PCOS diet: Foods to eat in PCOS for weight loss
PCOS is a hormonal condition in women due to which their body undergoes many changes. You are probably reading this article because of two reasons. One that you have PCOS and you are looking for a solution, second that you see symptoms of PCOS and before you go see your doctor, you need to study about it. In both cases, we are here help! We will start by studying it, the symptoms leading to it, factors causing and how to treat PCOS naturally with diet. Also if there is actually a regime to follow to deal with this hormonal imbalance. Let’s get started with what exactly is PCOS and PCOS diet that you can follow.
What is PCOS?
Abbreviated for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. It is a hormonal condition which many women of reproductive age face these days. In scientific language, women who have PCOS have cysts in their ovaries. This cyst is caused by the overproduction of androgens. Androgen is basically a hormone that gives male characters to a man.
Symptoms of PCOS
Now that you have a basic idea, let’s get started to the next part. If you have already got it diagnosed by your doctor you may skip this. For those who are looking for the answer about PCOS, stick here. As we mentioned that it is caused by excessive androgens, symptoms are related to that. Following are the symptoms:
- Excessive facial hair. You may start to get hair growth on your chin or sidelocks.
- Acne is one of the other symptoms.
- Irregular periods or no periods. First and the very crucial symptom is an irregularity in your periods. This is taken as the first sign of attention.
- Weight gain/obesity comes as a byproduct of PCOS. No matter how much you try, it will get next to impossible to lose weight.
- Male pattern baldness.
- High Blood pressure.
If you see any of these symptoms in your body, chances are that you have the hormonal imbalance. Visit your gynecologist and get it checked. If you have tried hard but have not been able to do weight loss, the diet may help you. The doctor is also going to tell you to follow a healthy regime for weight loss.
With much knowledge about PCOS now, the question arises that can we treat it with our diet? What are the effects of your lifestyle or your food? Can a healthy day help you in weight loss?
How does diet affect PCOS?
Opting for a good PCOS diet is one of the best natural ways to treat it. Women with this issue have high insulin levels. Insulin is the hormone that transports sugar from the blood into muscles thus enabling the body to use energy from glucose. Raising levels of insulin will lead to a number of symptoms like weight gain, male pattern baldness, unwanted hair growth, acne and lot more. Thus it gets important to manage the insulin levels in order to manage hormones. Doctors recommend a diet which is high in refined carbohydrates and would say no to processed food. We will discuss the detailed food habits to follow in the next section.
PCOS diet for weight loss
A change in lifestyle and diet can help control PCOS and will eventually kill all its symptoms. There are three major kinds of foods that you should be including in your meals to get the best results. It will also help you in weight loss which is otherwise difficult.
Foods to include
- Foods that have low Glycemic Index
- Anti-inflammatory foods
- Whole Foods
Details about how to include these foods in a PCOS diet for weight loss
Foods with a low GI
These are the unprocessed, unrefined foods that keep your insulin level in check. This means you need to include green vegetables, fresh fruits, muesli, porridge, baked beans, yogurt, soy milk etc to your daily meals.
Anti-inflammatory foods
Foods that reduce inflammation are essential to be included. These foods include Olive Oil, Green Tea, Tomatoes, Spinach, blueberries etc. Make sure you incorporate them in your PCOS diet
Whole Foods
These are the natural foods which are not processed, rich in fiber and increases the metabolism rate in people. This shows that they are slowly absorbed in the blood thus producing less insulin. Thus helps to maintain low levels of insulin in a woman. These foods include fish, healthy oils, nuts, and fruits. Try various ways out to include them in your day.
Together these foods make up for a PCOS diet that is best suited to minimize and eventually kill its ill effects. It will also help you in weight loss which is hard to achieve. To double the effect of this, make sure you couple it up with some physical exercise.
Foods to avoid in PCOS
Now like any other diet, this diet also has some evil foods that need to be completely removed. To treat PCOS with diet, exclude these foods
- Fried foods like all your fast food.
- Sugary drinks which include sodas, fizzy drinks, and packed fruit juices are a no.
- Refined Carbohydrates like cakes, muffins, and pastries should not be there.
Follow these Do’s and Don’ts of PCOS diet and with time you will love the changes your body will undergo.
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