Hey there, I was wondering what you all have regarding being overweight and going for IVf. My Re told me that unless I get my weight down below 35bmi then my odds of success are far less.

I am trying , really I am, I am 5'4 and weigh 232.5 lbs. I was eating chicken and salads all week last week and exercising and at the end of the week I had gained a 1lb. I was so depressed. I love chocolate, I love food, but I would love to have a baby more. I really dont want to look like this anymore either. I am embarassed by how big I have gotten.

I guess I just have to try harder, but I am worried it wont happen in time. I am suppossed to have retrieval sometime the second week in June. I am going to give it my best and hope that I wont ruin my shot at having a baby because of my eating habits. I would just feel terrible if thats what prevented this from working, ya know? :confused:

I wish I could give you more insight on the IVF, but I've never done it. Maybe some of the other girls here can help you out on that. You could even ask over on the IVF board. You could even ask on the overweight and pg board.

I mainly wanted to let you know don't ever get discouraged after one week of good effort. It can take some time to get the weight loss started. Plus, just because the scale went up isn't necessarily "weight" gain, there are all kinds of other possibilities, it could be water retention especially if you are anywhere near AF or not that far past it. Also, you could have actually lost some weight but gained some muscle and muscle always weighs more than fat. That's why you can have the scale number go up but your clothes will fit better and you'll lose inches. I always measure myself besides weighing myself, and I have seen times where the scale #s go up, but the inches are coming off.

I know completely about being tired of looking like we do right now. Every girl on this board know this. That's why we created the weekly updates, so we can all talk about how good (or how bad, like I did this week, he he) we did and give each a good kick in the pants and pat on the shoulder. Also so we can cry on each other's shoulders when things don't go so great.

All we can do is take it one day at a time. You absolutely can't let yourself get down about one week. It's just one week, not your whole life. It will take time to completely change your eating habits. It's a lifestyle change, not a diet. Remember, we have an eating disorder. Despite what society wants to believe, we didn't get this way on purpose. We each have our various reasons why we've turned to food for escape. Just like the anorexic starves herself to cope and the bulemic purges to cope, we eat to cope. It will take some self insight to figure out why you do this and some work to change. You have to be determined to do this.

Give yourself a long term goal and short term goals, i.e. my long term goal is 100 lbs, but my monthly short term goal is 5-8 lbs. If you break it up into small goals, it doesn't seem so overwhelming and it makes it easier. We count success in every way. If you get through the day without eating anything bad, hey way to go! If you loose 3 lbs this week, awesome! Even if you gave in and had that big bag of potato chips, we say at least you realize what you've done and you can look back and see what happened to turn you to those chips and make changes to avoid doing that again. This has been a royally crappy week for me, my whole family has been down with a bad stomach virus and gearing up for the 2ww and I haven't done so good in the eating right dept, but I have worked my way up to getting through the nights w/o reaching for the candy or chips or ice cream. I've even found my cravings going away.

Remember your ultimate goal is to have a baby. If you're willing to do whatever it takes to get that baby, you have your motivation to loose that weight and take care of yourself. I keep my fingers crossed for you that the IVF will work for you, don't get let yourself get discouraged. We are here for you. :grouphug: :hug:

Hi hun, sorry to hear you are feeling down and out. Cheer up soon :smileyh: Like Diana, I don't really know anything about IVF either, however I am very overweight (much more so than you) and I know exactly where you are coming from. There are times it feels hopeless, but the only time it truely becomes hopeless is when we give up, so never give up. You can do it, it will just take some time.

Now, in regards to your gaining 1lb, I wanted to ask if you have been drinking water every day? Ideally we would have a minimum of 1.5 litres, but should aim for around 2 (increasing that if exercising). That would be about 8 8oz glasses (i.e. 64oz per day). You know, I retain so much fluid it is unreal. I started drinking 2L of water per day and I lost 6lbs in just a week. That is no exaggeration! However, when I stopped drinking the water (like the idiot that I am at times, lol), I gained the 6lbs right back. Water makes a huge difference.

On the diet side of things, I noticed that you said you had nothing but chicken and salad all week. I am assuming that means that is what you had for your meals every night? Firstly - and I learned this the hard way - you have to make sure you are eating enough. If you decide to eat once a day (as I did and am still trying to get out of the habit of doing), you are only going to make your body go into "starvation mode", which means it will store whatever you do eat. Also, variety is the key. You cannot eat the same thing all the time as it slows down weight loss. For one thing, you need a variety so that you get different vitamins and minerals. Never be afraid to try new things, you might be suprised at what you like. I know I was. Try to have a lot of legumes (beans, lentils, etc) in your diet and get your whole grains as well. This can be in the form of brown rice, millet, barley, buckwheat, quinoa, etc. From what my doctor says, cutting out any root veggies (those that are grown in the ground - onions, potatoes, turnips, etc) can greatly aid weight loss as they have a lot of sugar.

Changing your eating habits can be overwhelming to say the least and all the experts recommend to make gradual changes. I am not yet on my full healthy eating plan, but I am starting on Monday - already got all the food ordered and on its way to me :D - but my husband and I made gradual changes. First we changed to olive margarine, which is healthier than typical margarine/butter. Then we changed to the even healthier one, but more importantly we cut our butter intake dramatically. We rarely use it now and when we do, we don't even use as much as we used to. We then cut down on white bread, so we rarely eat it anymore, we cut down on normal rice, cut out potatoes all together for the most part and we rarely have fried food. I have noticed that if I eat white bread, potatoes, rice, etc. my stomach really hurts now, so it makes it easier not to eat it. I don't even crave that stuff anymore. This is not to say that hubby and I eat healthily because we don't - not yet. However, the thought of changing our lifestyles to a healthy eating one doesnt terrify us like it did before. We are very excited and all ready to go. I truely believe this is because we changed things slowly. It will still be a challege though, but I do believe we can do it if we try.

Is there anyway you could postpone your IVF, even for just a few months to give yourself some more time?

Perhaps we could do this together, like weight loss buddies or something. I have quite a bit of information that I have gathered from reading books and things, and I am more than happy to share. I have written far too much as it is so I don't want to write a lot more. I am not sure on what the rules are about private email addresses, but if it is allowed (please advise), I will give you mine and then I can offer you more advice/help, etc.

Just remember what Diana said because she is right, it can take time for weight loss to register on the scales and muscle does weigh more than fat - it weighs 33% more in fact. Sometimes you just have to get started for a few weeks before you start losing. If you expect immediate results, you will only set yourself up for failure, so remember to be patient and always follow the 80/20 rule - that is to eat healthily 80% of the time and that leaves 20% of time for slips up, and they will happen - it is normal - just don't beat yourself up when they do. Use it as a learning experience to recognise your weaknesses and then move on.

I hope this helps and sorry so long!

Love,
Aaliyah

Hi before I did my IVF cycle I prepared myself so much, I walked everyday, ate very healthily, took folic acid as well as a multi vitamin and B complex vitamins, I got my weight down to within my height range so should have been a perfect cycle right ? Unfortunately not it was far from perfect, at retrieval 1 egg only that failed to fertilise plus I ended up anemic, folic acid deficient, Vitamin B deficient and iron deficient, plus I suffered hair loss (fortunately not bald as I have very thick hair).

Please don't freak out too much about your weight, yes by all means do the best you can to lose what you can before starting your IVF cycle and try to be as healthy as 1possible but for me personally it did not make any difference. Remember too with weight loss to be sensible and to eat healthy and nutritionally.

I wish you heaps of success with your weight loss and your IVF. Good luck.

Hugs
Debbie

I honestly found that taking a multi-vitamin daily plus B1 or B complex helped with weight loss. I think my body started functioning optimally again or something...who knows but it did help.

Don't give up b/c you don't think you have enough time....any weight loss is good and will help as long as you do it healthfully.

Ditto to the PP who said that you have to have a variety of foods! You cannot eat the same thing for physiological reasons (like she said) but also b/c you'll get sick of it and fall off the wagon.

Have you thought about following a "diet" like South Beach or weight watchers? They sometimes help for guidance and what to eat or how much.

I too have a chocolate addiction and haven't given it up which is probably why my weight loss is so slow. However, if you can give it up even for 2 weeks, your cravings will diminish...mine did after 1 week but then there was Easter! LOL!

Make sure you are eating 3 meals/day...ESP. breakfast!! Plus have some healthy snacks b/w meals. Try to increase your veggies to 75% of lunch and dinner. I usually have a salad (and change the salad up by adding nuts or avocados or whatever) plus a roasted veggie with balsamic vinegar or an olive oil dressing plus a small portion of meat. Drink plenty of water. If you find you can't get all your veggies in then drink a veggie juice like V8. I still don't like V8 but I am forcing myself to drink it and to try different veggies. Be careful of sugars! So don't drink juice at all if possible...many are loaded with sugar. Sugar just turns to fat in your body basically so check sugar content of anything you are eating...even if it says non-fat.

I also try not to eat after dinner but if I do I make sure it is healthy and is about 3 hours plus b/f bedtime.

I know it can be overwhelming but it will be worth it if your IVF works out!! If you need weekly/daily support feel free to post in the Upbeat Updates post! We are currently on week 5 I believe but will be starting week 6 tomorrow.

Good luck! I know you can do this!!! :happyfory

I just wanted to thank you all for so much encouragement. I am feeling better. For one thing I decided that I need to go into this with a positive attitude. I am eating mostly steamed veggies throguout the day, then I ahve a chicken salad for dinner with 1tsp of low cal dressing. I will try to switch food up more because I have been eating alot of the same types of foods over and over.
The biggest improvement for me is the exercise is starting to help me feel stronger, I have made a deal with myself to not weigh myself for two weeks and to just keep focus on the feeling of being stronger. { It seems to encourage me to move more!}
I guess I didnt get like this over night and its going to take me more than a week to see the results of my commitment. I got through the weekend with company here and no deserts. I think that is great for me fo right now!
I will keep you guys posted and I will be checking in to see how you all are doing too. :hug:

Just wanted to send you a quick message of encouragement. Sounds like you are doing GREAT so far! :celebrate

I gather that fertility is somewhat compromised when we are overweight. But compromised does not equal infertile. There are MANY overweight people who succeed on fertility treatments. There are MANY people who lose weight and still have trouble conceiving. Clearly it is not weight alone that is responsible for pregnancy or infertility. You may get pregnant right away using IVF--you never know.

From what my RE has said, even fairly modest weight loss can in many cases pay big dividends in your fertility. In my case, I was about your size one year ago. I lost about 20 pounds, and started fertility treatment. Two months later, a BFP. Did the weight loss have anything to do with it? I have no idea. I'll probably never know. I plan to lose more weight post-pregnancy.

One possible suggestion. Now that I am pregnant, I have developed gestational diabetes. It's a drag for sure, but let me tell you, the diet they have me on really works. In fact, it is probably working too well, because I am losing weight while pregnant--but that's a whole other issue. Anyway, if you have the resources to meet w/ a nutritionist, you might want to speak to one about adopting a diabetes-friendly diet.

Just wanted to say good luck to you, and to everyone else on this list! I am praying for all of you!

I know exactly how you feel. I have put off IVF because I was committed to losing weight. I have never before been so committed to losing weight as I was when I found out that IVF was my best chance. I started Nutrisystem in Jan and have lost 40lbs so far. I weighed in at 242lbs and 5'2" when I started. I had tried everything before this and thought that losing weight was completely hopeless. In fact just last fall I gave away or donated all of my too small clothes because I honestly believed I would never wear them again. I had tried and failed at losing weight so much. Of course now I look like a bag lady and my grandmother says that I look like I have aload in my pants becasue they are so big and droopy! I don't think it was the nutrisystem that worked it was my mindset. Although I do think that some organized strucutred diet plan is much better thant trying to eat healthy on your own. My feelings about the weight loss were that if I was going to go through IVF then I was going to make damn sure that I did everything in my power to ensure that it worked. I felt that if I lost weight and it didn't work then it was out of my hands. But I couldn't live with the idea that it could potentially fail due to my weight wich in my mind would be my fault. Just my feelings pleas don't anyone get offended. So now I am 40lbs down and was feeling great about it until now. I now have gallstones that are causing me a tremendous amount of pain and possibly pancreatitis (my Dr. is ruling that out ). The Dr. said that gallstones are frequently a result of rapid weight loss. (of course I don't think my weight loss was rapid) My Dh is so angry with me. He didn't want me to diet in the first place. Especially since our RE was willing to do the IVF back when I weighed 242. Now I am going to have to have surgery and won't be able to do the IVF cycle we had planned for next month. I don't regret having lost the weight and I am still working on it (just about have to now, eating anything else results in a painful gallstone attack) in the long run I am sure it will benefit us but I question the theory that so many Dr.'s live by that losing weight will solve all your problems. Good luck to you with your IVF cycle.

Of course now I look like a bag lady and my grandmother says that I look like I have a load in my pants becasue they are so big and droopy!

ROFLMAO! :rolling:

It is SO funny that you should bring this up! I have lost 22 lbs to date...and let me tell you it has taken a long stinking time!!

DH's "compliment" to me the other day:

Him: Those jeans now make you look like you have a saggy old man bum
Me: Huh? Is that supposed to be a compliment?
Him: OF COURSE! You have lost SO much weight!
Me: Well, I am not buying new jeans and wasting money right now while I am still losing weight!
Him: It really was a compliment!
Me: LMAO

That is totally unfair, you have worked so hard and done so well and then you end with something else to deal with. You are due some good vibrations when this is all said and done! Hang in there, and congrats on the weight loss anyway, becaause we all know how hard it is. Let us know how the docs go and good luck!

Thanks Girls, I am having my gall bladder out on Monday. I was surprised to find out that my RE doesn't think we will have to wait too long.

Well Gals-
Us fluffy gals can beat IF. I just had my second pos Beta from my 1st IVF cycle. 1st Beta was 276, 2nd 670. I am currently weighing in at 200 ( I gained 5 lbs during cycle) and I am 5'2" There's hope!!

:clap: :jump: :jump: Congrats! That's awesome...triplets?! All in one shot...nice deal. Good luck to you.

Thanks-Yup triplets!