Pregnancy maintenance

melto1989

I don't know where to post this, I am 27w pregnant and I was not at my goal weight when I fell pregnant. My hospital has a bmi limit and I'm currently 35 I think and the limit is 40. I would be completely depressed if I had to get transferred to another hospital because I'm huge.
My weight at 22w was 85kg then 2w later at the hospital it read 94kg! (Different scales) I was so shocked that it changed so much... I really don't think I need to gain anymore weight beside baby so I wonder how will I work out how many calories ?
Do I use pre pregnancy weight to calculate it or will I be safe to have a small deficit?

Akijade

I would highly recommend talking to a doctor about that, rather than randos on the internet.

melto1989

I'll add I started at 83kg and before I fell pg I had lost 10-12kg

perkymommy

I would not do any type of weight loss or maintaining while pregnant. You will still gain weight (although very little) because the baby is gaining as it grows inside you and the placenta as well so if the scales go up it doesn't mean you are gaining on your body. Walking is always good no matter if you are pregnant if you are able to get that in.

Talk to your doctor. They know best depending on your health record.

tcunbeliever

Let's start this with, my youngest is 13, so if my information is a bit dated, then so be it...

You really should not try to lose weight while pregnant unless you are doing so in conjunction with doctor supervision. Not only does your body need extra food for the baby, but some nutrients are sacrificed by the mother to support the baby, so you need to be careful of meeting those nutritional needs for your own health as well as the baby's health.

You should be able to ask your doctor for a daily checklist of what to eat...food groups, not specific foods...if I remember right, there should be 3 per day of iron rich foods, 6 for fruits/vegetables - I think half of those are supposed to be leafy greens, 4 dairy, etc. The one I had just had kind of a day by day list of checkboxes, so the overall goal is not so much calorie counting as making sure you are getting a variety of foods, and getting the nutrition you need (calcium, iron, vit A, etc).

You could probably set up MFP to help track this, with the various types of foods, and then log them under each section as you eat them instead of logging by meal the way the default food diary is set up.

As for calorie goal, set it to maintain weight, and then add about 300 calories per day to whatever goal MFP generates. This should give you enough calories for you to keep your weight stable plus give you the extra calories you need for pregnancy. If you are nursing post-pregnancy then you will need to increase that to maintenance + 500 calories.

If you want to lose weight during pregnancy you really need to talk to your doctor because they will probably want to do additional testing to ensure your health remains strong.

hydechildcare

I would talk to your doctor so doctor will recommend not gaining weight if you are obese. My husband and I are looking to start trying in a few months to have a kid. My doctor has asked me to really focus on my weight and get a better control of it. She said depending on where I am on my weight and lifestyle she may recommend me to not gain to just added the extra amount of calories needed for each trimester and see where that takes me. I am 50 pounds overweight though. She asked me to start using MFP so when the time comes we can discuss together what would be the best and healthiest pregnancy plan for me. Tell your doctor your concerns they can help.

margieh3ss

If you're concerned, you should talk to your doctor, or see if your hospital has any healthy eating programs for soon-to-be moms. I am at 30wks right now, myself. Based off of my BMI, my doctor told me that I should only gain between 11 and 20 lbs for the entire pregnancy. Well I hit that top number at about 25 wks, lol! I personally also hit a low iron count around that time, which definitely effected my weight increase. Made some changes to my diet to increase my iron intake and vitamin c (which helps your body absorb the iron) and have been much more energetic since. Luckily, my hospital has a Healthy Moms program, so I get to talk with a dietician once a week to check in on my weight and set goals for the next week. So far I have been able to maintain my weight, which my dietician said would be fine to stay at for the rest of the pregnancy. She also said that it would be okay if I still gained half a pound a week. The important thing is to make sure that you are getting all of the nutrients that you and baby need, as opposed to loosing or gaining weight.