Weight gain and pcos

[Vegansharon]

Hi everyone, help, I've got pcos and have gained 4 stone in 6 months. I lost 3 stone last year and now weigh more than I did before I started. I'm vegan and try to eat really healthy but I love bread and carbs. What can I do?

[IndigoBlue61]

Hello and welcome to the Weigh Loss Forum Vegansharon

You don’t say how you lost the weight previously but it’s possible it wasn’t in a sustainable way. It’s essential that any method you choose has to be one you can follow long term.

If you haven’t already then please read the Welcome Message in Pinned Posts here healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh... Please read it carefully so you can find all the information you need to find your way around the forum.

As a peer to peer support group we rely totally upon mutual encouragement. Nothing beats joining in, reading posts and replying to others. Our Group Weigh-in and the Daily Diary are probably the best places to start. You may also like to read this post about how hormones affect our weight, especially with PCOS healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

If you haven't already taken it, here's a tour of the forum

healthunlocked.com/?tour to help you find your way around.

Best wishes in your weight loss journey

Indigo 😊

[Vegansharon in reply to IndigoBlue61]

Hi thank you for your message, I went to slimming world and lost 3 stone over the course of a year. But always felt bored of the class. All they promoted was packet ham and muller yogurts. I don't eat either

[IndigoBlue61 in reply to Vegansharon]

Well maybe try something that will work long term, eating food YOU like 😊

[Bee-bop Maintainer 2st 7lbs in reply to Vegansharon]

Hi vegansharon,

I'm wheat and dairy free and vegetarian and SW 😂 things have changed there since even I started and there were other veggie and vegans there and I think we helped each other with staying on plan. I swapped some of my carbs, not that SW says to but, because I was pre-diabetic and needed to change that. So white potatoes for sweet potatoes, white rice for brown rice, stopped bread because the yeast bloats me ! Also, I limit my vegan cheese due to the high potato starch in most of them. I am not anti potato but, the GI is high so the energy of it is broken down quickly. I want the energy from my food to last so I don't feel hungry all the time.

There's vegan quorn these days, seiten, all sorts of substitutes that can help. I have got heavily into le Soleil plain yogurt and add fruit to that. I have been veggie 35 years andiwheat and dairy free 20 years ish and my weight gain was inactivity and eating and drinking things that were adding to that, I was in a car crash in 2012 from which I have cfs/me. I am still surprised I have lost so much weight as like I say inactivity didn't help me.

You managed to loose weight before and you can do it again for sure. Do you think looking at portion size could help or exercise? Were you doing body magic with SW? Did that help?

[moreless Administrator 7 stone]

Hi and welcome, Vegansharon

This is an earlier post with lots of helpful links healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

and this may may also be useful dietdoctor.com/low-carb/vegan

[Pink4eva]

Hi Sharon, I have a similar problem as you. I gained 60lbs in a yr, through binge eating and then starving myself. When I joined the forum I started following LowCaebHighFat way of eating. Apart from a slip up around my birthday, my cravings have reduced a lot and I had gone 35days without a binge, which was amazing for me. As well as the actual weight gain, the feeling of being out of control and the self loathing that came with it were very damaging for me, and the people around me. Hope you get on ok, I am happy to chat if you want.

[Betsboop]

I can do identify with what you have said l am also trying LCHF . This is my 4 th week . Have lost a little weight maintained last week . Still getting my head around what I am eating . Finding the plan fills me up and stops the cravings . I would also starve myself then binge as the hunger would be intolerable and of course binge on all the high sugar foods , which would then send me into a self loathing cycle , a bit like a merry go round . My relationship with food is not good and I realise that . Hoping this time to sustain and change my eating patterns . Thank you for posting I am sure a lot of us on this site can identify with you .

[Pink4eva in reply to Betsboop]

Hi, that’s what I like the most about this forum, the fact that people share and can identify and support each other. SlimmingWorld was also supportive but in a different way. I have now lost 4-6 stone, four times and have put it all back on again. I really can’t keep doing this to myself. I am going to have one more crack at it, but like you, I have got to sustain the weight loss. When I read the information about LCHF on this site, it does seem to make sense, certainly from my perspective as a binge eater with what must be increased insulin sensitivity. Like I said, I did have a blip of 4-5 days around the time of my birthday, because I couldn’t face celebrating without cake and gin. Actually, lots of cake and gin. Back on track now, keep in touch.😌

[Vegansharon]

Thanks everyone, I find I actually don't feel hungry most of the time but for some reason I eat 😂. I can go days of eating healthy plant based diet and then I get lazy, can't be bothered to cook after a long day at work and eat rubbish. Like just marmite on toast or cereal. It's been 10x worse since covid. I'm a manager in a dementia care home (covid free I like to add) but the stress is 24 7. I have totally neglected myself. Like I said I don't feel hungry I just eat because I think I should. I rarely eat breakfast, salad and fruit at lunch but at night I'm lazy. I don't know how to stop the cycle.

[Missdoubleyou in reply to Vegansharon]

I think the key is in the planning. It’s so much easier when you know what you are going to have. I only plan a day or two ahead, but it makes a huge difference. Maybe also cook meals that you can freeze half of?

Thank you for doing your job, thank god for people like you!

[Vegansharon in reply to Missdoubleyou]

I've cooked meals for the whole week, I've also planned breakfast and lunches. Hopefully this will give me the incentive I need to get back on track. Thank you for the support

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone in reply to Vegansharon]

With no breakfast and a minimal lunch, I'd say you're not lazy at night, but starving!! Even if you don't recognise it

I hope you can take a few minutes to read the links moreless has given you, above, as that may offer a way forward

[Vegansharon in reply to BridgeGirl]

Thank you, I've planned the week. Cooked all my meals for the week and planned breakfast and lunches

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone in reply to Vegansharon]

Very organised! How about heading over to the Daily Diary and posting your plans there? It's very sociable and a great place for sharing ideas

[TheAwfulToad Visitor]

It is incredibly hard to stay healthy on a vegan diet. It can be done, but most people don't manage it. I realise some people simply don't like the idea of eating meat, but I really suggest you ponder on your own reasons for eating vegan (as opposed to vegetarian or 'flexitarian') and ask yourself if those reasons are really justifiable in view of the clearly negative effect on your health.

I've personally known several vegans over the years, every single one of them in a disastrous state except one. She eats a very wide variety of vegetables, she's a very good cook, and she includes plenty of tropical oils in her food. Her meals are truly vegetable-based (as opposed to starch-based) and I'd suggest this is the sweet spot you need to aim for.

Your carb addiction is a sign that your body's ability to manage its energy supply is failing; specifically, it's becoming dependent on dietary glucose as a primary energy source and is inefficient at recycling bodyfat between meals. This is essentially prediabetes, and the most effective means of reversing it is to simply stop eating carbohydrates and give your body nothing but fat for a short period. This forces a rapid recalibration, and you can start to reintroduce carbs (slowly) over a period of months, although you don't want to ever stray even close to the amount you are (I assume) currently consuming. Your problem, as noted, is that this is rather hard to do on a vegan diet. Coconut oil and palm oil are probably your best bet as fat sources, but it's going to take a big rethink, and a lot of new recipes to learn.

[Vegansharon in reply to TheAwfulToad]

Eating meat is not an option. I never have liked it even as a child. So at 45 I'm definitely not going to start now. And I'm lactose intolerant and allergic to eggs. I also have allergy to most medicines and animals (ironic considering I don't eat them).

It has all gone down hill since covid, my dog died, my ex husband committed suicide so I've been helping our children, and try to work 50 hours a week in a dementia care home keeping it covid free. So I know it's nothing to do with being vegan, I've been vegen for years. This is to do with my own lack of self love.

[TheAwfulToad Visitor in reply to Vegansharon]

I'm sorry to hear that, sharon. That's a terrible scenario for anyone to cope with.

If no forms of animal protein are an option (and your reasons are clearly valid), then you still need to find a way to switch out your carbs and replace them with fat. Things like coconut oil, palm oil and olive oil will do the trick; obviously, you then need to learn some recipes that use them!

All I'm saying is: "vegan" covers a whole lot of territory. Your current predicament may be nothing to do with being vegan per se, but it is related to your specific implementation of it. It's fixable; you'll just need to put in a bit more effort than most people to fix it.