Liposuction, Ovulation, Vitamins Help PCOS and Weight

Here are 3 more articles about PCOS and being overweight.

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Is Liposuction an Option for Your Weight Problems?

If you're quite overweight and haven't been able to lose weight, you may have considered liposuction as a last resort. Liposuction is the surgical removal of abdominal fat. You may have thought that if you could just get rid of a lot of fat cells, your body would get back to normal. However, a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that liposuction may not be a good idea.

The study evaluated women with abdominal obesity and varying degrees of insulin resistance. Liposuction decreased the volume of subcutaneous abdominal adipose (fat) tissue by 28%-44%.

However, liposuction did not significantly affect the insulin sensitivity of muscle, liver, or fat tissue. Nor did it favorably alter coronary heart disease risk factors, including blood pressure and plasma glucose, insulin and blood fat concentrations. This study showed that abdominal liposuction did not significantly improve obesity-associated metabolic abnormalities.

PCOS is a fundamental metabolic disorder that cannot be cured by liposuction. Reducing adipose tissue mass by itself does not achieve the same metabolic benefits as weight loss does.

When we say "weight loss", we mean loss of fat while retaining or increasing muscle mass. Regular exercise and a healthy diet is the best approach to healthy weight loss. Keep in mind that muscle is heavier than fat.

So your total weight may not go down much, but so long as you are losing fat and building muscle, you're on the right track for reducing insulin resistance, normalizing your hormones and reducing some of your PCOS symptoms. To know how much body fat you are carrying (or losing), you can get a "body fat percentage" test from your doctor or possibly at your local gym.

Source:
Klein S, Fontana L, et al, Absence of an Effect of Liposuction on Insulin Action and Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Disease, N Engl J Med, June 17, 2004;350(25):2549-2557

PCOS Weight Loss Tactic: Take a Multi-Vitamin/Mineral

A study just released from Harbin Medical University in China has reported that 96 overweight women who took a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement for six months lost weight, reduced fat mass and lowered their cholesterol levels.

This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, intervention study, which is the quality "gold standard" for medical studies.

The researchers concluded: "...in obese individuals, multivitamin and mineral supplementation could reduce body weight and fatness and improve serum lipid profiles."

Based on this and other studies, we think a high-quality multi-vitamin/mineral supplement would be a good idea. Click here to see a high-quality multi-vitamin/mineral supplement.

We have uncovered considerable research to indicate that a multi-vitamin-mineral supplement can be beneficial to you in a number of ways.

Source: Li Y et al, Effects of multivitamin and mineral supplementation on adiposity, energy expenditure and lipid profiles in obese Chinese women. Int J Obes (Lond), 2010 Feb 9; [Epub ahead of print]

Kickstart Ovulation with a Smaller Belly

Fortunately, some of you are lean. But many are overweight, even seriously overweight. Maybe you're one of those who is overweight and can't become pregnant because you're not ovulating. Maybe you were told to lose weight in order to become pregnant. The problem is, losing weight causes some women to start ovulating, but not others. This has puzzled researchers.

However, new research from the University of Groningen in The Netherlands may have an answer. They studied 32 overweight women who had PCOS for six months. During this time, they were put on a healthier lifestyle program. The researchers scanned the body fat distribution of the women at 3 months and again at 6 months. They then compared the fat distribution of the women who had ovulated to the women who had not ovulated.

They discovered that the women who ovulated were the ones who lost somewhat more weight than the non-ovulating women. But that was not the determining factor.

The main distinction was that the ovulating women lost much more visceral fat, which is the deep internal abdominal fat that is packed between your organs such as stomach, liver, intestines and kidneys. They also lost a little more surface fat than the non-ovulaters.

So if you're trying to conceive but are overweight, we suggest you focus your attention primarily on reducing your waist circumference and not so much on your total weight. Shrinking your waist is a way to increase your chances of becoming pregnant.

There are two big culprits responsible for building up belly fat: insulin resistance and the stress hormone cortisol. If you can improve insulin function and reduce cortisol, you will start to shrink your belly…and everything else!

Source: Kuchenbecker WK et al, In women with polycystic ovary syndrome and obesity, loss of intra-abdominal fat is associated with resumption of ovulation, Hum Reprod. 2011 Sep;26(9):2505-12.