Pregnancy calorie intake?

[Biooilandcarbs]

I'm currently in my second trimester (17 weeks tomorrow) and I can't seem to find any structured information regarding what my calorie intake should be?

Admitted in my first trimester there would be days I'd probably eat 500 and days 3000 with not much nutrition value, whilst in-between being sick all day, but now that my sickness has subsided, I'm making a conscious effort to eat really healthy (with the occasional treat). But I don't know what I should be aiming for?

Pre-pregnancy I would eat 1600-1700 calories a day.

Thank you :)

Typical advise if you started out a healthy weight is to add up to an additional 300 calories a day in the 3rd trimester for singletons, a bit earlier with multiples. If you start out overweight or obese they recommend keeping "extra calories" at little to none.
So long as you are eating lots of highly nutritious foods there's no need to be calorie counting. If you gain a little fat it's not a bad thing.

Eat when you're hungry.

@physicskate I'm hungry 24/7 so that's not realistic but thanks

I don’t think calorie counting is recommended during pregnancy, just eat a varied and healthy diet (as much as possible with sickness/aversions)

I think I read somewhere you should eat "normally" for the first trimester and add the equivalent of one slice of toast for the second trimester and 2 slices of toast for the third trimester

But I've just had twins so it was more like add 1 tin of roses for the 2nd trimester and 2 tins for the 3rd (the joys of being pregnant over Xmas!!) 🤣

Second trimester and I'm currently eating Nutella by spoon out of the jar. Some days I'm just more hungry than others, so I just go with it.

In what way isn't it realistic? You're supposed to gain weight during pregnancy if you started at a normal weight. Your body has a lot of work to do! It needs to put on fat to support breastfeeding as well as grow a whole new organ (the placenta) that then supports the growing of an entirely new organism.

So what does it matter if you eat (sensibly) when you're hungry?

You'd rather starve yourself and baby of nutrients??

I'm confused...

I too am hungry all the time. Sometimes I'll have some fruit. Sometimes a biscuit and sometimes more like a meal. Honestly, you'll lose most of what you gain in the first couple of months.

This isn't the time to be worrying about calories!!!

I'm 18 weeks.

I've no idea how many calories I'm consuming but the quality of my diet has decreased and the quantity sure has increased.. I find myself yearning for crisps, toast and pork products 🙄 - I've never craved foods like this before.

I have put on weight but I'm starting to make a conscious effort to make my diet more balanced, like it was before, but I'm not going to count calories. I am sooo hungry all the time.

I honestly thought with my eating habits - eat what I want whenever I'm hungry - would mean putting fat on all over but my appetite did tail off in the final weeks and considering the amount of chocolate I ate - once the twins were out and in a moment of weakness I weighed myself a few days after the birth turns out I only put on 1/2 a stone of non baby weight 🥳🥳

I ate whatever I could manage through the first trimester and I lost weight due to pregnancy sickness. I ate a semi-usual amount during the second trimester and I slowly gained weight. In the third trimester pregnancy sickness returned and I stopped gaining weight and then started to lose a tiny amount so had to make a conscious effort to eat an extra snack on days where my sickness would allow and I started gaining weight again

There's a poster in my maternity unit that days it's 300 calories/equivalent of half a sandwich extra a day from the third trimester.

In the second trimester I just carried on eating healtily/normally and still gained about 1-1.5lbs a week

I ate (treats) when I was hungry, and gained 20kg! Absolutely not a good idea and certainly contributed to the stretch marks. Fortunately I was starting with a BMI of 20ish but it took 9 months to lose. Next time I’ll be a bit more sensible with healthy snacks and not get carried away.

@physicskate You are making massive assumptions. I'm not "worried" about calorie intake, I was simply asking a question as a basic guideline or rule. Not sure why you've got so frustrated over it?

@physicskate and FYI, not once have I ever said or even thought about "starving" my baby. Please don't be so ridiculous.

I'm also hungry all the time lol (not just in pregnancy)! If I ate whenever I was hungry I'd be absolutely massive!
I tried to eat normally, then just a tiny bit extra in third trimester, but I was already a little overweight, so only recommended to gain 15-25 lbs total.
The femometer app has a nice feature where you can input your weight and it plots a graph, with a band where you should be.

I think it depends on your starting point. I started with a BMI on the lower side of healthy, it's just how I am built - if you have a lower BMI you are actually supposed to put on a bit more weight on average, but obviously every woman is different.

I find that when pregnant I have to get up in the night to eat if I am not careful and don't have a good satisfying pre bedtime snack, and even then sometimes it isn't enough. It's just that my body runs very lean ordinarily and that's not how I am meant to carry babies or have enough to breastfeed. I do eat when I am hungry because I think it is my body trying to tell me something, but I try to eat satisfying and nutritious, so when I am hungry mid morning/afternoon/pre-bed, I would eat toast with mashed avocado and smoked mackerel, or Greek yoghurt and fruit and seeds, or Ryvita with cheese and tomato, or peanut butter and banana etc. That also means that if I feel less hungry at mealtimes because I have eaten a food snack in between (and frankly in my third trimester I often don't have room for my usual portions now I am full of baby!), then I am not replacing nutritious meals with empty snacks, so really I tend to have 5 smaller but nutritious meals throughout the day. I have never counted calories and have always lost all the baby weight after (what there was of it - it's pretty much all baby).

I really wouldn't worry about calorie counting - I'd avoid too much sugar and focus on nutrition and foods that make you feel satisfied, otherwise it is a long time to be constantly hungry!! And everyone's needs are different - IMO the key thing to do is not to "eat for two" because that is unnecessary, and try to get a varied and healthy diet and do gentle exercise.

Apologies if I'm making assumptions when you say it's unrealistic to eat when you're hungry... your body is going to change. I get that can be distressing, but ignoring your body telling you it needs more food (hunger) won't stop those changes and could leave you feeling more drained, more exhausted than you need to. Those are just facts.

The availability of structured information on this does seem poor. My best guess is that that is, in part, because women’s bodies will rightly and importantly gain weight while pregnant even when intake isn’t really increased much, and the relationship between maternal weight gain / calorie intake and birth weight isn’t direct and linear. Eg academic.oup.com/ije/article/33/4/831/665499 . Or more personally, I am currently eating as I did pre pregnancy (am early in 3rd trimester of my second pregnancy) and am nonetheless getting bigger, fundal length on the normal curve, etc. There is a good section in Emily Oster’s book Expecting Better about weight gain (not specifically calorie intake) in pregnancy and its association with birth outcomes, that definitely made me feel I’d rather err on the side of gaining slightly more rather than less weight, so far as I have a choice.

I was told 200 second trimester, 300 third.

I'm in my third trimester and I'm pretty much eating as I was before pregnancy but with a second breakfast between first breakfast and lunch (hobbit style).
There's a bit more info here and a video of what an extra 200 calories in the 3rd trimester might look like:
www.tommys.org/pregnancy-information/im-pregnant/nutrition-in-pregnancy/how-much-extra-should-i-eat-pregnancy