What Is The Ideal Weight For A Woman During Pregnancy?
Maintaining the ideal weight during pregnancy is one of those issues that come to obsess women, current beauty stereotypes lead pregnant women to that. Frequently, a pregnant woman wonders what is the ideal weight of the woman during pregnancy? What is the healthy value to maintain?
Throughout the pregnancy, the amount of weight that a woman can gain is very variable. In the same way, the appetite that the woman may have varies a lot, therefore the weight that she can gain will also vary.
Suppose a woman is at her ideal weight before becoming pregnant. It is recommended, according to experts, is that you gain throughout the pregnancy, between 11.5 kg and 16 kg.
But this will vary depending on the Body Mass Index of the mother at the beginning of pregnancy since:
- With a BMI less than 19.8, the recommended weight gain is 12.5 to 15 kg.
- If you are at 19.8 to 26, you would have to gain between 11.5 to 13 kg.
- Between 26 to 29, the recommended would be between 7 to 10.5kg.
- If your BMI is over 29, you should gain about 7 kg.
Should you increase a kilo per month?
There is a premise that formulates that the mother should gain one kilo per month, if this is the case, it would give us a total of 9 kg throughout the pregnancy. There are mothers who can gain up to 18 kg, that is, they gain two kilos per month.
It all depends on the body of each person and on the daily habits (diet, exercise, etc.). Additionally, if we suffer from any physical condition that makes us gain or lose more weight, this will affect how our weight will evolve throughout pregnancy.
Above all, do not stop feeding yourself. If you have cravings, eat. Moderate sweets and carbohydrates as much as possible but don’t get overwhelmed. As long as you stay healthy, there is no need to suffer.
But you have to be careful with excessive weight gain as it could be associated with abnormalities such as maternal prenatal blood glucose, hypertensive disorders and complications of childbirth.
Despite the fact that the media and society have a very solid negative aesthetic model, we must not let ourselves be harmed by it and follow our own rhythm. Respecting our body and taking care of our health.
Under no circumstances stop eating. This measure is totally contraindicated in pregnancy since when you eat little, fat is not burned and so-called ketone bodies are generated, which can reach the baby. These are toxic and can damage your nervous system.
The ideal weight and diet
It will always be very important for pregnant women not to limit what they eat, because it is not the best time to do it, rather this is the time to choose well what the mother eats.
Ideally, eat mostly plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables without abusing red meat and white meat being more recommended.
It is also necessary to eat skim milk, olive oil, legumes, eat whole foods, such as bread, cereals and rice, instead of refined flours and leave out the foods that you need the least, such as junk food.
Women cannot be obsessed with the weight they gain during pregnancy and they should not seek to eat less, however, there is the opposite side that thinks that now that they are going to gain weight, excesses do not matter.
There are women who take advantage of or use their high appetite to enjoy some dishes or recipes that are not recommended for both themselves and the baby. When a person eats more than what they need, the adipocytes get bigger and bigger, increasing the volume of the person.
It is said that if you are able to gain up to 4 kg from food, not only do you increase the size of the adipocytes that you already have, but also create new adipocytes.
Obviously, the more weight a mother gains from overeating, the more difficult it will be later to return to her old weight.
Increase in weight by quarters
- Little weight is gained in the first trimester of pregnancy. It is recommended between 0.5 and 1.5 kg. There are women who do not even gain weight or who rather lose weight due to the presence of nausea and vomiting.
- In the second trimester, an increase between 3.5 and 4 kg in weight is recommended.
- In the third trimester it is the one with the greatest weight gain, also due to the fact that until now the fetus was developing, but barely gained weight. An increase of 5 to 5.5 kg is recommended, that is about 400 grams each week.
If I eat little, will my baby be smaller?
The answer to this is yes. If the mother limits her intake a lot and lacks nutrients, it can happen that her child weighs little at birth, that is why it is recommended not to go hungry under any circumstances and to eat in a balanced and healthy way.
Formerly it was believed that a pregnant woman had to eat for two. You certainly have to eat for her and the baby, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat twice. If a mother decides to overeat in search of making her baby bigger, she should know that the one who takes the kilos of the two, in this case, is the mother and not the baby.
Therefore, the ideal weight during pregnancy has to be followed by the doctor as it will vary depending on one woman to another.
