Today we will talk abouy a very interesting case, with a patient whom radically changed her diet after she came to my clinic. Her nickname in this story is Doreen.
Her weight had increased slowly, but steadily from getting a teenager. She claimed that she was eating food in normal amounts and was doing her exercise regularly. Her menstruation was never regular and it could be many months between each bleeding. She was having hair growing on her face.
She admits that she was always having craving for chocolate, chips and diet coke, but she tried only to eat these foods on the weekends. She was 90 kgs when she was on a consultation for fertility treatment at the Norwegian public hospital. They told her she had PCOS and that she had too much weight to undergo IVF. She then came to my clinic Klinikk Fjeld for further help.
Diet.
I told her that she radically had to change her diet to get rid of the PCOS. I told her to start eating a ketogenic diet with only 20 grams of carbohydrates per day. She could use one week to decrease the number of carbohydrates, as this is quite a big change for most patients!
For breakfast, she ate eggs and different vegetables. For lunch, she had a salad with meat or fish and olive oil dressing or some leftovers from dinner. Her dinner was different kinds of meat, chicken or fish with lots of vegetables and always with a good rich sauce or full-fat sour cream. I told her also to use plenty of herbs, spices and pickles because this would make her satisfaction with the meal much higher. I told her she could have some nuts, cheese and ham. After just a few days, Doreen told me that her desire for snacking completely had gone away.
I told her that all sources of fat should come from good olive oil or other cold pressed oil, full-fat sour cream, and butter. All margarine and processed oil were taken out of her diet.
I focused to Doreen how important it was to be very aware every time when eating, focusing on enjoying the taste and the smell of the food and that she should only eat when hungry.
After ten days her menstruation came back and after four weeks her weight was reduced by 5 kg. These results motivated her to continue with this diet. Her menstruation continued to come every 30-32 days. After 3 months she was 12kg less and her husband was down 14 kg!
After 4 months, she was pregnant!
And after 6 months she was down 23 kg. I then told her to increase her carbohydrate intake a little, so that she would not get in a ketose-stage (burning your own fat to get enough calories) while pregnant. Everything went well with her pregnancy and now she is a happy mother to a dear son!
Recent studies show how important it is to eat healthy while pregnant.
Recent studies also show us how important it is to eat healthy while pregnant so that the fetus blood sugar level keeps normal and not too high. Pregnant women with PCOS or just overweight in itself, tend to get high insulin levels and often get gestational diabetes. This medical state often tend the women to get bigger babies, they more often get preeclampsia and they tend to give birth too early due to the term.
This is a lovely case in which I often see many similar and with the same result. It is so wonderful and satisfying to see how the body responds when given the right food.
Vibeke Fjeld
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