Can you calorie count when pregnant?

Yes, as long as your calorie goal is taking into account what is required for a healthy pregnancy.

Yes you can but I wouldn't worry about it until after your baby is born cause all the weight you gain while pregnant is mainly baby. You get all the nutrients for you and baby when you eat. So don't worry about it right now until after so you have a good healthy chunky baby

Count calories, yes. Pursue a calorie deficit, no.

when I was pregnant with my youngest my OB said I needed an extra 300-500 calories a day I didn't count calories at all during my pregnancy but only drank water and choose really healthy foods and I only gained 16lbs probably from the couple months I only wanted to eat hot fudge sundae's lol

janejellyroll wrote: »

VeraB1794 wrote: »

Yes you can but I wouldn't worry about it until after your baby is born cause all the weight you gain while pregnant is mainly baby. You get all the nutrients for you and baby when you eat. So don't worry about it right now until after so you have a good healthy chunky baby

People who are counting calories still eat though . . .

Depending on a woman's starting weight and her rate of weight gain, it's totally possible that a doctor might even *recommend* calorie counting or some sort of strategy for managing weight gain during pregnancy. While it isn't healthy to try to keep weight gain to a minimum, gaining too quickly or too much can put a woman at risk too.

A blanket statement like "the weight you gain while pregnant is mainly baby" isn't accurate for many. A baby is about 7 1/2 pounds. The placenta and increased fluid volume is around 5. I know women who gained as much as 70 pounds during pregnancy. Not mainly baby, not even close.

I'll back that up as somebody who gained 60 pounds with each pregnancy. In both cases, about 8 pounds was baby. Add a few more for placenta. Add a few more for amniotic fluid. Add a few more for bigger breasts. Add 20-25 for water retention. (If you're lucky, you won't swell up that much. It sucked!) And, yes, some of it was fat. (Depending on your starting weight, you may or may not need to gain about 5 pounds of fat. Your body will want to because it's setting you up for breastfeeding.)

Counting calories doesn't make you lose weight (or gain or maintain). Being in a calorie deficit makes you lose weight (or a surplus to gain, or at equilibrium to maintain). You don't need to count calories in order to do any of the above. Calorie counting is a tool. Having had four pregnancies that each involved a 50lb gain (was thankfully able to take it off between each), I'd say that calorie counting is probably a very smart thing to do (I probably should have been more diligent during my pregnancies; I had my work cut it for me after each one). Yes you want to gain weight (as per your doc/mw's recommendations), but gaining too much isn't good either. Counting calories can help you keep within the recommended weight gain, not too much, not too little, which will help make getting back to where you were to start with easier, generally speaking.

So, yes, it is safe (and arguably a very good idea), given that you set your daily goal to meet the needs of your pregnancy and growing baby's energy demands.