Effective Weight Loss For Improved Fertility
Hey There!
It’s Mike here – Happy New Year!
It’s a new year so you know what that means… lots of people with all different types of health and exercise resolutions.
It probably comes as no surprise to you that weight loss is often the number one health goal on people’s list.
Now while it’s at the top of most people’s list, it’s unfortunately also at the top of the list for being the number one broken new year’s resolution.
This definitely poses a challenge for anyone looking to lose weight, including anyone looking to improve their chances of having a baby.
Did you know that losing as little as 5% of your body weight can dramatically improve the chances of conceiving?
If you weigh 180 pounds, you dramatically improve chances of conceiving by losing 9 pounds.
If you weigh 150 pounds, that’s 7.5 pounds to dramatically improve chances of conceiving.
If you weigh 120 pounds, it’s 6 pounds.
When you break down what losing 5% of your body weight requires, it isn’t much compared to the fertility benefits you get in return.
Whereas some of your past attempts to lose weight may have failed, the focus and determination to conceive can provide enough motivation by itself to yield you successful weight loss.
Maintaining a healthy weight improves both your chances of conceiving and having a safe and healthy pregnancy.
The most effective way to determine if you’re in a healthy weight range is to calculate what your BMI (Body-Mass Index) is.
Your BMI is based on your height and weight.
Here’s a great resource that’ll help you calculate your BMI:
Once you calculate your BMI, you’ll see different BMI Categories that’ll tell you where you stand. Here they are below:
Underweight = <18.5
Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
Overweight = 25–29.9
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater
For good health and improved fertility, it’s best to have a score that is under 30.
Weight loss doesn’t have to be dramatic either. Any weight loss, as small as it may be, that gets you closer to a normal weight BMI range will dramatically improve your fertility.
While doctors are not ready to say that excess weight is a cause of infertility, they can and do however say with confidence that losing weight can in fact improve fertility.
OK, so now that we know weight loss can dramatically improve fertility and the chance of conceiving, the question becomes…
How do you lose weight safely and effectively – weight loss that’s sustainable and stays off?
The number one key to successful weight loss is how and what you eat.
We can exercise all we want, 7 days a week for that matter, but if we are not eating the right kinds of food and the right amounts, there will be no weight loss.
What are the right foods to eat for weight loss?
The more we stick with foods that are natural such as fruits, vegetables, and leans meats and stay away from processed foods that are canned and prepackaged such as soups and cereals, the better we are.
It’s these canned and prepackaged foods that are often full of unhealthy preservatives, lots of sodium and many other unhealthy ingredients.
Cooking and eating natural foods that haven’t been processed will provide our bodies with all the vitamins and minerals necessary for weight loss.
Just because something only has 100 calories per serving doesn’t mean it’s healthy and good for us.
Going forward, whenever you’re about to eat something, ask yourself, “what nutritional value am I getting from what I’m about to eat?”
To lose weight, we must eat foods with high nutritional values.
With that said, just because natural foods are healthier for us and support weight loss doesn’t mean we can eat as much of it as we want.
The next big part to weight loss is how we eat.
In this case, I’m referring to portion control, the amount of food we eat per meal.
Eating smaller portions throughout the day (5 to 6 times) of healthy natural foods instead of larger portions (3 or less times) will dramatically help with weight loss.
So instead of eating three heavy portions consisting of breakfast, lunch, and dinner… eat smaller portions of each and have a small snack in-between each meal; one between breakfast and lunch and the other between lunch and dinner.
Not only is eating this way healthier and will make you feel better and more energetic, it will also increase your metabolism which plays a major role in weight loss.
Now that we know that the kinds of food we eat matter (natural foods) and the amount we eat per meal matters too (portion size), let’s take a look at a few example of what eating like this for a day looks like.
Example #1 – Healthy Eating
Breakfast
2 egg whites and one slice of whole wheat toast (dry)
Morning Snack
1 apple with 10 almonds
Lunch
Spinach salad with either grilled chicken or fish (oil & vinegar for dressing)
Afternoon Snack
Celery or carrots with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
Dinner
Grilled or baked chicken or fish with steamed veggies or 1/2 sweet potato or 1/4 cup of brown rice
Example #2 – Healthy Eating
Breakfast
Steel cut oatmeal with blueberries, cinnamon and honey
Morning Snack
1/4 avocado on a slice of whole wheat toast (dry)
Lunch
Turkey or fish sandwich on wheat bread with vegetables
Afternoon Snack
A few olives or tuna with a few whole wheat crackers
Dinner
Stir-fry (chicken or fish with brown rice and lots of vegetables)
If you’re craving a sweet treat such as a dessert after dinner, have either a few strawberries or a small piece of dark chocolate.
If you follow these nutritional guidelines I’ve highlighted here along with an exercise plan for 30 days, you will lose weight.
Here are a few more nutritional guidelines to consider:
1) Eat meals every 2-3 hours
2) Don’t skip meals
3) Limit salt and sugar consumption
4) Avoid processed, frozen & fried foods
There’s no question that weight management along with a healthy BMI range is very important when it comes to overall health, improved fertility, and the chances of conceiving.
Be fit, be fertile, by losing weight.
