuts, such as almonds and walnuts, are excellent sources of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, Vitamin E, and minerals like copper, manganese, magnesium, and potassium. The abundance of antioxidants in the nuts puts them in the category of superfoods.

Veggie Indulgence

Indulge in plenty of yellow, red, orange, green, blue and purple fruits and vegetables. Bringing variety to your food plan by including various organic fruits and vegetables from different colour spectrums also increases the intake of many other nutrients.

Organic is the word

Conventional farming may tarnish your food with insecticides, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and more. Persistent Organic Pesticides (POPs) were shown to increase the risk of diabetes, an insulin-resistant disease, like PCOS. Insulin resistance contributes to weight gain, particularly around the abdominal area. Choose nutritious and safe organic fruits, vegetables, eggs, and poultry and meat products wherever possible.

What not to eat

Refined flour, white rice, sugar, processed foods, and fruit juices containing simple carbohydrates are best avoided. As simple sugars get stored as fat and cause a spike in insulin levels, these simple carbohydrates are a poor health choice, particularly for women with PCOS looking to lose weight.

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I am happy to have been able to share this advice with you. I have seen it change lives, including my own…

From PCOS to perfect health, with love,

Dr. Rebecca Harwin
The PCOS Expert
Chiropractor & Bestselling Author of
Conquer Your PCOS Naturally
www.ConquerYourPCOSNaturally.com

 

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