Diet and Lifestyle Changes When Trying to Conceive

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Written by Editorial Team

Editorial Team

With a rich experience in pregnancy and parenting, our team of experts create insightful, well-curated, and easy-to-read content for our to-be-parents and parents at all stages of parenting.

Diet And Lifestyle Changes To Conceive

For both men and women, your lifestyle and diet are directly linked to your fertility. And the lifestyle choices that you make can hugely affect your chances of conceiving. And for this reason, you and your partner would want to adopt some healthy conception diets. Having a balanced and healthy diet can do wonders in conceiving faster and would also give a healthy start to the pregnancy.

The dos and don’ts related to food are mostly the same for you when you are trying to get pregnant and when you are pregnant. And that is why, starting off with a healthy diet would always give you an edge and help you conceive better, faster and have a healthy pregnancy. So now, let’s focus on some do’s and don’ts that every couple should adopt in their diet and lifestyle to change when trying to get conceive.

Diet and Lifestyle Changes When Trying to Conceive

Trying for a baby might be stressful. But having a healthy start of the process might comfort you beyond expectation. Though the diet for women mostly remains same the only difference in post pregnancy and trying-to-conceive diet is that at this stage even your partner has to make necessary changes in his food intake. And below is the detailed account of all the adjustments that will prove to be advantageous for a healthy conception. So here is list of diet and lifestyle changes that every couple should follow when trying to conceive:

1. Say No to Alcohol

This particular stands true for both men and women. As alcohol consumption is directly associated with the fertility. In fact, even occasional alcohol consumption might reduce your fertility drastically making it tough for you to conceive. However, if it’s crucial for you to drink, you must limit your alcohol intake to one-two units per week.

[Read : 7 Things To Avoid When Trying To Conceive]

2. Avoid Foods Containing Listeria

Some types of foods like unpasteurized dairy products, ripened cheese, or blue veined cheese, etc. might contain listeria bacteria. This bacterium is known to cause listeriosis, which may increase the chances of miscarriages. And that is why it is advised to women to stop the consumption of such food items well in advance.

3. Limit Your Caffeine Consumption

women drinking coffee

Caffeine might be best to boost you up and awaken you from excessive sleepiness. But over consumption of this energy booster is directly associated with increased risk of miscarriages. That is why; one is advised to limit their caffeine consumption to 200 mg a day. For this, you may switch to decaf tea and coffee, but that too in small amounts.

4. Any Food That Has Contaminants is to be Limited

Several types of meat and fish items contain mercury contaminants that might slow down the neural development of the unborn kid. And for the same reason, one is advised to limit the consumption of shark, tuna, oily fish, salmon and brown crab meat etc. Well, not so good news for seafood lovers though.

5. Adopt Healthy Food Habits

couple eating healthy food

Some of the healthy food habits that both the partners can adopt are:

Milk and Other Dairy Products: Studies have shown that calcium plays a great role in the growth of an embryo. And the growth of tiny bones and teeth might deplete your bodily calcium, which is why it is always advisable to have a good reservoir of calcium in advance.
Raw Fruits and Vegetables: These are a great source of vitamins and fibres. So make it a point to eat as many different varieties of colors and types that you can.
Water: Last but not the least; never forget to keep yourself fully hydrated by consuming a lot of water and other healthy fluids. As water helps in transporting hormones around the body and also makes it easier for sperms to swim.

6. Iron Supplement

For women, during menstruation, iron is what your body requires. When menstruating, excessive bleeding might cause depletion of iron from the body. And consumption of foods loaded with iron is the best choices at this time. So, consuming a good amount of meat, fish, and leafy green vegetables, etc. might be a good supplement for iron, and their anti-inflammatory properties will also ensure a healthy blood flow.

[Read : Having iron during periods]

7. Fuel Yourself Up in the Follicular Stage

women eating vegetable- lifestyle and diet

At this stage, your body is working hard to produce healthy follicles. And that is why consuming nuts, legumes, fish; vegetables are best to support this follicle development.

8. Ovulation

As your ovulation starts, the ideal time for conception, your body needs more and more of vitamin B and other nutrients. As these will support in the healthy release of the egg and smooth implantation. Once the egg is released, vitamin C is found in high quantities in follicles which may help in progesterone development. And the best foods at this stage are essential fatty acids (EFA’S), which can be obtained from omega-3 found in fish oil and its supplements. These EFA’s help in smooth blood flow in the uterus and smoothening the opening of the follicle to release the eggs. Apart from that, consuming leafy vegetable, legumes, eggs, meat, etc. are other ideal food that should be consumed during this phase.

Editorial Team,

With a rich experience in pregnancy and parenting, our team of experts create insightful, well-curated, and easy-to-read content for our to-be-parents and parents at all stages of parenting.Read more.

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