ok, so my hunger is coming on real strong this week. I'm 21 weeks 4 days. I've done pretty well so far with weight gain. This is my second pregnancy, first time around I gained a total of 80lbs. (I'm not doing that again) so far with this pregnancy it's been 12 lbs. I understand the baby is growing, but looking for some reccommendations for protein bars and snacks that will curb the hunger, give the baby what she needs, and avoid unnecessary weight. So I'm not stopping at fast food restaurants everyday. The good part is my cravings are for fruits and veggies.
The only thing that really helped my morning sickness (other than prescription meds) was making sure I ate every 2 hours or so. I really like nature valley fruit and nut bars. Nutrigrain fruit and oat harvest bars, and fiber one protein bars. None of these are really particularly healthy snacks, but they're not too bad on the calorie count, do the job, and are tasty.
When I talked to my doctor about this, she actually recommended that I don't use any protein supplements and with protein bars, to ensure that they don't have added vitamins. She said with the prenatals I'm on and eating a healthy diet, I may get too many vitamins from some of the bars/supplements and there's such thing as too much vitamin for a growing baby. Ask your obgyn tho! I'd love to get a second opinion on this!
So my husband is a strongman competitior and I having been on a strict physique routine for a long time now. I did a lot of protein supplementing pre pregnancy, but once we found out I cut these things out and tried getting my nutrients strictly from food. Mind you I still lift weights as my obgyn is aware and has supported everything I do. Between working out and prenatals I AM SO HUNGRY. Im 22 weeks tomorrow and have been crazy hungry as well. I do almond butter with apples for a good protein filler as well as snacking on cliff bars. Ive allowed myself some things I never at before such as the cliff bars that are natural, small on calories but filling. We arent experts just fitness fanatics so just saying what I do. Snacking rather than supplementing with prorein bars mainly for same reasons as pp about extra vitamins and nutrients you may get that baby may not need.
I can't do store bought granola bars because of food allergies but need protein so I enjoy for snacks: cottage cheese with fruit, homemade hummus with veggies, sunflower seed butter on celery or Apple, 3 cups air popped popcorn and a hard boiled egg.
Im not big on bars, but I do like the natures path fruit and nut ones. Some of my other go to snacks are beef jerky, grapes & low fat string cheese. Pistacios and peanuts in the she'll are also good, lots of protein and the shell slows you down a little bit.
Re: Protein Bar Reccommendations/ Pregnancy Snacks