We had discussed in length about PCOS, Obesity and Fertility in one of the earlier posts. It is essential to understand that weight loss plays a major role in controlling the PCOS symptoms, controlling the insulin resistance in the body and most importantly in improving the fertility.How nice would it be to have a regular cycle! So the first step that we can take to help ourselves is to bring down that extra pounds.

But thats where the problem starts, cutting the weight is easier said than done. So I am planning to write a series of tips, PCOS friendly recipes, exercise, yoga and diet changes that can help you in this Himalayan task.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

As this is the first post in the series, I wanted to tell you about the ideal weight that one must maintain not just for PCOS but also for a healthy living. No prizes for guessing, I am talking about BMI (Body Mass Index)

Lets start by defining BMI. According to Wikipedia,

 

“The body mass index (BMI), or Quetelet index, is a heuristic measure of body weight based on a person's weight and height. Though it does not actually measure the percentage of body fat, it is used to estimate a healthy body weight based on a person's height”

The BMI chart varies between the genders and I am going to focus just on the female BMI chart. Here is how the BMI values are interpreted:

• BMI = <18.5           Underweight (value<16 is considered severely underweight)
• BMI = 18.5–24.9       Normal weight
• BMI = 25–29.9         Overweight
• BMI >= 30             Obese (these are further divided into Class I(<35), II(35-39.9),III (>40)

These BMI values also varies by the region of origin (For example Asian – typically Japanese and Singapore have a lesser value ranges. For them a value > 23 is overweight).

Why is understanding BMI important?

If you had visited one of those rare to find good and patient Doctors, their first advice to you would be to lose weight (or gain in really very very rare cases) before starting with any kind of fertility medication. This is because a greater BMI is indicative of fat-related extra weight and according to Dr. David Hoffman of IVF Florida Reproductive Associates, “Fat makes hormones and these additional estrogens can then interfere with optimal hormone levels."

Sad enough that the hormones are already dancing to their own tunes, obesity adds to the misery. Most of the PCOS women have shown to be with BMI>30. This not just aggravates the symptoms but also hinders fertility and increases risk of miscarriage.

Important point to note:

BMI cannot differentiate between muscle mass and fat mass. So if you are an athletic person (which is really good especially since you are already obsessed with staying in shape), a higher BMI does not always mean you have bad fat mass in the body.

Where do we start?

Lets start with finding out our BMI values. You can use the fun BMI calculator below which will give you the BMI value and which celebrity do you resemble to in terms of BMI.

Alternatively, you can also refer to this easy to interpret BMI Chart to know about the target weight ranges.

The pivotal point here is that yes, we definitely need to reduce the weight. But take that easy. Don’t go increasing your stressing with thoughts of reducing the weight and societal judgments. That is going to be counteractive, because in PCOS, stress and depression influence the hormones on a higher scale than what you’d imagine.

Always remember, a healthy mind makes a healthy body. So take it easy and start with the simple step of cutting the amount of your daily Soda dose. I am going to write more on that in my next post. Till then, happy losing!

I’d love to here more tips and your success with weight loss, do leave them in comments!