“What should I eat?”
This is a question I get all the time.
It’s a fair question because women with PCOS have unique challenges when it comes to weight loss.
Figuring out what to eat can be confusing with the amount of contradicting information out there.
The weight loss world gives us a long list to eat this and to not eat that.
We read the articles. We see the videos. The amount of information can be overwhelming!
A restrictive diet that might work for one person doesn’t mean that the same diet will work for someone else.
Our lives are different. Our bodies are different.
Sure, restrictive diets can offer short-term results.
But at what cost?
Many diets require us to change our whole life overnight!
And what happens when we veer from the restrictive diet?
We feel like a failure. We lose all the motivation we had. We gain the weight back.
Sound familiar? It’s okay, most women I work with share this struggle.
So what should you eat?
To be honest, I really don’t care too much about what you eat.
When it comes to eating, I care more about what I call the T-A-G principle:
Timing
Amount
Genetics
Timing- When Should I Eat?
If you have PCOS you likely have insulin resistance, and eating carbohydrates flippantly throughout the day can cause your body to store more fat.
What we need to do is make sure we are working with insulin to help burn more fat.
I categorize the timing of when to eat into anytime foods and sometime foods.
Anytime foods include lean meats and vegetables. You can eat those at any time of the day.
Sometime foods refers to pretty much all other foods. These foods can be eaten once a day, once a week, or rarely.
Carbohydrates are best to eat around the time that you exercise. The closer you eat your carbohydrates to your workout, the less insulin you need to burn the fat.
Amount- How Much Should I Eat?
You can still eat the foods you love. Chocolate, ice cream, pizza, burgers, donuts…
I’ll never tell you that you can’t eat those foods.
What I will say though is amount matters!
If you are eating a pint of ice cream every night, you won’t get the results you’re looking for.
If you eat a scoop of ice cream once a week that’s fine!
Having the foods you love in smaller amounts will help you achieve long-term success.
Genetics- The Role of Genetics
I often hear blanket statements that say “Give up gluten!” or “Give up dairy!”
These statements don’t apply to everyone’s body because we have different genetics.
For someone with celiac disease, they must avoid gluten.
So what do I recommend?
Get an allergy test or food sensitivity test from your doctor to find out what foods your body handles well.
For my wife who has PCOS, we found out that she needs to avoid eggs and sesame seed. When she does she feels so much better.
So when you start to think about what types of foods you should eat, remember the T-A-G principle.
To learn more about how I help women reach their fat loss goals, go to FatExtractionMethod.com
Thanks,
John Gibson