Excess Weight Gain During Pregnancy

Excess Weight Gain During Pregnancy

July 15th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

Many of us believe that during pregnancy, we are eating for two. This isn’t entirely accurate. While after the first trimester a pregnant woman does require more calories, remember that the second person of the “two” in that statement is quite small.

Some women take pregnancy as an opportunity to eat as much as they would like, whenever they would like, and this is bad for both mom and baby. Not only will you have more difficulty losing the baby weight afterwards, excess weight gain puts a strain on your heart as well as your back.

How Much Weight Is Too Much?

For a woman who was of an average, healthy weight for her height prior to pregnancy, the recommended weight gain is 25-35 lbs. An underweight woman should gain a little more, while overweight women should gain a little less. This should of course be adjusted for women carrying multiples, who will naturally gain more weight due to supporting more than one baby. Weight gain during pregnancy is absolutely normal, but gaining more than the recommended amount is not.

How to Prevent Excess Weight Gain

The number one key to healthy weight gain during pregnancy is a carefully monitored diet. Make sure that you are not taking in more calories than you need to. Focus your intake on nutrient rich foods and not empty calories that will leave you hungry and lead to weight gain.

Weight loss diets are never a good idea during pregnancy. Your baby needs you to take in the appropriate number of calories comprising all of the necessary vitamins and minerals. However, making healthy changes to your diet is acceptable, as long as it does not cause weight loss or prevent you from gaining the right amount of weight.

The Discomfort of Weight Gain

If you eat right and keep your diet healthy and balanced, you should not have any difficulty with gaining too much weight. However, even the normal amount of weight can be very uncomfortable to a body that is not used to the strain.

Carrying around all that extra weight, especially in the midsection, can make many women uncomfortable. It is hard on the back and the joints and may also make sleep difficult. This level of weight gain, however, should not usually happen until the last months of pregnancy. If you are having trouble with pain or discomfort, talk to your doctor. You may need physical therapy or take your maternity leave early in order to rest.

Wearing comfortable shoes and clothing, and sleeping with a special maternity pillow can help to ease some of the discomfort caused by weight gain. If nothing else, you can at least take heart in knowing that you are nearing the end of the pregnancy and will soon be able to shed those extra pounds.

If you are having trouble with large amounts of food due to the pressure of the baby on your stomach, try eating smaller, more frequent meals. This can reduce the difficulties of trying to fit enough food into an already crowded abdomen, especially towards the end of your pregnancy.

Gestational Diabetes

Around the end of the second trimester, most pregnant women will be tested for gestational diabetes. This temporary form of diabetes can cause extra weight gain in both the mother and the baby. If you suspect you have gestational diabetes, talk to your doctor. You will need to be put on a special diet to control the condition.

Work with your doctor to ensure healthy weight gain from a nutritionally sound eating plan, and find ways to relieve the discomfort of your growing belly. Soon, it will be in the past!

Managing Your Weight Throughout Your Pregnancy

Managing Your Weight Throughout Your Pregnancy

June 26th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

There is no other time in your life when it is perfectly acceptable and even highly recommended to gain weight. Most of the time we as women spend our lives trying to lose weight or keep slender, and then all of a sudden we are faced with the notion that we can and should gain weight. It can be a lot to get used to for some women. Others really embrace the concept of “eating for two” and enjoy eating foods that they normally wouldn’t.

Though eating during pregnancy can most certainly be fun, it is important to remember that it’s not a free for all. Eating too much or the wrong foods can be bad for our health, bad for the pregnancy, and ultimately bad for the baby. You want to ensure that you go about your weight gain in the proper manner so that you can maintain a healthy range throughout.

Managing How You Gain the Weight

Though you may be inclined to just eat as much as you want whenever you want, do your best to ignore that urge. As you can see from this chart that there is a lot that makes up the typical weight gain. You can usually expect to gain anywhere from 25-35 pounds in a typical pregnancy, though this can vary a bit. The growing uterus, the placenta, all of the fluids, and the baby itself make up much of this weight gain. The rest however is up to you and therefore it’s quite important to manage how exactly we gain the weight throughout our pregnancy.

Though you can give into your cravings here and there, do your best to ensure that you don’t do it each and every day. Try your best to eat a well balanced diet that is rich in nutrients that your baby needs and your body craves. Try to get in exercise throughout your pregnancy so long as you are cleared for this and feel up to it. The combination of exercise with healthy eating will help to ensure that you put on the pregnancy weight in the right way. It will also make the task of taking off the weight much easier at the end of it all.

Keep It In Check Throughout Your Pregnancy

Many women are astounded by just how they gain the weight, and this can vary quite significantly. If you were on the thin side before pregnancy, then you may find that you gain the weight quickly and keep it coming as your body prepares for the baby. If you were on the heavier side before pregnancy, then it may take you a little while to gain the weight and then it may hit all of a sudden towards the middle of your pregnancy.

Many women may make it through their first trimester gaining virtually no weight as they are sick all the time. Then when that magical second trimester hits, they find that the weight comes on rapidly. There’s no one set pattern for how the weight is gained, and therefore you need to manage your eating habits and healthy lifestyle throughout. This will always help you to ensure that the baby gets everything that it needs. It will also ensure that you stay in good shape, and that you ultimately deliver a healthy and happy baby.

Weight Gain in First Trimester

Weight Gain in First Trimester

June 18th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

You’ll hear it a million times throughout your pregnancy, but it’s true. Everybody is different! Though it’s an old adage and you will likely get sick of hearing it, it does bear repeating. Many women feel that they have to be like their friends or family when it comes to their pregnancies. They may also feel that just because they’ve been pregnant before that they will know what it’s like and have full and set expectations the next time around.

Even with the exact same woman, one may find that each and every pregnancy is completely and totally different. One of the biggest ways that you notice the differences is how a woman gains her weight. Some women may seem to put on virtually no weight at all, losing it as soon as they give birth. Other women however may feel as though they put on a ton of weight at the beginning and continue to do so as the pregnancy progresses. It can be helpful to understand weight gain throughout each trimester.

Consider Your Pre-Baby Body Shape

Though many women stress out about gaining too much or too little weight during their pregnancy, it really depends heavily on the shape that a woman was in before she got pregnant. If she was bigger boned or even overweight, then chances are that she may not gain as much. It is actually recommended that those women who start out overweight don’t gain as much overall. A woman who is underweight however may gain a great deal of weight up front as her body prepares for the pregnancy.

As you can see by looking at this guidelines it is not only uncommon but actually recommended that an underweight woman gain up to six pounds in her first trimester. It may be even more than that depending on just how underweight she was to begin with. So while this may seem like a shock to the system or something that you should be concerned with, the weight gain will be different in every single case. It depends greatly on the shape your body was in before you got pregnant.

Pace Yourself But Let Your Body Dictate

Though one woman may panic because she’s gained eight pounds in her first trimester, another woman may hope for that type of response. Women who are sick throughout their entire first trimester may not gain any weight, and as a matter of fact may even lose weight. This isn’t uncommon but can worry some moms. The truth is that your body will catch up to where it needs to be in order to provide for your baby. If you’re concerned then you should always talk to your doctor. However in most cases, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. You should know that your body will dictate and that it will put the needs of your baby first.

Though the average suggested weight gain is around 25-35 pounds, it’s important to remember that is just the typical range. Every woman is different and though one woman may gain more in her first trimester, that will likely even out as she progresses through her pregnancy. The exact opposite situation can prove true too. So try hard not to compare yourself to others and know that your body will gain what it needs to for your baby. So long as you eat right and take good care of yourself, you are doing everything you need to for your baby and your pregnancy.