LE Standard or PCOS?

[onelittlewish]

Hi Atomic, sorry I totally missed your reply!

My BMI is 18.8 at the moment I gained a bit but not a lot still lower then when I started (19.4 back then). I have been eating brown rice and drinking whole fat milk the whole time but you are right that I need superb egg quality to go into IVF. Having this option gives me hope but at the same time I am so scared that I end up with only boy embryos or no embryo to transfer. I kept seeing stories where they had 20+ eggs retrieved but ended up with only 1-2 viable embryos for transfer. I couldn't help but wonder if my egg quality is also on the poorer side too since we are having a hard time to conceive. I have not done any pretesting yet so I guess we will only know when we start the process right?

Since last week, I have cut out all the white carbs and sugary food (mainly biscuits, bread and cake) and I make my own 100% wholewheat bread with nuts and seeds. I have added 1 egg and 1/2 avocado a day for some good fat and eat small portion of meat (mainly chicken breast or salmon) with every meal and drinks 1-2 cups of full fat fresh milk. No alcohol nor coffee and increased my water intake. I take prenatals, folate 1600mg and ubiquinol everyday as well. I read that vit D is good fertility, should I add that to my supplement? DHEA? What else can I do to improve my egg quality?

Husband just started working out (weight lifting) as well so he has been drinking protein shake and taking omega 3 for his workout. He also takes L-carnitine and L-arginine. I couldn't find the one a day for men 50+ here, would the general version one a day for men work?

[atomic sagebrush]

Ok. We have a potential concern on the horizon. You're too thin and if you try to cut out all refined carbs, it could very well be that weight flies off. We CANNOT have that. We need your weight to stay stable and it would be better for you to gain some back to your previous weight of 19.4. Being too thin can also mean you are less likely conceive with IVF, so we want to avoid you getting too thin if possible. It's fine for you to cut back on sugary treats, but you may NEED some carb intake to keep weight on (or even add some). Just be very very cautious not to lose weight at all. Obviously whole grains are best overall, but some people just need to include some refined carbs to keep weight on.

I don't think you need to worry about egg quality right now. Being that thin indicates to me that you've got a good insulin response and probably do not have chronically high blood sugar that would make for bad egg quality.

If I had to pick a "most likely" reason you've not conceived my most likely contender is the low weight. While you're not under my "cutoff" of 18.5, we do see people who just cannot get pregnant when their weight drops too low, even when ovulation continues. I would love to see you add a few lbs.

Vitamin D, I recommend up to 1000 IU (250%). This is often the amount in many vitamins and prenatals already. If you want to take more, I would have my levels checked beforehand.

Don't take DHEA without having your levels checked. This is VERY IMPORTANT, far more important than having your Vit. D levels checked. People who are making enough DHEA will get a kind of PCOS-lite from the DHEA and it WILL harm your egg quality. Only people who have low DHEA, that is tested and monitored by doctors, should be taking DHEA. Everyone else will see their chances actually diminish from the DHEA - and this is MOST people.

Yes, the general Men's one a day still works!!!

[onelittlewish]

Thanks for the info! I will make sure that I don't loose any weight. I have replace my white carby snacks with healthier snacks, like wholemeal toast/Ryvita flatbread with butter/cheese/peanut butter or muesli/oatmeal with milk, are those ok? Sounds like I am eating a very blue diet now but I guess what needs to be done needs to be done. I eat at 7, 1 and 6 and no snacking in between so at least there's that.

I just checked my prenatal and you are right it has 800IU of Vit D already so I don't think I need to add more and I will not take DHEA. Thank God I checked with you!

My cycles have been pretty regular (ovulating somewhere between CD14-18 and LP around 13 days) on the diet a so I never thought my weight would be the issue too. I conceived my 1st with BMI 20.2 (while travelling and gaining weight) and lost some weight after birth, preg with my 2nd with BMI 18.8. If I gain back all the weight I lost on LE diet and got pregnant does it sway strongly blue? I really want to get pregnant naturally but I still hope that I'd have a chance to get pink (or perhaps its mutually exclusive?)

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes I'm glad you checked with me too.

Those snacks are great!

That is still not a very blue friendly diet. Not at all. You're eating only 3 times a day, less calories, protein, and fat.

I agree that's enough Vit. D!

That's the thing, even when people have had regular cycles, sometimes they've not conceived when their weight was too low, so we just want to avoid that pitfall, especially the pitfall of dropping any lower.

We have had lots of people have girls after having to regain some weight (and gain weight deliberately on a blue diet, and have girls anyway). Weight loss has not been super predictive of who has a girl and who has a boy.

[onelittlewish]

I have been a week on no sugar & white carb diet now and I have been super irritable, feeling depressed and just very tired with headaches. Not sure if that's from giving up sugar or something else. So far I have gained some weight so I guess that's good progress too! I am not tracking my cal/protein/fat, should I?

[atomic sagebrush]

I actually experience that myself when I try to cut out refined carbs too. Just stay the course, it does get better over time BUT with the headaches, I think that can signify your blood sugar is low, so if you're experiencing headaches that's a sign you need to eat something.

As long as you are sure you're getting about 40% protein, 30% healthy fat, and 30% healthy carbs you don't need to track. Remember, we don't want you to be eating too many carbs, and to be getting enough protein and healthy fat, so if you need to track to ensure that's happening, then do so. If you can manage without it, then no need.

[onelittlewish]

So i tried to input what I eat in a day in the app and I've been eating about 1600 cal now but only 20% protein (80g), 35% fat (60g) and about 45% carbs. It's a lot higher in protein than in LE but still far from enough. If I need 40% protein I need about 165g on a 1600cal diet, does that sound about right? There is no way I can get that much protein without going over carbs and fat unless I eat lots of chicken breasts (like 300g a day). Is that OK?

[atomic sagebrush]

Another "combination" is to do 30% protein and fat, and 40% carbs. Or 35 g fat and protein, 30 percent carbs. or 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. If you can't get up to that amount, just eat more than you were. The point is to cut back on carb intake. You can have some flexibility with that, but you don't want to be eating gobs of carbs any more.

Some IVF doctors even suggest going onto a VERY low carb diet. 80g protein is considered by many people who are big protein people, to be a fairly low protein intake. I personally disagree with that advice for most people (and you are NOT someone who would benefit from a very low carb diet, in fact quite the opposite so even if they tell you to do that, don't!) You should be eating some meat, to get yourself a lot of protein for not a lot of calories, but if you really, truly can't get up to the 30-40% range, just do what you can to cut carbs and replace that from protein and healthy fat.

[onelittlewish]

Is agave syrup ok on the diet? I read that it is low in GI but still quite high in carbs. I use it in my milk + cocoa powder. Life is better with it but I can live without it too.

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes it's fine to continue that given your low weight and the fact that we're basically doing this as a preventative measure (and not, for example, because you have severe PCOS!)