Keto and PCOS.

This may not be a popular view, but if you want cake, have cake. I don’t think there’s anything realistic about a life of eternal deprivation.

I have PCOS and low carb diets have never worked for me. Actually no diet has ever worked for me - and believe, me I’ve tried them all. I’ve been dieting since I was 11 years old. And since no diet has worked, and I don’t really care for meat that much, why would I torture myself any longer with low carb? Anyway.

This is not what you asked, but here I go anyway - I have stopped dieting. I eat whatever I want. Literally for the first time in 35 years. If I am hungry, I eat. If I’m not hungry, I don’t eat. There’s some magic in knowing that nothing is forbidden - all of a sudden you’re not dying to devour every cookie in sight, and you start to crave nourishing things (for me that is mostly plants, but you do you).

I’ve been doing some reading about intuitive eating and it makes a ton of sense to me. Big Girl by Kelsey Miller is a good read, as is The Fuck It Diet book. But hand in hand with that goes the fact that I will probably never be thin. My body is just not going to go there. I can, however, have a strong, healthy body and like the way I look by exercising in a way I enjoy and by eating things that nourish me.

Once in a while, that’s cake. But mostly it’s not. I’ve really been listening to my body about what makes it feel good, and junk is not it.

I’m so sorry - I know that’s not what you asked. But you’re obviously frustrated, as I have been for more than three decades, so I wanted to share what I’ve learned. I hope you can find what works for you.

(I haven’t been on the scale since I stopped dieting, but my clothes all fit just fine and perhaps a little looser, so throwing caution to the wind has not resulted in a big weight gain.)

Look into trim healthy mama.

I'm sorry you're feeling frustrated I just said this on another thread and I think it applies here as well. Maybe keto isn't right for you.

I eat low carb (Paleo-ish, sometimes more toward keto, depending on what my body is feeling like) because it works well for my body, particularly with keeping my inflammation in check. But different food models aren't what make someone lose weight. You have to eat in a caloric deficit to lose weight. Different foods make make that easier or harder because of how satiating they are (or aren't), their caloric density, etc. but keto, Paleo, low carb, IF, etc. none of those are magic bullets. If you want to lose weight, you have to eat fewer calories than you burn.

Eat a variety of foods that are sustainable for you. Emphasize whole foods, especially vegetables. Eat in moderation. Don't make things you love completely off limits. Track your consumption and be cognizant of portion sizes. Don't wholesale change how you eat to lose weight - unless you really love a new way of eating - because even if you're successful in losing weight in the short-term, you'll put it back on in the long-term because once you lost that weight, you'll feel like you're "done" and will almost inevitably go back to the way you ate before.

It totally did not work if you couldn't sustain it and were exhausted.

If eating keto is so far off from your normal diet that you can't keep it up long term (like years), then you need to find a better way to eat. Eat the foods you normally would eat and that you like, but try only eating half as much at dinner. It sounds dumb, but don't eat when you're not hungry. Eat only enough to satisfy your hunger. Stop eating after dinner. Skip breakfast if you aren't hungry in the morning. You really need to experiment what will work for YOUR body over the long term. Over time, start making some more nutritious substitutions and see how you like them -- more veggies and fruit, substituting complex carbs for simple ones.

I have PCOS and eat keto. For me I think I had a healing process I had to go through before I could really lose much. My hormones were and are kind of a mess but almost a year into keto I am sooooo much better off, almost 60 pounds lost and so much improvement in my overall health.

I needed to stick with it for months and I needed to stay pretty strict to see the benefits. I eat off plan occasionally and have a piece of cake or whatever and get right back on. But my advice is don’t do that because you’re frustrated, do that when you’re making the decision for you because it’s right for your life (birthday, etc).

My advice to someone new to keto and frustrated is stick it out, it gets better. There’s a mental and physical change going on that contributes to this feeling as your body adapts to using fat for fuel and you adapt to the new routines of eating.

Practically speaking I eat a lot of red meat, leafy greens, and salmon. Very little dairy, only a little nuts, and blueberries or strawberries a couple days a week. Lots of avocados. Some chicken. Almost no baked goods or treats and very little non-nutritive sweetener such as erythritol or stevia.

My endocrinologist is not a supporter of the keto diet. Not for PCOS patients, not for T2 diabetes patients, and not for metabolic syndrome patients.

He says that his patients have a better long term outcome on a balanced moderate carbohydrate diet that limits processed foods.