Weight Gain in Pregnancy To Have Your Healthiest Baby
Ideally, begin pregnancy in your ideal weight range, and the best way to determine that is to determine your body fat level with body composition testing. Ethnicity and genetics can help determine ideal pre-pregnancy weight.
Weight gain in pregnancy is very important to feed the baby, keep nutritional reserves, and keep mom active while she’s carrying the baby. Weight gain guidelines are individually discussed with your birth provider. The Institute of Medicine has given these guidelines for singleton pregnancies. *Weight gain guidelines are for singleton pregnancy; weight gain should be higher for multiple pregnancies such as twins or triplets. .
- Underweight (BMI less than 18.5):
- Recommended weight gain: 28 to 40 pounds (about 12.5 to 18 kg)
- Normal weight (BMI 18.5 to 24.9):
- Recommended weight gain: 25 to 35 pounds (about 11.5 to 16 kg)
- Overweight (BMI 25 to 29.9):
- Recommended weight gain: 15 to 25 pounds (about 7 to 11.5 kg)
- Obese (BMI 30 or higher):
- Recommended weight gain: 11 to 20 pounds (about 5 to 9 kg)
You can still have a healthy baby if you don’t gain a lower amount than your recommended amounts. Specific weight gains, however, are associated with statistically higher likelihood for a healthy pregnancy.
4How you gain your weight is critical. Nutrition itself is as important as weight gain, avoid empty calories, and eat nutrient rich foods.
Before you conceive find out how nutritionally sound you actually are, and let your gyno help you plan through appropriate testing. And we urge our patients to sit down with their gyno and have a nutritional evaluation and blood work prior to conception. We take into consideration, caloric needs for exercise, heart and lung health, insulin resistance and any history of birth defects or miscarriages.
It’s your body fat, and your body type that determines the “BMI” that in turn determines your weight gain recommendations. BMI also has to be interpreted within your ethnic background.
To gain the proper weight you need about 300 extra calories per day, but that means very few extra calories in the early months, and more than that per day by the end of pregnancy.
If you exercise a lot, your calorie intake may be greater. If you have medical conditions that decrease your activity level, your calorie needs during pregnancy. may be lower than you think.
Most women will only need to gain 2-4 pounds of weight the first 3 months. For the few women who do not gain, or even loose slightly, they will most likely be able to feed the baby well as they get farther along in pregnancy. Eventually you are gaining at least a pound a week.
On average women pick up about a half a kilo or about 8/10ths of a pound for each pregnancy. But this weight in a large study published in Menopause in July 2023 did not correlate with long term increased heart risk.
Call to schedule your pre-pregnancy consultation with your birth provider! If you would like to seek weight management pre-pregnancy we offer specialized medical care at Women’s Health Practice.
