Diet is an important factor for women with PCOS. Whether you fall into the group of women with PCOS who are underweight, of average weight or overweight, the diet you follow will have an impact on your body.
Which diet to choose?
So what type of diet is best for women with PCOS? Well, we can tell you that a balanced diet and regular exercise are necessary in controlling PCOS systems. The diet that is best, though, is a process of trial and error for most women.
Two diet types that have achieved popularity in recent years, especially with PCOS women, are low-carb diets and low GI diets.
Low-carb diets are diets that include few carbohydrates. Such diets recommend that protein rich foods make up a large part of what people eat. Protein rich foods include lean meat, chicken and fish. Such foods can be high in fat and may not be suitable for some. The Atkins and South Beach diets are well known low carb diets.
Low GI diets have also been popular with PCOS women wanting to lose weight. GI stands for glycemic index. It is a measure of how long a carbohydrate takes to break down in the body. Food items with a low GI value are good, as they generally give people a feeling of fullness, so they are not as hungry from one meal to the next.
Food items that contain low to medium GI values include grainy breads and cereals, pasta, legumes, vegetables and fruits.
Counting kilojoules
Whether you choose low carb or low GI, or neither, one thing we should all keep an eye on is the number of kilojoules we eat. Eating more kilojoules than you are burning through exercise and everyday activity will result in weight gain. To lose weight, the number of kilojoules you consume should be less than the amount you use up.
The table below can be used as a guide to figure out the number of kilojoules to consume to promote weight loss.
| Weight to lose | Daily kilojoules | Daily fat intake |
| Less than 6kg | 5250 | 35g |
| 6-20kg | 6300 | 42g |
| More than 20kg | 7325 | 49g |
How often should you eat?
Recent diet articles have discussed the benefits of eating 5-6 small meals daily in an effort to keep sugar levels balanced and stop people from getting that hungry feeling throughout the day. Whether you choose to eat more frequently, or stick to the standard 3 meals per day, it’s important that you don’t skip breakfast. Breakfast is vital to getting your day off to a good start. By choosing to skip breakfast you are reducing your brain’s performance power and ability to concentrate. Skipping breakfast can also lead to fatigue.
And if you find yourself bored with the same old snacks, why not try:
- A piece of fruit.
- A small handful of nuts.
- Rice cakes with hommous or peanut butter
- A small salad
- Yoghurt
Portion Control
Portion sizes are a common issue for people that are trying not to over-eat; as it’s difficult to judge how much food equals one portion. To help you out, we have compiled a short list of common food items and a visual comparison.
- A handful of nuts are about the same size as a golf ball.
- 1 cup of cooked rice or pasta is about the same size as a tennis ball.
- 30g of cheese is about the same size as a matchbox.
- 100g of meat, chicken or fish is about the same size as a deck of cards.
Other hints
Irrespective of the types of food you choose to eat, there are some things we can all do to help our bodies:
- Drink water. It’s essential. And good, old fashioned, plain water is best as there are no kilojoules! Drinking 8 glasses of water per day is recommended. Have a water bottle or glass of water nearby and take sips regularly throughout the day.
- Don’t skip breakfast.
- Watch your alcohol content. We may be watching what we eat, but forget the kilojoules that are in alcoholic beverages. The same goes for juices. Ideally avoid them, drink water and eat fruit.
- Vegetables are great to add bulk to a meal. So, add that extra helping of vegetables or salad to your meal.
Reading the fine print
Light, lite, 25% reduced fat and 99% fat free are just a few of statements being touted on supposedly “diet friendly” food items these days. But not everything is as it seems in some of these claims, and it pays to think about what is not being said, rather than what is.
For example, light and ‘lite’ may only refer to the colour of the product – that is lighter in colour. Olive oil is a good example of this. 25% reduced fat is seen on cheese packages. Take a closer look, and you will see that the cheese contains 25% less fat than standard cheese, which at 30-40% fat content does not make it a necessarily diet friendly product. And while those 99% fat free food items, such as salad dressing, seem like a good idea, the bad news is that instead of fat, the products are higher in sugar.
Teach yourself to properly read the nutritional information on food labels. This will help you to better understand exactly what it is you are eating and how much. The calorie or kilojoule count is the most important feature.
Alcohol
Many of us like to get together with friends and enjoy a drink or two. Many of us, though, don’t realise the number of kilojoules contained in alcoholic drinks.
In fact, most drinks are high in kilojoules, with standard drinks containing 300-450 kilojoules. Have 2 standard drinks and there goes 10% of the recommended kilojoule intake for an average woman. In probability, however, you will be drinking more than you think as most drinks contain more than the standard measure.
And for those of us trying to decide between low alcohol versus low-carb beers, here are the facts: Per standard drink, low alcohol beer has approximately half the kilojoules of regular beer and 6g of carbs. Low-carb beer has approximately the same kilojoule content as regular beer, but 2-3g of carbs.
Further reading
Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol
For more information on alcohol, and how it impacts your diet, please refer to the Australian Government Alcohol Guidelines website.