(CW: Period cycle/conception/miscarriage talk)
My boyfriend (32) and I(35) have been trying to conceive for over a year now and unfortunately miscarried at 11 weeks in early January, but I’m back into a regular cycle now and we are starting from square one. I track my cycle on an app and typically I am very regular and on time with my ovulation and I use LH tests to fink my peak day. Yesterday I ended up having the most intense cramps (like crying on the couch shaking) and started bleeding enough to use a tampon. My fertile week is supposed to start today, so my peak ovulation day isn’t supposed to be for maybe a couple days, but I took an LH test this morning and the test line was as dark as the control line so clearly I’m going through my LH surge/ovulating early. I am pretty thrown by everything that has happened in the last 12 hours and I’ve been trying to research the effects of fasting on fertility and menstrual cycles, coming up with 50/50 results between fasting being good for fertility and bad for fertility. So I’m wondering if anyone out there has experience tracking their cycle while IF, and more specifically ADF of possible - Did you find that fasting changed your cycle? Did you have problems trying to conceive while IF? Did you make changes to your fast to keep your cycle in check?
Some background info:
I have been seeing a counselor about body image issues, and I found that she wasn’t really helping all that much. I have always been the “big girl”, and I honestly do not recall a time in my life that I have ever felt attractive or enjoyed looking in a mirror, and I have tried so many different things to lose weight that failed me every time.
I started IF about 3 weeks ago doing ADF on M, W, F’s and I feel like this is finally something that I can stick to because it’s somehow easier for me to tell myself not to eat the whole day versus trusting myself with an eating time limit each day. I also go to the gym 3 days a week and do 30min of HIIT and then cool off with a 20-30 walk on the treadmill. I started at 288lbs and currently 276lbs and starting to see/feel parts of me getting smaller, so I really don’t want to stop this momentum.
I think this is going to be a process, and you need to give your body time to settle into the new normal. 3 weeks is a pretty short amount of time.
It’s pretty normal for women who lose a lot of weight or train intensively to see lighter periods (on none at all). But you given that you are starting at fairly high weight, I don’t think that what is going on is your body telling you that you do not have the energy reserves needed for pregnancy. Instead, I think your body is just a little bit surprised by the fact that you’ve dropped 12 pounds in a month and changed your activity level. It needs a bit of time to figure it out.
I would re-evaluate in another 2 months. At that point you will likely have lost \~25 pounds and that amount (10% of your starting weight) should be a good place to reassess how the eating and exercise plan is affecting your body & cycles.
Also, I see that your post is marked NSFW. Maybe see if you can switch that off, so you will get better engagement.
Look into carnivore diet (no dairy), IF is really not compatible with trying to have a baby, you need a ton of protein and a ton of saturated fat for this. Carnivore will also help you to lose weight… Good luck!