Keto diet while pregnant?

[Grace198]

Does anyone have advise or experience of a low carbohydrate diet while pregnant?
I have been following a 'lazy' keto diet for 3 months and have lost a lot of weight (had it to loose!) and feel great. I haven't been measuring my carb intake but have avoided all sugar and simple carbs like bread, pasta, flour etc.
I feel the best I have in years but have just found out I'm pregnant (very early days) and am alarmed by what I have read about the dangers to the developing fetus when on a ketogenic diet.
I'd love to hear about your experiences if you have maintained a low carb diet whilst pregnant.
Any recommendations for adding in 'healthy' carbs that won't derail the last few months?
Thank you :)

Others will hopefully be along with better advice & ask your GP etc., but I think it’s probably wise to eat the full range of macros. You can still lose weight or recompose, lose fat, add muscle (with exercise) during pregnancy. You don’t have to go into calorie surplus (beyond what you & the pregnancy need).

Also, no need to start with sugar at all. Complex carbs still count to your carbs and all carbs end up converted to sugar in the body anyway, complex or simple.

Different but not; I had a gastric bypass and fell pregnant shortly after. Naturally I now have to stick to a 'keto' sort of diet and I can eat very little. Baby absolutely fine, no concern from either maternity team or bariatric team. Baby growing just fine, full term now. Lost about 5st throughout the pregnancy and still losing.

Congrats btw

Thank you, good advice. I will stick to the no sugar. Last pregnancy I certainly went into calorie surplus so am keen to avoid that this time! Of course the sickness and all the wrong cravings don't help! :)

Congratulations! Babies do seem to get what they need, which doesn't seem to be as much as I thought! I will keep with it and hope me being healthy is the best for both of us :)
Good luck, sounds like you are due soon!

You can keep excluding sugar but can introduce more complex carbs (brown rice/pasta/whole grain bread) and more vegetables (like sweet potato, squash) to make sure you’re not ketotic. You could google diets for women with gestational diabetes - they are safe lower carb

I had to go on an extreme keto diet while pregnant due to gestational diabetes where my sugar levels overreacted massively to any carb. My child turned out fine! If I were you I’d add brown rice and quinoa etc to your diet.

I’ve got a newborn, and inadvertently followed a keto diet trying to manage gestational diabetes (just kept decreasing carbs in response to blood sugar readings) and ended up hospitalised for monitoring due to blood ketones. Your body really starts reacting differently when pregnant, so so be careful.

This is a pretty balanced read on ketosis in pregnancy

www.gestationaldiabetes.co.uk/ketones/