Let’s talk about Movement for PCOS & hormone balance
If you’ve ever visited your OB/GYN and asked for support with symptoms of hormonal imbalance or PCOS, chances are high that you were told some version of “exercise and eat healthy”… But what does that really mean?
Especially for you girls struggling with stubborn weight gain, I want to focus on exercise for happy hormones. Society tells us that if we want to be healthy we have to eat salads all day every day and run on the treadmill ‘til we’re nearly dead. Stop ⚠️ Please just stop all of that and I’ll tell you why.
Exercise is a stressor on the body. Sure, it can definitely be a healthy stressor in most cases but when your body is already struggling with chronic stress and nutrient deficiencies, it just can’t handle the extra. Furthermore, the studies done on these things are usually either short term studies (less than 3 months) or done on men or non-cycling women; because of course hormone fluctuations complicate things…🙄
But then the facts are that women are being fed information that might not be the whole truth.
When you’re sending your body into a high stress response, fight or flight, every time you hit the gym, it’s inevitably going to throw off your hormones. If you have PCOS or hormone imbalances, that’s the last thing you need. Especially if you aren’t eating plenty healthy carbs, healthy fats and protein to support that level of stress, you’ll be on a fast-track for more weight gain…
🤯Yep, not kidding. Why? Because when your body is chronically stressed and you aren’t eating enough (calorie deficit anyone?), if this continues for more than a couple months your body starts storing everything you eat as fat out of fear…fear that you might be in a life-or-death survival starvation situation.
Definitely not ideal!
So if High Intensity Exercise or cardio isn’t the answer, then what is?
If you have PCOS or hormonal imbalances, or you’re just looking to stay healthy without having to spend hours working out only to feel absolutely drained afterwards, listen up.
Exercise should leave you feeling happy & energized.
Try light cardio like:
light walking
walking on the beach
swimming
strength work - like 10 minute workouts of bodyweight exercises or weightlifting as long as it leaves you energized and not drained
The other thing that goes hand in hand with exercise is of course nutrition.
This is different for everyone so I can’t give you advice that’s guaranteed to get you results without knowing your unique story, but as a general rule most women with PCOS are undernourished.
Yep that’s right, undernourished.
You need to be getting balanced meals including healthy fats, some healthy carbs, lots of protein & of course 2-4 cups of veggies daily.
Lets focus on protein for a minute though. The recommended daily intake for women is 1g of protein for every 2.2 pounds of body weight - but the issue is that this RDA hasn’t been updated in decades and apparently this was based on research done on a group of sedentary older men because “they have similar body composition to a healthy female”…EXCUSE ME?? Yeah…real crazy stuff.
So then how much protein do you really need? Since protein is an essential building block for both muscles and hormones, you want to be getting 0.8 - 1g of protein for each pound of body weight! So don’t skimp on that protein my friends…it’s absolutely essential!
Still feeling overwhelmed about what you need to heal your body?
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