Back...only pregnant this time

Congratulations & good luck x

Good luck to you! I agree to keep your goal at at least maintaining weight, or at whatever setting is recommended by your doc. Give yourself the grace to enjoy anything you might be craving, balancing it with getting decent nutrition overall. I'm on the other end of the pregnancy journey myself, having gotten back to my pre-pregnancy weight, wanting to slowly get to a healthy weight, and breastfeeding at the same time.

Pregnant also. I set it to maintenance plus 300 calories since I'm in the second trimester. I noticed I get less hungry when I really watch my grams of sugar (including from fruit, trying to limit to 3 small servings). Gained 50+ lbs with my last pregnancy despite not eating junk food and walking regularly and had possible pre-eclampsia by the middle of my third trimester. It also took me about 3 years to get the extra weight off (I gained even more from breastfeeding/ sitting all day). This time I want to keep it under 25. I love tracking my nutrients though. It makes me eat more foods with potassium, iron, and calcium and less with sugar, high in carbs (eating whole grains/ sweet potatoes, maybe 4-6 small portions a day). It's impossible to get enough iron though. Pregnant women are supposed to get like 150% the iron of a non-pregnant woman. I guess that's what the prenatal is for. I've gained like 6 lbs and I'm at 16 1/2 weeks. Not perfect, but it's probably better than where I'd be without keeping track. Pregnancy just makes me so hungry. Eating protein, raw veggies and measured portions of nuts instead of tons of fruit like I did last pregnancy is helping though. I read somewhere that your body tries to raise its sugar during pregnancy so that the baby has a constant supply from your bloodstream. The resulting hormones in your body from the raised sugar make it easier to gain weight during pregnancy than ever. And the more weight over the guidelines you gain, the more likely pregnancy complications are.. So in my own mind, its more important than ever to be careful about your diet. Definitely not the time to be less disciplined. Although your caloric intake allowance is higher, so is your hunger so it still feels like mild dieting to me even though I'm snacking waaay more on healthy things like nuts, carrots, bell peppers, hummus, cucumbers, turkey, etc and eating way more calories than I usually would. (Before this, I was dieting with like a 500 calorie deficit, so I've added like 800 more calories.)