<h1 class="page-title">June 2022</h1>

PCOS Training: oats on glass container with wooden lid

How eating the right carbs builds muscle and burns fat.

Carbs, just like every other macronutrient, have a place in improving your body composition. In the case of PCOS, more lean muscle mass supports insulin sensitivity, fat-burning, and lessening PCOS symptoms. So, we want lots of lean muscle mass. And how do you build it? You train and after training, you feed your muscles a mix of carbs and protein. But not just any carbs… Types of carbs Complex carbs are those that often have high fiber content and are larger molecules. Examples of these are vegetables, beans, oats, quinoa, sweet potatoes, and more. Complex carbs are our preferred carbs. …

PCOS Training

Want to improve your PCOS symptoms? Pump some iron.

We admittedly do not put much stock in the research and studies cited by most regarding PCOS in general and PCOS training specifically. Why? Because there isn’t a ton of great research on the subject in existence. It is expensive to do good research which is why there are a lot of conclusions from unreliable research floating around. With that caveat firmly in mind, many scientists seem to back up what we have experienced, which is that resistance training and the development of lean muscle mass seems to aid in the burning of fat in women with PCOS as well …

pcos workout: woman holding exercise ropes

PCOS Education

Overcome Your Fear of Cortisol and Let’s Get Fit.

The best PCOS training is the training that actually helps you achieve your most audacious fitness goals. We submit that is ‘Progressive Overload’ resistance training, that is, lifting heavy to overload your muscles so you are training with as much weight as you can for maximum growth. But we can see some of you shrinking at the thought of pushing yourself out of fear of raising the dreaded, ‘cortisol.’ The first thing you should know is that cortisol is an anti-stress hormone. Yes, really. Without it, you would not be able to handle shocking and stressful situations. You’d keel over …

pcos fat loss - woman wearing black bra and white tank top raising both hands on top

PCOS Education

PCOS fat loss: This is how we do it.

If you didn’t start singing a 1995 Montell Jordan song after reading that title, are you even old enough to have PCOS? Just kidding. PCOS fat loss: This is how we do it. We eat good food. There are a lot of “okay foods” we’re going to tell you not to eat. It’s not that the foods are bad and off limits forever. They just aren’t very good at delivering weight loss. Most people want to have their cake and eat it too. Stop that. You shouldn’t want every crappy pre-packaged, super-processed keto protein bar just because the label is …

difficulty losing weight - fashion love people woman

PCOS Education

Top 10 Reasons Women with PCOS have difficulty losing weight.

There are certainly more than 10 reasons women with PCOS have difficulty losing weight. But here are the top 10 as we see it. Our over-arching conclusion: Not enough is known about the condition. There needs to be more high-quality research. For now, everyone is coming at it from all angles with lots of unique approaches, ourselves included. For all the differing opinions and approaches on treating PCOS, we are truly grateful. The more we’re all talking about it and trying things out, the better off we are as a group. We’ll figure it out! Reason #1 women with PCOS …

sweet potatoes on top of black metal beam balance

PCOS Nutrition

How to swap ingredients in PCOS Recipes

Based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) data, we have created a list of PCOS-friendly foods and their calories per 100 grams. All numbers are based on a raw measure, not cooked. The idea is to make it easy for you to swap out main recipe ingredients in PCOS recipes for a bit of variety without blowing your calories for the day. The more exact you can be, the better. It does involve math. We are sorry for that. You remember cross multiplication don’t you? PCOS Recipes Food Swapping Example 1: Swapping from a LOWER calorie food to a …

pcos-friendly ingredients people sharing seafood

PCOS Nutrition

PCOS-friendly ingredients you’re going to love.

There are some PCOS-friendly ingredients you may not currently have in your pantry. And some you may not realize should be at the center of your diet. We are always on the lookout for ingredients that deliver on the tastes and functions of foods we need to cut down on, namely carbs and sugar. It’s important to keep our sugar and insulin in check so calories don’t get stored as fat. You may need to change what you’re eating from the stuff that makes you gain weight and hold it, to the stuff that helps you lose weight. If you …

pcos weight loss - selective photography of smiling woman

PCOS Accountability

How to Fail or Succeed Spectacularly at PCOS Weight Loss.

PCOS Weight Loss: How to fail spectacularly One thing we know about PCOS weight loss is that it is unforgiving. A ‘normal’ person can cheat a little on their diet and they’ll still probably lose weight. But not us, sister! Which means there are lots and lots of ways to fail. Let’s review a few so we know what to watch out for. Do the program Monday through Friday only. Plan out your meals and your workouts exercising and eating 100% on plan throughout the week, then on the weekend, loosen up a little. Have some ice cream with your …

PCOS Nutrition

Try one of our daily PCOS Meal Plans FREE.

Now, while our food lists are helpful when deciding what to eat, how much of these foods you eat is just as important. In our PCOS Meal Plan we measure CALORIES & PROTEIN, and nothing else. It’s simpler and when you have a lot of fat to lose, you really don’t need to overcomplicate it. You just need to get the ball rolling. Below is our goal range for calories and protein. You can read more in-depth about that in our How to structure your meals for PCOS weight loss post. The short story is that we have a calorie …

PCOS Nutrition

How to Structure your Meals for PCOS Weight Loss.

PCOS weight loss is hard on our best days. If you’re used to eating anything you want including sweets and breads and junk food, our plan could be a challenge for you. Most plans simply trade out high-GI (glycemic index) foods for lower-GI foods. This is a fine approach and it keeps breads and rice and other carbs in your life, albeit dark breads, brown rice, etc. Why some low-GI plans still don’t achieve PCOS weight loss. The problem is that fat loss with PCOS is slowwwww. Like snail slow, even if you’re eating ‘PCOS-friendly’ low-GI carbs along with lean …

Subscribe to the We the PCOS Newsletter!

Log In