Absolutely insatiable appetite

[ahorsecalledseptember]

I have found the only way to keep nausea and sickness at bay is to eat, and I'm seriously becoming concerned that by the end of the pregnancy i will be hugely obese.

I have tried to snack on fruit and low calorie alternatives but it does seem that cereal bars, crisps, and so on are what really settles me, although I have had a real craving for mango too!

Can anyone reassure me I won't resemble a walrus? I'm 10 weeks.

Hi @ahorsecalledseptember! And congratulations! I'm 19 weeks today, and I was the same around 6-14 weeks, just go with it! It will calm down soon, remember your body is doing so much hidden work right now, your uterus is thickening and your blood volume is doubling, so even if your bump isn't growing, other bits inside are; and your body needs energy (calories) to do so. Also I was soooo weak and fatigued during that time that I basically couldn't exercise (I was extremely active pre-pregnancy) and felt like I'd put on loads of weight.

Basically I've found so far it works best if I eat whenever I'm hungry and exercise whenever I have the energy. I'm quite lucky I already had weights, resistance bands, a step and a bike with indoor bike trainer before lockdown, so I've just been using what I fancy, whenever I fancy doing something.

But yeah, in a nutshell, eat what you want now, and in the 2nd trimester it should calm down.

Thanks, Postie, I hope so - envisioning our first family photos as being rather an unpretty sight!

I was exactly the same in the first trimester. The only way I could stop feeling sick was to eat something and all I wanted was unhealthy savoury food. I'm normally very good with my diet but I gave in to what I wanted and became concerned about my weight gain.

I'm now 39+4 and my weight gain is actually average and appears to have mostly gone on bump. Thankfully for me the hunger/nausea eased from around 15 weeks and I was able to revert back to normal meals but still with additional treats and the odd blowout.

Dont worry, go with what your body wants and needs. If you are concerned, talk to your midwife but they will flag it with you if they have any concerns.

Oh gosh OP I feel your pain! I'm a week behind and currently wondering how I'm going to avoid ending up the size of a house 🤦🏼‍♀️ I feel like I need to eat about every 2 hours and beige food seems to be the only thing that helps, it's always crisps, biscuits, toast etc. Fruit just doesn't cut it!

Same, it wore off at about 11 weeks, I'm now 20 weeks and still eating a lot but more big meals and toast than just hoovering up snickers bars and cream cakes

Hello op, I was ridiculously hungry for the first 13 weeks! If I couldn't eat I'd get very upset and even sometimes ate cereal out of a Tupperware box as I was walking down the street as I found the idea of waiting until I got home to eat unthinkable! By week 10 of the pregnancy I'd put on a stone. Once I got into the second trimester my appetite calmed down. I'd put on 3 stone in total but by the time ds was 6 months old I was back down to the 9 stone I was before I got pregnant. I had a healthy & normal pregnancy and baby, various healthcare professionals agreed this. Everything really was fine and the weight fell off once he was born (I appreciate everyone has a different experience with this. I breastfed and ate like a horse).

Enjoy your food. Looking back I'm actually pretty impressed with my body - it's like it knew it had to put on weight as it was healthy and natural so it made sure I was eating enough. Quite clever really.

Good luck with everything.