Macros for PCOS?

KT0210

Hi ladies - I would like to track the macros and what are good gram ranges to stay within? I’ve read in quite a few of your posts that said to stay under 100 g of carbohydrates a day is a good goal. What then would be the grams of protein and a fat that I would need to hit per day?

I did keto last year and lost about 50 pounds, but quite frankly that low carbohydrate count (approx 20 per day) was one that was very difficult for me to sustain over time. I’ve since gained about 15 of that back and thought that I could just go to counting calories but obviously that’s not worked. I’ve been pretty religious about watching it the last few months and I’ve been steadily gaining.

I like using this app because it’s so easy to keep track of things and I also love having the barcode scanner. I would just love some insight or help on to what to set my macros at.

Thanks!

Alliwan

I personally have to stay under 25 to 30 net carbs a day to see any kind of weight loss. It can be rough to keep your carbs low if you are not in charge of your meals everyday.

sardelsa

It really is going to vary from person to person. Do you have insulin resistance?

For some people, lowering carbs can help manage symptoms and aid weight loss (in particular those who are IR or borderline).
Others such as myself don't have IR. I also have what is know as "lean PCOS." I find macro breakdown isn't as important, I have carbs around 250-300g per day average. However, for me keeping my protein very high and weight lifting has helped tremendously with my symptoms... my cycles seem to stay regular and hormones are more stable.

Try 100g or less, You can play around with protein and fat. Protein I think the bare minimum would probably be 0.4g per lb bodyweight, higher (0.8g per lb) if you are active or weight lifting and want to maintain muscle. Fats can be anywhere to make up the difference.

lysdus

I do foods low on glycemic index. I’m now hitting a plateau and struggling to find a solution to it despite trying all the typical common wisdom stuff like strength training, small meals more times a day, and increasing protein. I wonder if the weight loss I’ve done so far has slowed down my already not great metabolism, confused by all the hormones.

lysdus

Has anyone else experienced this? What did you do?

Dragonwolf

What are you considering a plateau? A week? Six weeks? Six months?

Sometimes, it's just that you need to ground your expectations. Weight loss, even without PCOS, isn't linear, so a week isn't a plateau. A month may not even be one for us.

Also, the "six small meals" thing backfires for a lot of us, especially those of us with insulin resistance. I've personally actually found that doing two larger meals per day worked far better for weight loss and insulin/blood sugar normalization. However, without any information on what you're doing typically, it's hard for anyone to give more specifics for troubleshooting your particular struggles.