Hullo, guys.

Would you say that Calorie Restriction is suitable for women?

I'm asking this because being underweight frequently results in infertility in women. That is, she stops ovulating.

Does CR cause infertility in men as well? Or just in women?

The reason I'm asking this is because I'm underweight technically (or, underweight for My Particular Body's liking), and I haven't had a period in months. I don't mind this most of the time. However, sometimes it frightens me. I'd like to have children someday, and really care for them well (I would utterly love to raise my children in the Wise Traditions, or the Weston A Price Foundation, way... haha). Also, being infertile kind of strips you of your feminity in a way... Worse, I read that the lack of a period cycle could bring on a lot of problems, such as early osteoporosis.

Are most CR women infertile? I would assume that they are, since they're most likely underweight for their bodies. If so, is this just something they accept?

I have some things I'd like to ask Whoa in particular, because he obviously knows a lot about being underweight and CR. But this board seems to have a lot of people with experience/knowledge of health issues, and from what I see very much willing to help...

Just to clarify, I'm not doing CR. I'm not really interested in extending my latter part of life. But sufficient to say, I'm currently a little bit (not a lot, I'm not a bmi of 16 or anything like that) underweight.

I guess I'm writing because I just got hit by this wave of sadness... (lol, funny to say, but I'd like to make my mom a grandma someday!) and I've always wanted to ask other people about this. If I asked my school nutritionist or a doctor, they'd not be of much help (I've asked).

Are there women with similar problems? I know infertility is an increasing problem... are there other women in this board who want to, I don't know, let me know how they dealt with this? Hahahaha ....

Thoughts and discussion much appreciated =).

I was infertile for years when I did very low carb I wasn’t trying to conceive (the opposite in fact) so only realized I was infertile when I was too depressed to get my birth control refilled and I still never got pregnant. I was quite underweight and stayed low carb to keep it that way (thus contributing to the depression) At the time I didn’t know enough to attribute the infertility to my weight and just figured I was infertile. Big surprise when I put on about 10 pounds and though technically still underweight found myself pregnant. I think there’s a very fine line between where your body thinks it’s capable of sustaining another life, it could only be a few pounds. So if you really want to conceive you might have to be willing to gain a little weight.

For me personally severe calorie restriction does not cause depression but severe carb restriction does, I have a seratonin imbalance and I need carbs to stay level. I don’t really think it matters one way or the other for fertility, it’s the weight that matters. If you are too skinny your body will not risk itself by reproduction. You don’t have to gain a LOT of weight to become fertile, just enough to let the body know that it can sustain you and a new life.

ps -both my pregnacies were totally unexpected as I was convinced I was infertile - if you're not sure you want to be a mother, use backup birth control.

Depends how extreme the CR is, or if the person has malnutrition which could result in infertility at normal or mildly underweight. But I don't think this is a problem for a lot of CRONies because nutrition is real high and they don't go too extreme on CR. But its worth increasing your weight and seeing what happens.



You could ask the CR list, or maybe ask on April CR blog because shes been doing it for over two years now, or Mary's CR blog http://www.mprize.org/blogs/ (a link to mary's blog will be on there). Shes not super skinny though, but a bit underweight.

I really don't know too much about this so its best you ask one of those or the list. Hope you get some better answers. The average BMI for a person doing CR is 19. And yes people on CR do accept it if they are infertile. But can be reversed usually by increasing caloric intake

The straight answer:

Yes, most women who CRON seriously are amenorrhetic and infertile.

Most men who CRON seriously have reduced fertility, although aren't totally infertile as women tend to be.
(Human reproduction is controlled by the female, by a high-investment strategy. Therefore, the human female reproductive system is extremely sensitive to stress for evolutionary reasons).

Contrary to what they may say, there is no long term studies of CRONed humans, and it is highly experimental.

Also, it is well established that conditions which shut off female reproduction are associated with poor health.

The knowns and the unknowns lead one to conclude it is not healthy to be amenorrhetic, and it would be ideal to eat and regain weight. Although, if you have purposely made yourself underweight, odds are you really can't choose to do so...

Men on CR with low protein/fat consumption have lower sperm count and lower testosterone. Women will stop menstruating if they are underweight and restrict CR. Mother-nature protects us from reproducing at times of famine, and exessive thinness associated with food shortage.
As for depression and low carb, I too get very depressed and irritable when my carbs are low, could be I am low in serotonin now due to lower estrogen level too. But if I cut carbs to <70g, I get insomina, depression and lethargy.
I have read somewhere that low carb diet can cause infertility in women, but can't provide the source, could be some magazine.
In general, ketogenic low carb diet is basicaly a controlled starvation, could be a cause for infertility too, much like as very low fat/CR diet.
JMO

I'm not sure that is true, especially for more moderate CRONies on the yahoo calorie restriction support group. They advise women to increase calories if this happens too.



The majority of CRers are male, what I've picked up from the lists is that weight and testestorne, existence of libido isn't well correlated with weight. For example, I have had 0 loss of libido, even when I was as low as BMI 16.3. But some males experience total loss at BMI's of upto around bmi 21



Just to note; non-human primates that are subjected to 30% CR and are underweight do not experience infertility. There is usually a huge degree of restriction before this happens in larger mammals that CR have been tested on. And yes, increased health and longevity does occur even after shut off of the female reproduction system because the theory is your body moves its resources to maintenance and repair. Without a shut off of the reproductive system CR'd life extension is significantly less in other mammals tested.

[1]Calorie restriction in rhesus monkeys.

Mattison JA, Lane MA, Roth GS, Ingram DK.

Intramural Research Program, Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, NIH, 5600 Nathan Shock Drive, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. mattisonj~mail.nih.gov
Calorie restriction (CR) extends lifespan and reduces the incidence and age of onset of age-related disease in several animal models. To determine if this nutritional intervention has similar actions in a long-lived primate species, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) initiated a study in 1987 to investigate the effects of a 30% CR in male and female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) of a broad age range. We have observed physiological effects of CR that parallel rodent studies and may be predictive of an increased lifespan. Specifically, results from the NIA study have demonstrated that CR decreases body weight and fat mass, improves glucoregulatory function, decreases blood pressure and blood lipids, and decreases body temperature. Juvenile males exhibited delayed skeletal and sexual maturation. Adult bone mass was not affected by CR in females nor were several reproductive hormones or menstrual cycling. CR attenuated the age-associated decline in both dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and melatonin in males. Although 81% of the monkeys in the study are still alive, preliminary evidence suggests that CR will have beneficial effects on morbidity and mortality. We are now preparing a battery of measures to provide a thorough and relevant analysis of the effectiveness of CR at delaying the onset of age-related disease and maintaining function later into life.

You've answered your own question - when ovulation, and thus menstration, is affected, infertility is a consequence. The underlying cause may be nutrient deficiency, inadequate calories, a combination of both, or something else like PCO.

If you're concerned about this, seek out a Reproductive Endocrinologist to evaluate your situation and see if your missed periods are something you can resolve with minor dietary modifications or if they're hormone related beyond diet.

Not having a period is equivalent of menopause, meaning that you stopped ovulating and your body does not produce enough estrogen/progesterone. While it may be cool not to have all the hassles of the PMS and TOM, it is very unhealthy, and means you will have the same health issue as women in post-menopausal state: dry and wrinkle skin, vaginal dryness and athrophy, osteoporosis, heart desease, and the list continues. If you continue this state for extended period of time, you may have troubles to regain ovarian function. It is very crutial for young and even not soo young females to have their period every month, regardless of what manufacturers of BCPs and patches are saying. I am not sure what is your particulate situation, but if gaining some weight is what it takes to get your period back, then go for it. If there are other reasons you stopped menstruating, then you need to investigate the case (like PCOS) and get this imbalance corrected.
Regards,
D.

Impotence and depression are common problems for male CRONers. In a desperate attempt at appearing normal they force themselves through the motions every month or so with the help of pharmaceuticals. The advantage being they live in hope that they will not be having sex, not eating, not drinking and not being merry long after we have passed from this earth. Eating sufficient saturated fat in particular is important in production of testosterone which is very important to sexual potency.

Kind regards

I "googled" monks and nuns +longevity to see if there were significant live span increase by abstaining from sex, and found this article. It seems that the benefits are rather insiginificant, especially for females.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...2&dopt=Abstract

What's that old saying about whether you live to be 100, or it just FEELS like it?

You know those little CR'd female mice are still having baby mice at human equivalent of 90 years (when all the ad lib are dead).

Whoa....you do realize that's because they're still ovulating.....the original poster isn't, she hasn't had a period in months, so while you're pointing out these mice are still reproducing - how exactly is that helpful to a human that clearly has become infertile (not ovulating - no menstration)?

Sorry, they are re-fed first...