Hi all,
Just after a bit of advice really. I’ve recently gained weight again after upping my exercise 🤷♀️ I’ve not had a period now for 11 weeks, usually for me I just miss one here and there never more. My main concern though is I keep having random days where I’m just sad and can’t stop crying, no obvious reason for it which makes me think it’s linked in with the pcos but I’m just wondering if anyone else has this or any advice how to make it stop?
Thanks in advance for any help
Hi,Sorry you are going through this. This sounds like it could be that the exercise your doing is causing an increase in your Cortisol levels , this can cause weight gain , inflammation, anxiety , further insulin resistance and irregular periods and altering moods .
I would advise you start slow weighted workouts , Pilates and Barre workouts. Walking and or yoga / light Pilates whilst menstruating . Hope you try this out and it helps x
Thankyou so much for your reply. I just started walking more and swimming as I worry about the cortisol, maybe it’s the swimming as that does get me out of breath. Will try replace the swimming with yoga instead. Thankyou again x
I wouldn’t say you should cut out swimming , swimming for 15-30 minutes can be a great morning workout to start off your circadian rythem. Although it would help to try out slow weighted workouts three times a week along side the walking /swimming/yoga? Although walking , swimming and yoga are brilliant there not as great at lowering blood sugar and testosterone levels as slow weighted workouts . This is because when using weights your building muscle , the muscle allows the the cells to take in the sugar from your blood stream. This lowers blood sugar. In turn this also lowers testosterone levels as high insulin levels increase testosterone and insulin is usually the root cause of high testosterone in PCOS. Insulin resistance and high testosterone cause irregular periods and mood and also can cause weight gain . A Mediterranean diet with a small amount of carbs consisting only of complex carbohydrates. Make sure your eating good fats and protein with every meal and snack .cut out or decrease refined sugars as much as possible (you can swap refined sugars for agave , xylitol, erythritol , coconut sugar or dates/date syrup ) have a high protein breakfast . This diet will support your hormones , immune system , help with blood sugar and over all health . Taking a good multivitamin can support immune and hormone health. Taking Myo and D chiro 40:1 inositol with each meal twice daily helps decrease blood sugar , improve mood , hunger , cravings , fertility , egg quality and periods .
Hope this helps you.
Don’t feel overwhelmed by all the information, take it one step at a time. I hope you find your way and start feeling better soon 💜
Hi, I'm sorry to hear that your having a difficult time recently. I work with clients that have PCOS and so I know the ins and outs of the syndrome. Cortisol unlinlie mentioned below can make some individuals gain weight but this will be water weight do to cortisols proposed impact on the renin-angiotensin system.
Weight loss can be a tough beast for individuals with PCOS due to its common impact on reducing metabolic rate and also impairing appetite control in some individuals. Just because you exercise more, this doesn't necessarily lead to weight loss. If you currently aren't in the right mindset to lose weight and it's impacting you emotionally I would perhaps encourage doing this a little further down the line when you are ready and energised to do so. The exercise is really good and can help you become more insulin sensitive so i'd recommend to keep going with this. If walking and swimming are activities you enjoy it may be worth considering doing them before breakfast (fasted) as this can help improve your metabolic flexibility (however if you can't adhere to this then just do it after eating, it's just something to consider).
Other types of exercise I'd recommend is some Resistance training or HIIT.
If you'd like to discuss any of this further please feel free to check out jmsnutrition.co.uk and give me a call.
Best wishes,
James
I have a whole typed out .. it’s fairly long and but may not apply to you but take as much or as little as you need … firstly Lots of different things suite different people. My first advise is go and do your own research, Pinterest is a good source of advise.. pcos diet, pcos symptoms, pcos why, pcos what is it.. all things I typed and got some serious knowledge. There are also people on Instagram who do 30 day free meal plans and give you loads of information for free.. I think it’s called simple pcos, me personally I developed type 2 diabetes I was 6 stone over weight, lost a load of hair on my crown to point where I wear a wig and loads of hair in places there should be non! I was always tired and I just felt crap for so long it was my normal. My husband and I have been trying for a baby for over 13 years and for 10 years I hadn’t had a period so my pcos was quite severe. The first thing I did was learn what pcos actually is and then that helped me understand how to change both my diet and lifestyle to be well again. A super simple explanation is our body’s don’t tolerate sugar.. so they create insulin to match the higher sugar levels then because we have high insulin we create to much testosterone as the two hormones match each other within us and that causes a load of crappy side affects, like heavy periods, constant periods, no period at all, mood swings, weight gain, hairy chin, neck and back, loss of hair on crown and receding hair line, sweating a lot, always hot (especially hands and feet ) constantly tired, .. the list goes on but you can change it.. sugar is your new nemesis and It’s also not just simple sugar like sweets and deserts.. unused carbohydrates turn into sugars within our body if it’s not used.. so white potato, bread, pasta rice all things that if possible need to be removed from your diet even gluten free options should be a treat, There are other things you can have.. sweet potato, butternut squash, swede, quinoa buckwheat… but they are all complex carbs and will stop the ride of sugar spikes and plummets.. that’s also important as that why your craving food.. not even bad food just food I hear ya I been there.. it’s your body craving it’s next sugar high it sounds ridiculous I know.. one of the most helpful things I now know is to eat protein with every meal.. the protein helps Cut down sugar and carbs so double you protein intake (chicken, all fish and as much as you can inc oily fish if you can, please do cut the fat of bacon or pork as there is not a diet plan in the world where it’s good for you! ) and half your carbs and also good fat like avocado, humous, coconut oil, organic real butter.. please also stop counting calories.. a standard diet as you probably already know won’t work for us! and I back that up as i personally got a pcos nutritionist at my own cost and this comes directly from her... if I can shed any help I would also recommend going gluten and lacto free another side affect of pcos is loads of people are diagnosed with IBS again crappy lazy doctors what it is in most cases is a thing called pcos Leaky gut ( again Pinterest it) basically you can upset your tummy with gluten and lactos so if you avoid them it one more thing you don’t have to deal with but it’s more than just being close to a toilet constantly.. the leaky gut is twinned with inflammation of the stomach and left untreated can be nasty and again the side affects of that are feeling crap, tummy aches, the runs but it’s also affects your body working at a normal level.. Also the constant tiredness and feeling crappy seriously I know those diet changes feel like a lot but once you do it you will never look back.. I used to want to sleep in the late afternoon I was so poorly All the time I didn’t know what feeling good felt like until I changed my diet and lifestyle. One of the big issues is also stress.. stress actually makes your sugars increase crazy right! But when your stressed or upset do you reach for bad food.. look it up it’s a hormone called cortisol and it’s a ladys With pcos worst friend we need it as it helps us wake up and stimulates other hormones but we have too much.. there is no medical way of reducing so it’s a manage stress and situations. I’m 4 stone down, feeling fantastic and had conformation of Ovulation 2 months in A row but it’s taken 2 years of research and changing my diet to get there.. supplements is the last thing to briefly talk about you 1000% need inositol if nothing else, an omega 3, vit d with k3 and palmetto plus forte, also magnesium glycinate is a good Shout. There also herbal supplements called adaptogens you can take to help deal with stress hormone cortisol.. but please do your own research I can only tell you what has worked for me and every one is different. I wish you luck
Thankyou so so much for this. Super helpful. I find sugar the hardest to cut out because it seems to be hidden in everything. I'm already df as I'm lactose intolerant but I've only been serious about it recently. I've never heard of extra protein so will give that a try. Thankyou so much again, definitely going to try some of the things you suggested
Sugar is hard and every one deserves a treat and not to demonise any food group but it’s an exception not a rule with sugar for us.. even if you just cut back carbs it’s a win!
Thank-you all for your replies, its all super helpful. A little update for you. So 2 days ago I started taking inositol again and berberine and today I have come on my period after 12 weeks. Mood and energy also seem to have improved too. Will implement some more diet changes and stick with the exercise and hopefully this will be my key to getting some improvement 😊
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