What are you eating?
serfasc
Posts: 21 Member
Ladies that are/have successfully gained less than 30 lbs during pregnancy, what are you doing to acheive this? I gained 45 lbs with my dd and I cannot do that again this time. I'm 11 weeks and I've gained nothing so far, but I'm scared to enter the 2nd trimester.
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Ooh everyone chime in! I am also hoping to stay under 30 lbs and would love to know what your calories daily were or anything else that helped you gain so healthily.0
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I'm following IIFYM (if it fits your macros) so I just basically eat whatever I want... in moderation. I try to get at least 100g of protein daily though (did not succeed today).
I gained 25 pounds with my son and I'm doing the same at the moment, and gaining at the same pace. I eat around 1900 calories which seems to be maintenance for me when I'm not pregnant + exercise calories, and that sometimes add up to 2300-2400 calories.0 -
I try to eat as many vitamins as i can, i have a smoothie each day i find that helps, aswell as take pregnancy supplements. Ive become flexible with calories and eat around 2000-2500 a day. I walk daily and do a prenatal dvd, when i can fit it in. I'm 19+5weeks now, i hadnt gained until i was about 15weeks ive now gained 6lbs so far.
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I gained 25 lbs with my son total. I almost never exercised but logged my food most of the time on MFP, which helped a lot. I can't remember how many calories I was eating back then though. This pregnancy, I exercise about 4 times a week & log my food. I eat about 1800 calories a day, a little more depending on if I exercise or not. I'm almost 28 weeks pregnant, have gained almost 2 lbs total, and baby is doing great. Keep in mind, I started this pregnancy a little overweight so not gaining a lot of weight may be easier for me since I had some extra fat to spare
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Thats great @_cassie623 is that maintainence calories or less? Im carrying abit of extra weight and my midwife told me its ok to lose abit while pregnant aslong i take in as much nutrients as possible but im scared to drop below what will maintain my prepregnancy weight.0
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@Veeedot I have my calories set to maintenance right now
I'll be in the third trimester soon, so I may have to increase calories. At my next doctor appt. in 1.5 weeks, my OB will discuss if I should bump up my calories a little or if everything is still ok while at maintenance. 1 -
Thats really good goin, well done! Think ill stick to maintain calories. I tried goin lower but i got to hungry lol0
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I have mine set to maintainence as well and I eat back most of my exercise calories. I am also breastfeeding, so I eat another 200 calories. I just need to stick to mfp and not eat ice cream everyday.0
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I'm 24 weeks here and I have my calories set to maintenance too. My first pregnancy I gained 25lbs and this one I'm down 5lbs from the start of pregnancy. I've been going to spin class about 3 times a week and I eat less than 2000 calories net a day. I definitely eat more on my workout days, I'm eating those calories back. I started off with weight to lose, so even though my dr told me to eat more, he acknowledged that baby is growing just fine and I'm doing great overall. Even though my first pregnancy I didn't track food (like I'm doing this time) I was super conscious about what I was eating just as I am now. Working out is my key to weighing less right now than I did at the start. I'm hoping to gain about 15-20 lbs with this pregnancy.1
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I have set MFP to maintenance and will up by 200 calories for the third trimester. I'm in the UK and it's only recommended to eat extra in the last trimester. I don't always stick to this though and sometimes have binge days which I'm trying to stop.0
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Also, my only exercise is walking 30 mins per day as I get SPD.0
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I have set MFP to maintenance and will up by 200 calories for the third trimester. I'm in the UK and it's only recommended to eat extra in the last trimester. I don't always stick to this though and sometimes have binge days which I'm trying to stop.
That's crazy. In Canada it's recommended you eat 340 extra calories in the 2nd and 450 extra in the 3rd.0 -
Wow that's a big difference!0
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Take this with a grain of salt: I gained 55lbs apiece in my past two pregnancies by eating garbage nonstop and not exercising, so I've never had a start-to-finish pregnancy that anyone would want to imitate (but got 2 healthy babies out of them in spite of all the ice cream, thank heavens). But this one has been great so far, so here goes.
This time around I decided to get serious about staying healthy and gaining the recommended amount. I'm almost 19 weeks and am up 10 lbs. It's a tad ahead of where I'd like to be to stay under 30lbs gained overall, but I'm still really happy with how I've done. I am eating 2000 calories each day plus 500 additional "splurge" calories twice a week, usually on Monday night with my kids and then 1x over the weekend with my husband. It keeps me sane and prevents binges ton enjoy something really indulgent every 3-4 days, and since I know one's always around the corner it's a lot easier to say no to sugar the rest of the week instead of listening to that sneaky "But you're eating for two!" voice to justify peanut butter fudge brownies daily.
So. That has me average about 2150 a day and my maintenance is 2050. However, my workouts (walking and prenatal DVDs) burn about 200 calories apiece and I work out 6x a week, so my net is a hair under maintenance according to MFP. But my rate of gain is about right or even a tad higher than 1 lb a week so I'm leaving things as they are numbers-wise.
Here's to hoping this strategy keeps working for the second half of my pregnancy!2 -
This is a great discussion! Thank you for starting it. We just found out I'm pregnant so I'm back on MFP for the first time in years hoping to gather as much info as possible to help me through it. My doc says to load up on avacados, eggs, tons of water, protein and fats. I'm still figuring out how many calories I'll shoot for each trimester0
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I am already heavy but have never gained more than 25lbs with a pregnancy. I'm on #3. This early (I'm only 7 weeks) I'm eating whatever stays down. I appear to have gained 4lbs, but I was up 4lbs pretty much from the morning of my missed period so I'm calling that bloat. My upper abdomen has been super bloated since week 4. It was like that with my 2nd one too.
I set myself to eat maintenance but I'm only half logging my food. Since I'll be 38 when this one comes this is my last pregnancy. I plan to enjoy it as best as possible. I've stopped running because it gives me heartburn, but I'm still walking a 5k 4 times a week and have a day of stregnth thrown in there. Just taking things easy.0 -
thegirlwthegreenapple wrote: »Take this with a grain of salt: I gained 55lbs apiece in my past two pregnancies by eating garbage nonstop and not exercising, so I've never had a start-to-finish pregnancy that anyone would want to imitate (but got 2 healthy babies out of them in spite of all the ice cream, thank heavens). But this one has been great so far, so here goes.
This time around I decided to get serious about staying healthy and gaining the recommended amount. I'm almost 19 weeks and am up 10 lbs. It's a tad ahead of where I'd like to be to stay under 30lbs gained overall, but I'm still really happy with how I've done. I am eating 2000 calories each day plus 500 additional "splurge" calories twice a week, usually on Monday night with my kids and then 1x over the weekend with my husband. It keeps me sane and prevents binges ton enjoy something really indulgent every 3-4 days, and since I know one's always around the corner it's a lot easier to say no to sugar the rest of the week instead of listening to that sneaky "But you're eating for two!" voice to justify peanut butter fudge brownies daily.
So. That has me average about 2150 a day and my maintenance is 2050. However, my workouts (walking and prenatal DVDs) burn about 200 calories apiece and I work out 6x a week, so my net is a hair under maintenance according to MFP. But my rate of gain is about right or even a tad higher than 1 lb a week so I'm leaving things as they are numbers-wise.
Here's to hoping this strategy keeps working for the second half of my pregnancy!
This is an awesome plan. Before I was pregnant, I was good and strict. Now that in pregnant, I'm ravenous. It's really hard for me to stay under my goal. I've had horrible sweets cravings. Maybe if I had 2 days where I was able to indulge, it would help.0 -
Ok I don't know if I "qualify" here since I gained 35 lbs (or maybe more since I didn't have a weigh-in right before delivery) but I wasn't strict at all...pretty much ate everything in moderation without tracking. I definitely indulged quite a bit! I probably wouldn't recommend this for everyone but it worked for me. I also kept very active.. lots of strength training throughout, walking, stairclimber, yoga. Had an excellent delivery, recovery and now pretty much back to pre-pregnancy weight (about 16 wks later).0
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My experience is not typical as I have an underactive thyroid ( Hashimoto's ).
In my first pregnancy I ate 1600-1800 kcal, exercised 3-4 times per week doing Nordic Walking and pregnancy DVDs. I gained about 12 kg net ( started at 63kg, went down to 60,5kg in the first trimester and then up to 75kg at the end ). My DD was born weighing 3500g, my doctor was happy.
After my pregnancy I weighed 58 kg, but the weight crept up steadily during breastfeeding and I topped the scales at about 70 kg before I was properly diagnosed.
I started pregnancy #2 at 65kg. In the first trimester I gained about 2kg and about 6 kg in the second. I have been yo-o-ing between being hyper and hypothyroid ( I get checked every 6-8 weeks but it is often not enough to react to changes quickly ). So far I kept my pre-pregnancy allowance of 1800kcal ( I do not eat the exercise calories back ), when I am particularly hungry I go for about 2000kcal. Exercise is biking to work ( about 40 mins on workdays ) and prenatal DVDs about 5 times a week ( 30-40 min long ).
In Germany, where I live, the recommendation for pregnant women is to add 200 kcal in the last trimester and another 300 kcal if breastfeeding, but I will adjust the guidelines to my particular situation. I'm afraid my total gain this time will be more than 15 kg.
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I'm trying to follow the guidelines in this book that was recommended to me: "Better Baby Book.. How to have a healthier, happier, smarter baby" and it includes diet and supplement recommendations. It's a lot of protein and healthy fats and very low sugar if any at all. Typical day.. I'm having egg omelets with veggies in the morning, half an avocado for a snack, large organic salad (typically kale or spinach with Apple cidar vinaigrette) for lunch, protein bar or green shake or organic green juice from whole foods for a snack, chicken or fish (or steak once a week) for dinner with large sides of veggies, and lots of water with lemon! Coming in about 1300-1500 calories for my first trimester. Also taking pre-natals, DHA, probiotic, vit C, vit D, and some yummy gummy vitamins (because it's like a treat) to make sure I'm getting enough nutrients. It's my first pregnancy and I'm by no means an expert! I snack on pickles and fresh olives a lot too. I am already 15 ilbs from my goal before I found out I was pregnant so my goal is to gain 20 ilb max. I also switched to all natural skincare/makeup, cleaning products, and BPA-free everything but that's a different post..0
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I'm trying to follow the guidelines in this book that was recommended to me: "Better Baby Book.. How to have a healthier, happier, smarter baby" and it includes diet and supplement recommendations. It's a lot of protein and healthy fats and very low sugar if any at all. Typical day.. I'm having egg omelets with veggies in the morning, half an avocado for a snack, large organic salad (typically kale or spinach with Apple cidar vinaigrette) for lunch, protein bar or green shake or organic green juice from whole foods for a snack, chicken or fish (or steak once a week) for dinner with large sides of veggies, and lots of water with lemon! Coming in about 1300-1500 calories for my first trimester. Also taking pre-natals, DHA, probiotic, vit C, vit D, and some yummy gummy vitamins (because it's like a treat) to make sure I'm getting enough nutrients. It's my first pregnancy and I'm by no means an expert! I snack on pickles and fresh olives a lot too. I am already 15 ilbs from my goal before I found out I was pregnant so my goal is to gain 20 ilb max. I also switched to all natural skincare/makeup, cleaning products, and BPA-free everything but that's a different post..
Are you not working out? Are you pretty short? Your calories seem pretty low. Mind you, I'm pregnant and breastfeeding right now.0 -
wow @katoslim. This is my 3rd and I'm eating at maintenance right now (first tri) which for me is 1900 calories. Our diets are not similiar...lol.
Today, I had 2 pieces of peanut butter toast right when I woke up with decaf mint tea. Then after my shower I had my 1 cup of coffee with heavy cream (we were out of half n half)
I had 1.5 oz of mixed nuts for snack.
For lunch I had this amazing sandwich on fresh baked multigrain bread. It was spinach, avocado, tomato, cucumber, and veggie cream cheese (I've been eating this like daily. It's my crave food) and a bag of Good Natured Tuscan baked chips.
Snack 2 - 140 calorie snack pack of chips ahoy. lol.
Dinner - We have a graduation so it will be pizza, veggies and dip and I might squeeze a piece of cake in there...or just eat it anyway.
I'll top out right around 1900 calories sans cake and 2200 w/ cake. This is pretty indicative of what I eat daily except it is lower on dairy than usual and I don't normally eat cake. I'm not gaining and I feel ok. Of course, I am taking my prenatal too. Living a little. I've been on a freakin diet since #2 was born 3 years ago.1 -
@katsoslim those calories seem very low for pregnancy!
I gain weight pretty easily but I'm also very active. I am 29 weeks and I'm up 20lbs (started at a BMI of 21). I eat maintenance but I do eat back my exercise calories which are about 400-500 per day so I normally come in between 2000-2200. I also track my macros and try to stay at 45C, 30F, 25P. I was hoping to only gain 25lbs but I think I will end up gaining 30-35lbs by the time I deliver.0 -
Hmm.. Looks like I'm off on my calorie goals. Thanks for the comments! I'll work on it. Serfasc, I'm a little over 5'4 and I work out, too. Enter, I like your meal plan much more! I'm going to add peanut butter to my shopping list.0
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thanks @katsoslim. I'm 5'4 but I'm mostly just walking a couple of miles a day. And I was already 195lbs to start...there is likely considerably more of me to maintain. lol.0
