How many extra calories in second trimester?

[catsofa]

I'm 16 weeks pregnant, and lucky enough to have had no sickness at all so been able to eat normally the whole time.

I was trying to lose just a little bit of weight when I got pregnant, in fact I'd very nearly done it, so now I'm keeping a careful eye on my calorie intake through pregnancy just so I don't get out of balance again and put too much back on.

I was using the MyFitnessPal app to count calories and have set it to "maintain weight" now I'm pregnant. But do I actually need more calories that I would do if I were not pregnant?

Most websites say I need more in the third trimester, but they differ in how many more they say I will need and some say I need more in the second trimester too.

I'm 35, 5'7, pre-pregnancy weight about 9 stone 11. MFP app gives me 1690 calories per day to maintain my current weight, plus I usually add about 400 per day by exercising e.g. walking somewhere. I seem to just want to eat all the time, so my appetite is a poor guide.

You don't really need any more calories until the 3rd trimester and then you will only need an extra 300 a day.

I am no dietician, but I think if you're hungry and pregnant you should probably eat. If you're eating lots of white carbs (which people do in pregnancy and these tend to make you permanently hungry) perhaps switch to more satisfying foods like protein, fruit, veg, pulses.
I am pregnant with twins and some books say to add 200 calories in third tri, so not even sure if you really need any more at all with one. I haven't followed this advice anyway as am fine with 3 healthy meals a day and a snack whenever I feel a pang. My babies are average size and I haven't put on much beside the bump.
I did ask my consultant what he thought about eating more and his view was that the baby only takes what it needs and you're left with the balance.

I forgot to add that i honestly wouldn't worry about counting calories. You are pregnant, weight gain to an extent is unavoidable. As long as you are not taking the phrase 'eating for two' literally and are instead eating normally and healthily you have nothing to worry about.

My mw said that although the advice is that you don't need extra cals til later, that if you're hungry you should eat (obviously healthy stuff) and that you may find you need to eat more carbs if you normally don't eat much.

My advice would be to eat healthily but as much as you need. Whatever you put on during pregnancy will easily be lost after. I don't count calories ever and took a relaxed attitude to eating when pregnant last time...I developed a bit of a sweet tooth! After the birth I breast fed and was back in old clothes, in fact, slimmer than I was before, 6 months later, again without really watching what I ate and eating lots of carbs which was recommended when breast feeding. I think my experience is fairly average, some people are luckier, my step sister was back in her size 6's in weeks. Cow!

1700 calories a day is still a diet, especially you're burning at least 400 through exercise! Don't the guidelines say women should have 2500 a day?

If you are 5'7 and weighed 9st 11 your BMI must have been in the normal range. So I wouldn't worry about the calories. I'm a similar height and weight and put on 3 stone in my first pregancy. It all came off again (and a bit more) in about 5 months after delivery.

Just to clarify, the MFP app adds any calories I burn with exercise to my daily "allowance", so if I do 400 calories of exercise then I get a total of 2090 to eat through that day. Guidelines are roughly 2000 calories per day for women and 2500 for men, and I am about "average" everything and 400 calories is a reasonable amount of exercise for daily life e.g. walk to the shops twice or something. So I'm definitely not seriously depriving myself of food, that would be insane!

My worry is just that I was a heavy smoker for years, gave up a year ago, and put weight on pretty fast because I no longer had the appetite suppressant effect plus the exercise of constant coughing - seriously I had abs of steel from coughing, really must have been burning a LOT of calories! So I was all out of whack for a long time.

I got back to a good weight slowly by counting calories which made me more aware of what I was eating, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to just let go of this now because I don't think I've managed to properly recalibrate my appetite yet. My most recent experience of eating whatever I wanted was that I put on loads of weight, which can cause problems in pregnancy.

Thanks all for advice, it doesn't sound like I need much more until later in the pregnancy, so I think I'll stick to what I'm doing unless I don't seem to be gaining the right amount of weight-ish. I'm not being super strict about it in pregnancy anyway, but a daily allowance does make me snack on vegetables instead of chocolate (mostly), so it's a useful check for someone who used to regularly eat 6 packs of crisps in one go!

It isn't that much if I remember right.. like 3 slices of bread or something.

But yanno it doesn't matter any road because when cravings kick in it would be a very brave person who would try and stop you eating them tbh imo.

The nice thing about just counting calories is that I can eat literally anything I want for those calories, so I'm free to indulge any and every craving that comes my way. I seem to just crave anything I see though, so I'm keeping a bowl of fruit on the table to try to steer my cravings that way.

Nearly cried in the street the other day because there was an advert with a massive photo of a mango on it and I couldn't have one until I'd got to the supermarket (5 mins walk) to buy one!