Not eating healthy, feeling guilty

kenfw89

16 weeks pregnant and I’ve been eating like crap. Gained 8 lbs so far (normal healthy weight to begin with).

 I struggled with nausea first trimester and now in my second, I’m just finding it so hard to control my cravings. I do take prenatals and get some healthy food in each day, but I’m also eating way too much crap and I know it - cookies, fries, ice cream, chips, McDonald’s, you name it. 

Is it too late for me to try and change my diet around to prevent gestational diabetes?

What are the chances that a poor pregnancy diet will impact baby?

Thanks!

00kim00

First, gestational diabetes is not caused by diet. Many women feel guilty or ashamed if they get GD, but it's not their fault and there's nothing that you can do to cause it or prevent it. It's a product of how your placenta interacts with your body's ability to use insulin. Now, you could fail the one hour glucose test based on how you ate (but that just means another test; whether or not you actually have GD won't change). Also, if you do have GD, diet matters in controlling it, and uncontrolled GD can harm the baby. But whether you have GD is up to your placenta.

In general, your diet shouldn't have a negative effect on your child. Consuming certain things can be harmful (alcohol, marijuana, caffeine, certain medications or herbs, etc.), And uncontrolled GD or gaining too much weight can cause problems. But junk food is more likely to hurt you then your baby. Other than long term health effects, you may notice constipation, hemorrhoids, heartburn, and fatigue are worse than if you had a better diet. 

But pregnancy is hard. Eat whatever you need to eat, just do your best. Honestly, I ate really healthy before pregnancy, tons of fruit and veggies, then first trimester hit and fruit and veggies made me nauseous. It was a struggle to get one fruit or veggie in a day, when I used to easily exceed my 5 a day and usually reached for fruits or veggies as my go-to snacks. 

If you can switch to healthier foods now that you're in your second trimester, do it, your body will thank you (especially when third trimester heartburn and constipation hit). But if you can't, try not to worry about it.

lilgerms

8 lbs is totally normal for 16 weeks! Just do your best. Be kind to yourself. You said you are getting some healthy foods in, that’s great! Your baby only takes the good stuff. You’re doing great mama. Eat! I’m 26 weeks now. I’m so freaking hungry!! I wanted a lot of sweets and junk food at first. But now I am craving healthier food and still enjoying foods that at less nutritionally dense. It’s hard to shop, prepare and eat all nutritious meals all the time. That’s a lot of work. Do your best. Food is not good or bad. And you’re not good or bad for weight gain or what you eat, especially in pregnancy. Sh!t, people should be waiting on us hand and foot preparing all of our meals and making our lives as comfortable as possible while we’re doing all this work. But they’re not! We still have to do a lot of it alone. Pregnancy is wild. You got this. 🧡

meggyme

Perhaps after a trimester of morning sickness your body is crazing energy. Make sure you are feeding your body what it wants and on top of that make sure you are giving your body what it needs. Prenatals will take care of the vitamin needs, but make sure you are eating enough in your meals and throughout the day and you may find that your cravings decrease.

Also, I agree that 8 lbs at 16 weeks is a perfectly normal amount to have gained. Unless your doctor is concerned, don’t concern yourself.

kawaiicat7

This is a little late now but... Obviously you already know you are eating far more poorly than you should and honestly than you want to. And if you were very nauseous for the first trimester, yeah 8 lbs is a lot to gain this quickly.

The most satisfying thing (weird as it is to me as I am not a fan) is an egg pan-fried in butter and a spoon of salmon roe for salt. That has cut down on sugar cravings later in the day. For carbs I'll go to some rosemary crackers (made with olive oil instead of seed oils), and limit the froyo and ice cream.

If you satisfy the cravings by eating healthy fats and proteins, you'll find the bad cravings diminish pretty impressively.

But of course 16 weeks isn't too late to turn around your diet or fight back against the possibility of gestational diabetes - and also unlike what someone said above, of course what you eat and your weight will affect the likelihood of such. Being very overweight from unhealthy food is the main reason we deal w/gestational diabetes and high blood pressure.

I wish everyone the best. Cravings are tough, but we can arm ourselves w/the right info and curtail them for the most part. Don't use pregnancy as an excuse to make decisions you're already regretting often.