The concerns, “Will pregnancy make me fat?” and “Will I ever be able to lose those extra pounds?” trouble nearly every pregnant woman—especially with a first pregnancy. These fears are not without some justification. Weight gain is a natural part of pregnancy, and for many of us, weight loss presents a formidable challenge. The myth of “eating for two”, or that you can eat anything you want and it doesn’t count during pregnancy continues, despite clear evidence to the contrary.

Many of us are hyper-conscious of our body weight before we even become pregnant, and during pregnancy, we have frequent reminders that reinforce that preoccupation. With every prenatal visit to the obstetrician, we are weighed, measured, and evaluated against statistical norms to assess health risks.


Health Risks of Too Much Weight-Gain

For women who have long struggled with weight control, the additional weight gain of pregnancy can further challenge her sense of personal power, control, and self-image. Lowered self-worth often triggers emotional eating, poor nutritional choices, and binging, which can lead to excessive weight gain.

On the other side of the spectrum, lean women worry that pregnancy will “ruin” their bodies, and signal the “beginning of the end” of their youth and vitality.

Beneath all our weight-gain anxiety lies the core issue, the abiding fear—conscious or not—that we will be less sexually desirable after pregnancy.

Banish Fears with Practical Facts

You know that your developing baby’s future health depends directly on what you eat and how well you take care of your body. Therefore, you need to keep both fitness and nutrition foremost in your mind during pregnancy.

Accurate, practical information about how to safely and effectively manage body weight during and after pregnancy can greatly ease anxieties about what will happen to your figure. The quantity of weight a woman gains during pregnancy and how fast she rebounds afterwards need not remain a mystery. It’s a direct consequence of her nutrition and fitness habits during pregnancy. But it’s not always easy to find solid fitness information appropriate for pregnant and postpartum women. Thus, women are uncertain about what actions they can take to promote peak-health during and after their pregnancies.


Focus First on Food-Quality Rather than Quantity

Much has been written about how to optimize nutrition during pregnancy; however, it bears repeating that pregnant women should first focus on eating the highest quality diet available to them. Eating a high-quality diet while actively avoiding environmental toxins—particularly cigarette smoke and alcohol—is of primary importance and nurtures both you and your baby.


Disregard Messages of a “Super-Size-Me” Society

Pregnancy increases your body’s need for protein, calcium, iron, other minerals, vitamins, and water. Pregnant and postpartum women should consume generous amounts of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables, whole-grain breads and cereals; calcium-rich dairy products; and lean protein-rich foods such as meats, fish, and legumes (For more specifics on what to eat during pregnancy, consult your doctor, or a certified nutritionist.) But you may be uncertain about the correct quantity of high-quality food that will provide optimal nutrition and health for both you and your baby.

To have the healthiest pregnancy without excessive fat storage, you need to eat a high-quality diet in the proper amount. This means finding the right caloric balance for your individual needs. In our “super-size-me” society, where waistlines have expanded with portion sizes, balanced eating has never been more of challenge. For many, chronic over-consumption has now become the established norm.


Metabolism Increases to Support Your Growing Baby

Pregnancy increases metabolic activity, which explains why pregnant women overheat easily. Your body is not only growing a baby, but also building the infrastructure—increased blood volume, placenta, and breast tissue development for milk production—that will support your baby before and after birth. These additional metabolic demands rise slowly during pregnancy as the placenta and fetus develop. By the second trimester of pregnancy you will need to consume about 300 additional calories per day over your pre-pregnant basal metabolism.



Estimating Your Daily Caloric Needs

To estimate your daily caloric needs and prevent excessive weight gain, start with your ideal body weight.

This equation provides a rough estimate of your actual caloric needs throughout your pregnancy. As you can see, you’re not “eating for two.” Mathematically, it’s closer to eating for 1 and 1/5.

Of course, you should always consult your doctor or a certified nutritionist, to make sure that your weight gain during pregnancy is appropriate for your body’s individual needs.



Some Examples

The following two examples clearly demonstrate how easy it is to accidentally gain too much weight over the course of 40 weeks.

The Moderately Active Pregnant Woman of Average Height

If you are of average height, fit, at an ideal weight of 130 pounds and are moderately active, you would need approximately 1,660 calories in the first trimester, and 1,860 in the second and third trimesters. Or, {130 x 12} + 100 = 1,660 and {130 x 12} + 300 = 1,860.

A More Typical American Woman of Average Height

For our second example, let’s run the numbers with a more typical American woman. Again she’s of average height, but slightly overweight, with an actual weight of 140 pounds, an ideal weight of 125 pounds, and sedentary lifestyle.

With her current weight and level of activity, this woman would need approximately 1,350 for the first trimester, and 1,550 for the second and third trimesters. Or, {125 x 10} + 100 = 1,350 and {125 x 10} + 300 = 1,550.

You may notice that our sedentary woman has a slightly lower ideal body weight, and this is because her body has less muscle mass and other lean tissue.

The Lean, Fit Moms Burn More Calories

From the above examples, you can see that the lean, active woman has a higher caloric balance level (by about 300 calories per day) than her sedentary, less fit counterpart. If the sedentary woman consumed the same amount of calories as her fit counterpoint, she would gain an additional 24 pounds over the course of 40 weeks. In this example, if our fit woman gains the ideal 30 pounds during her pregnancy, then our sedentary example would gain 55 pounds. Remember, both of these women were of average height, yet they required a substantially different number of calories per day to balance their individual metabolisms.

Fit Moms Lose Weight Rapidly After Pregnancy

Since our fit woman has minimal additional fat storage, she can easily get back down to her pre-pregnancy weight. But our sedentary example would find herself carrying an extra 24 pounds. Since she started 15 pounds overweight, our sedentary mom is now 39 pounds over her ideal weight. Not an easy amount to lose, especially if she continues with a sedentary lifestyle.



Be Wary of Misleading, One-Size-Fits All Guidelines

Some nutritional guidelines advise pregnant women to consume a minimum number of calories (usually in the range of 2,000) every day during pregnancy. But this one-size-fits-all approach does not take into account size, basal metabolism, lean mass ratio, or activity level.

In a broader view, current nutritional labels utilize a 2,000 calorie-per-day diet to calculate RDA’s (recommended daily allowances). Yet only a minority of American women actually has a 2,000 calorie-per-day sized metabolism. In fact, a woman would have to be about 5'10", lean and muscular, 145 pounds, and very active (145 x 14 = 2,030) to fit that profile. Not your average American women, is it?

Put Weight Gain in the Proper Perspective

A key concept for pregnant women to keep in the forefront of their minds is that a small amount of additional fat-storage is a natural, healthy part of human physiology. It’s big part of our success as a species and provides a hedge against disasters that might cause food shortages. In fact, fat storage during pregnancy is a universal phenomenon found throughout the animal world. Think about it. Female bears load on a couple of hundred pounds to prepare for the duel need of gestation and hibernation. Female whales pack on tons of blubber—literally! —during pregnancy.

Another important fact not to forget is that with our average, healthy weight-gain of 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy, only 3 to 5 pounds comes from additional fat stores. Looked at from this perspective, stocking the pantry with 3 to 5 pounds doesn’t seem that significant, and certainly not worth all the worry and stress that we commonly subject ourselves to during pregnancy.



Store Less Fat in the Last Trimester and Bounce Back Fast!

These additional fat stores are laid down in the third trimester, not before, to insure adequate energy reserves for breastfeeding. Studies consistently show that women who remain physically active during the last trimester (activities like fitness-walking on most days of the week) store less additional fat and lose weight more rapidly after childbirth. Another good reason to be fit and active during pregnancy.

Counter Negative Thoughts with Reassuring Facts

As we look into the mirror at our growing bellies, many of us forget facts. Our emotions are given voice, and we say things like “I look so fat,” or “I feel so fat.” When we step on the scale and read the rising numbers, again we incorrectly identify ourselves as “getting fat.” Remember, during pregnancy, weight gain is not synonymous with fat gain. These types of thoughts are factually inaccurate and if left unchallenged, erode self-esteem and create unnecessary psychological stress.

Monitor your internal dialog. When you hear self-deprecating thoughts, push a mental delete button, and throw that information away. Then replace faulty information with nurturing, healthy, reassuring facts. Recognize this pattern for what it is—a distortion of your body image generated by stress and insecurity, something every woman, pregnant or not, experiences. As you develop positive-thinking patterns, you will be on the path to better health, enhanced self-image, self-acceptance, and happiness.



top of page

home | prenatal & postpartum fitness & exercise | DVD & Book | site map
about BeFit-Mom | resources | press page | glossary |