Weight gain?

[lad]

Hi all!

We're about six months out from starting our girl sway. I recently went to the doctor for my annual check up, and while there was weighed (we don't have a scale at home, so I only see my weight about once a year--we'll probably get one for our sway so that I can make sure I'm not losing too much). I'm on the low end of my weight range, at 106 lbs (I'm 5'4", which puts me at a BMI of 18.2).

My question is--should I try to gain weight prior to starting my sway so that I'm able to stay fertile through it if I lose a few pounds? I'm not planning to sway super hardcore or anything, but I do want to be able to exercise daily and stick to the high end of the limits. Currently I'm only exercising moderately, and I eat tons of fat and protein. I've always had trouble keeping weight on--in college I used to eat peanut butter and avocado sandwiches right before bed to keep my weight normal. When I conceived my son, I had just had a miscarriage and was probably still carrying about 5-10 extra lbs from that pregnancy.

I have an IUD that I won't get removed until two weeks prior to when we're ready to TTC, so I'm not worried about accidentally getting pregnant while trying to gain weight. Thanks so much for any and all advice!

Edited to add: My IUD stops my periods, so I have no idea if they're regular, etc, and I was on birth control prior to getting pregnant, so I have no idea whether my periods are regular! I do know that I got pregnant on the first shot with both my first pregnancy (which was a blighted ovum), and with my second pregnancy.

[atomic sagebrush]

I do not recommend gaining weight to lose.

The reason for this is that it's like taking 2 steps backwards before you even begin. Gaining weight to relose has NOT predicted the outcome of anyone's sway (weight gain and loss has not appeared to be super predictive of whose sways work and whose do not for either pink or blue - there's a benefit there but it is slight compared to time on diet and exerciser) And we have had enough people who gained weight to lose who had an oopsie when not trying that it feels very risky to me. I got my 4th boy while gaining weight to relose for a pink sway and while I know everyone thinks it won't possibly happen, it has happened at least several dozen times.

What I would do here and now is start exercise straight away if possible eating your normal diet. Let your body adjust. Rather than hit it with everything all at once, ease into it in stages, bit by bit over time. This will help your metabolism catch up to itself rather than limiting cals AND exercising all at the same time.

Then, when you do the LE Diet, do it with the intention of holding steady, no weight loss. Even if you have to exceed ccal limits, try to hold steady. if you find you can't eat enough to keep weight on without exceeding pro/fat limits, up them by 5 g increments till you find a sweet spot where you are eating adequate calories to keep weight on, and eating enough pro/fat to eat adequate calories, if that makes sense.

Protein is not a great way to keep weight on. You may find better results holding steady by focusing more on carbs, then fat, then protein brining up the rear. (many times people who are worried about keeping weight on start off by adding in chicken breast, but that doesn't help keep weight on) Focus on more vegetable fats than animal fats, and more veg. protein than animal (though you can still have some animal protein, and full fat dairy will be helpful to you for keeping ovulation going even at your lower weight)

I don't want you to take fiber, either. Just leave that out. No cinnamon or myoinositol if you were considering those.

:agree: I think we may have talked about this already but coming off the IUD may help your sway.

[lad]

Thanks Atomic! This is great advice, and your speedy replies always astonish me! It's good to know that protein/fat won't necessarily help keep weight on. We eat a very low sugar diet and only whole grain carbs, so I wonder if that's part of it. The full fat dairy is no problem--my husband thinks I'm crazy, but I sometimes will drink heavy whipping cream straight up. But it's delicious! We'll probably switch to full fat milk/yogurt for our sway, as I figure drinking straight heavy cream probably is more of a HE diet thing :).

I'll start the exercise now as much as possible. I've had long periods where I've run for about an hour daily in the past, and I usually get STARVING. Since I'm not yet swaying, should I just eat what my body is calling for? Hopefully by the time I start swaying, my appetite will have adjusted.

I'm really excited to begin our sway! We even talked about moving it up to starting now and TTC in October, but ultimately my husband really is hoping for a solid 3 year age gap between our kiddos, and didn't feel ready, so March it is!

[YesIcan2020]

Following your post as I am in same situation. TTC on lower weight end.

Can I ask, why do you say no cinnamon or myoinositol?

[atomic sagebrush]

We have found that full fat dairy is good for pink too. Keep in mind that foods alone do not sway. It is the diet OVERALL. And HE Diet is wildly different from LE Diet in many, many ways aside from whether you had some cream or not. Have it as you need it! You're still going to be very different overall.

Yes please eat as you need while doing the exercise. We want to do this gradually over the course of time and your metabolism will adjust as you go. Keep me posted on how you're getting along!

[atomic sagebrush]

Following your post as I am in same situation. TTC on lower weight end.

Can I ask, why do you say no cinnamon or myoinositol?

Because cinnamon and myoinositol lower blood sugar substantially and thus encourage weight loss. Anyone who is already struggling to keep weight on (by which I mean anyone who does not have at least 30 or even up to 50 lbs to spare or severe PCOS) does not need and should not take them. you will a)possibly lower your blood sugar to dangerous lows, and even if not dangerous get so shaky and hungry it will totally undermine your diet, and b) lose too much weight and stop ovulation.

[YesIcan2020]

Because cinnamon and myoinositol lower blood sugar substantially and thus encourage weight loss. Anyone who is already struggling to keep weight on (by which I mean anyone who does not have at least 30 or even up to 50 lbs to spare or severe PCOS) does not need and should not take them. you will a)possibly lower your blood sugar to dangerous lows, and even if not dangerous get so shaky and hungry it will totally undermine your diet, and b) lose too much weight and stop ovulation.

Thanks for this reply also. My naturopath put me on myo and I have lost too much weight and stopped ovulating!
Sorry to hijack your post LAD, pink dust to us both xx

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes unfortunately naturopaths have not gotten the memo about stopping people's ovulation, thanks for letting me know that same thing happened to you as has happened to others! It's how I know this stuff :)

[lad]

Hi Atomic! Just wanted to update you on how it's going with the exercise!

We still have a ways to go until our actual sway--we plan to TTC in January (moved it up from March because we're both getting pretty excited about the thought of a new baby--but in the meantime I've been getting my body used to cardio (so as not to drop too much weight when we start swaying) and incorporating other elements of a girl sway into my lifestyle.

Exercise has been going great so far. I started out walking for an hour daily, and then have slowly upped it to hour-long run/ walk hikes on some local trails. I know that's not necessary, but I love distance running and get bored walking, and my dogs need the exercise to expend some of their boundless energy. I've been very slowly increasing distance and speed so as not to injure myself. We haven't bought a scale yet, but my clothes still seem to fit the same and my legs are looking more and more muscular, so I think probably I'm either gaining a little muscle or just losing a little fat (which would show the muscle more) but otherwise holding steady weight-wise. Hard to say if the exercise is affecting my cycle because on my IUD I don't get my period. I will be excited to get it removed the month before our first attempt to finally have an idea of what's going on down there!

I also have been drinking a cup of coffee each morning (totally new for me, as before I guzzled green tea like it was my job), waiting on breakfast until 11 am, and just for fun, tried tracking my calories for a couple weeks (without altering my diet). I used the app Stupid Simple Macros--it's free and amazing. I highly recommend it for swaying! You can set your levels manually and the foods are really easy to enter. It also feels very judgement free--there's no commentary on whether you're eating poorly or well, unlike some of the other apps. Thanks to it, I was actually successful in tracking my diet for a couple of weeks, and I was pretty surprised by what I found -- I actually eat a pretty low-calorie diet naturally (about 1400 calories, with about 60-70 grams protein and 60-70 grams fat). Not many carbs at all (about 150 grams of carbs or less), which shocked me, because we don't eat much meat, so I would've assumed that we had a pretty carby diet. When we're actually swaying, I'll try to keep the protein and fat in the limits, and increase the amount of whole grain carbs. I've also slowly been switching back to vegetarian by only eating meat once a week, and incorporating a glass of wine with my husband at the end of the day.

Anyway--so far so good. Is it bad that I'm kind of enjoying myself? Those daily hours alone to exercise are blissful, and I think the PCOS LE diet will be really easy to manage with just a few diet shifts!

[atomic sagebrush]

No not at all, you're right on track. We WANT this to be an easy and painless process.

I really think you're well underway!!!