Calorie Question Repost

Hi all,

We're about one year out from beginning our sway for a girl (we'll begin the LE diet/exercise in August or September of next year and will begin trying to conceive in November). In the meantime, I was reading through the caloric requirements for the LE diet, and realized that I have literally no idea the caloric/nutritional facts for various foods. I've never counted calories or dieted before, so this is all really new to me! I want to avoid actively counting calories while we're actually swaying (I think I could get too obsessive about it), so to get an idea of how different foods add up ahead of time, I downloaded a calorie/nutrition tracker and started entering my meals (without following a diet at all--just to see kind of where I fall).

I was surprised to see that I have a pretty low caloric intake (around 1200-1300). I'm petite (5'4" and 105 lbs) but I exercise a lot and am breastfeeding. I always eat until I'm full, so I expected it to be on the high end. I did notice that the amount of protein and fat I eat is much higher than the LE diet recommends. We also cook mostly at home, which could contribute to the foods being lower calorie.

So I suppose my question is--do I hold my caloric intake steady at 1200-1300 while on the LE diet, or should I up it to more like 1500-1800, because I'll be eating carbier foods, with less protein and fat? I don't want it to be too low, because I already have trouble keeping weight on, and adding in a whole hour of exercise daily may very well cause me to become too thin to conceive.

Thanks so much for any advice you have! P.S. Can you tell I totally have that boy-mom personality, thinking about these details a whole year in advance? :)

Be somewhat careful with the trackers as they're not always accurate and are highly dependent on portions. If you misjudge the portions just a bit you can end up really underestimating cals/protein (overestimating it is less important.) We need to be sure you're getting enough food to get and stay pregnant so I always get nervous when someone tells me they're only eating 1200 cals a day (especially breastfeeding!) My advice is to start off eating more than you think you need and then see what happens. If you gain weight, reduce food intake. If weight flies off, eat more. Given your petite stature we need to take care that you don't lose any weight, particularly if you want to exercise.

Did you count the fruit and veg in your limits?? The fruit and vegetables are free for fat and protein (do not count fat or protein in them) and low carb veg are free and unlimited, have as much as you want no need to count them.

Hey, we ALL have that boy mom personality (especially me LOL) and despite that, swaying is working for us!! It's actually great to start thinking about a sway in advance so by the time it's time to try you will be so over it all you'll barely give it a thought!

Thanks for the detailed response, Atomic! I agree on the importance of staying at a healthy weight—keeping weight on has always been difficult for me. I was even overestimating for the app. I was adding veggies to the tracker (I just added everything out of curiosity about the nutrition facts). I think I may start out with no calorie limit at all, and instead just stick to the limits on protein and fat and delay breakfast until 11 am. That’ll be the biggest change for my diet anyway!

Perfect! (just be sure you're not overestimating on protein and especially, especially fat. Protein is necessary to get and stay pregnant, as is fat, and additionally low fat even at adequate calories has delayed and even stopped ovulation for several people.)

I'll definitely be careful! So far in my limited experience of trying to get pregnant, I seem to be highly fertile--I actually wonder if I might have hyper-fertility. I've had two(ish) pregnancies so far. For the first, I conceived within two weeks of going off birth control, and while we were still trying to prevent pregnancy by not fooling around during my fertile periods. It ended in a blighted ovum that my body just wouldn't let go of--I waited to miscarry naturally until about 13 weeks and then finally decided to go get a D+C. And the second was two weeks after my D+C, even though the doctor had told us it might take up to six months. It resulted in my gorgeous little boy. Since going off birth control (for the first time since I was 16, when I had sex once--with condoms--and had a chemical pregnancy, after which my mom promptly insisted I go on birth control), I haven't made it through a regular cycle without getting knocked up. My hope is that a lower fat/protein diet may lower my fertility enough that it results in my body only attaching healthy zygotes (and fingers crossed for a girl)! But who knows. This is all just theorizing--it could also just have been random chance that we got pregnant so quickly both times.

I hope that too. We just don't know (the research into hyperfertility is super interesting, wish there was more of it) but regardless, we'll do what we can do to help you get that sticky pink bean! :)