Count carbs or calories? Or both? PCOS

wantypants
wantypants Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hiya,

I could really do with some advise. I hope I explain this right.

After battling with my weight for years I've been diagnosed with PCOS. After looking into this it seems PCOS women require fewer calories than "normal" women, but also due to the insulin resistance a high protien, low carb diet is suited.

Now I've been using MFP for a while and using these boards so I know a calorie is a calorie, but if I'm counting calories, should I still be watching my carb intake as well?

I've done a manual adjustment to lower my calories to 1500 (from 1725), am I ok so long as I come in under that, or should I still be ensuring only so much comes from carbs?

Thanks.

Replies

  • Kalici
    Kalici Posts: 685 Member
    I wouldn't manually lower the calories unless that is what you've been told to do by your doctor. However, you can go into the settings for goals and mess with the specific percentages for carbs, proteins and fats. This way you can adjust carbs down, while at the same time raising protein and maintaining the amount of calories you're supposed to eat. I'm not sure if it does it for everyone straight off the bat, but it was giving me 80% carbs, which is way too high for me (I also have insulin resistance). Again, I would check this all with your doctor to make sure you're doing what is best for you.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    You need to talk to your doctor about calorie intake for you with your PCOS. This is a specialized problem where it's probably going to take some trial and error to find what works for you.
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,178 Member
    First of all, being overweight makes PCOS symptoms much worse, PCOS does not cause weight gain. It might make weight loss happen a bit more slowly, it might mean your body tends to accumulate fat around your tummy rather than in other areas, but it will not make you gain significant weight and will not make losing it very hard, at least not according to drs. You will see a lot of such statements on the internet, every dr I have ever seen has called this an excuse. There are women out there with other hormonal issues and much more complicated situations, but for the average woman with PCOS, lowering calories means weight loss and PCOS symptoms improvement.
    As for low carb, not all women with PCOS have insulin resistance and for many of those who do, a low carb diet is not necessary. So talk to your dr.

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