Hi I am new and need some help! I recently went to a doctor who told me I needed to do sp diet with my hormone treatment program. I have read the book and one I was suprised with the amount of carbs that I get. My husband tried atkins and was really limited. I seen right away that there is no ketosis like atkins, until I got to a web site that said it was needed for women with severe hormone problems like poly cystic overies and then they need to do ketosis. Has anyone else heard this and if I need to do that then how many carbs a day for how long and how do I increase them to the normal amount.

Also on the drinks that you are allowed to have. Is water it? Sugar free leaonades and koolades have stuff in it so I figured they are out. Don't care for coffee and I am crying over losing my diet pepsi a day . Help please!
thank you

Hi twinmombjk -

Hmmm...ketosis and PCOS (which I have though not really badly) - I think you need to try the diet out and see if you lose weight on it! There really isn't any other way to find out whether its going to work for you or not. This is just my advice, but give it six-eight solid weeks and see what happens. Take measurements before you start and put away your scale and don't bring it out for a LONG time.

Water is good, decaf tea or coffee, herbal teas. You may be able to tolerate artificially sweetened soft drinks but some people do stall their weight loss on these so be careful. SP also allows very watered down juice but I have yet to hear of anyone actually doing this - why would you waste your carb allotment on faintly flavoured apple water?

Let us know how you do and feel free to ask questions any time!

Lisa

HI

I have PCOS too but I don't concern myself with ketosis at all. I follow SP and it's been a fantastic plan for me. I know lots of PCOS having goos success with low Glycaemic index diets which does not involve worrying about ketosis.

give it a go and see how you get on - I am sure you will find it good.

Clo

The doctor did tell me to try this because of the pcos but I had read on one of the web site of the doctor of this diet that if you had pcos that you should go through the ketosis before you start into her program. After you have gone throught it she said to follow her diet. I knew I hadn't read that in the book that is why I went back through to look and couldn't find anything. I am gun ho to do this. I had an eating disoder for 9 years before my weight gain and infertilty, which I am learning that my problems with the weight gain and the infertilty is the way I didn't eat in the past. So I really want to straighten things out. I just want to do it all right. So confussed! Sorry!

Now I'm confused? The Schwarzbein site indicated you should go into ketosis first? Perhaps you can send the URL and I can take a look at it?

Lisa

I found it here on the information on this forum discussing the atkins diet and the sp. The link is http://www.lowcarb.ca/atkins-diet-a...-principle.html the information was under a sample menu of a dayin the sp diet. Hopefully you can find this and shed some light on it for me!

I think that the person who wrote that review didn't quite understand what s/he read. For one thing, Dr. S. doesn't mention polycystic ovary syndrome. Also, I don't remember her recommending ketosis at all or even drastically reducing carbs to Atkins levels.

In fact, she says at least twice that she doesn't really like ketosis and it's not necessary. That review also calls into doubt whether someone who needs to lose a lot of weight will be able to do so on TSP and they say that they don't know since they have only started.

Please don't use a review to make your decisions on what or how you will follow a low-carb plan.

If you haven't read the book or finished it if you've started, please do so. It's full of great information and the program works. You will lose much slower on TSP than on other plans, but you will feel great doing it and have a wide variety of foods you can eat.

I am a long way from my optimum body composition, but I know that when I get there, I will be able to transition to maintenance very easily because I am already eating a balanced healthy diet that includes foods from all four food groups (proteins, fats, starchy vegetables, and non-starchy vegetables).

BTW: I have PCOS and I'm doing fine with it. I am currently testing how my body is reacting now. I've been on BC pills (Yasmin) for most of the time I have been on this WOL, so my body hasn't had a chance to do it's own thing.

For all of my post puberty life, I have had very irregular periods that BC pills never fixed no matter how much the docs wanted them to. Finally, my current gyn put me on Yasmin and that made a big difference. Yasmin has a different ratio of estrogen to progesterone than the normal BC pill that gets prescribed.

But she also told me that since I am "losing weight" I could try going off the pill and see if I am regular. Now, when I have lost weight in the past, it didn't make any difference and for me PCOS started when I started puberty and I was thin then. But since then I have read that eating a high protein diet will help PCOS. I now know that simply losing weight will not help me, but low-carbing should. So I have high hopes for this test of not using BC pills.

Sorry for the long-winded reply. You will get used to that, I'm known for them.

;-Deb

Thanks Deb! No problem about the long winded reply!! I just want to make sure that I am doing this right. I also was having trouble with bc pills and getting the hormone level right and I finally took them off and said I had enough! I have read the book and seen allot of things that went back to other things besides the pcos, i had an eating disoder for about nine years and I really think that triggered and made things worse for me. I am seeing a different doctor who believes in natural hormone therapy and she gave me some creme to straighten things out and I have been on it for 3 weeks now and feel so much better. She wants me to use the this diet to help with my insulin level and she said I will lose weight. She said it may take me a year, but I can live with that.

When I went off of bc pills to try and have kids I gain 125-150 pounds in about 2 months. It was so hard since I had an eating disorder shorty before that. Since I gained that weight I havn't been able to lose or gain. So I am up for this.

Thanks for the pep talk!
sherri

Good for you, Sherri.

125-150 pounds in 2 months is scarey and almost doesn't seem possible. But I know our bodies do crazy things sometimes. From your stats, it looks like we both have about the same amount of "weight" to lose. To tell you the truth, I am expecting it to take me 2 to 3 years. I am figuring at least one long plateau in there.

But I took a long time to put on the weight, then I spent about 15 years holding onto it. So taking it off slowly will just help make it a permanent reduction.

You can do it, Sherri, just hang in there and let your new way of life become a habit. That's what I'm doing and I can't even imagine eating another way anymore.

;-Deb

Hi both -

Dr. S. does mention PCOS in her book - it is the same as Stein-Levethal syndrome and one of her case studies is just that. So I think we can safely say that given her objections to ketosis (thanks for the reminder Deb) - she wouldn't support having a PCOS patient go into ketosis.

Lisa

Thanks for the help guys! I am looking forward to it taking that long. But I don't care-as long as i know that I am losing, I will be thrilled! I read a case study that showed a women who had the amount to lose that I wanted to and it took her a year and nine months. So I know not to expect miricles overnight. I want to take it off and keep it off.
Thanks
sherri
ps how do I put a little icon under my name or my picture?

Just go into your profile and click on Edit Options...scroll to the last box (Avatar) - you can either browse and select a picture or image you have on your computer, or select an avatar from the big list. The image right under your name changes the more times you post...if you click on it you'll see how many posts you need for a certain number of steaks for example.

Thanks, Lisa. When I read the book, I didn't know that they were the same and I was looking for PCOS, so to me she never mentioned it . It's kind of nice to know that she did. I'll have to reread that part.

;-Deb

Deb-
When you go back and look at the section she talks about her using less carbs to lose the weight. I thought I had read that somewhere. I wish she had said how many to use and for how long.
sherri