Losing Weight During Pregnancy: No Problem Or A No-go?

Losing weight during pregnancy is a big issue, both for overweight mothers-to-be and for women who gain a lot of weight quickly. Is it even allowed to go on a diet during the nine months until birth? How much weight gain during pregnancy is normal?

You can find out everything about weight loss, pregnancy and nutrition here.

Vitamins, Nutrients And Co: What Does Your Baby Need To Grow?

Nutrition plays an important role for pregnant women. It starts with getting enough fluids and continues through every meal of the day. Plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat meat, and sea fish once a week should be on the perfect menu.

The latter provides your body with important omega-3 fatty acids. Some elements, such as folic acid, can also be taken by means of special dietary supplements for pregnant women. They are present in the daily food in too low a dose. Only when all nutrients are sufficiently present, a baby develops exactly as it should.

Diets and other radial cures to lose weight during pregnancy are therefore absolutely not recommended! You need the nutrients and some fat reserves to give your child the best start in life. At the same time, as a pregnant woman you should pay special attention to healthy nutrition.

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How Much Weight Gain Is Normal During Pregnancy?

Everybody behaves differently. Nevertheless, there are some guidelines that you can use as a pregnant woman to check whether the weight gain in your pregnancy is normal. The Body Mass Index – BMI for short – is used for this purpose.

To determine the BMI, you take your body weight in kilograms divided by your height in meters squared. On the Internet, you can find many BMI calculators that will do the math for you and guarantee a correct result. The resulting number is your BMI value.

How Much Weight Gain Can You Have During Pregnancy According To Your BMI Value?

  • With a BMI below 18.5, 12 to 18 kilograms of weight gain is normal.
  • With a BMI below 18.5, 12 to 18 kilos of weight gain are normal.
  • For a BMI over 25, 7 to 11 kilos of weight gain is normal.

All these figures are only approximate guidelines. Small deviations upwards or downwards are not a cause for concern. Only if your weight gain during pregnancy is out of the ordinary should you bring up the subject at your next medical check-up. The doctor will usually advise you to change your eating habits and try to lose weight gently during pregnancy.

By the way, more kilos will only appear on the scales from the 13th week of pregnancy. Before that, the normal weight should be maintained. Women who suffer strongly from morning sickness even lose weight. This is also normal within certain limits and not harmful for the growth of your baby.

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Eating For two: Are There Limits?

The topic of losing weight during pregnancy is rarely about a medical problem with excess weight. Rather, pregnant women are tempted to eat far more calories than is actually necessary. The notorious argument of having to eat for two now, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to disappear from many minds.

Finally, pizza, cake & Co to strike properly is a mistake that pregnant women make again and again. This not only puts the normal pregnancy kilos on the hips but also leads to harmful weight gain.

Pregnancy should rather be used to avoid all empty calories and fully focus on delicious, healthy cuisine. Because your body needs a lot of energy to make your baby grow, you as a pregnant woman are allowed to eat about 250 calories more per day than the guideline for non-pregnant women.

But it should not be more than that, and certainly not twice as many calories as usual. If you gain too much weight, it puts a strain on your body and your baby, and the risk of complications increases. And even if everything goes well, it will be very difficult to lose the kilos after birth.

Recommendations For Overweight Pregnant Women

Are you heavily overweight? Ideally, the desire to lose weight does not arise during pregnancy, but before. Every kilo that you lose before the positive test will help you in the further course of pregnancy.

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The preparation for your baby is the ideal time to change your lifestyle. Don’t starve yourself and don’t go on any diets. However, replace fast food with vegetables and fish, try to cook fresh food as often as possible, and especially avoid sodas and energy drinks.

Exercise during pregnancy is also highly recommended, not only for overweight mothers-to-be. Swimming and gymnastics in the water are especially gentle on your joints if you have a few kilos too much. If you follow this advice, you minimize the risk of gestational diabetes and a Caesarean section is also less likely.

The Risks Of Losing Weight During Pregnancy

You need energy, nutrients and minerals to help your unborn baby grow healthily. The biggest risk of losing weight during pregnancy is malnutrition, which comes with many diets and skipping meals.

Starvation diets and one-sided nutrition through cabbage diets and similar, apparent miracle cures against kilos are unhealthy and unhelpful in any situation in life. In pregnancy, this effect is intensified even more and can have serious effects on the baby.

Therefore: No diets, but a comprehensive change of diet, in which you and your baby are supplied with all substances that are necessary.

The Best Recipes During Pregnancy

Pregnant women often feel hungry more often than non-pregnant women. To prevent cravings, you should eat more often than usual during the day, but in smaller portions. With the right recipes, losing weight during pregnancy is not necessary at all.

The scales will only show you kilos that belong there because of your growing baby. For other reasons taboo are foods such as cheese from raw milk, sushi, and steaks, dishes with raw eggs, and of course alcohol.

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These Are The Foods You Should Enjoy During Pregnancy

  • Wholemeal toast with avocado.
  • Bircher muesli with nuts, apples, natural yogurt and maple syrup.
  • Roasted salmon with spinach leaves and brown rice.
  • Grilled trout with chard.
  • Polenta thaler with colorful oven vegetables.

For Those With A Sweet Tooth: Honey During Pregnancy

You can sweeten your food with honey instead of sugar. Recent studies have shown that honey is completely safe for pregnant women, even though your baby and toddler should not consume any sugar themselves. This finding is a real blessing for all those who want to lose weight during pregnancy.

The low-calorie alternative to sugar protects you from cravings. You can thus easily prevent excessive weight gain during pregnancy, even if you have a real sweet tooth.

And not only that: if you should catch a cold before the birth, the permitted honey in pregnancy offers you relief for the scratchy throat.

Enjoy Your Pregnancy Without Dieting

Don’t let beauty ideals & Co drive you crazy and tempt you to risky weight loss during pregnancy. Eat healthily, exercise a lot and you will usually not automatically have more weight gain during pregnancy than nature intended.

As soon as your child is born healthy and you already have breastfeeding behind you, you can always go on a stricter diet against the last few kilos.

The best products for you and your baby.

Baby monitor

With a baby monitor, you can use your time flexibly, sleep peacefully at night and still know at all times that your baby is doing well.

Nursing pillow

A good breastfeeding pillow has several advantages, because it helps you not only to breastfeed, but also to fall asleep and is also suitable as a nest.

Diaper bags

A diaper bag offers you a lot of storage space, so that you have everything you need for your baby on the go - from the changing pad to the bottle.

Pucksack

A pucksack gives your baby the feeling of security, like in the womb, and thus supports a peaceful and restful sleep.

Bicycle trailer

Bicycle trailers can be used in combination with a baby seat shortly after birth. They are not only safer than child seats but also more comfortable.

Playpen

A playpen can be very practical in everyday life! Which model is suitable for your needs, you can read in my guide.

Baby bed

The first bed accompanies your child for years. Fortunately, there are beds that grow with your child. I have made for you on the search for the best baby beds.

Stroller

A stroller is a worthwhile purchase. But there are the most diverse models on the market. Find out which is the right one.

Radiant heater

Radiant heaters provide your child with the necessary warmth when changing diapers or after bathing.

Extra bed

Side beds are very practical and offer both mother and baby a lot of advantages, because for babies, especially in the first months of life, it is reassuring to be able to sleep next to their parents.

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