Am I doing the LE diet correctly? And a few other Questions

Just trying to perfect my sway as much as possible...
Right now I'm eating only 2 meals a day, no snacking (skipping breakfast), keeping calories low (although I should boost them up a bit, I'm at about 1,100) most of my calories are coming from carbohydrates, I'm limiting fat and protein, trying to keep sodium low but some days I have good luck with that and some days I do not. My staples are white rice seasoned with mrs dash, crystal light, diet mtn dew, broccoli, hummus (for dipping broccoli), iceberg lettuce, cucumbers. The only meat I am eating is chicken which is maybe once a day or less, occasionally tuna but I am trying to limit tuna because of the mercury and idk how it is for swaying. I of course eat other things throughout the day but try to focus on higher carbs, lower fat and protein. Sometimes I have a bit of candy, a pop tart, or sugared soda for the calories but I keep everything I eat within 2 meal periods and no snacking in between. Any suggestions? Am I comprehending the LE diet correctly?
I'm hoping to stay on it from now (August) until about January when we may have our first attempt. I'm going to do that attempt my first cycle of BCPs.
Should I start any supplements that I plan such as Cinnamon or Baby Asprin now or wait until a bit before our first attempt? Can cinnamon and baby aspirin even be taken together? And the decongestant is to be taken before actual attempts, correct?
I'm going to start 1-2 hours of cardio (I'll be using an elliptical machine) at least 5 days a week at the beginning of September when my boys go back to school. How long should I keep on doing the cardio before our first attempt. Would Starting cardio in early September and having our first attempt at making our daughter in January make for good odds or should we wait? We are choosing January because my BCP prescription runs out in December so it will be first cycle off of BCPs and also it's quite cold here with low sunlight in January and I've heard conception in colder months favors girls.
I just can't wait to get pregnant with my daughter!:pregnant::DD::cheer:
Good luck everyone with your sways and thanks for taking the time to read!

Your diet sounds pretty good but technically the LE is vegetarian. However, there have been ladies who successfully swayed pink that ate small amounts of meat. I think AS recommends going vegetarian because it's just so easy to go over protein limits eating chicken or fish or whatever. I tend to get my protein from rice and sometimes beans. Definitely increase your calories!! 1100 calories is way too low especially if you're exercising. Usually 1500-1800 is recommended unless you have lots of weight to lose or are already petite and don't eat much to begin with. Is hummus your only source of fat? What do you have your fat/protein limits set at?

I don't know anything about cinnamon, I think that's for PCOS swayers? I don't think aspirin is being recommended anymore for swaying since it's a blood thinner.

For the exercise, one hour is plenty. 60-70 minutes, 6-7 days a week is what's recommended. If you have lots of weight to lose, starting exercise next month should be fine. I'm not sure how long we're supposed to exercise before an attempt. I know for me, it'll be at least 6 weeks but I don't know about the ladies who successfully swayed.

I highly recommend getting a personalized sway plan! It takes away a lot of the guesswork and it saves you from having to read a million posts and essays trying to figure out what to do which can be stressful. Good luck with your sway!!

I'm 5 feet and 168 pounds so I have a decent amount of weight to lose. My problem with a vegetarian diet is I don't want to be eating eggs, dairy, or any soy meat replacements for protein (I've heard soy can play with your hormones so not sure if it's good for a girl sway, if it is, I might add it in...) I did not know there was protein in rice.
Hummus is not my only fat source, I also eat normal crappy food in small amounts. For example, I had pizza rolls today which was 9 grams of fat, or I had mac and cheese the other day that was 13 grams of fat. I'm still trying to get into the swing of this diet so I'm probably completely tanking at it. :worry:

Also, for exercise, I already walk an average of about 5 miles a day and I walk to and from work which is about 1 mile both ways (so 2 miles outdoors per day) and I work in retail so I'm bending, folding clothes, stretching, and walking for my whole shift which is usually about 4 hours a day 5 days a week. When I'm at home I'm kind of a couch potato, I was going to work out at the local gym while the kids were in school but I could always add an extra day or two of cardio on the weekends as well. :-)

If you still have a lot of weight to lose then I think it's fine to start the diet and exercise now. For fats, what we're aiming for are bad fats like canola, corn oil, veg oil, safflower oil, hydrogenated. There's an essay called "skinny on fats for pink and blue" that has all the info. Yes, there's lots of protein in rice! I eat white rice and rice pasta, which has about 4g protein per cup. Foods like bread, tortillas, crackers, potatoes, etc. all have protein in them just not in large amounts. It does add up though!

For soy, some people think it's pink friendly and others blue so I really don't know! I personally eat it in small amounts occasionally but always within limits. I think soy is best for DH.

Thanks for the info! I will look for that essay.

1100 is not enough calories.

Fat and protein intake??

LE does not have to be vegetarian as long as you're sticking in limits for day. I find that going vegetarian can make this easier since meat is very low cal, high in protein you quickly go over on protein and have eaten barely any calories for the day.

Tuna no more than 2x a week when TTC

Why are you using cinnamon?

I am hardly ever using aspirin any more, did not get results and risks too high.

What decongestant?

If you try to do 2 hours of cardio on 1100 cals your O will go missing and not come back for a long time. You are going to need to eat way more than what you're eating if you want to exercise that much.

6-12 weeks of exercise before attempt is plenty.

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Originally Posted by Hex

I'm 5 feet and 168 pounds so I have a decent amount of weight to lose. My problem with a vegetarian diet is I don't want to be eating eggs, dairy, or any soy meat replacements for protein (I've heard soy can play with your hormones so not sure if it's good for a girl sway, if it is, I might add it in...) I did not know there was protein in rice.
Hummus is not my only fat source, I also eat normal crappy food in small amounts. For example, I had pizza rolls today which was 9 grams of fat, or I had mac and cheese the other day that was 13 grams of fat. I'm still trying to get into the swing of this diet so I'm probably completely tanking at it. :worry:

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Not tanking at it, don't worry, most start off doing exactly what you're doing and the nice thing about having weight to spare and starting this far in advance, is there is no hurry to get it figured out. we have time.

Why no eggs or dairy??

Small amounts of soy are probably fine for hormones, it's folks who eat huge amounts every day. We honestly don't know how it sways.

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

1100 is not enough calories.

Fat and protein intake??

LE does not have to be vegetarian as long as you're sticking in limits for day. I find that going vegetarian can make this easier since meat is very low cal, high in protein you quickly go over on protein and have eaten barely any calories for the day.

Tuna no more than 2x a week when TTC

Why are you using cinnamon?

I am hardly ever using aspirin any more, did not get results and risks too high.

What decongestant?

If you try to do 2 hours of cardio on 1100 cals your O will go missing and not come back for a long time. You are going to need to eat way more than what you're eating if you want to exercise that much.

6-12 weeks of exercise before attempt is plenty.

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I know I have been trying up up my calories and I'm doing so gradually. I started out only getting like 800 a day the first couple of days. I'm trying to stick to 2 meals a day and normally I am more of a snacker/grazer and I just eat a lot of small meals throughout the day so I started off eating 2 much smaller meals and now I'm starting to get used to eating more calories in one sitting. It's hard to get a lot of calories out of carbs too but I'm getting better. I want to get more like 2 800 calorie meals a day rather than 2 500 calorie meals which I seem to be getting now.

My fat and protein intake are varying per day. I'm trying to make it a goal to get at least 50% of my calories from carbs and then 25% and 25% for fat and protein but I'm slowly upping carbs and cutting back on fat and protein. I'm usually just the opposite - high protein - so I'm still getting into the groove, I think.
Yesterday I had 76% carbs, 8% fat, 16% protein. I'm not sure if that's ideal or not??? Only 935 calories yesterday. That's something I'm definitely struggling with. Maybe I'll add more candies or something in just to get more calories in.. :-/

I'm kind of obsessed with tuna but I do eat chunk light which I've heard has less mercury but it's definitely something I want to cut back on.
I'm not using cinnamon yet, I have considered it because the way I understood it is we are aiming for low blood glucose which I thought cinnamon helped to lower. I have heard bad things about it too but I was going to maybe try taking it just for the first couple of weeks of my cycle and stop around ovulation. Not sure if that's a terrible idea or not, that's why I'm here asking hundreds of questions!
I'm actually surprised about the aspirin risk. I was just gonna do the 81 mg. I thought it was good for reducing the risk of heart attacks and stroke and I actually took it during my first pregnancy because I had 2 miscarriages before and I heard that taking a baby aspirin a day might help. I took it 2-3 times a week and then weaned off of it in the 3rd trimester.
I was gonna use zyrtec I think for a decongestent.. ANnndd I know even myfitnesspal app is yelling at me every day that I need to eat more calories. I know I know. I'm working on it lol. I've eaten 900 calories today so far in one meal so that's better than the entire day lol.

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Not tanking at it, don't worry, most start off doing exactly what you're doing and the nice thing about having weight to spare and starting this far in advance, is there is no hurry to get it figured out. we have time.

Why no eggs or dairy??

Small amounts of soy are probably fine for hormones, it's folks who eat huge amounts every day. We honestly don't know how it sways.

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Yeah that's why I wanted to try and start it now to get a handle on it before I actually start ttcing.
Eggs just have a lot of protein for not a lot of calories and I always smother them in cheese anyway and that goes hand in hand with dairy- I can't control myself around cheese! LOL I have a little cheese and then I want to cover everything in cheese. Same thing with ice cream. I will easily eat all of the ice cream in the tri-state area if given the chance. Cheese and ice cream and my lack of self control around them are a big reason why I am sitting at 25 lbs heavier than I was this time last year LOL. I've actually eaten an entire pizza and an entire package of klondike bars in one sitting. I am detoxing. However, I'm fine with eating some cottage cheese or yogurt occasionally. I really just don't enjoy yogurt so it takes me like an hour to finish one.
I might do a veggie burger or something a day or every few days, then, to replace that tuna that I really need to cut back on before I get mercury poisoning!

I need to know GRAMS of protein and fat, I can't go off percentages as I don't have the brainpower to do math right now LOL

3 meals a day is FINE and is equally acceptible to 2. I had 3, just pushed back breakfast till 11 or 12 and then had the 3 meals.

SERIOUSLY - no more than 2 servings of tuna a week. I don't care what kind it is, this is a very big and important deal. Honestly,if you've been having a lot of it up till now I would have you drop it completely particulrly as you're losing weight, it (mercury) may have been stored in your fat and could be released now.

I only use cinnamon in limited instances and I feel like we haven't had the experience to really know if it's safe so I am inclined to have anyone who doesn't need it, to leave it out. This is especially the case with the aspirin.

There are two kinds of strokes. One is caused by clots and aspirin can help prevent those but the risk of clots for a healthy young woman is not high at all. The other kind is caused by bleeding in the brain and aspirin increases the risk of this greatly, especially in young healthy women. A 60 year old man is not a 30 year old woman and what is good for one is not necessarily good for the other. And new data showed that aspirin actually increases risks of heart attacks in 1/4 of women who take it (some genetic thing). It is NOT WORTH IT. Cinnamon will also thin your blood so the two togehter is too much of a good thing.

As long as you understand that dairy and eggs are allowed (some people think they ahve to avoid them when they don't.) Diet is about LIMITS, not magic foods.

It's not you that you have to worry about with the mercury - you know that, right??? One of the most dangerous things for pregnancy and it builds up in your system.

100-250 g carbohydrates
10-30 g fat
20-50 G protein this is an average range based on the 1 week I've been dieting so far and it's really been sort of across the board as far as calorie intake because I'm still getting used to it.
Thanks for the advice.
I understand the issue with Mercury. Sorry I have an awful sense of humor I don't mean for confusion or to sound like a moron. Just to clarify, in my op I did say I'm only eating tuna occasionally and that I was looking for alternative protein sources because I would like to eliminate it completely while ttc sorry if I was unclear. I was joking about mercury poisoning. For perspective I started dieting on the 6th and I had tuna in the 9th and 14th.

Fat needs to be 30-60 (25 is bare minimum)

Protein needs to be 40-50. 20 is not enough

I only have a snapshot of what people mention in a post. Sometimes people may not be giving the whole truth so I "warn first and find details later". Most people are never doing anything harmful but then again sometimes they are, and additionally for everyone who posts 10 more are reading the post so sometimes I have to take the opportunity as it arises to mention something that could possibly be harmful - not necessarily for you but for the other person out there actually eating tuna fish 5 days a week who read your post and maybe think "well that's ok she's doing that too." No offense meant just want everyone to be safe. :)

I'm not sure if these are across the board limits- but atomic told me 1500-1800 calories a day is the starting point, never to drop less than 1200 and only to go to 1200-1500 if my weight plateaued or if I was super tiny to begin with. And then always 30-60g of fat per day (60g if you're closer to 1800 cal, 30 if you're closer to 1500) and 40-50g of protein every day.
At your current bmi, you will have a hard time fueling your essential systems long term with less than 1500 calories and your reproductive system is one of the first things to stop working if it thinks you are starving so you have to be careful you aren't starving yourself. Our bodies need a minimum amount of fat and protein just to fuel our brains and vital systems, so a 1000 calorie diet with 10g of fat isn't going to cut it to stay fertile at all and might actually land you in the hospital.


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I know that, for me personally, I have a hard time losing weight if I'm much over 1200-1300 calories. It could be because I have a small frame, it could be because I've messed up my metabolism from roughly 14 years of crash diets, starvation diets, etc. Even tried that 500 calorie a day "hCG diet" while walking about 13 miles a day, doing pilates for a half hour a day, weight lifting, going to college full time and working part time while raising 2 kids. DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!
I'll definitely be consistently reaching the 1500-1800 range when I start doing cardio and I'm not trying to lose weight right now, per se, I'm just trying to get the hang of the diet, balance my macros, get into a groove, and make sure I'm doing it right and in a way that is healthy for me and any fetuses-to-be.

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Fat needs to be 30-60 (25 is bare minimum)

Protein needs to be 40-50. 20 is not enough

I only have a snapshot of what people mention in a post. Sometimes people may not be giving the whole truth so I "warn first and find details later". Most people are never doing anything harmful but then again sometimes they are, and additionally for everyone who posts 10 more are reading the post so sometimes I have to take the opportunity as it arises to mention something that could possibly be harmful - not necessarily for you but for the other person out there actually eating tuna fish 5 days a week who read your post and maybe think "well that's ok she's doing that too." No offense meant just want everyone to be safe. :)

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Yeah I know you reply to like 7 billion posts a day and likely don't have time to run through and reread all of the posts for all of the tiny details as well. I figured you had probably misunderstood my joke. I don't joke about normal people things. My jokes make people feel a little worse about themselves when they laugh at them. :giggle:

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Originally Posted by Hex

I know that, for me personally, I have a hard time losing weight if I'm much over 1200-1300 calories. It could be because I have a small frame, it could be because I've messed up my metabolism from roughly 14 years of crash diets, starvation diets, etc. Even tried that 500 calorie a day "hCG diet" while walking about 13 miles a day, doing pilates for a half hour a day, weight lifting, going to college full time and working part time while raising 2 kids. DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!
I'll definitely be consistently reaching the 1500-1800 range when I start doing cardio and I'm not trying to lose weight right now, per se, I'm just trying to get the hang of the diet, balance my macros, get into a groove, and make sure I'm doing it right and in a way that is healthy for me and any fetuses-to-be.

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If you know from firsthand experience that you need to be at 1200-1500 then that is ok as long as you can get the 40 g min. protein and 25 g min. fat on that. No worries.

I have to keep things really clear for others who may not know as much about weight loss and diet stuff - some people may never post and only read a few threads and so I have to err on the side of sometimes explaining things to people who don't need the explanation.

I do prefer (greatly) that anyone who does not know from extensive previous experience that they will not lose or even gain weight at 1500-1800 cals to start off there. If ya gain fast, up to 1800-2000. If you don't lose weight, add exercise, try one of the alternate diets AND/OR drop cals to 1200-1500. I don't want anyone below 1200 and you have to be able to get 40 g minimum protein and 25 g fat.

Low carb veg are free and unlimited, do not count. (so your calories have to NOT include low carb veg because you do not count them.) Higher carb veg and fruit, free for protein and fat (so your protein and fat intake has to NOT include any nominal protein/fat in higher carb veg or fruit because those are free for those things)

I sometimes get people who count protein in things like cucumbers and iceberg lettuce and think they're geting adequate protein when they're not. Protein has to be quality protein that your body can use and not from something like cucumbers.

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Originally Posted by Hex

I know that, for me personally, I have a hard time losing weight if I'm much over 1200-1300 calories. It could be because I have a small frame, it could be because I've messed up my metabolism from roughly 14 years of crash diets, starvation diets, etc. Even tried that 500 calorie a day "hCG diet" while walking about 13 miles a day, doing pilates for a half hour a day, weight lifting, going to college full time and working part time while raising 2 kids. DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!
I'll definitely be consistently reaching the 1500-1800 range when I start doing cardio and I'm not trying to lose weight right now, per se, I'm just trying to get the hang of the diet, balance my macros, get into a groove, and make sure I'm doing it right and in a way that is healthy for me and any fetuses-to-be.

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If you know from firsthand experience that you need to be at 1200-1500 then that is ok as long as you can get the 40 g min. protein and 25 g min. fat on that. No worries.

I have to keep things really clear for others who may not know as much about weight loss and diet stuff - some people may never post and only read a few threads and so I have to err on the side of sometimes explaining things to people who don't need the explanation.

I do prefer (greatly) that anyone who does not know from extensive previous experience that they will not lose or even gain weight at 1500-1800 cals to start off there. If ya gain fast, up to 1800-2000. If you don't lose weight, add exercise, try one of the alternate diets AND/OR drop cals to 1200-1500. I don't want anyone below 1200 and you have to be able to get 40 g minimum protein and 25 g fat.

Low carb veg are free and unlimited, do not count. (so your calories have to NOT include low carb veg because you do not count them.) Higher carb veg and fruit, free for protein and fat (so your protein and fat intake has to NOT include any nominal protein/fat in higher carb veg or fruit because those are free for those things)

I sometimes get people who count protein in things like cucumbers and iceberg lettuce and think they're geting adequate protein when they're not. Protein has to be quality protein that your body can use and not from something like cucumbers.

ok. I use my fitness pal app so I just won't count low carb vegetables in my diary.
I am at 215 g carbs
32 g fat
37 G protein today.
1,328 calories ( I think I tend to underestimate what I eat though too lol because I ate a pile of spaghetti but "pile" is not a selectable serving size.)

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Originally Posted by Hex

( I think I tend to underestimate what I eat though too lol because I ate a pile of spaghetti but "pile" is not a selectable serving size.)

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My DH and I were just discussing this the other day, haha. I started randomly measuring different things as I serve them, just to see how accurate the serving sizes I pick are. I actually find that I choose a larger serving size than what I eat. For example- 2 tbsp of cream cheese is a lot more than you think! And I always assumed I was eating a cup or more of rice as a serving and it's closer to 1/4-1/3 cup. Very eye opening.


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Originally Posted by Hex

ok. I use my fitness pal app so I just won't count low carb vegetables in my diary.
I am at 215 g carbs
32 g fat
37 G protein today.
1,328 calories ( I think I tend to underestimate what I eat though too lol because I ate a pile of spaghetti but "pile" is not a selectable serving size.)

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Yes I find lots of people either over or underestimate what they eat - serv. size with pasta is freakishly small and I have realized I actually eat like 5 servings of pasta normally. :p

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Originally Posted by has2gentlemen

My DH and I were just discussing this the other day, haha. I started randomly measuring different things as I serve them, just to see how accurate the serving sizes I pick are. I actually find that I choose a larger serving size than what I eat. For example- 2 tbsp of cream cheese is a lot more than you think! And I always assumed I was eating a cup or more of rice as a serving and it's closer to 1/4-1/3 cup. Very eye opening.


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:agree: totally. Some things I rarely eat the whole serving (peanut butter is another thing the serving size is just way more than I tend to eat) but then other things I look at it and wonder who the heck eats that little.