losing too much weight affect fertility??

[trying in spring]

Hi,

I've been on the le diet for about a month now. I've lost just over half a stone and am now down to just under 7 1/2 stone. (i'm only 5 foot!!) I eat enough to fill me up and am eating roughly 1,100 -1,200 cal a day. Is there any chance i am harming my fertility by doing this?

I know i've got at least another 4 weeks at least (providing i get pregnant first go!!) Have done in the past and only taken a few months at most to get pregnant. I'm worried that having lost weight it will take a lot longer. Having said that there are lots of people who have no problems and they weigh a lot less than me!!

Thank you x

[suregena]

I would just caution (I'm also 5 foot!) about losing TOO much too quickly.

For reference:

I normally hover around 118 or so when I eat how I normally do (I'm actually already a vegetarian to begin with, anyway).

I started swaying in December 2011 to TTC for the January cycle.

I ended up dropping to 103(!) pounds at the lowest point around when I was SUPPOSED to ovulate, in the span of a month and a half. That's just too crazy fast. And, indeed, it affected me... it delayed ovulation big time and by the time I did ovulate, I went off the diet/etcetera because of the lack of ovulation. That cycle lasted until CD56.

I started swaying again last month to conceive this month (after my cycle got quasi-normal again) and I've been making sure to keep my weight loss steady... so I started again at my usual 118 (yes, I gained all the way back... I guess my body just likes that weight!) and am now down to about 112. My cycle is indeed acting wonky again, but I am hoping it won't be like last time (still not sure if I've ovulated yet and am on CD23!)

So, all I'm saying is... take the weight loss easy. It's the act of weight loss that sways (so I've read here!) but not losing tons of weight in and of itself.

So, I believe atomic said even if you lost a few pounds, that'd probably be enough.

If you're petite like me, anyway, you don't want to get too high on the amount of weight you lose.

I, too, am trying to stick around 1,200 calories because otherwise I DON'T lose weight... so I've just tried to be cautious this time by not eating crazy-low fat/protein and keeping them just under range or around the recommended range from this website and trying to stay hovering around 1,200... so the weight loss is slow and gradual.

[trying in spring]

Thank you, good to know it's not just me!! I am making sure i eat pasta/rice/cheese and veg while staying around 1200 cal so hoping that the weight is just due to cutting out biscuits, chocolate etc. which is rather worrying as i had an extra 1/2 stone on of just fat!! Also, have cut out meat and fish so wondering if that has anything to do with weight loss? xx

[suregena]

Oh, most likely! My weight loss is slower because I'm already vegetarian... so I had to change things like constant snacking and alter what I was consuming daily, because I reckon I ate big-time protein before (cheese/beans/lentils, which I have BANNED from my diet because I ate a lot of it!) and also I LOOOOVE baked goods... donuts/cookies/cake and of course I loved chocolate, and I am not even going near eggs. I literally am eating vegetarian jello/jelly, iceberg lettuce, low fat cheese spread (that's about as cheese as I go! i.e. Light Laughing Cow cheese triangle spreads/Dairylea light spreads), really NO bread if I can help it (mmm... toast ), NO beans (oh my heart! How I miss you, beannnns!)


I even cut out pasta. I'm just not doing that... because I ate that frequently, as well. I just thought it best to do the opposite, despite already being vegetarian. Rice for dinner, crackerbreads for lunch... that's roughly the basis/bulk that my 'meals' revolve around, haha!

If you weren't vegetarian before, that will possibly be why you've dropped so much. I dropped weight when I went vegetarian in 1999. I'm sure chocolate/cookies, too.

[trying in spring]

i so miss chocolate!!! I've been rationing leederhammer slices on weight watcher's tortilla wraps for lunch and filling them with loads of lettuce!! Is it the losing weight that sways girl or what food you're eating? Not that i'm complaining - with the hot weather we're having it's nice to not worry too much about what my legs look like in shorts as they're slowly diminishing!!! Although i put on 4 stone with my son when i was pregnant so heaven knows what will happen when i start to eat normally again!!

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, there is a chance you harm your fertility temporarily by eating so little. Please feel free to increase cals to 1500-1800. No one should ever drop below 1200 cals on LE Diet. If you do stop ovulating, it's ok, no need to panic - many people find that they spend a month maintaining at the lower weight and calorie intake and then their ovulation just starts up again. Others need to increase cals a bit first or even gain a pound or two.

[atomic sagebrush]

i so miss chocolate!!! I've been rationing leederhammer slices on weight watcher's tortilla wraps for lunch and filling them with loads of lettuce!! Is it the losing weight that sways girl or what food you're eating? Not that i'm complaining - with the hot weather we're having it's nice to not worry too much about what my legs look like in shorts as they're slowly diminishing!!! Although i put on 4 stone with my son when i was pregnant so heaven knows what will happen when i start to eat normally again!!

Chocolate is allowed on the LE Diet.

It's both losing weight and reducing cals and eating lower protein, lower fat.

[atomic sagebrush]

I only lost 3 lbs before I conceived my DD. 3 lbs is my magic number because I also gained 3 lbs before I conceived 3 of my 4 boys!!

[trying in spring]

can i get this straight then!! Are any foods off limit when ttc girl on le diet or is it more to do with keeping within cal and protein boundaries? Sorry i'm confused again. And just ate some chocolate buttons to add an extra 100 cal onto lunch as was only at 350!

I am getting full up at meal times though even with eating 1200 cal a day. Eating rice/wraps/bit of goats/swiss cheese etc. Cut out meat and fish though.

Thank you, I will get it in my head eventually! x

[atomic sagebrush]

It's entirely about keeping in fat/protein/cal limits and also choosing less nutritious foods when you can.

There are some foods which are a)more nutrient dense and b)make it much harder to meet your day's goals (see below). So we limit some of these foods. But it's NOT because there are any magical foods that make you conceive boys over girls. We ALL know people who ate red meat every day and had girls, and are vegans and have boys. There ARE no magic foods. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/scie...gic-foods.html

To elaborate on the paragraph above, most people avoid meat all together when on the LE Diet. Firstly because meat has a lot of protein, fat, and other nutrients in it that you cannot get from a vegetarian-based diet - you literally would have to eat a mountain of broccoli to make up for the nutrients in a hamburger patty or a glass of milk, and even then you'd be lacking some of them, because some nutrients only exist in animal proteins and other nutrients are much more easily absorbed from animal proteins. And secondly because meat has a lot of protein for very few calories. So you quickly reach your limitation on protein after only a small portion of meat, have consumed 400/500 calories, and then have nothing to eat for the rest of the day because you'll go over your protein allotment. Even things like white rice, bread, and pasta have quite a lot of protein in them and if you've gotten 40 g of protein from a chicken breast, then what do you eat? Veggies and sweets for the rest of the day is not very satisfying and it can still be quite difficult to get enough calories that way...less than 1200 calories is starvation and no one should ever eat so few cals (and frankly, I prefer if people eat more than 1200 for the most part anyway). So for the sake of meeting your day's nutritional needs, meat is not a good way to "spend" your protein for the day.

LE Diet is not just about what you can't eat, it's about what you NEED to eat for your health and your baby's future health.