[NinaV]

I have PCOS and I have lost over 50 pounds without low-carbing. It's very slow going, but I am also not re-gaining or YO-YO-ing anymore.
I see on this forum, that a lot of PCOS-ers go low-carb and let me tell you, guys, you are doing awsome
But I would like to hear if anyone else is having success without low-carbing? I have tried a few times, but I have a few obstacles.
1 - for a girl whose list of favorite foods reads more like a "101 things to do with a potato" low-carb is VERY hard to swallow. I can hang in there for a week or two, but I feel so miserable and deprived, that eventually I hurl my self off the wagon and promptly go in to a binge, which usually results in regaining the weight I lost during those couple of weeks.
2 - I am lactose intolerant, quite severely so there goes a huge part of a typical low-carb diet..
3 - Almost forgot - my gallbladder is not in it's best shape, they have recommended surgery, but I'm not doing it yet. However, this means that I have to watch my fats because when I eat too many, even if they are the good ones, I get a gallstone attack Unfortunately, when you cut carbs, you automatically increase the fats in your diet (this is just the fact of life since there are only 2 other things you could eat besides carbs and I can only handle so much protein before I start feeling nauseated and weird) and sooner or later by gallbladder says uh-uh, you aint doing that to me again.
So after years of trying and failing, I've decided to try this:
I try eating 3 meals and 2-3 snacks every day. I stay away from "white foods" like (white potatoes, sugar, white bread and rice, etc.) and eat lots of high-fiber, whole grains and lean meats.
Generally I stick between 1,400 and 1,800 calories per day, but I don't count calories, just sort of keep a mental tally throughout the day, which is an imperfect method, so I'm sure I go over now and then.
Of course I stray now and then, but when I do, I try to not beat my self up about it.

I would like to hear from other PCOS-ers who had success without low-carbing. Tell me if your weight loss is going as slow as mine? What is your approach? (calorie counting, clean eating, etc?)

[Michelle125]

I'm doing high-produce, clean, organic eating, whilst counting calories. I will admit, I was on Atkins for about 3 weeks a few months ago, and I lost 10lbs very quickly. But I was so tired and depressed, I knew it wasn't good for my body.

One of my favorite quotes is from Jillian Michaels' (The Biggest Loser trainer): "You have to be healthy to get skinny, not get skinny to be healthy." So in other words, disciplining yourself to be on a low carb-high animal protein diet might result in massive weight loss, but it's not at all healthy. Aging your insides by forcing them to work overtime processing all the protein and fat will never do anyone any good.

I know that eating good carbs, such as fruits, veggies, and legumes will be a slower weight loss but not harm my body in the process. 1-2 servings per day of a grain is okay for me, but more than that and I plataeu or gain weight. I also eat small amounts of fish, tofu, and turkey, but never red or processed meats. I know too much to give in to my cravings and be okay with it.

I really think focusing on superfoods, clean and chemical-free foods is key. I didn't realize this, but pesticides in and on non-organic foods goes straight to your hormonal system and wreaks havoc. Why isn't anyone telling us this? It's like you've got to dig to find this stuff out. I now spend the extra $20/week on groceries for organic. What's worth spending the extra money on more than our bodies? I look at eating as the most important thing I'm going to do that day. Because without taking the time and money to eat clean my job, my gym routine, my daily life, will all fail.

[NinaV]

Michelle,
I have recently read the "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" book, which talks a lot about organic foods and the industrial food production methods. Since then I have started opting for organic whenever I can and even though I haven't noticed any significant difference in weigh, I have been feeling better overall , more energy, better mood, etc.
So I am definitely with you on the organic and natural.

[kaplods]

I often eat "lower" carb, but not "low" in the sense of Atkins or Phase I of South Beach.

I think probably the closer analogy would be WW Core (where you can choose to "spend" points on non-Core foods). Although that's not it either.

Basically, I do an exchange plan. I read the new Duke Diet Book which had a traditional exchange plan and a lower carb exchange plan. The Hillbilly Housewife website also has three exchange plans of varying carb levels. It inspired me to tweak my own exchange plan, to at least allow for the option of eating fewer carbs.

I am a TOPS member, and while you can follow any plan you wish, the TOPS manual (The Choice is Mine) contains an exchange plan. Basically I took the TOPS exchange plan for 1500 and 1800 calories and just took out a few protein exchanges and a few starch exchanges and made a third category of interchangeable exchanges (still "worth" about the same calories). I made up an exchange chart where my "mandatory" exchanges fall into the 1500 calorie plan, and my "optional" exchanges put me up to th 1800 plan.

Interchangeable exchanges, optional exchanges - it may seem too confusing for some people, but for me flexibility is very important. It's what has kept me going longer than every before (yeah the weight loss is slower, but with PCOS that is often inevitable anyway).

Like Michelle, grains are a bit tricky for me. I can overeat steamed wheatberries nearly as easily as white bread, so I really need the exchange system as a backup for portion control. I try to make my selections using the principle of "whole foods," but if I eat something that doesn't fit, it can still be on-plan using the exchange system.

I often get sloppy and don't use my food journal/exchange worksheets. The scale reflects my sloppiness. Sloppy days, and I tend not to lose. Sloppy week and I tend to gain. TOPS is my lifeline. Saying I lost, turtled, or gained in front of fifteen other people, keeps this "real" for me. It's not even the applause or the "but, we're glad you're here," that really is the "big" thing - it's knowing that I'm not alone in this and can rely on the support of good people when I need it (it's why I come here too).

For me, social support is key. What can I say, I like and feed off of attention. On some level, at TOPS we compete with each other and compete with other groups, so when I lose weight, in a real way, it isn't just for me. Oh, it's mostly for me, but it's also a little bit for my TOPS group to help us "win" recognition over other groups; and it's a lot more for my husband, so that we can do more together for longer.

Anyway, that's MY story.

[durdansgirl]

Hey Nina, I am definetly a product of pcos and am in no way shape or form doing low carb. I know from past experiences that I have lost while doing that, but it hasn't been a realistic life change for me. I am currently doing la weight loss and it's not coming off a quickly as I would like, but I already feel tons better and have seen a reduction in some of my pcos problesm. I think the main component of the sucess are the mini meals and the balanced eating.
Love the quote above about being healthy to be skinny. very nice.
hope that helps some.

[NinaV]

Kaploads,
I am not familiar with the TOPS system. I know what you mean about the support though. I have tried the Overeaters Anonymous and though I quickly figured out it wasn’t for me, I did see how many people found the support essential to their success.
I imagine TOPS is probably similar to OA?
Personally I am a VERY private person, so I couldn’t stand opening up in front of total strangers and the hand-holding freaked me out, but if you aren’t a socially ******ed as me, I imagine the support can be a real life saver.
BTW, good going on your weigh loss, 50 pounds down feels great, doesn’t it?

Durdansgirl,
It sounds to me like the slow loss is a real common thread here, huh? But you know what they say, about the slow and steady, right?
I love that quote too, BTW.

[kaplods]

When I think how often I quit because the weight wasn't coming off "fast enough," it just makes me nauseous. Heck over 36 years of dieting, that's nearly 1900 weeks. Which is why I chose "Starting Over, Take 1,847" as the title of my blog, to reflect the nearly weekly ritual of starting a new diet.

1900 weeks. I could have lost less than 1/10th of a pound per week and been.

I wouldn't really compare TOPS (taking off pounds sensibly) to OA as much as Weight Watcher's. It's a little more intimate than WW, but not nearly as much as OA (As sociable as I am, I wasn't all that comfortable with that amount and degree of sharing, either).

I am a super social person. Very talkative, very outgoing, and rarely shy. However, I am not a very "touchy-feely" person. I never felt comfortable in OA. The addiction model for overeating has its merits, but OA just wasn't a good fit for me.

TOPS groups are self-governing, and while they have to follow the national (or I guess international) guidelines, there's a lot of variety in how each group operates. Some are more "touchy-feely" than others. When I moved to Bloomington from Ottawa, IL I couldn't find a TOPS group that I liked (they were either too sociable or not sociable enough), so I stopped going (heck, I should have made the hour drive to go to my old group).

My current group does hold hands at the end of the meeting to recite a poem (the road to goal is a lonely road, we need someone to care, so reach out my friend and take my hand, and then we're almost there). So, I can handle that much hand holding (any more and even I would freak out). As for the
opening up in group, the only part that you really have to is during roll call when you say whether you lost, gained or turtled (stayed the same). You don't tell how much unless you want to. It goes by quickly, and I would bet that no one remembers what anyone has done except themselves (at least I know that's true for me, and I'm NOSY, so if I don't notice, I know no one else does).

[junebug41]

I have to be careful about certain carbs. Breads, pastas, rice- these are all things that lead me straight to bingeing. I am careful about how much of it I keep in my house and have certain "tools" for making my meals not based on them (for example, when I have spaghetti, I have very little pasta and load the sauce with vegetables).

When I was losing, I ate none of those things. I stayed very "raw" (raw, plant based diet with some soy), so I don't think I can consider that low carb, just "mindful carbing" this was in part to the fact that I had never exercised any self control with food and I removed them completely with the intention of relearning how to eat them. Really, it taught me a whole lot about my own habits.

Today, I am still sensitive to those foods and can't eat them regularly, as in, with every single meal. However, I do not count carbs and my meals are plant based. We do eat meat, sparingly, because we found a local grass fed/free-range ranch to get our meat/eggs from. I don't keep dairy in the house, mostly because for one reason or another, we just sort of phased it out.

[nelie]

I tend not to eat bread and limit my grains but I definitely don't low carb. My carb intake is somewhere between 60-70%. When I keep my calories down, I have success. If I start dipping into peanut butter sandwiches and other stuff... well. Lately, I've had issues so I've been flip flopping. Now I'm once again getting strict with myself.

[Michelle125]

There seems to be a common trend with us, and I was trying to explain this to my Dad last night. We 'cysters' tend to overeat any type of grain-ey or starchy carb, whether it's whole grain or not. I really need to be careful with the best of the best, like Ezekiel bread, slow-cooking brown rice, steel cut oats, flaxseed pasta, yams, blue potatoes, etc. This stuff is magic for a 'normal' person trying to get healthier. For us, it seems, it might as well be candy. I tried having 1 cup of quinoa in the morning, and it would set me off into a carb binge later. Quinoa is an incredible super food, but it's still a grainy carb, which is like candy to me. Oy. I even added healthy fat to it and it did no good.

So treating grainy and starchy carbs like desserts or condiments has been working well. I can make mini pizzas out of eggplant slices, maked mashed potatoes out of mashed cauliflower, etc.

[JulieJ08]

Originally Posted by nelie

I tend not to eat bread and limit my grains but I definitely don't low carb. My carb intake is somewhere between 60-70%. When I keep my calories down, I have success. If I start dipping into peanut butter sandwiches and other stuff... well. Lately, I've had issues so I've been flip flopping. Now I'm once again getting strict with myself.

Does that mean you eat 90-100% carbs when not reducing them?? This is not sarcasm, just a question.

[allowingslender]

Originally Posted by Michelle125

I'm doing high-produce, clean, organic eating, whilst counting calories. I will admit, I was on Atkins for about 3 weeks a few months ago, and I lost 10lbs very quickly. But I was so tired and depressed, I knew it wasn't good for my body.

One of my favorite quotes is from Jillian Michaels' (The Biggest Loser trainer): "You have to be healthy to get skinny, not get skinny to be healthy." So in other words, disciplining yourself to be on a low carb-high animal protein diet might result in massive weight loss, but it's not at all healthy. Aging your insides by forcing them to work overtime processing all the protein and fat will never do anyone any good.

I know that eating good carbs, such as fruits, veggies, and legumes will be a slower weight loss but not harm my body in the process. 1-2 servings per day of a grain is okay for me, but more than that and I plataeu or gain weight. I also eat small amounts of fish, tofu, and turkey, but never red or processed meats. I know too much to give in to my cravings and be okay with it.

I really think focusing on superfoods, clean and chemical-free foods is key. I didn't realize this, but pesticides in and on non-organic foods goes straight to your hormonal system and wreaks havoc. Why isn't anyone telling us this? It's like you've got to dig to find this stuff out. I now spend the extra $20/week on groceries for organic. What's worth spending the extra money on more than our bodies? I look at eating as the most important thing I'm going to do that day. Because without taking the time and money to eat clean my job, my gym routine, my daily life, will all fail.

I completely agree with this post, except I am a strict vegetarian. I don't do low carb, but compared to the standard American diet (SAD), it is low. Compared to Atkins, it is not low... lol I consume carbs in the form of vegetables, legumes, fruit, whole sprouted grains (like Ezekiel bread for example). I stay away from anything white and for now, am severely limiting my starches -- because for now, there is no way I could stop at a serving size of a good pasta for example. So in that respect it is more binge control than carb counting.

Also, I have done away with all forms of sugar for now with the exception of naturally occurring fructose (in fruit) and lactose (in dairy). I try to avoid all chemical sweeteners and use Stevia or organic Agave nectar which is not shown to increase insulin production.

I have lost 5 lbs in about 2 1/2 weeks so I think I am on the right track because I don't feel deprived or hungry at all and my cravings have cut wayyyyy down.

[nelie]

Originally Posted by JulieJ08

Does that mean you eat 90-100% carbs when not reducing them?? This is not sarcasm, just a question.

Not sure. I'd actually replace carbs with carbs. I eat a lot of fruit, veggies and beans. If I eat bread/grains, I tend to eat less fruit. 60% is on the low side of carbs for me and I imagine 80% may be on the high side. (although if I'm eating bread, I tend to add fats aka nut butters so the shift would be more towards fats so keeping my carbs still somewhere in the 60-70% range)

[kaplods]

I'd have to say for me as well, that the carb content may not have changed nearly as much as where the carbs are coming from. Although I've drastically reduced the number of grain and sugar carbs, i've increased the carbs from vegetable and legumes.

[Michelle125]

I know that safe sweeteners are xyletol, stevia, and olgio (sp?) fructose. They are completel natural and chemical-free.