Calorie intake
bamorford
Posts: 14 Member
Hello everyone!
I'm having some difficulty with deciding how many calories I should be eating a day. When originally joining MFP, I set up my daily calorie intake to 1700 to give me one pound of weight loss a week, and I know I don't want to lose weight right now. This is the time to maintain, but I'm still confused on how many calories I should eat.
I've read that a pregnant woman does not need to up her calories until the beginning of the second trimester, and at that time the calories should be increased by 300-500 a day, extending all the way through to delivery. I will be totally ready to do that when it's time, but right now I'm feeling great and working out five days a week like I did long before getting pregnant, so I don't eat my exercise calories back. And it's not because I don't want to, but I eat very healthy and I sometimes find it difficult to reach 1700 calories in a day (I never thought I'd say that).
Like every woman I don't want to gain unneccesary weight that is not related to being pregnant. I've played with my MFP nutrition goals, and it says I should eat 2000 calories to maintain my current weight. I know every body is different, but I'm just curious what all you ladies have been doing. I'd like to talk to women that have this kind of experience before I try to find a nutritionist that understands myfitnesspal
Thanks for any advice ladies!
I'm having some difficulty with deciding how many calories I should be eating a day. When originally joining MFP, I set up my daily calorie intake to 1700 to give me one pound of weight loss a week, and I know I don't want to lose weight right now. This is the time to maintain, but I'm still confused on how many calories I should eat.
I've read that a pregnant woman does not need to up her calories until the beginning of the second trimester, and at that time the calories should be increased by 300-500 a day, extending all the way through to delivery. I will be totally ready to do that when it's time, but right now I'm feeling great and working out five days a week like I did long before getting pregnant, so I don't eat my exercise calories back. And it's not because I don't want to, but I eat very healthy and I sometimes find it difficult to reach 1700 calories in a day (I never thought I'd say that).
Like every woman I don't want to gain unneccesary weight that is not related to being pregnant. I've played with my MFP nutrition goals, and it says I should eat 2000 calories to maintain my current weight. I know every body is different, but I'm just curious what all you ladies have been doing. I'd like to talk to women that have this kind of experience before I try to find a nutritionist that understands myfitnesspal
Thanks for any advice ladies! 0
Replies
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It really depends on your starting weight/body composition. Also, your doctor/midwife can give you the best guidance on this.
With that said, I started about 20lbs overweight and I'm 5'2. With assistance from my midwife, my goal is to gain about 25-30lbs. I'm using the following equation:
1st tri: maintenance + 100 cal
2nd tri: maintenance + 200 cal
3rd tri: maintenance + 300 cal
So far so good, I'm almost 21 weeks and gained about 7lbs and baby is perfectly healthy. (#1 priority!)
Unfortunately maintenance isn't an easy number to calculate. I think I used 10 different sites and took an average to find the number. I'm currently about 1960 calories. Good luck.0 -
I used this site: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/pregnancy_calorie_calculator.htm
Personally, I check for BMR and then I log all my daily activity in exercise. I have not been sticking to my calories very well, but this site does give you a good reference/estimate to know how many calories are needed to maintain. Just be aware that women's bodies react differently to pregnancy and most women don't tolerate carbs as well!0
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