PCOS Review Newsletter #135

Is a High-Protein Diet Best for PCOS?

Are You Setting Yourself Up for Failure?

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1) Is a High-Protein Diet Best for PCOS?

Have you heard that you should be on a "high-protein" diet if you have polycystic ovarian syndrome and are trying to lose some weight? Or maybe you've heard that a "low-carb" diet is the way to go. Or maybe you think a low-fat diet is best. So what's the answer to this confusing situation?

A new research study from the Gynecological Endocrinology Unit of the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre in Brazil may shed some light on this issue.

The researchers evaluated 18 women with polycystic ovarian syndrome and 22 without the disorder. The women were randomly prescribed a high-protein diet (30% protein, 40% carbohydrate, and 30% fat) or a normal-protein diet (15% protein, 55% carbohydrate, and 30% fat). The total caloric content of each diet was limited.

After adhering to these diets for 8 weeks, the results were surprising.

Regardless of the type of diet, all the women, whether they had PCOS or not, lost weight and their body fat percentage went down. In addition, the testosterone levels in both groups of women also declined, regardless of which diet they were on.

So what is this study telling us?

It tells us that calorie restriction is more important than the protein content of your diet for the purposes of losing weight and normalizing testosterone.

But which calories should you restrict? Protein? Carbs? Fat? Or should you just count calories?

Actually, it's none of these! So you don't have to obsess about whether you should be on a high-protein or low-carb diet, or spend your valuable time keeping track of every calorie you put into your mouth.

You want to do these two things.

First, you want to reduce the "calorie density" of your diet, which automatically cuts your calories in a healthier way. Calorie density is the number of calories in a given amount of food.

Reducing the number of calories per ounce of food (calorie density) is an easy way to cut calories without feeling deprived or hungry.

The second thing you want to do is increase the quality of the protein, carb and fats you consume.

If you can master these two concepts, you have made a huge step forward in solving the puzzle of PCOS.

The entire diet described in the Natural Diet Solution for PCOS e-book is based on these two concepts.

This e-book has a chapter called "How Calorie Density Makes You Fat". This chapter contains two secrets for eating as much as you like as you consume a much reduced total amount of calories. These two secrets are validated by research from Penn State University.

Source:
Toscani MK et al, Effect of high-protein or normal-protein diet on weight loss, body composition, hormone, and metabolic profile in southern Brazilian women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a randomized study, Gynecol Endocrinol. 2011 May 31. [Epub ahead of print]

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3) Are You Setting Yourself Up for Failure?

If you're like me, you encounter many challenges in life. As a woman who is dealing with PCOS in additional to all the other important issues in life, you are more likely to be faced with challenging situations than many others.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, do we have a defeatist attitude, or do we have a "can do" attitude?

You can only use your life energy effectively to solve problems if you are in a state of mind of being solution-oriented.

No one can make decisions for you or find the best solutions to your situations. You can make better decisions if you are in a positive frame of mind.

The way you label yourself and think about yourself with your self talk will determine how you make good decisions about critical issues in your life.

For example, negative thoughts about yourself are like having somebody sit on your shoulder whispering bad things in your ear about your inability to be successful.

We are self-fulfilling prophecies. What you say and think about yourself does come true.

It's as if we unconsciously believe that we can say negative things about ourselves and get away with it. We mistakenly believe negative thoughts won't have an effect on our future. But the truth is all those thoughts, self-talk, and labels keep us stuck with old behavior patterns.

You are now the sum total of all the programming others have given you and that you have reinforced through the thoughts you have had about yourself.

You have the power to train your mind to choose what you think, instead of allowing random thoughts to hold you hostage.

Your goal is to become inner-directed and focused, so that you decide what you want to think, rather than have your thoughts and emotions determined by the world around you. An untrained mind will have more emotional ups and downs because it is reacting to random thoughts. Focus on what you want with joy and enthusiasm.

Just like the earth, your brain does not discern what you plant. It will work just as hard to grow weeds as it will to grow beautiful flowers. You determine the seeds that are planted by what you say to yourself over and over.

To increase your self-awareness, take a notebook around with you for the next 2 weeks and jot down all the negative things you say and believe about yourself. If you’re not having the results in your life you want, it’s because you are holding yourself back with negative self-talk.

To move to the next level of success you must take responsibility for the caliber of information that you feed your mental computer daily. Sure, it's a challenging task, but the rewards will amaze you!

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"My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment." -- Oprah Winfrey

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