Can fertility acupuncture support weight loss?
Weight gain is a complex, multi-factorial issue. Losing excess kilos can be hard even when your diet is perfect and you get sufficient exercise. And when facing the pressures of trying to conceive it can become overwhelmingly challenging.
Some of the less known factors contributing to weight gain include hormonal changes, certain medical conditions like PCOS and insulin resistance, hormonal changes, stress, and poor sleep.
Your weight plays a critical role in fertility and pregnancy outcomes. When trying to conceive, whether naturally or through assisted reproductive technologies like IVF, maintaining a healthy weight is essential. Both being underweight and overweight can disrupt hormone levels, affect ovulation, and complicate pregnancy. But can fertility acupuncture help with weight loss, especially when fertility is a concern? Let’s take a closer look.
Can fertility acupuncture support weight loss?
Acupuncture improves sleep, reduces stress and anxiety
Have you ever noticed how after a bad night’s sleep, you tend to overeat or make less healthy food choices? This is because sleep deprivation directly affects appetite-regulating hormones, making it harder to resist cravings.
Additionally, poor sleep can disrupt hormones contributing to fat deposition around your vital organs—also known as visceral fat. When you’re chronically sleep-deprived, your motivation to exercise also dwindles, creating a cycle of weight gain that’s hard to break. The stress associated with trying to conceive, on top of sleep issues, can also trigger overeating and disrupt hormones, further contributing to weight gain.
Acupuncture is an excellent tool for for addressing both sleep issues and stress eating. It reduces stress and anxiety and improves sleep. Consequently, a rested mind gives you better control over what and how much you eat. In addition, acupuncture will help heal the harm caused by sleep deprivation.
Acupuncture reduces appetite
Acupuncture also influences the brain centers that regulate appetite, helping to control food cravings and improve satiety. By stimulating the auricular branch of the vagus nerve, acupuncture can raise serotonin levels, a neurotransmitter that helps to regulate mood and appetite.
Increased serotonin levels have the following effects:
- Increases the tone of the smooth muscle of the stomach suppressing appetite
- Enhances intestinal motility
- Helps to control stress, improves mood, and eases depression.
Acupuncture regulates weight-controlling hormones
Hormones play a crucial role in regulating body weight, and acupuncture can help balance these hormones to support weight loss. Studies have shown that acupuncture increases beta-endorphins. These feel-good hormones optimise how you use energy during fasting or exercise, further promoting weight loss.
In this study overweight women, who had regular acupuncture for three months, had healthier levels of leptin, a hormone that controls hunger and metabolism. Additionally, their fasting blood glucose and insulin levels all improved, highlighting acupuncture’s positive impact on metabolic health.
To sum it up, acupuncture tackles weight gain from multiple angles including regulating hormones, optimising sleep, reducing appetite and reducing stress. Multiple studies have shown that acupuncture can be an effective tool helping you to optimise fertility though weight management. For the best results, we recommend a tailored approach to acupuncture – combined with individualised nutrition, regular exercise, and proper medical care.
If you’re struggling to lose weight while trying to conceive, a personalised acupuncture treatment plan, along with lifestyle changes and nutritional support, can set you on the path to success. You may also benefit from a thyroid check-up and a consultation with a specialised dietitian to ensure you’re addressing all factors that could impact your weight and fertility.
