Kari Passe and her husband tried to get pregnant for seven years with no luck. Today she's expecting their first child. What was their key to success? Passe and her doctor firmly believe it was her weight loss, achieved by making simple, healthy lifestyle changes. From about June until November 2007, Passe lost 57 pounds; her husband lost 30 pounds as well. They found out they were pregnant that New Year's Eve.

Passe's doctor, Paul Silva, a fertility specialist at Franciscan Skemp Healthcare in Onalaska, Wis., says the biggest impediment to getting pregnant he often sees in women is being overweight. A healthy body mass index (BMI) is between 20 and 25. It's also important to not be too thin or underweight for pregnancy – he sees those factors playing a role in infertility patients too.

Before attempting other fertility treatments, Passe says she and her husband wanted to try losing weight naturally as Dr. Silva recommended to them at their first visit. "Something we always wanted to do was to lose weight, but we just ignored advice," she says. Now with the long-time dream of having a baby at stake, they were motivated to exercise, limit sugar and eat more whole grains.

Exercising regularly and eating healthy meals and snacks are two important areas to focus on to boost your health and to increase your fertility, experts say. To maximize fertility, maintain an optimal weight or lose weight if you're overweight or obese, says Dr. Ann G. Kulze, a nationally recognized nutrition expert, physician, author and mother of four children in Charleston, S.C. The best way to accomplish an ideal weight is to exercise regularly the rest of your life, she says.

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