Today, more than 40% of women enter pregnancy already overweight or obese, and 60% gain more weight than recommended. Achieving a healthy weight gain during pregnancy has benefits for both mother and baby. For the pregnant women, a healthy weight gain reduces the risk of high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, cesarean birth, and retaining excess weight postpartum. For the baby, there is less risk of being born too large (more than 8½ pounds) and becoming obese during childhood.
It is not necessary to "eat for two" during pregnancy. It's true that you need extra calories from nutrient-rich foods to help your baby grow, but you generally need to consume only 100 to 300 more calories than you did before you became pregnant to meet the needs of your growing baby.
The Institute of Medicine has developed new recommendations, based on prepregnancy weight, to help women and their infants have healthier outcomes.
Ask your health care provider how much weight you should gain during pregnancy. A woman of average weight before pregnancy should gain 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy. Underweight women should gain 28-40 pounds during pregnancy. Overweight women are recommended to gain 15-25 pounds.
Obese women are recommended to gain 10-20 pounds.
Without making some changes, it is very easy to gain more weight than recommended.
In general, you should gain about 2 to 4 pounds during your first three months of pregnancy and 1 pound a week for the remainder of your pregnancy. If you are expecting twins you should gain 35 to 45 pounds during your pregnancy. This would be an average of 1 ½ pounds per week after the usual weight gain in the first three months.
Where Does the Extra Weight Go During Pregnancy?
Baby :8 pounds
Placenta :2-3 pounds
Amniotic fluid :2-3 pounds
Breast tissue :2-3 pounds
Blood supply :4 pounds
Fat stores for delivery and breastfeeding :5-9 pounds
Uterus increase :2-5 pounds
Total :25 to 35 pounds
Read more:
How to keep right weight during pregnancy
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