Many of these women were eating 60% carbs for their diet, and less than 10% protein. It turns out that most of them were MOSTLY eating carbs- oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich or pasta for lunch, then rice for dinner with some meat and veggies. They reported eating “healthy,” but he asked them to track their diets.

Although they seemed healthy- they were making terrible eggs. He had plenty of young, healthy, fit women who had great BMIs (body-mass index), and yet had recurring failed IVFs because of poor egg and embryo quality. Jeffrey Russell of the Delaware Institute for Reproductive Medicine noticed something interesting. The “New” Research on Fertility Diet and Macrosĭr. Although this time I incorporated the changes suggested by the research from Dr. I got pregnant, with extreme discipline to this extreme diet.Īnd, then again in 2017 I repeated these efforts and got successfully pregnant in three months again. I also did many other things during those three months, and you can read about all of them here. You can read all about the diet I followed here, and about how you can tailor a perfect diet for you here. I consumed lots of organic veggies, eggs, legumes, whole grains, seaweeds, and healthy fats, and a moderate amount of organic meat. I also eliminated dairy and all raw/cold foods per my chinese medicine diagnoses and personal dietary needs. I stopped doing the “limit” nonsense and completely eliminated caffeine, alcohol, sugar, sweeteners, quick/white carbs, trans fats, soy, and all processed food. I cobbled together a diet that was perfectly tailored for me, and in under three months I was pregnant with my miracle child. I started researching, reading, consulting with fertility gurus like Julia Indichova, and getting advice from my Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner (aka, my acupuncturist). I seriously needed to UP MY DIET GAME to get pregnant. After several early losses (chemical pregnancies and early miscarriages), the diagnoses started rolling in- endometriosis, High FSH, low AMH, Diminished Ovarian Reserve, and MTHFR mutation. Unfortunately for me, this diet didn’t work at all. I find it funny that they have peas in a pod on the front cover- yes, it’s cute, because it is a metaphor for pregnancy, but also peas hurts fertility, so, you know– haha. They even wrote a book about it- you can get it at Amazon here: The Fertility Diet. Their results were the general fertility diet you see in most books, blogs, etc.: eat more plant protein (lentils, beans, nuts, etc.), and less animal protein, avoid trans fats, choose slow carbs (brown rice, quinoa, etc.), limit quick/simple carbs (sugar, white rice, juice, pasta, white bread), choose high fat dairy over low-fat, and limit alcohol and caffeine. Their research studied only women with anovulatory infertility (meaning the patients were having a hard time getting pregnant because they weren’t ovulating). When I was first trying to conceive I followed the basic guidelines of the only major and well-respected fertility diet research study- the Harvard Nurses Study. The Major Fertility Diet Research- The Harvard Nurses Study Luckily we finally have some new guidance to help us figure out how many of each macronutrient- carbohydrates, protein, and fat – we should be eating. The problem with this approach is that it turns out that no matter how much we try and how much we think we are eating “healthy,” we are probably eating WAY TOO MANY CARBS for optimal fertility. So I just give general advice- eat this, don’t eat this, eat this in limitation, etc. I’m guilty of writing in generics myself, because neither the research I’ve done previously, nor the diet I used to get pregnant with my first miracle included any kind of counting of calories or tracking of carbs, etc. If you are as Type-A obsessive-compulsive as I am about your fertility journey (and everything else in life), you probably go crazy when you read about perfect fertility diets but there are no NUMBERS to help you figure out EXACTLY what you are supposed to eat. The Number Game: Optimizing the Fertility Diet with Macros Putting it together: The Optimal Fertility Macros, aka, So, what are we supposed to do?.What about FAT? Fat and the Fertility Diet.The “New” Research on Fertility Diet and Macros.The Major Fertility Diet Research- The Harvard Nurses Study.The Number Game: Optimizing the Fertility Diet with Macros.

Healthy eater macro calculator