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The PCOS Nutritionist Podcast

7: What those hangry attacks are telling you about your PCOS root cause

July 10, 2019 Clare Goodwin Episode 7
The PCOS Nutritionist Podcast
7: What those hangry attacks are telling you about your PCOS root cause
Info
The PCOS Nutritionist Podcast
7: What those hangry attacks are telling you about your PCOS root cause
Jul 10, 2019 Episode 7
Clare Goodwin

Let me ask you something.  Do you feel hungry all the time? 


Not just like you could eat sometime soon, but the kind of hunger that makes you count every. single. excruciating. minute. between 10am and lunchtime. 


Along with weight gain, sugar cravings, infertility, irregular periods and fatigue, this is what Katherine was dealing with on a daily basis.  However it was when the fatigue started to stop her from pedalling her bike full steam after her kids, that she said enough is enough!


In this episode as with all my interviews with the amazing women I work with, we hear Katherine’s whole story to give you some context.  But some of the things of significant that we discuss are: 


  • The effect weight gain and societal expectations around weight have on teenagesrs and the development of disordered eating
  • Insulin: part of Katherine’s root cause, but never picked up or explained previously 
  • Why Insulin makes us HANGRY and crave sugar all the time
  • Why Insulin also makes us inappropriately hungry 
  • Hypothyroidism, especially the autoimmune version, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, affects up to a quarter of all women with PCOS
  • Low thyroid hormone, even if it’s not out of the reference range can seriously impact your fertility (see the study linked below). 
  • Why low thyroid and high insulin makes us exhausted 
  • Why menopause is not going to improve your PCOS symptoms and neither is getting a hysterectomy!
  • Why getting out and sharing what you know about PCOS can help so many of your friends who may be suffering in silence.



As Katherine says, improving her insulin hasn’t just improved her weight, energy, moods, it’s also allowed her to focus on more important things now that she’s not hungry and thinking about food ALL the time:  


“It’s freed up a part of my brain that was constantly obsessed with food so I can focus on more important things” like chilling out with ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ (my current book club read which is unputdownable).  


If you’re constantly hungry and/or hangry, you cannot underestimate how life changing this is.  As Katherine says:  “Not being hungry is like a torture has been lifted.”  Don’t put up with it. You can be one of those people who forgets to eat lunch- outrageous, I know!



First things first, find out if your insulin is working properly.  Either download our tests for insulin resistance (in the podcast show notes), or come and join us in The PCOS Protocol where we use symptoms if you can’t get any labs/ tests completed.  Don’t let not being able to get labs stop you from getting help!


 Other links:  


Some of the research articles that I discuss in the episode: 


Hypothyroidism: if your TSH is above 2.5, you will likely have trouble conceiving:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25312747

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Show Notes

Let me ask you something.  Do you feel hungry all the time? 


Not just like you could eat sometime soon, but the kind of hunger that makes you count every. single. excruciating. minute. between 10am and lunchtime. 


Along with weight gain, sugar cravings, infertility, irregular periods and fatigue, this is what Katherine was dealing with on a daily basis.  However it was when the fatigue started to stop her from pedalling her bike full steam after her kids, that she said enough is enough!


In this episode as with all my interviews with the amazing women I work with, we hear Katherine’s whole story to give you some context.  But some of the things of significant that we discuss are: 


  • The effect weight gain and societal expectations around weight have on teenagesrs and the development of disordered eating
  • Insulin: part of Katherine’s root cause, but never picked up or explained previously 
  • Why Insulin makes us HANGRY and crave sugar all the time
  • Why Insulin also makes us inappropriately hungry 
  • Hypothyroidism, especially the autoimmune version, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, affects up to a quarter of all women with PCOS
  • Low thyroid hormone, even if it’s not out of the reference range can seriously impact your fertility (see the study linked below). 
  • Why low thyroid and high insulin makes us exhausted 
  • Why menopause is not going to improve your PCOS symptoms and neither is getting a hysterectomy!
  • Why getting out and sharing what you know about PCOS can help so many of your friends who may be suffering in silence.



As Katherine says, improving her insulin hasn’t just improved her weight, energy, moods, it’s also allowed her to focus on more important things now that she’s not hungry and thinking about food ALL the time:  


“It’s freed up a part of my brain that was constantly obsessed with food so I can focus on more important things” like chilling out with ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ (my current book club read which is unputdownable).  


If you’re constantly hungry and/or hangry, you cannot underestimate how life changing this is.  As Katherine says:  “Not being hungry is like a torture has been lifted.”  Don’t put up with it. You can be one of those people who forgets to eat lunch- outrageous, I know!



First things first, find out if your insulin is working properly.  Either download our tests for insulin resistance (in the podcast show notes), or come and join us in The PCOS Protocol where we use symptoms if you can’t get any labs/ tests completed.  Don’t let not being able to get labs stop you from getting help!


 Other links:  


Some of the research articles that I discuss in the episode: 


Hypothyroidism: if your TSH is above 2.5, you will likely have trouble conceiving:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25312747