Caloric intake while pregnant?

KCLiz

Hi everyone! I'm newer to The Bump boards and have a feeling I'll be here a lot during this pregnancy! I'm curious if anyone knows where I can find information on how many calories we should have while pregnant. I gained 51 pounds my first pregnancy and still after over 5 years only lost 41 of them! I'm now about 10 pounds overweight and PG with #2. I workout at least 4x per week. I do light cardio and lots of weight training. I will continue to workout but now I need to really pay attention to my food more than ever! I have had silly cravings and have completely indulged in them (today for lunch I had a Western Bacon Cheeseburger-GAH!) but I know I won't be doing that often. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks! 

KWood2011

My recommendation is keep up your workout routine and really keep a close eye on your weight gain. You shouldn't gain more than 3-4 lbs in your first trimester. Try to maintain healthy eating 90 % of the time and let yourself give in to your cravings 10%. I have stuck to 6 days healthy 1 day free day. Try to focus your meals around lean protein, fruit and veggies. Limit your intake of processed foods. (ex: anything packaged.)  Focus eating whole unprocessed foods. 

I have managed to maintain a workout schedule of 4-5 days a week my whole pregnancy. Believe me some days I dont want to but I feel so much better when I leave. 

Also I have managed to keep a steady weight gain and I am at 20lbs @ 30 weeks.

Here is a website that has helped give me some guidelines to try to stay on track. Some weeks i gained more but it normally evens out in a few weeks.

https://www.indiacurry.com/women/pregcalc.htm

And some women are going say not to worry about it but guess what they will be the ones the still have the weight after and are at higher chances for gestational diabetes, preterm labor and a number of other health risks . 

 My doctor is a huge advocate of keeping weight gain in check and staying active and exercising during pregnancy.  

 

 

 

*LrCg*

This is my 3rd pregnancy and I never watch my weight while pregnant.  In fact, my doctor doesn't even weigh me, weight has no bearing on the health or size of the baby.  What does matter is WHAT your eating.  My doctor always asks for basically a detailed menu of what your eating.  I've always worked out 3-4 days a week and never changed my work outs while pregnant.  If some moves got uncomfortable then I modified it.  I did crunches until almost the end.  I made sure to eat enough protein and veggies- in all my pregnancies I've had adversions to sweets so I rarely eat it because I know it will make me sick.  With my first 2 pregnancies I gained a total of 25 lbs (I'm short and average BMI) and had no issues loosing the weight.  I was unable to diet or excercise (outside of running after a toddler or walks or bike rides with the baby) after the births of my babies because then it would effect my breastmilk supply so I just let the weight come off naturally and it always did (most came off the first 4 weeks, and the last @ 5 lbs stayed until I was done breastfeed without any changes to diet/excercise).  I had healthy pregnancies and healthy babies. 

If I recall correctly, I believe I read that you need an extra 300 calories during your 2nd and 3rd trimester.  So whatever your calorie intake is for you to mantain your weight, you could add 300-500 calories.  But you should probably talk with your doctor and see how accurate this statement is, I never counted calories.  (I also want to add I'm on a phone so I'm sure I have a bunch of typos).

JG362009

I totally second the India Curry website -- I would write in my planner what I wanted my weight to be at or under during pregnancy to help keep it in check.  I weighed and tracked myself every day, not just at appointments.  I know some people don't pay much attention to their weight, but I did and felt really healthy about it.  I went on a 3-mile run the evening before my scheduled c-section and was exercising the whole time.  The day I was discharged from the hospital I only had about 10 lbs to lose and I feel really great.  Maybe I would have if I gained more weight, but I really think keeping weight gain to a minimum and exercising the whole pregnancy helped.  And I had a healthy weight baby -- 7#2oz.