I have a silly question. I keep a food log and the amount of calories I consume should be enough to gain a .5 to 1 lb per week. But I am actually gaining more weight per week than that and have been eating healthy and drinking lots of water. My doc said I shouldn't gain more than 2 lbs per week but this week I gained more. So my silly question is do you automatically gain weight when you are pregnant or does it come from the amount of calories you eat? I am not sure if I should adjust how much I am eating to stay within the recommended weight gain.
Re: Weight gain
I didn't track calories during my pregnancy. I ate small frequent meals (Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack) and tried to make sure I was drinking lots of water instead of sugary drinks. I ended up gaining 42 lbs my entire pregnancy. During my pregnancy, it didn't seem to matter what I ate vs how much I gained. Some weeks I'd gain 1 lb, others 3 lbs. I remember getting worried 1 week because I gained like 5 lbs (and had no clue why!) but my doctor wasn't concerned so I just let roll off my back and figured it'd even out in the end.
Was your doctor concerned you gained more than the 2 lbs?
Miles (6 year old Maine C00n mix), Boots (5 year old Lab mix), Darla (4 year old GSD/Collie mix), Frankie (1.5 year old DSH mix), Peanut (15 months old - 09/11), and Bean (arriving Feb 2013).
I will see my doc next week. The last visit he was concerned that I gained weight too fast. He said it should be slow and steady. But somehow at the end of my 1st trimester I ended up losing all the weight I gained and was the same as my pre-pregnancy weight. Now I'm in my 2nd trimester and gained more than 2lbs in a week. My weight is flucuating so rapidly. I eat very similar to you except I eat 8 small meals a day about every 2 hours and drink 8 - 10 cups of water per day. I'm just trying to find some consistency with the weight gain.
My advice? Throw away your log and stop counting. I was super psychotic at the beginning about weight gain. Started out underweight at 125 5'9"...counting EVERYTHING. I just realized that it was wasted time. Your body is going to gain what it needs to gain. The other posters are right - you aren't accounting for double blood volume, a uterus that grows like a weed, amniotic fluid, excessive water gain.
Every pregnancy is a personal experience. I am glad to have had more of a check on my weight at the beginning because it did help me keep it down. My goal was to only gain 25, but I am at about 32 now with a week to go. I figured my body knows best.
Eat small meals frequently. Don't use the excuse I am eating for two. Stay active. Sure, go ahead and have that ice cream.....just do it once a week and not everyday. If you do all of that - your body will thank you and the weight, which is mostly water anyways, will come off quickly once your LO is here.