Can Dieting Mess With Your Fertility?
All right, so this article in Irelands Belfast Telegraph is dreadful, but the question it poses—can crash dieting prevent you from conceiving, even years later?—caught my eye. British model and reality TV star Chantelle Houghton, 27, says she cant conceive naturally because of damage caused by years of crash-dieting and bulimia.
The Telegraph article is oh-so-subtly titled How Crash Diets Can Kill your Chances of Being a Mother, and makes it clear that Houghton wasnt just your everyday crash dieter. It mentions her decade-old battle with bulimia, and quotes Houghton saying she was obsessed with dieting from the minute she woke up until the minute she went to bed.
Its been long established that eating disorders can wreak havoc on a womans ability to conceive. In one 1990 study of 66 infertility clinic patients, 7.6% had been anorexic or bulimic; if other eating disorders were thrown it, that figure shot to 16.7%.
According to the Telegraph, though, its not just anorexics and bulimics who could be playing Russian roulette with their reproductive systems—even a last-ditch bikini diet can result in irregular periods impacting on fertility. As examples, they cite Kim Kardashians trouble conceiving, and offer a few tepid quotes from a nutritionist .
Even if the Telegraph is overstating its case a smidge , your diet *can* affect your chances of getting pregnant. Its not as simple as lose weight, lose eggs or anything like that. But underweight women do have a harder time conceiving than women in healthy weight ranges. The authors of the book The Fertility Diet note:
Women who have a body mass index of 20 to 24 [between 117 and 140 pounds for someone 5 feet, 4 inches tall] have the best chance of getting pregnant.
And obese women can jump start ovulation by losing a modest amount, about 5 to 10 percent, they say.
Theres been research showing links between the specific foods you eat and regularity of ovulation . And a 2004 study published in the Journal of the American Dietary Association found that yo-yo dieting can significantly affect womens immune systems; depressed immune systems are linked to infertility.
Seems, as always, your best bet is to eat healthily and not engage in the endless diet and dont, diet and dont cycle—whether youre trying to conceive right now or just thinking about doing so in the future.
Similar Posts:
- Unhealthy Eating Habits Start Early
- Studies Now Show Negative Calorie Foods Weight Loss Programs are Unhealthy
- How to find The Best Weight Loss Plan
- Researchers Find Weight Loss Regimens Mostly Ineffective
- Diet Personalities and Weight Loss
Tags: Dieting, Dieting Mess