s/o - Is This a Good "Fertility Diet"?

[Anonymous]

Since I'm TTC and don't have a particularly healthy diet, I'm thinking about the below. I figure it can't hurt and might help. Does this look right for TTC?

Breakfast - 1 cup fruit, dry fiber cereal, decaf latte with whole milk

Lunch - Veggies sauteed in olive oil, square of dark chocolate, 1/2 cup fruit

Snack - Decaf latte with whole milk

Dinner - Pasta or lean protein with veggies

Snack - Oatmeal or non-sugary muffin

[Anonymous]

More protein, fewer carbs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More protein, fewer carbs

I ran the details through an online app and it is below the daily average for carbs. Is a diet particularly low-carb better for TTC?

[Anonymous]

The carbs look fine to me, but I'd agree with more protein (maybe pasta and lean protein with veggies for dinner, for ex.). It also doesn't look like much food at all, but maybe I eat too much. I'd definitely want a protein with lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The carbs look fine to me, but I'd agree with more protein (maybe pasta and lean protein with veggies for dinner, for ex.). It also doesn't look like much food at all, but maybe I eat too much. I'd definitely want a protein with lunch.

Thanks a bunch. It is about 1600-1800 calories a day, which seems right to me, but it does look like a lot less than I eat now (as I'm snarfing down my fifth piece of office candy for the afternoon).

[Anonymous]

Ouch. I'm hungry just looking at that. That sounds like a very limiting diet and one that isn't very appealing. Have you checked out a reputable and researched program like weight watchers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ouch. I'm hungry just looking at that. That sounds like a very limiting diet and one that isn't very appealing. Have you checked out a reputable and researched program like weight watchers?

I don't need to lose weight. I'm just trying to swap my current diet of muffins, coffee drinks, candy, and other food grazed throughout the day (I usually don't stop and eat a meal until dinner) with something more fertility-friendly. The consensus seems to be that it isn't enough food but it is more than I eat now at a normal weight. Maybe I have a cruddy metabolism?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ouch. I'm hungry just looking at that. That sounds like a very limiting diet and one that isn't very appealing. Have you checked out a reputable and researched program like weight watchers?

I don't need to lose weight. I'm just trying to swap my current diet of muffins, coffee drinks, candy, and other food grazed throughout the day (I usually don't stop and eat a meal until dinner) with something more fertility-friendly. The consensus seems to be that it isn't enough food but it is more than I eat now at a normal weight. Maybe I have a cruddy metabolism?

No, it's probably not that you have a cruddy metabolism. It's that you're not caring about the nutritional value what you put into your body. If you're going to support a healthy pregnancy,yes, you probably should eat healthier foods than muffins and coffee and candy. And once you have a baby in your arms, you will constantly be thinking about healthy foods to sustain you and baby all day long. But switching to sautéed veggies and fruit from muffins isn't going to be easy - or likely sustainable. What about going to a salad bar for lunch and piling on fresh veggies and some chicken or egg for some protein? What about a wrap sandwich with protein and veggies? Do you have to pack a lunch every day? What's wrong with microwaveable meals ala EVOL or Amy's? Switching from sodas and coffee to lemonade and water is somewhat easy. Sounds like maybe you need to consult a nutritionist and see how your lifestyle choices around eating can be made simpler and less carb-y and sugary. The diet you outlined sounds bleh and uninspiring.

[Anonymous]

It may be low on refined foods, but there's not enough fat or protein in that diet to signal your body that it's a time of plenty for you and youshould devote energy to reproduction. I recommended it in another thread this week too: Real Food for Mother and Baby. Has a nice section on fertility diets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It may be low on refined foods, but there's not enough fat or protein in that diet to signal your body that it's a time of plenty for you and youshould devote energy to reproduction. I recommended it in another thread this week too: Real Food for Mother and Baby. Has a nice section on fertility diets.

Thanks! I'm clueless, and it is all very confusing and contradictory. Dairy, but only whole-fat, never low-fat, and sometimes soy perhaps possibly but maybe not,

[Anonymous]

when approached as a set of disconnected rules I agree its confusing. i'm a big-picture person and really appreciate it when I find a book written by someone who is too, which is why I keep plugging that book. SO NICE to have someone lay out the principle and then watch them pull the rules out of that, versus reading dozens of pages of rules and wonder what the principle is.

[Anonymous]

Check out the book Real Food for mother and baby by Nina Planck, SO Helpful!