Is It Possible To Diet While Trying To Conceive?

Trying to lose weight, during pregnancy, is a good idea. This is because you normally will gain a lot of flab, once your baby is born. But make sure that you do not become underweight. Planning your diet is a very important step when you are trying to conceive. So, that means you need to take the necessary steps before you start.

Feeling bloated during pregnancy? Trust us! It is normal. Do not go on a diet to trim yourself down, just for the sake of it. That is a bad idea to start with. Both you and your child need nutrition and your diet plan can be a big obstacle to that. Your body needs the fat making preparation for the breast milk. For that reason it is foolish to deprive your body from getting the required nutrition. Do not deprive your body from the nutrition it needs. This might cause your fetus to suffer from malnutrition. However, there is an upper limit to the weight as well. You should ideally not cross that. Being overweight during pregnancy is also not a good thing to experience. It can trigger many further complications.

Your body weight must be in ideal condition so that your uterus is not compressed and enough blood and oxygen is passed through your placenta. Also you must have sufficient fat to sustain the process of making the desired nutrition for your child.

Read More: 7 Facts About Obesity And Pregnancy You Must Know

Checking Your Weight:

The first step is to check your weight. Just checking the weight is not enough. You have to make sure that you have a healthy weight. Check it in the body mass index (BMI) calculator. Now there are three possibilities. Firstly you can be overweight. Secondly you can be of the perfect weight and thirdly you can be underweight.

If you are or close to your perfect weight then maintaining a healthy diet will suffice. However, in case of both of the other conditions there are certain measures that you must take to make sure that your weight is proper.

In Case you are Underweight:

The amount of body fat impacts your fertility. Your menstrual cycle also gets affected if you are underweight. You will miss out on periods and you won’t be able to release the eggs during the cycle.

Your body needs an ideal fat content of 22 percent. This ensures regular periods and ovulation. It is obviously hard for you to judge how much fat you must have. That is why a body mass index (BMI) is necessary. A recent study showed that women between the BMI of 20 to 25 are more fertile than women who have greater or lesser BMIs.

If your BMI is too low then the flow of the hormone from your brain to body is also on the lower side. Your eggs fail to receive the signal from your brain to be released. So, even if you are fertile then also the eggs are lot released.

There is a constant pressure on the women to stay slim. Dieting helps the cause. But if your BMI is lower than 18.5 then you can be considered as underweight. In that case it will be difficult for you to conceive.

Read More: 7 Ways to Stay Toned During Pregnancy

Gestational Diabetes:

This kind of diabetes occurs when your blood sugar spikes-up during your pregnancy. This indicates that your body is not producing enough amount of insulin. Mid-pregnancy, during the second trimester, your body will need extra insulin. This is due to the necessary of feeding the placenta.

The excess sugar content in the body can harm you and your baby too. One in six mothers-to-be suffers from this.

In Case you are Overweight:

In case you are overweight, losing the extra pound will help you get pregnant faster. You might also like to delay your pregnancy a bit till you reach that ideal weight.

Losing weight via healthy eating habits is always a good idea. It will boost your chances of getting pregnant.

Also losing weight, before getting pregnant helps you fight off serious pregnancy related complications.

High Blood Pressure:

High blood pressure is quite common among pregnant women. Lack of activities and unplanned diet often triggers the chances. Initially high-blood pressure is not a problem. But during the mid-pregnancy it can trigger the tendencies of pre-eclamsia.

Pre-eclamsia:

Weighing over the scale can lead to you to serious complications like pre-eclamsia. This impacts the placenta. This disease lowers the flow of blood to the placenta. This leaves your baby ill-nourished.

Your baby needs the oxygen and blood to sustain its growth. Suffering from this kind of disease will make sure that your child is underweight.

Premature Labor:

Premature labor is also a possibility when you are overweight. Your womb gets stretched. That leads to a series of problems. Cervical length tends to get shortened. It causes heavy bleeding.

Water might tend to break early. There can be signs of abnormalities in your womb.

These are the few problems that you will face if you are overweight during your pregnancy.

Going on a Diet Before Getting Pregnant:

If you are trying to get pregnant, then you must try and make sure that you have reached the ideal weight. Your ideal weight will make sure that baby’s weight and health is ideal. If you have abnormal health then your baby can come out to be under-weight and under-nourished.

That is why dieting is advised. There are certain things you should eat on certain quantity to make sure that both yours and your baby’s health is alright.

• Fruits & Vegetables: Fruits and vegetables provide you with the energy and vitamins which you and your child needs.
• Proteins: Protein sources like meat, fish and eggs should be also included in your regular diet.
• Dairy Products: Milk is a rich calcium source. Also butter and cheese, if safely preserved, gives your body the desired fat source.
• Iron Rich Foods: Red meats, cereals and vegetables provide the desired iron to pump in sufficient amount of blood in your placenta.
• Starch: Foods which provide high amount of starch like wheat and whole-grains are also good options. But make sure that you are not allergic to any of them.

Read More: What To Eat During Pregnancy For Vegetarians

Precautions:

Don’t deprive your body from necessary fat. Also do not add excess fat to your body. Talk to your nutritionist to decide the exact amount of food you must take. The diet you have before and during pregnancy will decide the future health of your child.