For the First trimester I set my calories to maintenance.
Second Trimester I increased my goal to add like 200 calories.
Third trimester I increased and addition 100 calories (for a total of 300).

I do go over calories sometimes though. Just depends on what I eat and how hungry I get.
These days I feel really full so I don't feel like eating much. I try to counter-act this by eating higher calorie foods, but sometimes that's difficult to do.

I set it at maintenance +200 calories and added exercise calories to try and eat back so I would have an idea what I should eat for the day. I rarely make it to my calorie goal let alone exceed it to gain, so I haven't been able to gain any yet but I try to make sure I don't lose much more either. I keep hearing that the weight will come when it needs to, and that most people gain portionately to what they require without really needing to do anything specific.

This is my first pregnancy but I'm nearly 30 weeks now.

My calories have been set on maintenance since I found out I was pregnant. I haven't increased them because that would just send me over the edge. I eat when hungry and stop when I'm full. I'm at 34 weeks and my gain has been 20-23lbs (depending on the day). I DO NOT feel well if I overeat, so I really don't worry about those extra calories. My doc said to gain 25 to 35lbs. My next OB appointment is tomorrow. If she tells me to gain more weight, I will buy some ice cream and eat it every day. It's a very calorie dense food that I enjoy.

I've struggled with setting my goals a bit so have just done what I think might be best. I haven't been using MFP for quite a while and since finding out that I was pregnant (2 days after my wedding!) I haven't really done any form of diet or tracking food, I've just been trying to eat healthily and have lost 10lbs so far. I'm not really trying to lose, I just want to not gain loads although if I do happen to lose a little as I go along I'm OK with that.

So really all I want to do is maintain, losing a little would be nice but I really just don't want to gain loads so I set it to maintain at first. That gave me like 2,700 calories a day because I'm a pretty big girl already so I obviously don't want to eat that many and have changed it myself to 2,000 a day. I'm really wanting to track my iron and vitamin c more than my calories though (my midwife suggested it might help with my energy levels if I increase them, going to track to see if I can spot a pattern) so they're the two things I'm going to focus more on and then try and stick to calories as much as possible. I can get a bit MFP obsessed and track, weigh, measure every tiny thing that goes in my mouth. I don't want to get that obsessed so I'll probably focus more on my main meals and estimate anything inbetween.

ischmelle wrote: »

Caroline_g, that happened to me too! I took my pregnancy test 4 days after my wedding. What a surprise! I just wanted to be sure so that I could have a pint with a piece of mind, but instead of getting another beer I got a baby instead.

I am at a complete loss with my calorie goal, but as of today I have it set to maintenance and am back to tracking. I haven't been tracking my calories yet (I'm 16 weeks), but unfortunately my weight gain is too fast right now so back to tracking it is. The doctor only wants me to gain 15 pounds during the whole pregnancy. I think my hopes of hitting that goal are gone! I'm hoping that by sticking to my maintenance calories which are around 1900, it will help me stay on track for the rest of the pregnancy.

It's really difficult to gauge right isn't it? I haven't tracked until now but haven't been gaining, I just know that I'm probably not getting the nutrients I need and that might be why I'm feeling tired. Did your doctor just tell you that they don't want you gaining more than 15lb or was it after you asked? Mine hasn't talked about it at all.

I talked to my doctor about how I was worried about too much weight gain. I was surprised she didn't bring it up, considering that at 5'5" and 188, I'm basically considered obese. She didn't seem worried at all. That honestly didn't make me feel any better! I'm sure I've already gained at least 5 lbs (I'm 12w). Now that I'm feeling better and able to make better food choices, and exercising again, I'm also tracking calories again and setting to maintenance.