How To Lose Weight With PCOS In 6 Steps

My journey to lose weight with PCOS began in my early twenties, after gaining 40 pounds in several years. I didn’t fully understand why I gained all that weight until I was diagnosed with PCOS at the age of 23.

Although I researched this endocrine disorder to death, I struggled with weight loss for the next 8 years until finding a dietitian that put me on the right path (you can read how she helped me lose 23 pounds here).

I also managed to get pregnant naturally by losing weight, which allowed me to have regular periods again. While weight loss with PCOS can be difficult, it is not impossible!

Understanding how this hormonal disorder works and why stabilizing your blood sugar is an important key to losing weight with PCOS – and I detail all this and more below. And remember – never lose hope!

What Is PCOS?

PCOS is a hormonal condition that is usually present for women with irregular to no periods. PCOS sufferers also experience multiple cysts that grow on the ovaries due to the over-production of male hormones called androgens. Around 50 percent of women with PCOS are overweight or obese. Common PCOS symptoms include:

-acne

-hirsutism (excessive hairiness)

-thinning hair

-skin tags

What’s worse? Women with PCOS that is not well managed are also at higher risk of:

-endometrial cancer (due to irregular or no periods)

-heart disease

-diabetes (due to insulin resistance and obesity)

-high blood pressure

While weight loss can be difficult for PCOS sufferers due to insulin resistance (which I discuss below), many of the health risks and associated symptoms of this hormonal condition can be reduced or eliminated by following a healthy diet, especially one that promotes weight loss and stabilized insulin levels.

My PCOS Symptoms + Diagnosis

Do you suffer from irregular/missed periods, excess hair growth, acne or weight gain? You could have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, otherwise known as PCOS.

How Does Diet Affect PCOS And What Is Insulin Resistance?

Women with PCOS most often have higher insulin levels. Insulin is a hormone that helps metabolize sugars in the blood. If you are insulin resistant, this means that your body does not metabolize sugars in the blood properly and will pump out higher levels of insulin in an effort to metabolize these sugars to regulate your blood sugar levels.

When this continues to happen over and over again, our cells can become insulin resistant, meaning our cells stop being sensitive or stop responding to insulin as effectively, causing the sugar in our blood to remain elevated. Excess sugar in our blood eventually gets stored as fat (by our liver).

Insulin resistance can make it harder to lose weight due to the constant storage of excess sugars as fat, which is why women with PCOS often gain weight easily and have trouble losing weight. In addition, the more weight a person gains, the more insulin resistant our bodies can become, making it a vicious cycle to break.

This is why insulin resistance is an important factor to remember when trying to lose weight with PCOS. Following a diet that helps maintain stable blood sugar levels while minimizing insulin spike is the key to successful PCOS weight loss.

I speak more about insulin resistance and how it impacts weight loss in tip #1 further down in this post. You can also see a helpful graphic depicting this vicious cycle below.

pcos insulin resistance cycle — *Source: @sana_dietitian*

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How Long Does It Take To Lose Weight With PCOS?

This is such a difficult question to answer, as PCOS weight loss will depend on a number of factors, such as how consistently a healthy diet is maintained, how often you exercise, how well your blood sugar levels are maintained and how much weight you are trying to lose. There is no benchmark for PCOS weight loss, but healthy, maintainable weight loss is normally considered 1-2 pounds per week.

6 Tips To Lose Weight With PCOS

1. Calories In < Calories Out + Balanced Blood Sugar

To lose weight, everybody must follow the simple rule: the calories you consume must be less than the calories you burn. For women with PCOS, we also have to remember that we suffer from a weight loss blocker, insulin resistance, which refers to:

…cells in the body that are resistant to the effect of normal insulin levels and become less effective at reducing blood sugar levels. More insulin is then produced to keep the blood sugar normal. High insulin levels are also thought to increase the storage of fat and prohibits fat loss. As body weight increases, insulin resistance can become worse and could lead to Type 2 Diabetes.

What’s my point? If you have PCOS, it’s not enough to keep your calories eaten below calories burned. We also have to maintain a relatively stable blood sugar level to avoid the weight gain, (or lack of fat burning) associated with insulin resistance and higher insulin levels.

How do we maintain stable blood sugar levels? Avoid refined carbohydrates as much as possible, (e.g. cookies, donuts, white breads/rice, sugary drinks/snacks). Focus on complex carbs and whole wheat options. Complex carbs will still affect your blood sugar levels, but your insulin release is much slower after eating complex carbs than it would be with refined carbs.

Don’t decide to be a hero and cut out carbs all together, it’s not sustainable! You need carbs, just not the crappy, sugary ones. My dietitian also advised me to limit my daily intake of starchy carbs (e.g. pasta, rice, potatoes, bread) to only 3 servings a day (1 serving carb = half a cup). This reduction in sugars made a HUGE difference in my weight loss and also helped me burn the persistent fat stores in my lower belly by keeping my blood sugar and insulin levels more stable.

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2. Exercise Regularly To Lose Weight With PCOS

Ok – no one wants to see this tip, but regular exercise is important for everyone. It’s especially important to PCOS sufferers. Aim for a minimum of 20 minutes of exercise a day, which can be as simple as a brisk walk to get your heart pumping.

Not only does daily exercise burn more calories, but it also improves insulin sensitivity (e.g. the body’s ability to metabolize sugar) which is key to maintaining stable blood sugar levels. Women with PCOS have be found to have reduced insulin sensitivity (known as insulin resistance).

What exercise is best for PCOS? High intensity interval training is one of my favourite types of exercise and is also highly recommended for women with PCOS.

3. Strength Training = Improved Insulin Sensitivity

I’ve posted about the benefits of strength training on weight loss, metabolism and overall health here.

Strength training (e.g. regularly lifting heavy weights to build muscle) is especially important to PCOS sufferers because it is found to increase insulin sensitivity.

Women with PCOS have a muscle-building advantage over other women, because the increased testosterone levels associated with PCOS also mean that we can build more muscle faster (finally, a PCOS bonus!). More muscle mass also means more calorie burning potential. Order your dumbbells now ladies!

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4. Protein Is Your New Best Friend

PCOS sufferers can benefit from a high protein diet because proteins help manage cravings and keep you fuller, longer. This doesn’t mean that you only eat protein, but that a high percentage of your daily intake is protein-based (think 30-40%). High protein foods include meat/poultry/fish, eggs and greek yogurt, to name a few.

For a detailed listing of high protein foods, click here.

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5. Eat A High-Fibre Diet

Fibre is super important for any successful diet because it helps to keep you full, reduces blood sugar levels and also keeps your bowel movements regular. Fruits, vegetables and legumes are good sources of healthy fibre. For a detailed listing of high fibre foods and recommended fibre intake, click here.

6. Keep Stress In Check

This one is tricky, because stress isn’t something that can always be easily controlled. Studies have found that women with PCOS release higher amounts of the stress hormone cortisol than non-PCOS women.

Higher cortisol levels make the insulin resistance of PCOS worse and can wreak havoc on sex and thyroid hormones. High cortisol levels also trigger fat storage, especially in the tummy area.

To keep stress in check, keep your blood sugar levels stable, try to get plenty of rest (easier said than done, I know) and focus on stress-releasing activities, whatever those may be for you.

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Weight loss with PCOS can be difficult if you don’t know how to adjust your diet, but it’s definitely not impossible – you just need to know how to outsmart your hormones! Once you understand how to lose weight with PCOS, you are on your way to reducing your waistline.