LE Diet advice for low BMI / underweight

Hi there,

TTC, been on diet for a couple of months now, vegetarian since March.
I was thin to begin with but have lost weight too quick and I am now underweight with a BMI of 16 which of course I feel is affecting my fertility.
Have had attempts last 2 cycles with no luck, one month I definitely didn’t ovulate as my cycle was only 19 days. Before I started this my cycles were 33 days, cycle and weight have changed drastically since starting this diet and it’s only been a few months.
I am sitting on about 1600 calories and 50-60 grams of fat and protein a day.
Can you please give me some advice moving forward? I’d like to put on more weight but I don’t want it to hurt my sway, is this possible?
I’d also like to add more calories without fat or protein but unsure how?
I have added in eggs and full fat dairy which I had never eaten prior to this.
I don’t do a lot of exercise but I am very active.
Will also try e4d this month also.

Anyone else in my position and conceived with low BMI or after upping diet limits to gain weight?

EDITING TO ADD- prior to this I would eat at least 2000-3000 calories a day & easy 100 grams protein and fat. A lot of meat. Never really dieted or watched what I ate but remained reasonably thin so this has been a big change.

Thanks any advice appreciated xx

Eat more. That is WAY underweight and I want you to gain enough to get at least back to 18.5.

I would up calories to 1800-2000, and protein and fat by 5 g each (to enable you to get more calories in)

:agree: keep going with eggs and full fat dairy, and I'd have you add in 2 servings of salmon or red meat weekly.

Yes, we've had many people go too hard on diet and need to regain weight. It hasn't been predictive of whose sways worked and whose didn't as long as they didn't completely let go and start doing a full on blue sway.

Ok will do. I find it so annoying, I want to do this great sway and follow the limits but it’s like I drop 5kg by just looking at a diet :(
So red meat not chicken?

Can you also advise, I’m eating ALOT of pasta and bread, is this ok to have so many carbs if it’s within my limits? Yesterday was 4 pieces of bread and pizza. Should I be trying to eat other things instead of so much pasta or bread?

Also if we don’t fall pregnant in the next month or so I may look at a plan, which do you suggest?

Thanks again

Salmon or red meat. No chicken. Salmon and red meat has different sets of nutrients in it that are more beneficial to the sway. If you don't happen to eat those, I would do pork or dark meat chicken but I prefer salmon or red meat.

Pasta and bread are fine especially when you're low in weight. 4 pieces of bread and pizza, hey, I eat that just as my normal diet LOL it's totally fine and not too much carbs if you're in the limits.

Getting a personalized plan is what is best since it comes with the coaching (the premade plans do not come with coaching). Beyond that, the only differences is the amount of "stuff" you get - the bundle has the 21 day diet, and then the complete plan has the timing and OPK books as well. Totally up to which option you prefer! :)

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Salmon or red meat. No chicken. Salmon and red meat has different sets of nutrients in it that are more beneficial to the sway. If you don't happen to eat those, I would do pork or dark meat chicken but I prefer salmon or red meat.

Pasta and bread are fine especially when you're low in weight. 4 pieces of bread and pizza, hey, I eat that just as my normal diet LOL it's totally fine and not too much carbs if you're in the limits.

Getting a personalized plan is what is best since it comes with the coaching (the premade plans do not come with coaching). Beyond that, the only differences is the amount of "stuff" you get - the bundle has the 21 day diet, and then the complete plan has the timing and OPK books as well. Totally up to which option you prefer! :)

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Ok will do thanks. Just so I understand, why do you suggest red meat when that’s usually a no no for the girl diet?

The reason most people don't eat red meat on the LE Diet is because it is forbidden on other sway diets. The reason ~I~ have you guys stay away from red meat is because like all meat, it's very high in protein but relatively low in calories, so when you eat it you immediately go over on protein but have eaten very few carbs, and then it makes it tough to stick in the limits for the day, plus I don't like alienating people who want to still combine the other sway diets with LE Diet.

But when you are losing too much weight you need access to some of those nutrients you may be lacking. Salmon is my preference butnot everyone likes it. I allow you to have red meat instead if you don't like salmon. But that is IN ADDITION to LE Diet and is only once a week.

Thank you for explaining :)
I had red meat for dinner last night. I guess what I’m mentally struggling with is I want to stick to the LE diet and have a great sway however for someone like me who looses weight too quickly it’s hard and now I feel I’m going to have to put weight on to ovulate again which is swaying boy and then I feel everything I have done for the last few months is a waste. I didn’t ovulate again this month :(

Did you not ovulate or is it that you haven't ovulated yet? (you likely didn't in the 19 day cycle)

From here on in I want you to err on the side of eating more, holding steady on weight, and not losing any more. We may have to have you gain, but we don't know for sure yet.

Didn’t ovulate for April, possibly ovulation in may but had only one attempt so missed it and the day 21 test showed no ovulation even tho I had a high and peak reading on day 14?

Well, if the test says you didn't ovulate then you didn't. But when did your period come in relation to the positive OPK?

Sorry, these replies go to my junk mail :(

April was 6 days after positive, last month was 10 days and this month it’s now 17 days past positive and no period and not pregnant!

March cycle 33 day’s
April cycle was 19 days
May was 28
June I’m day 31 and no period

Couldn’t be more confused (and frustrated) if I tried lol!

I just want to say again thanks for your time and responses, I’ve been to drs and they’re really no help when it comes to cycles so it can be very daunting and depressing trying to work things out for yourself when you have no idea

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Originally Posted by YesIcan2020

Didn’t ovulate for April, possibly ovulation in may but had only one attempt so missed it and the day 21 test showed no ovulation even tho I had a high and peak reading on day 14?

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I need this on the next page to refer back to

April you did not ovulate. :agree:

I am suspicious of the May 21 day test being wrong. The vast majority of the time if you get a positive OPK and then your period arrives on CD 28 you ovulated. I am wondering if you possibly ovulated later and had a short LP and then the CD 21 test was inaccurate because you had just ovulated and it was too soon to detect the rise in progesterone.

Since you are 17 days past your positive OPK, it's most likely you did not ovulate when you got the positive OPK. You either ovulated later (in which case if you had unprotected sex at all, you could be pregnant and have it be too soon to show up on a pregnancy test) or have not ovulated yet, and very possibly still will, meaning if you don't want to get pregnant you need to take precautions.

You won't go longer than 14 days past ovulation as a general rule. So if your period doesn't come on time, and you aren't pregnant, that means you've ovulated later than you thought or you WILL ovulate still, in most cases.

Ok yes that all makes sense, I guess it’s just wait and see then, I defiantly don’t feel pregnant at all and we stopped BD a week after the positive test so if I did ovulate very late I most likely missed this month.
Fingers crossed and positive vibes for next month TTC ✌🏻
I Wish it was easier to get clomid here, They won’t see you until you’ve been trying for over 6 months, then it takes referrals and wait times, tests etc! All so hard :(

Sorry 1 more question regarding this. Currently on day 35 and still no period (not pregnant) and as above according to blood test my progesterone level on day 21 was 0.5 and i didn't ovulate. I have a positive OPK on day 14 and spotting on day 17.
Anyway for the past few months I have been on myo inositol (my naturopath put me on this to help with my cycles) however after reading a few of your posts and loosing too much weight I have stopped it. Could this be the cause of my period being late? Should I keep taking it for now to bring on my period?

Please do not restart the myoinositol. Your low weight indicates you should not be taking it at all and I actually think it's the 1-2 punch of low weight + myoinositol that has messed up your cycle. Your naturopath did you no favors whatsoever by giving you the myo. S/He basically treated you for an irregular cycle caused by PCOS (high hormones) when you have a situation of low hormones, further lowering your hormones and messing things up entirely. It is unfortunately going to take time and patience to fix this and in the meantime I strongly urge you to not take any herbal supplements no matter what any naturopaths say. Naturopaths see a lot of people with fertility issues, and the largest number of people are people with PCOS. So they give them these supplements and think "oh this works really well" but they do not seem to have gotten the memo that there are OTHER fertility issues out there than just PCOS. So they give everyone these things, and for a huge number of people it really makes matters worse by further lowering hormones that were already too low to begin with. the solution is to stop taking supplements and allow the body to fix things on its own by giving it the raw materials it needs to do that.

You cannot 'bring on your period' using any over the counter methods. There are three ways you'll have a bleed now. One is that you will ovulate and then 10-14 days later have your period. One is that your estrogen will drop for some other reason and you will have a bleed that won't be a true period, but will still act as a hormonal reset button. And the third way is by going to an actual doctor to get progesterone supplements, taking them for 2 weeks (but only if you are sure you are not pregnant and cannot be pregnant from unprotected sex) and then that will cause a bleed that again is not a period, but will act as a hormonal reset. I urge you again as strongly as I possibly can not to take herbal remedies that supposedly "bring on periods." They only work on people whose period was due to come in a few days anyway and for others they can make matters way, way worse.

I have probably already told you this on the previous page but the best thing you can do now is to drop fiber and any herbs you were taking. Add in a serving of full fat dairy every day (in fact go ahead and drop skim dairy totally, use only full fat) 4-6 eggs a week, and 1 serving of salmon if you like it, red meat if you don't every week.

If you're below BMI 18.5 I would regain weight to get back to that point and then hold steady. if you normally have a lower BMI than that, just get back to where you were before and hold steady there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Eat more. That is WAY underweight and I want you to gain enough to get at least back to 18.5.

I would up calories to 1800-2000, and protein and fat by 5 g each (to enable you to get more calories in)

:agree: keep going with eggs and full fat dairy, and I'd have you add in 2 servings of salmon or red meat weekly.

Yes, we've had many people go too hard on diet and need to regain weight. It hasn't been predictive of whose sways worked and whose didn't as long as they didn't completely let go and start doing a full on blue sway.

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:agree: so I actually wanted you to eat TWO servings of meat till things normalize

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Please do not restart the myoinositol. Your low weight indicates you should not be taking it at all and I actually think it's the 1-2 punch of low weight + myoinositol that has messed up your cycle. Your naturopath did you no favors whatsoever by giving you the myo. S/He basically treated you for an irregular cycle caused by PCOS (high hormones) when you have a situation of low hormones, further lowering your hormones and messing things up entirely. It is unfortunately going to take time and patience to fix this and in the meantime I strongly urge you to not take any herbal supplements no matter what any naturopaths say. Naturopaths see a lot of people with fertility issues, and the largest number of people are people with PCOS. So they give them these supplements and think "oh this works really well" but they do not seem to have gotten the memo that there are OTHER fertility issues out there than just PCOS. So they give everyone these things, and for a huge number of people it really makes matters worse by further lowering hormones that were already too low to begin with. the solution is to stop taking supplements and allow the body to fix things on its own by giving it the raw materials it needs to do that.

You cannot 'bring on your period' using any over the counter methods. There are three ways you'll have a bleed now. One is that you will ovulate and then 10-14 days later have your period. One is that your estrogen will drop for some other reason and you will have a bleed that won't be a true period, but will still act as a hormonal reset button. And the third way is by going to an actual doctor to get progesterone supplements, taking them for 2 weeks (but only if you are sure you are not pregnant and cannot be pregnant from unprotected sex) and then that will cause a bleed that again is not a period, but will act as a hormonal reset. I urge you again as strongly as I possibly can not to take herbal remedies that supposedly "bring on periods." They only work on people whose period was due to come in a few days anyway and for others they can make matters way, way worse.

I have probably already told you this on the previous page but the best thing you can do now is to drop fiber and any herbs you were taking. Add in a serving of full fat dairy every day (in fact go ahead and drop skim dairy totally, use only full fat) 4-6 eggs a week, and 1 serving of salmon if you like it, red meat if you don't every week.

If you're below BMI 18.5 I would regain weight to get back to that point and then hold steady. if you normally have a lower BMI than that, just get back to where you were before and hold steady there.

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The naturopath was terrible tbh, she didn’t help/care one bit and now has made things worse :( I have stopped seeing her now. Agh so frustrating. She had me on such a high dose too!

On your previous advice I added more eggs, changed to full fat dairy and even had a steak the other night! Hopefully things will get back on track again soon 🤞🏻

Thank you for the fast reply and advice x

Ugh I'm sorry, that's honestly the thing I hate the most about supplements. Both doctors and naturopaths are handing them out not even because they want to help, but almost to just hurry us up and get us out of their office. IT's the modern day equivalent of "take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning" only the stuff they're giving people has way more side effects than aspirin. :/

Sorry can I ask one more thing?

I have upped my fat/protein as suggested to keep weight on. Do I need to be upping my calories too? Like is there a ratio of fat/protein per amount of calories.
I have kept my calories the same but upped the fat mainly by having full fat dairy and adding extra butter, oil etc

Of course, ask as many questions as you have!

Yes, you also need to up calories due to your low weight. Don't worry about the percentages or anything, the point is you need more calories to keep weight on or even add some back.

Ah ok thanks, I just added more fat/protein but kept the calories the same.

I added things like full fat ice cream, is that a bad idea due to blood sugar? Would it be better to have something like full fat yoghurt instead?

No you need to eat whatever it takes to keep weight on. While some people need to limit sugar, with your weight being so low you are fine to eat some.