Please make sure you read part I of this post, if you haven’t already done so.

I am going to divide this post into paragraphs again to keep it structured.

Carbohydrates

As you may know, carbohydrates are saccharides. In layman’s terms, they are converted into sugar in the body. How quickly this happens depends on whether they are monosaccharides, disaccharides or polysaccharides. Mono- and disaccharides are converted into sugar very quickly – they enter the blood stream right away and cause the blood glucose levels to rise. They can be found in household sugar and candy, but also in refined grains, dairy and fruit. These are the carbs I have to watch out for because for me it is important to avoid spikes in my blood glucose levels. Polysaccharides, or complex carbohydrates, can be found in vegetables and whole grains, and they are the good carbs. I also need to limit the amount of complex carbs I eat, but not as strictly as the refined carbs. I can have, e.g., 60g of oats in the morning, one slice of whole grain bread for lunch, and one portion of 60–80g of whole grain pasta for dinner. She emphasized how important it is for me to always have vegetables or salad, and protein, such as meat, fish, eggs, or legumes, with my meals. I should have a maximum of 200g of carbohydrates a day, and it has been hard for me to stay under that.

Fruit

Fruit have always been my go-to snack when losing weight. I have a sweet tooth and fruit have been a great alternative to candy or chocolate. Sweet but good for me at the same time, right? Unfortunately, as you may have been able to guess, as fruit has a lot of sugar, I have to limit the amount of fruit I eat very strictly. And yes, that includes my beloved fruit smoothies. I can pretty much say goodbye to them. (Well, let’s be honest, I’ll still be having one occasionally but not as frequently as I used to.) My nutritionist told me to limit the amount of fruit I eat to two handfuls a day. As I always have a banana in my oatmeal in the morning, that leaves one handful for the rest of the day. One handful is, e.g., one apple, one kiwifruit, or 100g of grapes. As you can imagine, this is hard for me. I mean, one piece of fruit for the entire rest of the day? And how am I going to choose between all the delicious fruit ?

Vegetables

I’m supposed to eat them. Lots of them. I am actually not sure if there is a limit to the amount I am supposed to eat, but I should have vegetables with both lunch and dinner. And I reckon cherry tomatoes are a good substitute for fruit for snacking.

Protein

Protein is very important for me. As I don’t really like to eat fish, and only like to eat meat in moderation, my nutritionist suggested adding more legumes to my diet. I have started eating beans more frequently – especially as a salad, nom! – and in the past few days, it has been much easier for me to hit my goal of 60-70g a day. As I already mentioned in my other post, I should also have a protein component in my breakfast which I am doing by having a yogurt in the morning. Speaking of…

Yogurt

Until now, I had been eating non-fat yogurt. I had already made the switch from flavored to plain, but I thought eating non-fat was good for me. Turns out, it’s not. My nutritionist is not a fan of the non-fat yogurt at all, it should contain at least 1.5% fat or even 3.5% fat, because it contains amino acids that are vital for me. Since then, I have switched to the regular yogurt which is 3.5% fat and I am doing fine. I was worried about my calorie intake, but let’s face it, the additional 30-50 calories aren’t going to make me gain my weight back. I thought this was so interesting, because most dieters think that non-fat dairy products are so much better for you, and turns out that they’re not.

Fat

I got a goal of 60g of fat a day, and to be honest, unless I make an effort and eat some walnuts, I am usually under my fat goal. My nutritionist suggested I consume 1–2 tablespoons of oil a day, so I make a point to cook with olive oil or add it to my salad. Switching to 3.5% yogurt has also increased my fat intake a little. Eating more fat is something that has always been hard for me. I like for my food to be low-fat because fat seems like empty calories. Do I really want to fry that chicken in a whole tablespoon of oil which will add 120 calories to my dinner? 120 calories is a lot for just a measly tablespoon of anything. But what is important to keep in mind is that the body needs fat just like it needs vitamins and protein.

Fiber

As I have switched to whole grains and have increased my intake of vegetables, I eat plenty of fiber. My goal is 30g a day and I usually make it or don’t stay far below it.

Nutritionist vs. MyFitnessPal

As you know, I use MyFitnessPal for tracking my calories, and interestingly, the goals I got there are not completely off from the ones my nutritionist gave me. That made me pretty confident about using MyFitnessPal, which has been great for me, especially in terms of receiving support from and giving support to others.

Aside from all the advice, the nutritionist also gave me a few recipes for meals, which I thought was great. I definitely want to try them some time. The hour flew by so quickly, and I wanted to ask her so many more questions. On the one hand, as you can see, we covered a lot of ground, but there is still so much more to know about nutrition. There wasn’t much time to delve into the details of a lot of her advice. Luckily, she offered me to send her my food diary for three days, and she would analyze it for me and discuss the results with me. She also suggested that with my PCOS, it would be a good idea to see her regularly and – this is the best part – she said that in situations such as mine, my health insurance will probably cover extra sessions, as nutrition is so important for keeping my condition in check.

I am planning on seeing her again in the first week of November and I cannot wait to discuss my nutrition some more as well as get feedback on my food diary. I had been a bit wary of seeing a nutritionist, because I had heard of others having bad experiences with them (receiving bad advice or the nutritionist knowing less than they did), but it was really an all-around positive experience.

A couple of weeks ago, I finally had the opportunity to see a nutritionist during my vacation in Munich. I had made the appointment through my health insurance. I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that up to three one-on-one sessions of an hour each are fully covered by my insurance so this didn’t cost me a penny.

The nutritionist read through the letter by my endocrinologist which details my diagnosis and her recommendations for me in terms of diet and fitness. She also asked me about my eating habits, and gave me very positive feedback about all the changes I have already made in the past two months. The consensus was that I am already doing many things right, and she gave me some excellent advice on how to improve my diet even further.

Calories

As you may remember, when I first blogged about my insulin resistance diagnosis, this was what I took issue with the most of the diet advice my endocrinologist gave me. She told me to eat between 1,000 and 1,200 calories a day. From what I knew about nutrition, this seemed way too low, and I was adamant that my endocrinologist (who is not a nutritionist after all!) got it wrong. Well, she did get it wrong. My nutritionist told me that I should definitely not eat fewer than the 1,600 calories I currently consume and could probably even up them to 1,800. She told me what I already knew, but it was so nice to hear it from a professional: 1,000–1,200 calories is way too low and would cause the yo-yo effect. They don’t even do 1,000 calories a day for patients at weight loss clinics because it is too low! I told her how much weight I have lost already and she said that is perfect, but I shouldn’t be losing it at a faster rate, so I should up my calories if needed. Since I do eat more than 1,600 calories on most days as I also eat back most of my exercise calories on top of the 1,600, I am going to stick with this goal for now.

Working out

My nutritionist was super happy when I told her that I work out regularly. I got the impression that most people, who see her, don’t. Or maybe she just didn’t expect me to work out regularly, based on my looks and weight. I learned that working out, especially exercise such as running, lowers blood sugar, so it is excellent for me. You can’t imagine how great it was to hear that.

Meals

While my endocrinologist had suggested 5–6 small meals a day, my nutritionist recommended 3 meals a day – preferably without any snacking in between, except a handful of fruit in the morning or after lunch. But as I eat breakfast at 7am and don’t eat lunch until 12pm or 12:30pm, she understood that was a long time to go without anything to eat. I always get hungry again at around 10–11am and usually have a yogurt or a granola bar then. My nutritionist suggested adding a protein component to my breakfast to see if that would keep me full until lunch. The way I currently do that is by eating a yogurt shortly after I get to work. I like my breakfast oatmeal the way it is so I prefer to eat the yogurt separately.

Treats

Of course, I heard what I already knew. That I need to keep treats to a minimum. Big surprise there! I told my nutritionist about the little bars of chocolate I buy. Anyone living in Germany, try Moser Roth chocolate which you can find at Aldi. It is really good, and I love their variety of dark chocolate. They are five individually wrapped bars of chocolate (25g each) which makes it so easy to portion. The nutritionist found the solution I have found to my problem with not being able to portion chocolate (and candy in general) quite clever. For me it is simply a way of handling my weakness, though in the long-term, I want to learn how to portion treats such as chocolate or gummy bears.

As I have realized that sharing everything I learned in that hour is too much for one blog post, I have split this up into two posts. Please stay tuned for part II which will be posted on Friday.

Have you seen a nutritionist before? What was your experience like? Did you get any helpful advice?