How Undereating Is Wrecking Your Hormones and Fertility with Michal Vande Kamp, RD

Fertility is complicated and undereating is not going to help. Sure, there are countless important factors involved when it comes to preparing for pregnancy. One, which is sadly often ignored is getting enough essential nutrients and calories to support a healthy pregnancy. This episode’s guest is on a mission to correct this.

About Michal Vande Kamp, RD

Michal Vande Kamp is a registered dietitian who helps women with irregular and painful periods use nutrition and lifestyle strategies so they can regulate their periods and prepare for pregnancy.

Unlike masking period symptoms with medication, Michal helps get to the root cause with functional health testing and provides individualized nutrition and lifestyle recommendations so that her clients can have regular, pain-free periods that do not interfere with their daily life and have a body prepared for pregnancy.

The Connection Between Lifestyle, Diet, and Fertility

For many of us with our busy lifestyles, eating often takes a backseat. Combined with the myths that low-calorie diets are beneficial, many women fail to get the nutrition they need. Michal explains how this has a negative impact on hormones and fertility.

By helping her clients retrain how they approach food, Michal can make eating an enjoyable, yet informed, activity. She describes it as a combination of lifestyle evaluation, blood sugar balance, and functional lab testing.

Fueling for Fertility

When we fail to maintain a balanced and nutritious diet, we put our bodies in a state of stress. The blood sugar dysregulation and cortisol increase that results will impact ovulation. Consequently, if you don’t fuel your body appropriately, your body won’t feel safe, and ovulation will be impacted.

While early intervention is best, it’s never too late to get back on track. Michal describes how she helps her clients track their hormones and cycles so that they can make educated decisions about their diet and fertility.

What challenges have you experienced getting the right nutrition before pregnancy? Leave a comment on the episode page!

In This Episode

How Michal came to specialize in helping women with period and fertility issues [4:45]
Why so many women have trouble eating enough [7:40]
What type of fertility issues arise when we are undernourished [15:40]
Improving hormone health and fertility with a whole-person approach [29:10]
Why you may want to avoid some “healthy foods” [40:00]

Quotes

“It doesn’t have to be perfectly pretty. It just has to be nutritious and something that you can have on hand that is easy for you to eat and be able to prepare.”[15:04]

“You want your body to feel safe and you want ovulation to happen because if it’s not happening and hormones are being impacted, then we are not going to be able to get pregnant.” [16:51]

“If you’re having symptoms or not feeling good, don’t ignore it!” [51:31]

Review Fed and Fearless on Apple Podcasts! Send a screenshot of your review to hello@lauraschoenfeldrd.com or send me a DM on Instagram and I’ll send you my Overcoming Undereating eBook. If you post your favorite episode in your Insta stories and tag me @LauraShoenfeldRD, I’ll also send you my 14-Day Calorie Challenge Recipe Guide!

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