Net Calories During Pregnancy

It's a sad day when a woman carrying a new life inside of her is more worried about how many calories she's taking in than whether or not she's getting enough nutrition - from real, whole, natural foods and not processed food products - for her and her baby.


I'm not trying to offend anyone. I don't have kids and it's doubtful at this point that I will (I'm 41). But it's kind of selfish, I think. I just can't understand it.

This is laughable. Seriously. Until you become pregnant and understand how challenging it is, don't comment.
Save yourself the embarrassment.
I care very much about my nutrition--in fact, it's something I think about daily. If you don't want to offend, don't say offensive things in a demeaning manner. If you intend to help, say something helpful. That would be my advice to you.

For everyone else that CARED enough to reply kindly and non-judgmentally:

The reason why I ask is because before becoming pregnant, I was at 1200cal (to lose 2lbs a week) and I would try and get 1000-1200 net calories after exercise in. I didn't know if that changed when you are pregnant or not. I was guessing that maybe net calories would be around 1500-1800, but I wasn't sure and I asked on MFP since I couldn't find great information on the internet.
Babyfit.com has my calories set at 2100-2450 and unless I exercise a lot, anything above 2100 has me gaining a bit too much.
I am currently at 172lbs, 5'6", 2nd pregnancy, eat many organic/whole foods/vegetables/fruits and really want to make sure I don't over do it. I don't want to gain more than 20lbs this pregnancy and since I gained 2lbs in the last week (goal is .5lbs) I guess I'm a bit concerned.
It is very unhealthy to gain too much weight during pregnancy, this is why I am concerned about my caloric intake and maintaining my health while I am pregnant with my son.

it can be easy during pregnancy to lose focus on your eating and easy to gain more weight than you should, no one has said anything about her not eating nutritionally the op asked when pregnant how many calories she should be eating she obviously does not want to over eat an put on too much weight and obviously doesn't want to eat too little as she aware her baby needs nutrition
pregnancy is really tough for many woman and when you see the pounds coming on you end up feeling like a beach whale it can be a horrible feeling and i see nothing wrong with an expectant mother wanting to be careful this in no way is selfish she is not putting her own needs above her unborn child if she didn't care she prob would not have asked the question in the first place.

some woman starve themselves almost for fear of putting on weight - now that is selfish!
just my honest opinion

Thank you, dear. Those were my exact intentions and I appreciate your understanding. As I'm watching my waist expand, I keep praying that it is in a healthy way for this little one--gaining TOO much is SO unhealthy for our babies...in fact, if we gain the wrong type of weight, our babies can be underweight and depraved of what they need. After I have this little boy, it's gonna be hell to try and lose a lot of excess weight (believe me...I know from my first time around) if I don't this right this time. Big deal stuff.

i wish i had of understood more about calories and healthy eating and known about mfp if i had i might not have ended up with over 100lb to lose.

hope your pregnancy goes well and best of luck

Thanks! I didn't understand what I was doing 1st time around (9yrs ago) and had a lot of health issues and ended up weighing in the 220s. I can't do that this time. It took me so long to recover after I had my son and I was literally a sick mess.

Regarding Dr advice: From what I've seen and heard from Drs, they all say that pregnant women have a tendency to overeat (too many calories) and gain too much weight and that it is incredibly unhealthy for mom and baby. This is what I'm trying to avoid.

My 1st OB-GYN really didn't know what caloric amount to tell me---she said that I could just keep it at 1200calories since I had explained that is what I was doing on MFP at the time. But, when she said to keep it at 1200cal I explained to her that I was losing weight at that number and I wasn't comfortable continuing to lose weight during my pregnancy. She told me to set my calories to maintaining my current weight which is what I have been doing.

The question wasn't "How many calories should I be eating during pregnancy?" it was "How many net calories should I be consuming during pregnancy?" Which is a valid question because I have been exercising a lot more lately---If I'm exercising a lot, my net calories are going to go way down and I could lose weight. I don't want to do that. I was asking for advice from other mothers who have been there/done that and understand where I'm coming from.

That's all.

Thanks to EVERYONE who has offered their input thus far. Most of you have been absolutely lovely and helpful

I'm toying with this today too. I just found out I am pregnant and don't have a doctor's appointment for 5 weeks . . a lot can happen in 5 weeks! I don't want to go too low but I don't want to go too high either . . . hmmm, what's that perfect number??

Aww, that's great
I didn't change much during my 1st trimester. The key is to definitely not go crazy and eat everything you see---I believe half of the cravings we get are real and the other half are all in our head
For pregnancy starting out at a healthy weight, you're supposed to gain 2-5lbs.
If you are starting out overweight, 1-4lbs.

I don't remember what it is for underweight or obese.

Best wishes!! Just do lots of research---that's what i've been trying to do up to this point---just been struggling with the calories vs. net calories issue these days, myself

I asked my doctor at about four months(i'm almost 8 now) about calories because I didn't want to gain too much weight. She told me that if I stayed in between 1800-2200 I would be good and shouldn't gain too much weight. That's pretty much what the diabetics follow and she said that was a good place to be. So far it's been working pretty well. I've gained 15 pounds so far. Would be less but I had a six pound month last month! Now i'm gaining about 1/2 a pound a week.

Wonderful information. Thank you! And congratulations and good luck having your sweet baby soon! That's an awesome gain and it's exactly what I aspire to

That's a really good question! I've always heard that when you're pregnant you should try to consume 300 more calories per baby. (So if you were having twins you'd need to eat 600 calories.) I saw that you mentioned that you were going to your midwife later this month, I'd check with her to be safe. There are also a lot of websites out there that can give healthy recommendations :-) Congratulations on your pregnancy! I'm waiting for the day when MFP comes out with a "Pregnant" setting for calories! LOL That would be really great!

I will be STOKED when they add a pregnancy option too!!! I've checked out "babfit.com" and while I appreciate the info given, I despise the format. Gonna have to hit up MFP to help us preggos stay healthy