Can intermittent fasting hinder your chances of conception?

Fasting seems to be buzzing everywhere. Whether it’s the 5:2 or 16:8 method...or whether you're simply skipping breakfast every-day, intermittent fasting is the one craze the world loves to love. Everyone from celebrities to athletes, are raving about it’s benefits. Claiming they lose weight, have better skin, sleep, mental focus and overall improved health.  

But don’t clean out your fridge just yet guys! 

Intermittent fasting involves eating during very controlled windows of time so that the body can enter, ‘Autophagy,’ which literally means ‘self-devouring.’ This the state where the body goes into ‘starvation mode’ and eats itself as a means of obtaining energy. Now, although studies show that the body begins by consuming the ‘bad stuff’ such as excess fat and old cells, it’s hard to know when that stops and when the ‘good stuff’ starts to be used...   

Studies show that this caloric restriction can hinder your chances of conception, as the body can eat away sperm cells, reducing your sperm count, which is the last thing you want!  

Below is an abstract from a study done on the effects of fasting on sperm count: 

‘Twenty (20) male mice used for the research were grouped into two. While mice in Group 1 were fasted for 12 hours per day for 30 days during which they were denied access to feeds and water, mice in Group 2 (control) were allowed free access to feeds and water throughout the period of the 30 days. At the end of the period, the semen from both groups were separately collected and analyzed, with emphasis on the sperm count. Results: The results showed that sperm count in the fasted group significantly (p<0.05) dropped compared to the fed group. There was also a significant (p<0.05) weight lost in the fasted group due caloric restriction. Morphology and motility of the sperm cell were also affected. Conclusion: Results suggest that the 30 days fasting adversely affected the sperm cells. Some of the sperm cells may have died due to lack of nutrients to sustain it during the period of the fasting.’ 

So, if you’re an intermittent faster and struggling with conception, this is definitely something to bring up with your doctor.  

But don’t be disheartened guys, the good news is you can eat more!  

Of course, this doesn’t mean you should head to McDonalds and pig out...but consuming more nutrients can definitely be yummy... 

Not sure what to eat? 

Check out our articles:

Superfoods for Male Fertility 

Testosterone boosting recipes