Most NHS areas will not fund IVF if your BMI is over 30, and many put hip and knee replacements behind a weight target.
Nico is for people who have been told to reach a weight before IVF, a joint replacement, other planned surgery or a change of treatment, and who have a deadline and no plan. A sensor and a coach help you steady your glucose, so fat comes off without the crash dieting that costs muscle and rebounds afterwards.
Why the weight target is there
Clinicians set weight targets for real reasons. Anaesthetic and surgical risks rise with weight, wounds heal more slowly, and joint replacements carry more complications. For fertility, NICE advises that women with a BMI of 30 or over are likely to take longer to conceive, and that losing weight improves the chance of ovulating for those who are not ovulating.
What a crash diet does before treatment
A weight target with a deadline often produces the worst kind of weight loss. The same 2024 study of an online fertility forum found women describing severe restriction to hit a number before an age cut-off, and swapping tips on how to appear to meet the limit.
A fast drop on the scales is partly water and partly muscle. Losing muscle before surgery makes recovery harder, and losing it before pregnancy leaves you with less of the tissue that handles glucose best. Severe restriction can also stop ovulation altogether, which defeats the point of a fertility weight target. Most of the weight then returns within months, as fat. Arriving at treatment underfed and short of muscle defeats the purpose of the target.
What's going on in your body
Fat cells release their stored energy when insulin is low, and insulin is low when glucose is steady. A diet of fast sugar and starch keeps insulin raised for much of the day, which keeps fat locked away and hunger high. Steadying the line lets your body draw on its own fat between meals, so eating a little less stops feeling like starving.
What you'll see on Nico
Your energy line shows which of your usual meals keep insulin high and which do not. You log your weight each week, and the app shows it alongside your line so you can see the two moving together. Most people find two or three everyday foods doing most of the damage within the first fortnight and it's easy to fix.
What changes
Changes come one at a time. Protein goes into every meal so that the weight you lose is fat rather than muscle, and sugar and starch move to the end of the meal or shrink. Movement comes straight after eating, adjusted for what your body allows.
Twelve weeks of weight logs next to a steadier line also give you something concrete to take back to your clinic.
The full loop is on the How it works page.
What to expect
Fat loss that lasts runs at roughly half a kilo to a kilo a week. For a woman of average UK height, one BMI point is about two and a half kilos, so five points is a matter of months.
Nico is a wellness and coaching platform. A sensor cannot diagnose anything, and we are not a substitute for your fertility clinic, surgeon or GP.
Questions people ask
Will I hit my BMI target in time?
We cannot promise that. What we can say is that steady fat loss with muscle kept is the kind most likely to still be there on the day of treatment.
Can Nico help me get pregnant?
We can help with the metabolic side, which for many women with PCOS is the main obstacle to regular ovulation. Fertility depends on much more than glucose, and nobody can promise a pregnancy.
Is it safe to use Nico while preparing for IVF?
Tell your clinic you are using it. Nothing the coach suggests conflicts with fertility advice, and if you take metformin or any other medicine, keep taking it as prescribed.
I can't walk far because of my knee or hip. Will this still work?
Yes. Movement after meals is one lever of four, and it can be done sitting down. Food, sleep and stress do the rest.
My surgeon wants me to lose weight quickly on a special diet before the operation. Should I stop?
No. Some operations need a short, strict diet in the weeks before, often to shrink the liver. Follow your surgical team's plan for that period and use Nico for the months before it and after.
The weight target is more likely to be met, and still met on the day of treatment, if the months before it are spent learning what your own body does with food. Nico can show you.
Wear a sensor for a few weeks, and your coach will show you which of this applies to you.
