Question about when to start diet

[Erin514]

I'm not starting my sway until this summer but I just want to make sure I have a good understanding of the advanced prep needed (in true Martha fashion).

I'm planning to sway pink with the LE diet, going vegetarian, and cardio 5x / week, plus single attempt in fertile period. I weigh 132 at 5"10, so my BMI is only 18.5. I am also breastfeeding a 9m.o. with no signs of AF returning yet.

My tentative plan is to go veg 3 months before TTC (because this should help lower testosterone which takes more time, right?), but I'll only start limiting protein, fat, and calories to the upper limits of the LE diet 6 weeks before TTC so I don't lose too much weight, which is what I saw Atomic suggest in the diet FAQ, I think. Can anyone tell me if that's 6 weeks before AF or ovulation in TTC cycle 1? And should I start cardio 3 months before or only when I start the LE diet?

If DH decides to go veg, Le diet, or cardio with me, should he start everything at the same time?

[maidentomother]

I would begin doing the LE full on, sticking to limits (start at 2000 in your case I'd say, though I do NOT recommend upper limits of fat & protein necessarily, as fat in particular should be no more than 40g for non PCOS ladies, IMO), a full 12w (minimum) before you expect to O. I am also tall and my BMI is even lower but I've been able to maintain my weight despite being on the diet long term. I personally think it is best to start cardio at the same time as diet, atomic however recommends 8w before first attempt. You may need more than 2000 cals if doing cardio, btw. I find lots of empty carbs really help prevent weight loss. Going vegetarian earlier can only help!

[atomic sagebrush]

At 18.5 BMI you shoudn't lose ANY weight. Especially at your height with exercise and breastfeeding I want you to start out at upper limits of everything and then see what happens. Rules are different for you.

DH does not need to do the diet and cardio. Those things sway for you, may not for him, and if he is unhappy with the whole thing it makes your life so confrontational that it may end up inadvertently swaying blue anyway.

[Erin514]

Thanks for your thoughts. Maybe I'll start LE a bit earlier then. I'm just a bit worried that if I don't get pregnant the first 2-3 cycles I might get sick of LE and start cheating (whereas veg I could keep up long term no problem, I did it for five years in university), but if I ease into it and I'm not losing weight hopefully it won't be too bad.

Atomic, I definitely don't want to create stress or push anything on my husband, but he wants a daughter as much as me and has said he'd be willing to run and make some changes to his diet. I saw that study that showed runners father more girls because of lower testosterone, so I was just planning on giving him the info and he can decide what he wants to implement. So is there a good timeline for dads if he decides to go ahead with it? Three months?

[atomic sagebrush]

Vegetarian diets have gotten good results for swaying. There is nothing wrong with going vegetarian first and then slowly easing into LE over time. That is absolutely fine for you to start off vegetarian, sorry for confusion.

Running for DH HAS been shown in studies to sway pink and it is great if he wants to include that. My point was, that husbands DON'T have to do the same stuff as we do. Many people assume that but it isn't the case, and we've had huge trouble with rebellious hubbies, so my thinking is have them do only what really works (and running DOES really work, so that's great) and don't torture him with rice cakes LOL. Sperm take about 72 days to form so sometime in that time frame should be enough, 3 months even better.

[Erin514]

Sounds great, thanks! We'll see how serious DH really is about it once we actually start, but for now I'm just happy he's so supportive.