It is now being observed that many women struggle to conceive because of obesity and related health problems. Overweight women usually have issues with their menstrual cycles and may even have amenorrhea or anovulatory cycles, all of which can predispose to sterility or difficulty in conception. Medical practitioners are increasingly advising women with excess weight to try weight loss to get pregnant.
Having a baby is a joyous occasion for all mothers and every single of them wishes and hopes only for one thing – to deliver a healthy baby. To deliver a healthy baby, one of the first prerequisites is that the mother has to be healthy.
Not all pregnancies are planned but since it involves bringing a new life into this world, it certainly deserves a lot of planning and preparation and trimming away of the excess weight and flab in your body is a good step to begin with.
Dangers of Obesity during Pregnancy
In addition to the fact that obesity can stop you from getting pregnant in the first place, carrying excess weight during pregnancy is also more dangerous. Obesity puts not only the mother but also the intrauterine fetus to grave dangers like congenital birth defects, intrauterine death of the fetus, premature deliveries and a host of other issues.
Obesity in pregnancy can predispose to high blood pressure leading to preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and miscarriages too.
How Much is the Recommended Weight Loss to Get Pregnant?
There is no fixed recommended weight loss to get pregnant, because the actual amount will depend upon your starting body weight. This means that if you are obese and trying to get pregnant, your aim must be to get at or close to your ideal body weight that is recommended for your age, sex, body frame, height and physical activity.
Also another important factor to consider is your BMI or Basal Metabolic Index. It is always better that your BMI scores falls between 18.5 and 25 when you start out with your pregnancy. So you now have a good target to achieve, which is a BMI of 18.5-25.
If you are trying weight loss to get pregnant then it is better to stall conception until your BMI matches the ideal score.
How to Attain Ideal BMI Levels?
There are many ways to lose weight, but not all of them are healthy and safe options. Going on crash diets and extreme fasting to trim down may all be very effective in getting lighter but neither will the slimming effects last long nor will your health stay fine. So it is better to adopt a healthy, well balanced diet that includes a lot of fresh green veggies, fruits, fish and nuts.
Cutting off sugar in all forms from your diet can by itself bring in tremendous results. Use additives very sparingly and keep off any and every kind of junk food from your plate. Use more of whole grains and germinated beans (sprouts) and avoid white refined flour, preservatives and food colorants of all kinds.
Olive oil, especially virgin olive oil is a better cooking choice than butter or fats. Do not forget to include a lot of fiber in your diet which can be provided via oatmeal, nuts, beans, peas, raspberries, Brussels’s sprouts, broccoli etc.
Keep yourself well hydrated by consuming at least 8-12 glasses of boiled, filtered and cooled water. If you do not like the idea of having plain water, use few drops of lime juice, but avoid all other canned juices, beverages like tea and coffee, carbonated drinks and too much of fresh fruit juice as well.