Recommended Weight gain. Confused.

[Jonze]

Have the recommendations changed over the past three years? I remember the books saying that one should gain about 25 pounds during your pregnancy when I was pregnant with DS. Now, I'm reading that one only needs to consume more calories during the last trimester, and then only 300 extra calories per day. I think this is bull because, at that rate, I'd only gain 7 pounds (127300/3600). That only makes up the weight of the baby, not even the extra plasma/fluid. Also, this doesn't account for the increased metabolic rate during pregnancy. Who the hell is making this cr*p up?

sorry, my formula printed out incorrectly:

(12 weeks x 7 days x 300 calories)/ 3600 calories

(3600 calories per pound)

It's right, you don't need to eat more calories in the first two trimesters. Your body is perfectly capable of growing and nurturing a baby without you eating for two. It's in the third trimester when the baby starts laying down fat stores that you need those extra 300 calories.

Eating normally/healthily doesn't restrict the growth of the baby/placenta/amniotic fluid etc.

I think they've rewritten the calorie-consumption advice recently to try and discourage women from thinking that 'eating for two' means 'eating twice as much as normal'.

I'd eat normally and not worry about how much weight you're putting on - MWs / antenatal clinics in many areas don't weigh women in pg at all any more. Mine weighed me at booking in to check my BMI and haven't been at all interested since.

you should put on aroudn 25 pounds, but as SoH has said, you only need the extra calories the last trimester and it is around 200 -300 calories a day..

the fat you should put on is around 7- 10 pounds, the rest is the baby, amniotic fluid, placenta, uterus, extra blood volume, breast tissue...etc..

if you ate little, the baby would still leach everything out of you and you would suffer while the baby grows...

just eat well , drink plenty of fluids, take a supplement like spatone or floridex to boost iron levels, and don;t stress too much about mathematical formulas for weight gain!!

I gained 2 stone with dd1 and she weighed small 6lb and just under a stone with dd2 and she weighed a v healthy 7lb 4oz. Both well and healthy - dont think it really matters as long as you eat healthy.

I've just discovered Spatone, having been anaemic all pregnancy and it's wonderful!

I also second the don't worry theme! I was weighed at booking in and haven't been weighed since (currently 32 wks). I eat healthily, have an extra bowl of cereal in a morning atm and drink plenty of water. I feel well, baby is the right size and I'm definitely getting bigger...

if you were overweight to start with (like me) you will put on less. I am 31 weeks and have put on 8lb in total. Last time I put on 14lb over the whole pregnancy.

I guess I'm a bit worried because I'm 5 foot 2 inches and weich 98 pounds (7 stone). Weighing only 105 pounds and being full term sounds awfully small.

If both you and the baby are healthy does it matter what the scales say?

How far along are you?

There's no way that you would put on that little. I was 7 stone when I got pregnant and with a litre and a half of amniotic fluid, a placenta, enlarged uterus and extra pints of blood you're already looking at a significant weight gain without even considering the baby!

There is no correlation between how much I eat and my weight gain. Genetics, fluid retention, hormones, starting weight, exercise etc all make a difference. You cannot calculate how much you expect to gain from the 300 calorie increase in the third trimester. Your body becomes incredibly efficient when pregnant and usually will grow a healthy baby in quite a miraculous fashion. You just need to worry about keeping yourself healthy and the guidelines are there as just that- guidelines.

Obviously, there is a correlation between eating and weight gain in pregnancy, but I can eat the same diet as somebody due on the same day as me, with the same starting weight and our weight gain can be completely different...

Only 5 weeks. I gained 10 kg (22 pounds) with the first, and I didn't even overeat. Now I feel as if I should really watch what I'm eating!

pish tosh - just eat as normal and add extra healthyish snacks (bananas, bowl of cereal, toast) if you're still hungry.

Jonze, have a happy, healthy pregnancy and ignore the scales. If you're hungry, eat.

I don't know how you did your calculations of only putting on 7 lbs? These are all approx weights but basically at birth your baby will weigh on average 7.3lb, your uterus grows dramatically and weighs about 2lb, the placenta weighs 1.3lb, your breasts weigh an extra 0.9lb, your blood volume increases and weighs an extra 2.6lb, you have extra fluid in your body and together with the amniotic fluid around the baby it all weighs about 5.7lb. Plus, you will add down some fat during your pregnancy to provide you with extra energy for breastfeeding so this comes to about 5.5lb.

So adding up all the above, by the end of pregnancy you will weigh about 25 lbs more than you did before you became pregnant. This is all an average weight gain but the amount of weight you should gain will depend on how heavy you were before you became pregnant. You do not need the extra 300 odd calories until the end of the second and through the third trimester of pregnancy but by that point a certain percentage of the weight from the above is there regardless of the extra "fat" you would gain from maybe a few too many indulgences or b/c you had to slow down your normal exercise routine. Don't worry too much about calorie counting tho, everything in moderation and as they say, it's quality of food rather than quantity that is important in pregnancy.

Here is how I got to 7 pounds:

12 weeks x 7 days/week=84 days

84 days x 300 calories/day extra=25,200 extra calories above normal

25,200 calories divided by 3600 calories/pound = 7 pounds

This is why I am saying that the recommendations are too strict.

but where did you get the 3600 calories pel pound figure from?

if it's from anywhere not related to pregnancy (WeightWatchers, diet websites etc) it won't apply at all .

That still doesn't make sense to me, Jonze. If you are getting that calculation from somewhere as a guide to weight gain and it's related to weight gain when not pregnant, as MrsBadger said, it's totally irrelevant to you when your pregnant. Your metabolism changes when you're pregnant.

Even if that calculation works ordinarily, which I'm not convinced it does b/ it seems to not take into account excercise or anything else that would raise or otherwise change your metabolic rate, it's not going to work at all for pregnancy. You would still put on more than 7 lbs, the pregnancy hormones themselves make you store a bit more fat than usual even if you are not changing your usual prepregnancy diet. Plus, you still seem to be leaving out the rest of the weight of the actual pregnancy itself, detailed in the things I mentioned before. In theory, 7 lbs of just let's say fat, for lack of better description, is not too little in pregnancy beacause that's only a small ratio of the other things you will be adding weight to, if that makes any sense. The guide I was using when one only puts on a total of approx 25 lbs throughout the whole pregnancy (which is the recommended weight gain) factors in only gaining 5 lbs of actual fat and that's even if you are being careful to not 'eat for two'. Do you see how it would be impossible to only put on 7 lbs in pregnancy even with only adding 300 calories towards the end of the pregnancy? I hope I made some sense here just now!

The 3600 calories per pound is the standard figure in medical textbooks. It is an absolute physical equation. I absolutely agree that 7 pounds is too little, and 25 pounds is correct. I gained 25 pounds in my first pregnancy by increasing the amount I ate by 2 grande lattes and 1 muffin a day. Lost the pregnancy weight by dropping the lattes and muffins.

A woman's metabolic rate does increases during pregnancy. From a nutritional standpoint, this means that one has to eat more calories to maintain ones basal metabolic rate. In order to store fat, one has to take more calories in than one is expending...simple science. I'm not trying to argue this point, you are both correct. I'm just saying that the books justs 3-4 years ago weren't so strict about their 300 calories only during the last trimester. The recommendation I knew was 2 pounds for the first trimester, about 5 for the second, and 1 pound per week for the last trimester.

Ok, maybe that is an accurate equation, I can't really argue it one way or another but regardless, all I'm trying to say is that let's say you didn't add the 300 extra calories (my pregnancy books all say 300 extra towards the end of the second trimester and thru the third, so not just the third actually). You would still put on a minumum of 19 odd pounds by the end of the pregnancy, which is less then the recommended weight gain b/c that is without the extra necessary fat you need to put on. Those 19 pounds would just be including the actual weight of pregnancy related things in your body minus the fat.

Your calculation may work in the sense you would only put on 7 pounds of extra fat but you would still have the extra weight of the baby, blood volume, fluid, boobs, uterus, etc. all adding up to the normal healthy 25 pounds total pregnancy weight gain. I'm just saying this b/c I don't want you to think you need to add more than the 300 recommended calories to still get the normal pregnancy weight gain since that equation you mention seems to be only related to calorie intake and normal weight gain not related to pregnancy. Pregnancy weight gain is not just down to added fat. I'm probably not explaining it any better but either way, I wouldn't worry since you put on with your last pregnancy exactly the right recommended weight gain so you must be doing all the right things!

interesting question.. I put on a whooping 45 pounds during first pregnancy, and I couldn't eat that much because I had morning sickness for the first trimester and bad acid reflux in last trimester. I had loads of water retention though, and I was genormous. Second pregnancy - I eat what I want and I have only put on about 20 pounds, and due in five weeks. At work one of my coleagues, who is from Spain, told me that the advice there is to put on one kilo a month which is roughly 20 pounds for the entire pregnancy, which I think is pretty stupid. She almost had a heart attack when I told her just how much I had put on during first pregnancy!

I put on 15 pounds first time, DD was a very healthy 7lbs 10ozs and I had better iron levels than a non-pregnant person. I ate wellish but not too good due to a combination of eating little in 1st & 2nd trimesters due to MS then overindulged in the 3rd( a lot) because I felt so much better. Apart from the last few weeks though, I ate fairly healthily throughout, just a bit more till I went on a binge near the end & it was chocolate & bacon rolls all the way . This time I'm hoping for around 20lbs but hopefully no more. I'm actually eating much better this time but still pretty healthily, did have 4 Cadbury mini-eggs earlier due to a little sugar-low.
Everyone is completely different & each person's subsequent pgs can be different. Surely the most important thing is to eat as well as possible, not overeat & exercise if you feel like it.

Lemmiwinks is right - not all the weight gain comes from extra calorie intake. -

"Your calculation may work in the sense you would only put on 7 pounds of extra fat but you would still have the extra weight of the baby, blood volume, fluid, boobs, uterus, etc. all adding up to the normal healthy 25 pounds total pregnancy weight gain."

For example, the extra fluid that you carry during pregnancy (amniotic fluid, plasma, fluid in the breast...whcih makes up up to 50% of the weight gain) won't come from calories at all. It will be in the form of increased fluid intake and decreased urine output.

I found this on mayoclinic. Indirectly relevant - and quite interesting...

Where does it go?
Let's say your baby weighs in at 7 or 8 pounds. That accounts for some of your weight gain. But what about the rest? Here's a sample breakdown:

Baby 7 to 8 pounds
Larger breasts 1 to 3 pounds
Larger uterus 2 pounds
Placenta 1 to 2 pounds
Amniotic fluid 2 pounds
Increased blood volume 3 to 4 pounds
Increased fluid volume 2 to 3 pounds
Fat stores 6 to 8 pounds
Total 24 to 32 pounds

Just wanted t0o add as someone who has to attend an eating disorders clinic twice a week every week even whilst pregnnat that if you are underweight then you need to gain in xz of the average reccommendde weight gain and oif you are overweight it is sugested you gain less than that. i was 7.5 stone pre pregnancy and they suggest me gaining about 3 stone because of that. Its all to do with your pre-pregnancy weight but bearing in mind i gained 3 stone with my last and it fell off after running about after her then i wouldn't worry.

Puttig on 7 pounds at your weight already would NOT be advised by the pregnancy dietician that i see at all believe me!

Believe me, I have all intentions to gain 25 pounds again this time. Just didn't want to have the guilt hanging over my head that I was being a gluttonous pig.