Can Fat Increase Chances of Getting Pregnant?

The estrogen hormone is necessary for a healthy pregnancy because it helps the egg mature. Although most of a woman’s estrogen is made from her ovaries, 30% or more estrogen is produced from fat cells. That’s good news if you’re trying to conceive, right? Well…maybe. The more fat you have, the more estrogen you’ll make. If you have more than the normal amount of fat cells, you are most likely producing more than a normal amount of estrogen. Same thing goes if you are underweight. If you have few fat cells, you probably aren’t making enough estrogen.

Check with your doctor to see if your weight is healthy. A quick, but not foolproof way to figure out whether you are within a healthy norm is by calculating your body mass index or BMI for short. There are plenty of online BMI calculators out there that you can use for free, but if you want to calculate it yourself, here is the formula:

Take your weight and divide it by your height in inches. Once you have that result, multiply it by 700 to calculate your BMI.

A healthy BMI is typically between 18.5 and 25. If your BMI is less than 18.5 you are considered underweight. You might want to try packing on a few pounds before you try to conceive. If your BMI is more than 25, you are considered overweight. Try losing a couple pounds before conceiving. If your BMI is 30 or more, you are considered obese. Obesity is a problem that has affected many. If you are obese, you will want to seriously consider losing those extra pounds in a healthy way not only for conception, but also for yourself too! Of course, your BMI is not always the best and only way to tell if your weight is ideal. For example, if you lift weights, you are likely to be heavier, because muscle weighs more than fat. Alternatively, you could be very thin, but with most of your weight coming from fat and not muscle. That’s why its always important to ask your doctor for their opinion and to take a good look at your body type and your health habits.