I always wanted to lose weight before getting pregnant. There were so many benefits to it. Apart from fitting into my old clothes, there were many more advantages I knew as a physician. Here are the top 10 reasons why every woman should lose the extra weight before getting pregnant.
1- Losing weight immediately improves your chances to get pregnant.
All this while your body is in defense and is preventing you from getting pregnant, as you are in insulin resistance and so much sugar is toxic for the unborn baby. The moment you start losing weight, your ovulation kicks in along with your sex pheromones, and you get pregnant.
2- Reduces the need for fertility treatment.
If other reasons for infertility are ruled out, losing weight by itself improves your chances to get pregnant exponentially. No more need for daily visits to the fertility doctor, no more expensive medications which come with their side-effects. Imagine the money that you will save at a fertility doctor.
3- Reduces obesity-related complications in pregnancy like birth defects, diabetes in pregnancy, miscarriages, high blood pressure, and blood clots. Also, reduce the risk of having a child being born with childhood diabetes and obesity. Every day I go to work and every patient I see, I wonder how she could have avoided so much suffering if only she was normal BMI when she got pregnant.
4- Reduces the risk of menstrual problems, like irregular, heavy periods along with reducing the risk of breast and uterus cancer. It is truly suffering when a woman suffers from heavy periods and the only cure is hormones. I am not saying that thin ladies don’t suffer from heavy periods, but the ones with excess weight can reduce their chances of abnormal uterine bleeding by reducing weight.
5- Learn to eat healthily and be an example to your future child. This was my ultimate goal. If only I could eat like a normal person and be a role model for my daughter. Now, I have no doubt that I set an example of what healthy eating is.
6- Enjoy the pregnancy without worrying about becoming obese. 9 months can be a really long time with its ups and downs. Women consider pregnancy as a free pass to an all you can eat buffet. But they all are eating their negative emotions. Processing emotions is one of an integral part of my weight loss program.
7- Get empowered and take charge of your health before taking on responsibility for children. That child will bring out so much in you that you never knew. Maternal instinct will keep you paralyzed for a long time. Learn to take charge of your emotions and be ready emotionally and physically to have a baby.
8- Be physically fit to run behind a toddler. That is the last thing you want that you are not able to keep her safe as she outruns you. This is a sweet spot where you can be the fittest and charge in motherhood knowing that she can never outrun you and you can keep her safe in any given situation.
9- Get the freedom around food, as you have formed good eating habits before getting pregnant. In my program, you learn to treat food as fuel and not entertainment. You eat because you need to tank up and not because you are looking for excitement in food.
10- Set yourself free of the lifelong struggle of having to lose weight and plunge into motherhood with energy. Can you imagine the possibility of being healthy and fit and then getting pregnant and starting a new chapter? Can you imagine how much mental space has opened up for enjoying this beautiful life?