Low carb and pregnancy

[poopyisapig]

Ok, please bear with me, this could be quite long!

I have been eating low carb for over a year now and I LOVE it. It is the only way of eating that suits me and I feel fantastic on it. I eat around 10-15g of carbs a day at most, because tbf, thats just how I eat and the foods I like. My carbs come from huge amounts of watercress, dark lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and occasionally green beans. I don't eat cheese and only really have dairy when I make beef and mushroom stroganoff with double cream.

My only slip from low carb is a curry once or sometimes twice a month where I will have rice and/or bread with my meal and perhaps a small slice of cake after, but that is it

However, I am planning another pregnancy (in 2ww at the mo so fingers crossed!) and I am worried about how it will affect things.

I had a miscarriage in April and the in the midwife check I had, obviously there were keytones in my urine. That sparked her panicking, when I knew why they were there as I don't eat lots of carbs! I had a curry the night before to knock myself out of ketosis before the next check and then all was fine to her. (Sadly, I lost the pregnancy soon after, there was a problem with the baby).

From doing research I have found that a low carb diet is safe in pregnancy. I can't and don't want to start eating carbs again, I feel so healthy eating like I do. Carbs/sugar make me feel awful, potatoes and bread in particular bloat me to the point of looking 6 months pregnant.

When I was pregnant with my first son I had terrible morning sickness. Ate carbs by the truckloads and felt awful. With the pregnancy I lost, I felt amazing sticking to low carb. Sickness was kept at bay for the most part and I never felt bloated.

Has anyone else been pregnant and continued to eat low carb?

I'll be watching this with interest. I fell off the low carb wagon not long before I got pregnant. I'd like to begin again, but I don't know how many carbs a day I should be aiming for.

I have had 3 dc and my midwife each time kept trying to persuade me to eat low sugar (she never really said carb, but she said to really stay away from too much fruit and bread to avoid GD) - I suspect from what you have said, it would be better to eat more leafy greens (iron etc) and ensure you get enough fibre to avoid the dreaded pregnancy constipation. But take a good multi-vit and I can't see why this WOE wouldn't be fine in pregnancy.

If everyone ate low-carb there'd be a lot fewer cases of GD that's for sure!

My "low-carb pregnancy" is nearly 18 months old and asleep upstairs.

I put on just over a stone during the pregnancy and lost the "baby weight" in under a fortnight.

Dayold - How many carbs per day did you eat? Did you have ant hassle re urine tests? Because of keytones present, she started on about GD!

I found tho earlier:

"Example of a civilization that is still in a constant state of ketosis: The Inuit Indians. Above the Arctic Cirle there is basically fish, seal and whale (and their blubber) to eat. Grains don't grow. Even veggies can't be part of the diet (I'm talking about those tribes that have not become completely contaminated by modernity). They are in a constant state of ketosis. Heart disease, diabetes, tooth and gum disease, and obesity are virtually unheard of. And, they have some of the healthiest babies on the planet. No inordinate rate of brain-damaged children."

Oh watching this as DP low carbs and it would be a lot easier to just make one meal! I'm 32 weeks pregnant so wasn't sure if I could low carb.

When I was pregnant I was also low carbing and my doctor said it was fine for me to eat low-carb. She said i might feel i need more carbs for energy if i find myself lacking in it but that I didn't actually need to eat them if I didn't want them as the body didn't need them. Sadly I lost that pregnancy. When I got pregnant again soon after that, I would have loved to have low-carbed but I felt so godawful that all I could face was things like sandwiches and cereal. That pregnancy resulted in my lovely healthy son BUT BUT I did develop gestational diabetes and had serious problems with high blood pressure. I didn't put on any weight in the pregnancy (lost weight in fact) but I remain convinced my high carb diet contributed to the health problems I had in pregnancy.

I found a lot of the diabetic advice quite bizarre. Eg I was told I HAD to have a portion of carb with each meal and the dietician said that the baby could be in "an acid environment" if I didn't, but I thought normal ketosis (as opposed to ketoacidosis) was fine for a pregnancy.
I was also told to keep protein to portions the size of a pack of cards, which I thought was very old-fashioned advice, and told me to avoid fat. Whereas I thought that although people disagree as to what causes people to put on weight, I really thought everyone agreed as to what provokes an insulin response!

poppsi I didn't count carbs per se, I just don't eat bread/cereals/rice/pasta/potatoes/legumes/etc. So I would have greek yoghurt with strawberries which of course does countain carbs, but I wouldn't trough a cake!

Although tbf this was my second pregnancy, during my first pregnancy I simply craved carbs - Haribo style!

I didn't raise my diet with any of the midwives/consultants - totally irrelevant. "Nod and smile" is a mantra to see you through motherhood and you can never start too early!

yy to nod and smile!

Actually, during my first pregnancy, I must have been in Ketosis for a couple of months as there was a period where I couldn't eat at all for a couple of months, I lived off water and bits of rice I could keep down. I lost 4 stone during that pregnancy, but as I was overweight (I was 16 stone when I fell pregnant, 12 the day before I gave birth) no one cared. Ds is 11 now and no adverse effects.

I can't see how eating carbs can create a healthier baby - I eat lots of fat and protein, surely that is better for a growing baby than loads of bread, pasta and sugar?

Plus all the nutrients from dark green veg.

Well I'm convinced. Starting today, low carbing begins.

I am going to do a bit more research, but fat is needed to keep our brians healthy, so it stands to reason that if a mother is eating (good, natural) fats during pregnancy then that will be a good thing for the developing baby?

When I was so sick and exhausted from it in my first preganncy, on the days I could stomach it, I would drink pints of orange juice just to get out of bed, just to have a massive sugar crash later in the say and feel worse. Midwives encouraged this, saying how good fruit juice was for me. Since discovering low carb and reading about fruit sugars, especially those in fruit juices, I have discovered that to be bollocks! I am sure the sugar highs and lows only contributed to my sickness.

Yesterday was a carbfest and I felt crappy for most of it. I'll be experimenting with my carb levels, starting out at 70g initially. I'll need to go shopping today, but I'm going out anyway so that's not a problem.

Sorelip, that how I feel when I eat too many carbs. Sick, tired, bloated. That's why I cut all refined carbs out, I feel so much better.

I honestly don't know why I keep going back to refined carbs, poopyisapig. When I'm low carbing I have more energy, no bloating, no gnawing hunger, not much snacking, and better sleep. Old habits die hard I suppose.

Have just started with the low carbing and if I was t&c or pg i would go with dayold's style and have nuts, seeds and fruit, just not the refined carbs. It seems like a more relaxed approach than having to worry how many carbs you are consuming a day!

I have just found this link for anyone who is interested

wellnessmama.com/2462/optimal-diet-and-nutrition-for-healthy-pregnancy/

Sorry, some of it is a bit hippy dippy, but the foods to eat bit interested me, it's basically atkins.