Pregnant and Maintain Weight

you need to ask your ob gyn or midwife about how much weight you should gain in pregnancy. A certain amount of weight gain is healthy and failure to eat enough during pregnancy can put the pregnancy at risk. No-one on this site really knows enough to say how much you should gain (or not) during pregnancy. They have charts that show how much you should gain at each stage in pregnancy.... really it would be far, far healthier for you and your baby if you stick to what your ob gyn or midwife say about this. Women who are very obese are advised to maintain the same weight through pregnancy - that is because they are too heavy to begin with and obesity increases the risk of complications. Women who are a healthy weight at the start should gain weight - like I said there are charts that tell you how much and your ob gyn or midwife can advise.

I also don't think 1300 cals/day is your maintenance calories, unless you're tiny. If it is then I think it's important that you *do* gain weight during pregnancy. your body is a life support machine for another human being who is entirely dependent on you for survival. Really, a certain amount of weight gain in pregnancy is healthy and desirable. I agree about not gaining too much.... that's why I'm recommending sticking to the recommendation of the ob gyn or midwife.

Hello - I am currently in my first trimester and would like to maintain my weight until I enter my 2nd and 3rd trimesters. I am a fairly active person (walk about 3mph for ~4-5hrs per day + 90min ballet class 4x per week; sometimes up to 7x). I have no idea how many calories to eat to maintain my weight given my activity level and the additional energy exerted by my body to sustain the pregnancy.

I have read that the body exerts 300 calories per day to sustain a pregnancy, so I am assuming that I should take my maintenance calories 1300 and add 300 to get my maintenance weight? So would 1600 calories be my net goal per day?

Any help would be appreciated - thanks!

You only eat 1300 calories/day with that activity level? That needs to be upped first. Way too low. Then add on the additional calories for the baby.

When I got pregnant, I set MFP to maintain, and ate those calorie plus exercise calories.

You don't need to add the 300 calories until the 2nd trimester. I actually didn't set my goals to gain until almost 20 weeks, but I was generally eating over the maintenance calories anyway.

I do agree that 1300 is very low to maintain. At just under 5'1" and healthy weight, I was maintaining on about 1700 calories plus exercise calories.

(But be aware that it is completely common to have a significant drop in energy in the first trimester, so don't push yourself to exercise as much if you experience that!)

This group will help... http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/1903-fit-fabulous-pregnant

Congratulations and good luck!

Get with your OBGYN and a nutritionist. I would say you need more like 2000cal a day for you and growing baby. You don't want to gain fat, just maintain your body and have enough for baby. If you aren't eating enough for you and baby, the growing baby will 'rob' from you what is needed, leaving you with a deficit. I'd eat SUPER nutritious also. Have an extra yogurt, or bigger salad, or more milk.

Hi!
I'm 30 weeks and my OB/GYN told me to eat between 1800-2500 calories. Hope that helps.

It sounds like you already know to keep your OB posted and ask his/her professional opinion but that being said even those opinions differ. Prime example is in my first pregnancy. I moved and seen three different providers each one telling me different things. The first said I should maintain my weight the entire pregnancy the second said I should loose 5-20 pounds and the third said to just work out and eat well and it would all work itself out. I ended up not *trying* to loose weight but delivered a healthy 7 pound baby without complications at 38 weeks weighing thirty pounds less then when I first found out I was pregnant. Yes I was overweight at the time. With my most recent delivery I was not overweight and with my Dr's permission continued to run my entire pregnancy, ate nutritious foods for the most part(those ice cream cravings kicked in the last month) and lost weight. Again, I delivered him at 39 weeks and he weighed 7 pounds and not a single complication. Just be healthy, eat healthy, work out and it will work itself out. Good luck!