The
study, carried out by Dr Anne Van Oers at the University Medical Centre
Groningen, in the Netherlands said that the greatest impact of losing
weight was in women whose periods are occasional or have stopped
‘anovulatory’ women.
One in four
of the group who lost weight became pregnant compared to just over one
in ten (12.6 per cent) of those who did not undergo the fitness program.
The women, had a body mass index of between 29 (classed as overweight)
and 35 (very obese).
She
said: ‘Our finding that lifestyle intervention in obese women more
often leads to natural conception, specifically anovulatory women,
should be used in their counselling before fertility treatment and could
reasonably be offered as first line treatment for anovulation in obese
women.’
Stuart
Lavery, consultant gynaecologist at Hammersmith Hospital, who was not
involved in the study said: ‘Sometimes the changes in BMI do not have to
be enormous and that’s quite reassuring for a lot of people because it
is really difficult to actually go out there and lose the weight.’
Dr
Adam Balen, chairman of the British Fertility Society, said: ‘Obesity
is a massive problem in the UK and has major ramifications throughout
life but particularly on reproductive health.
'We also know losing weight may have a beneficial effect on the long-term health of the baby conceived.’
He
added: ‘Essentially, if you are overweight, you want to restrict
calories, maybe by 500 calories a day to 1,500 calories diet.
'Daily
exercise, so cardiovascular exercise – 30 to 45 minutes a day – and if
you can achieve that you would expect to lose one or two pounds a week
and that is sustainable.’
Professor
Nick Macklon, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University
of Southampton, said: ‘This is an important study, in that it does
throw an emphasis on the importance of pre-conceptional care, of which
losing weight in obese women is just one.
'You should not just go on a huge crash diet and reduce your calories to almost zero.’
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