Should I eat when hungry?

[rrreow]

I'm 22w and this is my second pregnancy. I'm a bit worried about weight gain. I'm naturally slim, but have already put on 6kg, which is half of the maximum recommended for my pre-preg weight, so I'm a bit worried about still having 18 weeks to go and the potential weight gain if it continues at the same rate.

I've just been eating when I'm hungry which is three meals a day, plus one or two snacks. Snacks are mostly healthy, sometimes not (same healthy/unhealthy ratio as before pregnancy). I've by no means been pigging out.

I feel really hungry currently (despite a big dinner about 3 hours ago), but because I've shared my worry about weight gain with DH, every time I say I feel hungry he's like "Oh well that's why you're putting on weight then" or "you ate a lot at dinner, as much as me!". So now I feel like a pig and not sure I should eat when hungry or not??

I'm trying to eat when I'm hungry but little and often, so rather than have a large meal when I'm hungry, I just eat until I'm comfortable again. Easier said than done though, because when I start eating, it's hard to stop!

Yes it's natures way of making sure your baby has everything they need

Listen to your body.

Forget guidelines, as that's all they are.

If you're hungry, eat.

And tell your dh to shut up and pass you the bar of galaxy that's in the fridge

I am trying to manage it by snacking on low GI stuff: nuts, cheese and the like when I get the munchies, I find a small piece much more satisfying and less more-ish than, say, some crackers or a piece of fruit. Hasn't stopped me grabbing the occasional chocolate croissant on my way into work but heck I might never do this again.

If you are hungry- eat!
You can eat healthy stuff you know.

I'm going through a hungry all the time phase at 22 weeks. Keep snacking on malt loaf and apples. The occasional snickers or biscuit too!
I'm thinking baby must need it

I have the same problem, I´m constatntly hungry and eating non stop. I started from 47 kg and now at 39 weeks I´m 76kg. My belly measures exactly 39 weeks as it should and I don´t look fat. I´ve talked to my midwife about it and she says to go with it and eat if you feel the need. It´s not healthy to starve yourself whilst pregnant. All that extra weight might be also water around the baby so don´t worry at all about it. When you are naturally slimmer, tinier you need to put on more weight than average anyway and when you feel hungry you have to eat coz it´s your body´s way to tell you that it needs it´s fuel.

I would. Ignore your DH, your body is working a lot harder than his!

Agree with others. With ds1 I put on 3 stone in total and 2 stone were lost as soon as I gave birth (he only weighed 6lb 9oz) so a lot must have been water! I'm always hungry when pregnant - this is ds3 and I'm past caring about eating too much, I NEED to eat and I know it'll come off after as it did with the others! :)

Eat when hungry your body needs it.
If concerned try healthy snacks and smaller meals but don't begrudge yourself seconds if a small meal isn't enough.
I was the same second trimester now in third and big baby and heartburn means my weight gain has slowed down a lot
Congrats on your pregnancy - good luck x

I had a hungry phase which lasted from 7 weeks to now (today's my due date)! DP was initially a little critical of my constant, insatiable, unstoppable troughing - almost all of it on unhealthy, stodgy, sugary foods. But, a few sharp words about when his body is taken over by another being he'll be entitled to comment, and he's very relaxed about it now.
Having an empty stomach still makes me feel nauseous, and frankly I feel shit enough without adding puking into the mix. I've put on just under 3 stone in total (about half a stone less than I was expecting!), and I know I will have a bit of a job to do after this baby is FINALLY born, but hey that's fine. I know what to do, I have a gym membership and I can eat healthily when required. Pregnancy just ain't the time to be worrying about it.

I've found that, in both my pg & bfing, that I am constantly hungry and eat all the time. As a result, I tend to put on more than the recommended amount. However, with my first (DD), I was back in my pre-pg jeans by 10wks & weighed less than pre-pg at 9mths. With my 2nd (DS), I've put on slightly less & losing it gradually still, but my bum & thighs are bigger than they were so no pre-pg jeans just yet (he's 13wo). Although judging by the quality & quantity of milk I have this time, those fat-reserves are doing a good job!! Thinking about it, DD was an April baby & DS Nov. I lose weight more easily in Summer so perhaps that's it too?

Anyway, listen to your body, eat healthily and in all likelihood, your body will get back to 'normal' fairly quickly soon after your baby arrives.

Yes, yes you should. (BTW your husband sounds pretty unsupportive, but that aside.)

I am as far along as you and I am often the same way. Almost as soon as a finish a big (healthy) dinner I am hungry again. I will go for a greek yogurt and a big glass of milk to get my protein and calcium up and that usually helps. Sometimes I will have a piece of vogels bread or something too.

Basically, if you are hungry, you need to eat. I learnt this the hard way. I had a midwife appointment and they found the highest ketone levels in my urine when they tested. High enough for them to say I was in ketosis (very dangerous for baby).

Its normally something that happens to dieters/low carbers. In reality I had food that day, but obviously not enough. It really opened my eyes that your body has VERY different requirements when pregnant. If you are hungry, eat.

Good luck and do not be so hard on yourself!

Thanks for all your replies! You've made me feel a lot better and confirmed what in my heart I really knew to be true already.

Guntie yeah he sounds a bit like an arse about this. He's really supportive about my pregnancy generally, but he has quite big issues with food/weight so that's always a difficult subject to discuss as I get projected on a lot!

I was also thinking, I've been on Lactulose for the past few weeks which as far as I can tell from the label is just pure sugar. So that's about 10g of sugar a day added to my diet that isn't adding any nutrition. Could also explain some of the weight gain.

One thing to add, once you get to 30 odd weeks the baby will sit its darling little self on your stomach and a combination of heart burn and lack of space will mean you can't eat much at all. The extra you eat now will make up for the deficit later.

Yeah I remember, I still have the bottle of Gaviscon from last time in the medicine cabinet need to check the date on it.

Thanks OP. This thread answers the question I had too!