Hi everyone! I am a new member who was diagnosed with PCOS a few years ago, but just recently was told that I need to be on a low carb diet permanently. I was reading through the website, and no one spoke about Atkins, which is what my doctor insists is the best low carb diet. I don't really like the idea of Atkins, and my friends have told me to try the South Beach diet (which some of you rave about). Has anyone tried Atkins? Or both Atkins and South Beach? I am wondering which diet I should try. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hi, and welcome!

I have sincere concerns about Atkins, because of its encouragement to eat unlimited saturated fat (bacon, pork rinds, butter, etc) - this has been proven to be unhealthy for your heart. It also is designed to induce a state called ketosis, where your body is buring its own tissues for energy. Ketosis results in toxic byproducts that can be harmful if maintained for long periods. I have heard that Dr. Atkins himself had trouble following his own diet because it is too restrictive of carbs.

South beach is a better bet in my mind, since it emphasizes "good fat, good carbs" - i.e. eating carbs that have a lower impact on blood sugar, and fats that are monounsaturated, like olive oil. Carbs are necessary, but SB says you should get your carbs from things like whole grains instead of refined flours, whole fruits instead of fruit juice, etc. It boils down to "eating healthy," as far as I can tell. Things like green leafy veggies are encouraged, lean meats/tofu/beans for protein, and limits starches that cause blood sugar and insulin to spike: things like potatoes, white bread, white flour baked goods and refined sugar.

Hope that helps - I'm on the South Beach diet right now, and there's a whole forum dedicated to it here on 3FC. Thier FAQ would be a good place to look. And read about a few programs - there's one called "The Insulin Resistance Diet" that is similar to SBD, there's one called "Sugar Busters" which has its own forum, and might be worth a look.

Not every diet will be right for every person, so you may have to shop around a bit.
Good luck!
Solarmama

Why would your doctor recommend a low-carb diet permanently? ALL of them say they aren't permanent eating patterns and shouldn't be followed for life. All of them have "maintanence" programs that gradually add back in carbs (especially Atkins). I really wish I understood doctors... some of them come up with these wild statements that just don't make any sense at all.

Depends on where they were schooled, when they were schooled, and how old they are. Nutrition classes are a fairly new thing in medical school training; I've heard of older doctors saying their hospitalized obese patients didn't need nutrition because "they need to lose weight, anyways."

That and old docs seem to feel entitled to a degree of crochetiness, for some reason. Ah well?

That would explain older doctors, I suppose, but how does that explain the younger ones? I just have this consistant problem with many physicians who refuse to acknowledge that I DO exercise and I DO eat healthy, but I remain overweight because my body doesn't metabolize food correctly. I'm not going to lose weight quickly or easily because of that condition. So, support what I'm doing correctly, and acknowledge that I'm on the right track. Help me out. Don't chastise me or tell me stupid stuff.
I had one doctor tell me to eat less than 1000 calories a day in order to lose weight; I've had too many to count tell me that the only way I'll ever lose weight is to have gastic bypass surgery. These weren't OLD doctors! These statements endanger the health of their patients.

It depends. What sort of doctors are you talking about? One glaring problem with how the medical system is set up is that there is no incentive for a brilliant medical student to go into a primary-care type of specialty. The highly competitive residencies are for things like Dermatology, Interventional Radiology, Opthamology...stuff you don't usually see first-line, but are referred to.

In addition, the class itself gets separated into striations (it's a lot like high school cliques, except without the wet willies). Those really good with Anatomy go into Surgery; those who love high turnover, high stress work go into Emergency Med. Those who love kids go into Peds, and those who love problem solving go into Internal Med. Family practice, unfortunately, is left with the dregs of those who are wishy-washy about what they want to do, or just aren't good enough to handle any of the above. Equally as unfortunate, family practice is the first doc you probably encounter.

Now, this is a very vague generalization, and I am sure there are brilliant family practice docs out there that went into med school and were sure that's what they wanted to do; that was their calling. Also, I'm sure you've met other doctors that don't fit the stereotypical roles I've listed above. However, they are much more often the exception rather than the rule. But because of this, you can see why this becomes a problem. With all of the best and brightest doing super-specialized work, you only have those that barely passed their classes in med school seeing the vast majority of patients. And, because there still isn't a medical field related to the study and treatment of obesity, there isn't anyone more competent for these Fam. Practice physicians to refer their patients to.

Hopefully, with obesity now acknowledged as a disease, it'll eventually lead to the creation of a new subspecialty to treat it. We'll see what the future holds? As of right now, medicine is very much in the Dark Ages as far as obesity is concerned; we don't know what causes it, what drives it, and there are far, far too many unknowns involved for us to say anything more than it's from eating more than the body thinks it needs. That's what most doctors cling to, because that's all they've been taught, and they've never sought to learn more about it.

Interesting concepts. I see mostly specialists, though, and its taken me years and lots of visits and tears to find specialists that I'm willing to return to. It took 4 endocrinologists before I found the reproductive endocrinologist who initially diagnosed me. She tried twice to refer me to medical and other endocrinologists without success because both were less than helpful and I refused to go back and see one of them. The other one released me from his service after the glucophage made me so sick it was clear I was never going to be able to tolerate taking it. I was diagnosed in 2001. I have just now, through a combination of referrals and some really good specialists found a medical endocrinologist to help with everything else. In fact, I'm so reluctant most of the time to go through the process of finding a new doctor that I currently travel 50 miles one way to my reproductive endocrinologist. I see her 4-6 times per year and we do a lot via fax and telephone. Those visits may go down now that I have a medical endocrinologist locally... but were I to move, I would keep this endocrinologist, even if I had to pay for the visits myself (which would be likely).
I've had the same issue with orthopedists because I have nerve damage in my left ankle, and finding a competent orthopedist has been a struggle as well because many of them insist that the only problem with my ankle is my weight.
As for the teachings: yes. They've been taught that weight gain is solely "calories in, calories out", and that isn't true in some cases. It is true for many, but not all. And that concept just doesn't seem to get across to most. The doctors that I go back to are the ones that believe me when I tell them I swim a mile a day, and lift weights. The ones that look at my food logs and don't automatically accuse me of lying when the calorie intake is only about 1500 calories, and I am still seriously overweight.
But those doctors are hard to find!

Hopefully, one will be still lurking around in a couple of years, here

The common wisdom for years was that PCOS patients had to follow a low-carb plan. However, recent research has shown that that is not the case. Unfortunately, most doctors don't know this.

I have PCOS and I've lost 157 pounds so far on Jenny Craig, which is a high-carb plan. My blood sugar and everything else is just fine. I DO take metformin and spironolactone, but I had lost nearly 50 pounds on JC before I started the medication, and even then my blood sugar was fine.

My doctor has also told me to follow a low carb plan, but he wants me on South Beach and not Atkins.

If I could just stick with it, I have like S.B. much better than Atkins.

That's the problem: I can stick with what I do. I tried Atkins, and got sick on it. And the food tastes horrible. I'm not a big bread eater, but I do like fruit and vegetables! I can't live without fruit, and just on egg whites, cheese, shrimp, and turkey. I can't eat any form of chicken now, and I'm not overly fond of beef to begin with. I'll eat it, but its not usually my first choice.
I've reformed my diet: a hamburger is a treat now, but I eat boca burgers all the time. I buy vegetarian sausage. I do buy a LOT of low-carb items, but its because those are the things that have splenda in them for some reason. And I'm allergic to nutra sweet.
My nutrionist told me I could drink ANY non-caloric, non-caffinated beverage I want to drink... so I drink lots of all-natural diet soda, but also drink Propel water and herbal iced tea (chai, mint, cinnamon are my favorites, but I have a green tea chai, and a few others I like). I seem to need to drink something carbonated when I eat, as I tend to get less nauseated and throw up much less when I do that.