Pregnancy Weight Gain – What Is Too Much?
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Eating Healthy Before and During Pregnancy is very important for you and your baby. Pregnancy weight gain is a healthy process that you need not worry about, as with proper exercise and adhering to a nutritious diet you may lose it in no time after delivery. Pregnancy weight needs careful attention as it influences the health of the mother as well as that of the child.
Your practitioner will also use your weight gain as an indicator of baby’s growth and in looking for potential problems. 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. Be sure to eat a variety of foods to get all the nutrients you and your baby need. Eating Healthy Before and During Pregnancy is very important for you and your baby. Your baby’s growth and development depend on it.
Where is all the weight coming from? Here is a sample break down of the pregnancy weight gain:
- Baby: 7 to 8 pounds
- Larger breasts: 1 to 3 pounds
- Larger uterus: 2 pounds
- Placenta: 1 1/2 pounds
- Amniotic fluid: 2 pounds
- Increased blood volume: 3 to 4 pounds
- Increased fluid volume: 2 to 3 pounds
- Fat stores: 6 to 8 pounds
Putting on the pounds, it would be easy to add calories to your diet with junk food, but this won’t give your baby the nutrients he or she needs. Pregnancy nutrition: Healthy eating for you and your baby Pregnancy nutrition: Foods to avoid Pregnancy nutrition: Essential nutrients when you’re eating for two Pregnancy and fish: What’s too little or too much. During pregnancy it is important to “baby your baby and your body” with nourishing foods. Doctors usually recommend supplements of folic acid and multi-vitamins to ensure the healthy development of the baby.
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 1/2 pounds per week after the usual weight gain in the first three months. An average, healthy woman usually gain between 25 to 35 pounds during her pregnancy. Gaining 40 pounds or more during pregnancy nearly doubles the risk of having a baby who weighs 9 pounds or more, in turn increasing the health risks to mother and baby, according to a new study.
In fact, in recent news about pregnancy weight gain in women who are obese (BMI above 29), it is being said that not only do they not need to gain a lot of weight, but a neutral gain and even a loss may be perfectly acceptable for these patients. Thus it is important to set goals and monitor your progress during the different trimesters. To keep your pregnancy weight gain on target, your health care provider may offer suggestions for boosting caloric intake or scaling back as needed. The rate at which women gain their pregnancy weight varies among different women, so do not worry unless it is extreme, either too much too soon or too less for a longer period of time. We will create individual pregnancy weight gain forecast range based on your pre-pregnancy weight and current weight and then re-evaluate it throughout your pregnancy. Moreover you will be able to compare your own pregnancy weight gain to the ‘expected’ weight gain level observed in other pregnancies.
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