My PCOS weight loss plan: Week 1- Lost 1 kg.

I found that I have lost 1 kg since last Saturday! I weight 86 kg today!

My progress report:
23rd Feb(Saturday): 87 kg
29th Feb(Friday): 86 kg

And I think these are the factors which helped me to lose weight:

Food:
breakfast: cereal + milk/yogurt + coffee
Lunch: cereal+ milk/yogurt + coffee OR soupy noodles/pasta with vege + egg
Dinner: usual amount. Try to stay away from processed food.

Exercise:
Average 1 hour of moderate activity per day
Include burst of activities whenever possible. Eg, 10 side lifts on each legs during toilet breaks.

Sleep:
I am really tired. I sleep a lot more than usual. Perhaps and hour or two more. I know I am more tired because of my dieting and exercise.

Plan: WRITE down!

1. What I ATE, and estimated calories:I allocate

my self 10500 calories per week (1500kcal/day). It is amazing how scary this can be. One day, I overate my favourite cookies, and I could quickly see how much calories are left on average per day!

I don't worry about things where I am not sure of the calories eg vege, fruits etc. I just roughly estimate those based on info from internet. Instead, I focused on those things with come info on the label. These are the high calorie stuff.

2. What I DO-activities on a weekly chart.

It is immediately obvious when I did not do "anything" on a day, and have to catch up the following day.

3. BLOG- by blogging my progress.

Eg the weight loss of 1kg today, I feel like I have to report somewhere. I don't think anyone reads my blog, but if there is someone out there, I hope they leave comments and encouragements! Losing weight after I had PCOS had been extremely difficult. I hope that I succeed this time, and my experience will be useful to others.

I have been setting WEEKLY targets, and not daily ones. I find that I am less easily discouraged with weekly ones. There is always time to catch up (if I do less than targeted amount of exercise), or repent (if I ATE too much), before the next assessment date. Since we day starts and ends on a Sunday, my Saturday could be a repent and catch up day, and I could rest on Sunday after a potentially tiring Saturday.

On the other hand, if I do well, my Satturday will be a reward day. :)

GI Diet to tackle PCOS: The plan

I have done further reading up over the past few days about losing weight. Losing weight is very very difficult (gaining weight is easy!) but I have to start somewhere. I am getting extremely worried that as my weight problem escalates, my symptoms increased too!

Here is my plan:
Adhere to GI diet principles + Moderate exercises

Sounds, easy. I have tried it many times, but had failed.

Perhaps I did not "log" my efforts?

This time I will set a 3 month target.
Starting weight: 87kg
Weight after 3 months: 84 kg.

This may be very very modest weight loss, but any weight stabilisation is very helpful. I have reached a scary stage that even while reducing the amount I eat, my weight increases steadily. If circumstances where I have to reduce physical activities or increase my intake (like the special offers on cookies this week!), my weight could increase 2-3 kg per week. No kidding.

So, here is a rough breakdown of my plan:

There are a few ways to do a calculation

One simple way which I have been taught:

1. Targeted calorie intake (if depending mainly on dieting)= targeted weight x30. In my case this will be 1500kcal per day.
   
2. Based on REE formula=9.99 wt (kg) +6.25 ht (cm =4.92 age+166 x (sex)(1=male, 0=female)-161. BAsed on this formula, my REE is 1366kcal. My TEE will be 1.5XREE=2049kcal. These are the amount of calorie intake I need to sustain my fat self.

The other method is just use my body weightx30=2610.I have been told that use body weight x30 (x 35 if moderately active) is an over estimation of calorie needs, and increase in kcal is not directly proportional to increase of weight, and perhaps the ideal weight would be more useful, and could be used to estimate the numebr of calories to target it. Bsed on these calculations, if i take in >2000kcal but remain pretty sedentry, i get to keep my fat self. So, I have to create a deficit!! The usual recommeded deficit is about 500kcal a day, resulting in 3500kcal per week. That should result in about 500g of weight loss per week. Since I am notorious in losing weight, I will be happy to lose 1 kg per month, instead of 2 kg per month.

To create these deficits, I have rely on dieting, ie stick to taking in 1500 kcal per day. I will do some physical activities. I will target moderate exercises per week for 1 hour (each burns about 300 kcal).

I do not wish to factor in that I may lose more with exercises, as these have not been shown to be significantly influencing weight loss. instead, it is more useful in preserving muscles, and helping maintaining weight loss in the long run.

1500kcal per day. I will start counting!

And I will include the main principles of GI diet. So far, i really believe that the GI diet is the best way to go. For women with PCOS, insulin intolerance is a main problem, and tackling soaring sugar levels and dips is probably the key. I have experienced to many times the dip in energy, followed crazy cravings.

Ref:
Endocrinology and Metabolism By Philip Felig, Lawrence A Frohman

What is the best way to lose weight for a woman with PCOS?

Losing weight is tough work if you have PCOS.

What is the best weight to lose some pounds.

Of all the diets, only the GI diet seems sensible to me. However, it is not that easy to follow if you eat out often.

I will set reviewing diets for PCOS as my 2008 goal, and aim to read and review some diet books.

Who are the celebrities with PCOS?

I was taking a quick glance at the site stats and was suprised that people actually reached this blog through "Googling"! Guess what is the most frequent search phrase? "Celebrities with PCOS", and hit this page " The PCOS experience-celebrity vs non celebrity?", where I listed some of the celebrities rumoured to have PCOS (e.g: Posh Spice, Jules Oliver and the one-time Hear'Say star Kym Marsh) 

What were you thinking when you Googled for "celebrities with PCOS"? What were you trying to find out?

• Do celebrities actually have PCOS? Can the beautiful (mostly) and skinny (mostly) people out there have PCOS too?
• Who are the ones with PCOS? Are they "fat" like us? Are they skinny?
• Are they fertile? Do they have kids?

I suppose we want to know that the condition exist. Celebrities get it too? I suppose we want to be reassured that it is somehow possible to lose weight, no matter "how difficult", since Victoria Beckham is so slim? I suppose we want to find out about the diet? And since the gossip columns are so effective at divulging personal secrets, we might also find out whether they had IVF? Whether they too, get miscarriages?


And how does knowing Posh Spice have PCOS help us?


I am still trying to figure out . Still trying. It is a mixed feeling. I could not helped thinking "poor woman" when the media focused on her zits. Ahh, Posh gets bad acne, even when she has access to the best skin care? How about her crazy dieting? I do wonder sometimes, id having PCOS contributed to her obsession about weight? Lose weight, and you will have less symptoms and be fertile again? Lose weight? Lose weight? Perhaps like us, she is still thinking "let me lose 5% of my body weight, and let those zits disappear". Or " gosh, I am already symptomatic. If I gain a bit of weight, will it be worse?"


I know I know. We wish someone to speak up and yell, hey, I have PCOS! But how do you be brave and stop being selfish and yell "Hey I have PCOS"? I have read in some boards where people wish these celebs would speak up. If even ordinary folks like us feel being put under the "spot light" by others, imagine what it is like for a celebrity? It will take a brave woman to admit it. Like fibromyalgia (syndrome), restless leg syndrome , the medics are still unsure about the existence of the "disease", and that is why they call it a "syndrome". Until we get that "syndrome" removed, it will just be another syndrome? A pseudo condition. perhaps a condition created for pharma companies to sell some drugs to some fat, hairy and lazy women.


29April2009

Answers to your questions: (??)
Yes, celebrities also have PCOS
They do have kids: Victoria Beckham
They can be slim, but may adhere to some crazy diets:  VB's rumoured diets


Other posts about celebrities & PCOS

• Is that how Victoria Beckham stays thin?
• The PCOS experience-celebrity vs non celebrity