Pregnancy And Weight Gain

Are you ready for a shock? Hold on to your hat, because this one is quite a revelation: pregnancy and weight gain is highly probable. What, you already knew? Well, that’s actually not surprising! In reality, it would probably be pretty difficult to find an expectant mother who isn’t worried about gaining pounds during their pregnancy that will be difficult to shake off after the birth.

In fact, it’s absolutely normal, natural, and even essential for pregnant women to gain weight during pregnancy.

Health experts say that the you can expect the average weight gain during pregnancy could be anywhere from about 11 pounds if you’re already somewhat overweight, up to a massive 40 pounds if you were considerably underweight before getting pregnant.

Between 11 and 40 pounds of additional weight may sound like a lot, but your body is essentially ‘programmed’ to gain this weight, as it ensures you’ll have the energy stores to care for yourself and your baby during the pregnancy and while breastfeeding. However, this doesn’t mean that you have a ‘green light’ to eat whatever you like just because you’re pregnant! As ever, it’s important that you eat healthy, nutritious food.

As well as increased appetite, many women also experience specific-food cravings (sometimes these can get really bizarre). The accepted wisdom is that if you have a craving, it’s because there’s an ingredient in that food that your body is lacking in order to provide proper nutrition for you and your unborn child. However, you don’t have to just go with the first food that you think of. Given a decent supermarket, you should always be able to find a healthier alternative that still satisfies the craving.

Begin Today To Keep An Average Weight Gain During Pregnancy

Also, don’t forget that pregnancy doesn’t mean you have to stop exercising. As long as you feel up to it, you can safely exercise throughout your pregnancy. Today you’ll even be able to find specific exercise classes for mums-to-be in most cities.

Once your baby has safely arrived into the world, you could be forgiven for wanting your old body back sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, most women (with the possible exception of celebrities with personal chefs and personal trainers) will struggle to return to their pre-pregnancy weight.

There are a lot of reasons for this, but chief among them is that caring for a newborn is very time-consuming, leaving you little time to plan and prepare healthy meals or attend to your exercise regime. However, this doesn’t mean that losing the weight you gained during pregnancy is impossible. As always, the key is healthy eating, you just need to find a way to do it with a minimum of time and effort.

The bottom line is that pregnancy and weight gain go hand in hand. It will mean changes to your eating habits. You’ll definitely eat more, particularly in the third trimester and when breastfeeding, and you’ll definitely gain some weight. However! There is absolutely no reason to abandon your principles and start eating unhealthy food

At this time more than ever, eating good, nutritious food is the best thing to do, for the health of both you and your baby.