How long can you be on the LE diet before actively swaying?

I know it is recommended to start the LE diet at least 12 weeks before TTC for best results, but is there a maximum amount of time you can stick to the diet before trying? Hubby and I's timeline is a bit up in the air at the moment- we may start trying in the next few months, but because of other factors (potential deployment or out of state move, among other things), we may have to delay by a year or more. Because we don't know whether or not we'll be delaying until it gets closer, I wanted to start following the diet now to be ready if we try sooner, and if we do delay the diet will feel like a habit and I won't have to stress about the "rules" as much. I just wasn't sure if I'd need to make any modifications if I ended up sticking to the diet long term.

Ok. this is a bit of a complicated answer so let me break it down into small chunks.

I'll start off by saying what I DON"T want to see anyone do. I DO NOT want to see anyone think "well, if 12 weeks is good, 24 is surely better" and then do a strict diet for 6 months before even starting to sway and then doing a very strict sway with little to no chance of conception another 6 months before even starting to tweak things to boost chances of conception. What happens in that case is that people end up stopping ovulating totally, and basically have to go off diet totally just to get their ovulation going again.

But that is not the situation you're in. You're not doing this because you think it will help your sway to be super strict for a long time, you're doing it from necessity. And the truth is that in this case, we honestly do not know if being on diet means you will start to adjust over time. We have speculated about that, but then again we have moms of all girls who eat LE-type diets every day of their lives and have girls, so we really do not know if there's an adjustment and compensation that occurs if you're on diet a really long time. Plenty of people on LE Diet a long time due to not conceiving had girls, so I don't think that it can be much of an adjustment at all.

This seems like the type of thing we should have numbers on, but the statistics really don't tell us because first of all, people who don't get pregnant for a long time are often less fertile as a couple and possibly more set for pink because of that. And secondly, the type of person who is really super strict on sways (so they do diet for a long time before even starting to sway, and do such a strict sway they can't get pregnant for a long time) are nearly always super control freakish and are likely more set for blue. I just can't look at those numbers and tell anything.

But again, netiher of those categories applies to you. So what should YOU guys do?

What I would do is have you do LE Diet for now, try if it works out with your schedule. If it doesn't work out, come off the diet somewhat and just do a vegetarian diet instead (without the calorie, protein, fat restrictions) and then when the time is right, go back on the diet (you can likely get away with doing it only more like 6-8 weeks in advance if you've been vegetarian that whole time) Above all else, don't be overly strict if you may end up on diet a long time - it always backfires!

Do you have PCOS or any tendencies that direction?? (irregular cycles, more than 30 lbs to spare?) If so we should tweak the diet to be somewhat lower carb.

Thank you for your quick reply, and I appreciate all the information you gave me! I definitely think that compromising and just going vegetarian if we have to delay will make it easier to stick to the diet long term. I do not have PCOS, but I probably could spare 30lbs (My typical weight for the past few years has been 130-135lbs, but I've been sitting closer to 160lbs this last year). My cycles before hormonal birth control were very regular, but after getting the Nexplanon implant they were all over the place. My doctor said the Nexplanon was likely a trigger for my weight gain and cycle issues because it was the only variable that had changed in that timeframe, so I had the implant removed just under two weeks ago, and will be taking BCP until we're closer to trying.

Ok so in that case I'd have you at 50-60 g protein and fat when doing LE Diet, and be sure you're eating whole grains rather than white refined grains. Limit sugar as much as you can (this includes when going vegetarian.) We don't want you to suddenly start eating tons of simple carbs, which can be a problem both on LE Diet and vegetarian diets.

That sounds good, thank you atomic! I generally prefer whole grain pastas and breads anyways, so no complaints here lol One last question, I am comfortable skipping breakfast as I generally don’t have time to eat it before works anyways, but is coffee with a little skim milk and sugar allowed at around 6:15am, as long as I hold off on lunch until 11-12 and dinner until 5-6? Or should I stick to artificial sweeteners? I wouldn’t mind my coffee in the morning and with lunch being my only sugar for the day as I would prefer using fruit or yogurt as a dessert or sweet in place of sugary treats.

I should also add, I rarely drink coffee now (once a week max) so I generally like to add a little sweetener as I’m not quite used to the taste of black coffee.

I would have full fat dairy only (skim milk is the worst for blood sugar, maybe even worse than sugar) and no sugar in the coffee. Artificial sweetener and full fat dairy in coffee is fine in the morning and we virtually all do that (myself included).

If you do want sugar in coffee have it with a meal and not in the morning.

But all that having been said, I personally made morning coffee with sugar my personal cheat because I just didn't want to go without it. And I still got a girl! So while it's technically a no-no, sometimes you have to do what you have to do for sanity and that was what I needed to do, LOL.

I’ll try it without sweetener in the morning first but I may have to make that my cheat as well lol I’ll make sure to switch to full fat dairy. I think I’ve gotten so used to the standard LE diet, I’ll have to read over the PCOS version and make adjustments. Thank you again!

If you're doing well and losing weight on standard LE it's ok to continue with that if it's working for you. But I still would up the fat and protein.

I have your questionnaire and will get your plan to you as quickly as I'm able!