• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Natural Fertility and Wellness

Trying to get pregnant? Learn how to prepare your body and overcome infertility.

  • Start Here
  • Fertility Help
  • Recipes
  • Books
  • Start Here
  • Fertility Help
  • Recipes
  • Books
  • Contact Donielle
  • About Donielle
  • Privacy Policy
Home » Is your weight contributing to infertility?

Is your weight contributing to infertility?

March 9, 2017 //  by Donielle Baker

FacebookTweetPinYummlyEmail

We’ve come a fair distance in body positivity and acceptance. The US culture is become more and more open to the idea that not everyone is meant to have the same body type. And there’s so much good to that! No one should be made to feel like their body is not the right kind of body, because all bodies truly are good bodies!

All that said there are times when our weight affects our health in negative ways. And both underweight and overweight individuals who are struggling with infertility may find that their weight is impacting their ability to conceive and maintain a pregnancy.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to hear that their weight could be an issue – the reason they haven’t been able to get pregnant. Especially women. But losing weight (or gaining weight if you’re on the other side of the scale) can greatly help you boost your natural fertility. In fact, being at a healthy weight can actually undo your infertility.

Your ovaries and fat cells actually regulate your estrogen levels.

weight and infertility

If you are considered under weight, your body basically goes into survival mode, or “fight or flight” mode. Simply put, when you send your body the signal of “there’s not enough” the body is going to shut down. No “body” wants to conceive a baby when there’s not enough nutrition to go around. Furthermore, when in survival mode you aren’t producing enough estrogen. All of these things, and more, are why your menstrual cycle can stop completely if you’re underweight or working out strenuously; your body’s way of stopping you from getting pregnant when you are not nourished well enough. Studies have even shown up to 50% of women who are underweight for their height and body structure are infertile.

If you are overweight this negatively effects you as well. One reason why is that excess fat causes excess estrogen throughout your body. Too much estrogen and your hormonal system is out of balance and may not produce healthy eggs or release them at the correct times. Obesity has even been associated with an increased risk of early pregnancy loss after IVF and a decreased rate fertilization.

So what’s a girl to do?

The best thing to do is not “diet”. Honestly. Especially not a crash diet. For when you crash diet, your body goes into starvation made and your metabolism slows. Plus, such a drastic measure can upset your hormonal balance even further. Not something you want to do while trying to get pregnant!

The best thing you can do is slowly change your diet to include more fruits, vegetables, and high quality meats and dairy, skip the fast food and candy bars, and move a bit more. Find fun and engaging ways to move that don’t feel like a chore or a burden. Maybe it’s a team sport. Maybe a class. Or a solo activity that gets your heart racing a few times a week.

Make sure you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with a couple healthy snacks during the day. If you are a chronic over eater, start taking less on your plate at each meal. Change just one thing each week or each month if need be, but just start making changes.

Make sure you don’t cut out fat, though – it’s essential to hormone production!

And if you are one of those that need to gain, make sure you are eating high quality, regular fat foods. Include an extra meal or snack into each day for another few hundred calories. Just remember, although you need to gain, it doesn’t mean you get to pig out on junk food! If you’re still having problems gaining weight, it may be time to look into thyroid or adrenal involvement or gluten intolerance, dairy intolerance, or other dietary concerns as a contributing factor.

When you’re making food and rhythm changes, though, don’t be too hard on yourself! Too often we start out with all these large intentions and last a few weeks and then we fizzle. That’s because we’re treating food as a mechanism for nutrition rather than a complex organism of sorts that we have a layered relationship with. Be sure to explore your relationship with food to make sure you’re not just making will-power driven changes.

And I hate to mention this over used phrase for those TTC’ing, but when referring to your weight, “Don’t stress about it”.

While your weight may be a factor in your infertility, try not to worry about all that weight you have to lose. Research shows that just a 4% increase or decrease in weight, depending on where you are in the spectrum, can help balance the hormones out enough to where ovulation occurs and a healthy egg is released. It’s not an overnight cure, but it is also something that will help you in the long run to have a healthy pregnancy once you do conceive.

Some links (including Amazon.com links) in our posts might be affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I may earn an affiliate marketing commission if you make a purchase.

Some links (including Amazon.com links) in our posts might be affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I may earn an affiliate marketing commission if you make a purchase.

  • Bio
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • *Disclaimer
Donielle Baker

Donielle Baker

owner and editor of Natural Fertility and Wellness at Natural Fertility and Wellness
I believe women can learn how to heal their bodies & balance their hormones through natural methods. An advocate for natural health, I have a passion for nourishing/real food nutrition and natural living. My personal background includes both infertility and miscarriage and I started Natural Fertility and Wellness in 2008 in order to share all of the information I found helpful in my journey to heal from PCOS and overcome infertility.
Donielle Baker

@donielle

Follow @donielle
Donielle Baker
Donielle Baker
Many of the links on this site are affiliate links, which mean that the owner of the site may earn a small commission from your purchase through the company. We will not recommend a company that we do not purchase from ourselves and we thank you for your support. No contributor or author on this site is a medical doctor and the statements made here have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. These statements are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure or prevent any disease. This notice is required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Read our privacy policy and full disclosure here.
FacebookTweetPinYummlyEmail

Category: PCOSTag: Weight loss with pcos

You may also be interested in these posts from the same category.
woman with balloons

10 Natural Remedies for Low Progesterone

image of ovary and egg cycle

Getting pregnant with PCOS

Weight loss with PCOS

Overcoming PCOS with food and nutrition (a personal success story)

Overcoming PCOS with food and nutrition (a success story)

keeping a food log

What keeping a food log will tell you

get your period naturally

How to get your period naturally

balancing your blood sugar

Six tips for balancing your blood sugar

All about PCOS with Amy of PCOS Diva

Dealing with unwanted facial hair

pcos and carbs

PCOS and the problem with carbs

Anti-Inflammatory-Berries

PCOS and the benefits of an anti-inflammatory diet

Should you eat cinnamon?

Previous Post: «What is fertility massage What is fertility massage? A podcast with Claire Miller, fertility massage expert
Next Post: Weight loss with PCOS »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michele

    September 25, 2008 at 5:05 pm

    Great post. I’m one of those in the “low BMI” category. (One of the symptoms of untreated celiac is rapid, unexplained weight loss, combined with an inability to gain weight.) I’m hoping that the changes I’ve made in response to my celiac diagnosis will allow me to finally stay at a healthy weight. It has been a frustration for so long, and it’s nice to finally have an answer! 🙂

    Blessings,
    Michele

  2. Mrs. Nichole Jordan

    September 25, 2008 at 7:14 pm

    Thanks for the post!
    I know I need to lose a few lbs!
    Trying slowy to just eat right cuase diets just dont cut it! 😀

    I deff. eat more fruits now YAH! 🙂 but the veggies.. ehh.. yah. lol

  3. seriously?

    September 26, 2008 at 6:44 am

    Great post! I am a big believer that people trying to concieve should make sure they are in the best possible health. I grew up heavy and didn’t lose the weight until college when I did it the right way (over time adding exercise, and changing my eating habits).

    I think I have to add you to my google reader!

    ICLW!

  4. Michelle

    September 26, 2008 at 10:18 pm

    This is a good post. Thank you. This is exactly what I want to do. Not diet but change the way I eat.

  5. Echloe

    September 27, 2008 at 7:51 pm

    Thanks for posting this. I really need to hear the “don’t diet” thing. After stress eating all summer I know I should loose more than a few pounds and want to just starve myself (which I honestly couldn’t do anyway), but reading this helped me think about just trying to eat healthier before our November IVF.

    ICLW

  6. nancy

    September 28, 2008 at 11:01 pm

    I wish my problems could have been simply overcome by healthier eating and living naturally.

    iclw.

  7. Jennifer

    July 24, 2009 at 2:39 pm

    You have a great site! I'm working on losing weight as we speak, so this post was encouraging to me.

    Thanks so much!

  8. Janelle

    March 6, 2013 at 6:37 pm

    Ah, thanks for the encouragement. 🙂 A trick that I sometimes use to help me keep from over-eating (think ice cream — that’s my weakness!), is to use a smaller bowl. That way it looks like I’m having my giant bowl of ice cream when I’m really not!

Primary Sidebar

Can I help you find something?

  • Contact Donielle
  • About Donielle
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Mai Lifestyle Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!