Are you worried about gaining too much weight?
A magic number you might hear about is 32 lbs. This amount of weight gain includes:
- 7 .5-8.5 lbs of baby
- 2 lbs of amniotic fluid
- 1.5-2 lbs of placenta
- 1.5-2 lbs of breast tissue
- 3 lbs of added blood volume
- 2-2.5 lbs of uterine muscle
- 4 lbs of extra water
- 8 lbs of maternal stores
So really what this means is that if you gain 32 lbs during pregnancy, you lose all but 8 when the baby is born? Not so bad really. And those extra 8 usually come off pretty easily once they are no longer needed by your body to protect your pregnancy in case of famine.
That magic number doesn’t need to be the same for everyone, it’s just the idea that you will be losing that much when your baby is born. If you don’t gain about this much, you will actually be losing weight.
Your body needs all the nutrition it can get during pregnancy. Limiting calories is usually not necessary if those calories come mostly from healthy whole foods.
Low-fat should be off the table. Pregnancy is not the time to lose weight. You need healthy fats to build your baby’s brain, regulate your moods, and give your body a good energy source so that it doesn’t have to burn protein for energy. Eat full fat dairy, lots of avocados and nuts, use healthy coconut, olive and palm oils. Eat butter! Even fatty meats from animals that are carefully raised or wild caught and hormone free can be great in pregnancy.
Don’t limit your salt unless you have a preexisting condition. Salting to taste helps you build and maintain the blood volume you need for a healthy pregnancy. IT DOUBLES!
If you think you might be gaining too much of the wrong kind of weight, limit or eliminate the high carbohydrate junk foods and sweets, but stick with the good fats and protein. Always maintain with lots of good fresh veggies and fruits.
This type of eating for pregnancy can be made to fit most any type of special diet whether you are vegan, gluten-free or other.
Here’s a recipe I tried recently that would be great for those of you expecting babies.
Healthy Key Lime Pie
http://drbenkim.com/healthy-key-lime-pie-recipe.html
Happy eating!
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