OK so first I'm told, no sugar, no carbs for pcos/IR. That leaves me with protein and fat. Exactly what Atkins & SB prescribe!! Perfect! OK. So I do that for a year and lose some weight. But now, I'm being told that my birth control pill (soon to be changed) and possibly the fact that I love cheese have made my bad cholesterol skyrocket. GEE, THAT'S JUST SUPER. I chose not to go on cholesterol drugs (that would increase my daily pill count that's currently 1500mg Metformin, 2 pills a day for blood pressure and 1 birth control pill -- NO THANKS) but rather try to control with diet. My endocrinologist said, "I've seen people who do a vegan diet lower their cholesterol." So there we have it, now I can't eat animal products, i.e. PROTEIN & FAT!!! What am I left with??! Air!

Sorry had to vent. I know it can't be that bad, and I know I need to take better care of my health with my diet. I will do this. I'm just trying to figure out how to have a low GI/carb diet AND get rid of saturated fats. (I'm not going to do a full-on vegan thing, since I'm not necessarily doing it for animal rights reasons, so I assume I can still eat egg whites and fat free dairy products, and maybe lean fish? That's right, a "vegan" who eats fish...)

Anyone have any experience with this?? I would love to know what you have to say.

I've seen amazing things happen with cholesterol on a whole foods vegan (truly vegan, no animal products at all) diet.

I worked with a client a few months ago and he exercised for at least 30 minutes a day (more often 60 minutes) to the point of sweating, ate a whole foods, no alcohol, no refined carbs, no sugar or sweetener all natural diet and lost 20 pounds and dropped 100 points in his cholesterol in 8 weeks without restricting portions of allowed foods.

He's just the most recent client I've helped; there are many more who have had similar results.

Best of luck finding what works for you!

Thanks Passionista! That is very encouraging. I feel that I have a lot of re-training of my brain & habits to do...

I am about to start a vegetarian version of South Beach. I find it weird when people say they start vegan diets and lose so much weight. I follow a mainly vegan diet and I gain around 1kg a month despite all the whole foods. Too many carbs, and I love them with all my heart. So could you possibly opt for a vego version of SB (Atkins would be far too hard) and add oats as your starch, which contain beta-glucan that naturally lowers cholesterol. Its more likely eggs and meat which raise your cholesterol levels than cheese, unless you are eating enormous amounts.

Refined starches and sugars as well as lack of exercise are BIG contributers to elevated cholesterol/triglyceride levels. Animal products aren't the only culprits!

That would be me.

I run the gamut from vegan to flexitarian since 1998, with major pit stops in Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian and Pescatarian land. It depends on the year and what's going on in my life. My pregnancy for example.

What are your goals? Lower the Sat. Fat and cholesterol? How are your triglycerides?

A.

My cholesterol (specifically my triglycerides) went significantly down when I stopped eating refined carbohydrates. I'm not a vegetarian, but I was for a number of years and I'm trying to get back to being more "vegetarian" for both ethical and health reasons.

A diet that is vegan is not necessarily high-carb like eating potatoes and bread all the time.

A vegan diet should be balanced between carbs, protein and vegetables, except your protein will be the vegetable kind, like beans (soybean whole or tofu, tempeh, black beans, chick peas, lentils) or other proteins, like seitan.

But remember, the key is to eat a lot of vegetables -- it's not just protein and carbs. I heard somewhere your plate should be 50% vegetables and 25% carb and 25% protein.

A sample meal I have:

1 cup of black beans
1/2 cup brown rice
1/2 package of collard greens cooked in oil/garlic

So I've been vegetarian all my life ....There is alot of good carbs in veg food.

Just apply the same rules of staying low GI and avoiding processed foods / refined carbs. The moment you start cooking at home you'll see the difference. There are plenty of healthy vegetarian delicious options out there... lentils / beans - all great protein sources.

The key is to find the balance and sustainable lifestyle that suits you.

161/137/115
healthier living since June 2010

Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going!

As someone who has never really dieted or changed my eating habits...I believe that a vegan diet is what may be best for me right now to jump start my weight loss. What do you guys suggest as key points to starting a vegan diet. also what are good items that will satify my sugar cravings but not make my blood sugar and insulin levels spike.

I thave already cut out anything white ie. sugar, bread rice or potatoes out of my diet. I love watermelon but I've been told that the sugar in it is high.

It's incredibly unhealthy for you to continue to diet in this manner. High protein/high fat diets are going to CONTINUE to put you at risk for heart disease.

You need carbs because you need the fiber/whole grains to help keep cholesterol reduced- help keep the glycogen storage in all of your muscles- especially if you work-out- which I hope you are! Plus your body needs sugar to live- each organ and function of our body needs glucose!

Eat a reduced carb diet/ not a no carb diet. Hope this helps. I'm a little surprised a dr would tell you to NOT eat carbs? If you still have this dr, get a new one! seriously.

I was diagnosed with a mild case of PCOS in October and was showing clear signs of insulin resistance. When I brought up my concerns of developing diabetes with my gyno, she brushed it off saying, "Ohh, you don't have to worry about diabetes until you're overweight!" She also advised against me seeing an endocrinologist. I felt like this was AWFUL medical advice considering insulin resistance was already causing me to gain weight! Whatever happened to preventative medicine??

Since she was obviously not going to be any help, I took it upon myself to make an appointment with my endocrinologist. I went to see him the day before Thanksgiving and his immediate recommendation was that I become a vegan. He told me to read Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes for all the details of my new diet. The next day I ran across a copy of Skinny *****, which I read in a few hours. Skinny ***** is a little in your face and highly focused on the moral/animal rights reasons for becoming vegan, but they also spend a lot of time discussing the nutritional aspects of a plant based diet. Dr. Barnard's book is very straight forward, but offers solid nutritional information with medial studies to back up his statistics. I'm really glad that I read them both together- Skinny ***** got me charged up about the mistreatment of animals and kind of grossed out by the thought of meat and dairy, then Dr. Barnard brought me back to reality with detailed advice on becoming a healthy vegan. I had also recently watched Food Inc, a documentary on the state of the American food industry, which highlights how unsanitary living conditions for animals in slaughterhouses are actually making our supply of meat very dangerous.

With all of these things combined, I knew I had to make a change. At first I was very intimidated, worried that I wouldn't be able to stick to all the new rules, and convinced that I couldn't live my life without cheese, but I knew I at least needed to give it a try. I've only been a vegan for 2 weeks now, but within a week I was already feeling much less fatigued. I used sleep for 10 hours a night and not feel rested, to struggle just to wake up in the morning, and still be falling asleep at my desk by 3pm. In the short time that I've been vegan, all of this fatigue is gone! I am amazed by how quickly I've started to see results. Another benefit of Dr. Barnards diet is that even without exercise, he says people who stick to the rules of the diet lose an average of 1 pound per week. And as long as you are eating the right things, you can eat as much as you want without counting calories, so I'm rarely hungry.

It is a pretty restrictive diet and its a huge lifestyle change, but after seeing the results, I have no intention of going back to meat and dairy. I still miss cheese A LOT, but I'm getting used to living without it.

Sorry for the long rambling post, I hope my info helps!

High protein is not necessarily a contributer to cholesterol risk. it could be the type of protein you are eating. if you are eating high protein diet your should eat lean meat like beef with fat trimmed and low fat cheese and chicken breast.

south beach actually discourages you from eating fatty meats and dairy.

I went vegan on the 1st of Oct and have not looked back for a second. I have seen my blood sugar plumment 40 points, my endurance increase ( I did a 12 mile walk to Coney Island last weekend ) and Zantac being a thing of the past.
I can not comment, as I have no knowledge of PCOS, but I know that veganism is the best decision I have ever made, finally my dinner plate and my ethics are in the same spot, and my body is responding brilliantly.

Good luck on finding what works best for your body !

I liked the Bernard book. I also suggest getting a hold of the Vegetarian Way.

http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Way...2216774&sr=8-1

Basic veg*n nutrition is covered there for all ages and stages in easy language. They also wrote the one for dietitian/professionals, but the plain english one is easier to cope with.

PCRM has a plan online here.

http://www.pcrm.org/health/prevmed/weightloss.html

HTH!
A.

I do have pcos.ANd went vegan last october myself! Since then I have lost 27 lbs and found out not only are my cycles regular but I am ovulating. I'l living vegan and loving it