Health and fashion-conscious women are very much concerned about their body weight. But gaining weight is well accepted for every woman during pregnancy. But pregnancy should not be an excuse to eat junk food and put on unnecessary weight, which creates complications in pregnancy. Healthy weight gain during pregnancy not only help the optimal growth of your baby but also helps you to keep fit after delivery.
Gestational diabetes is one of the common complications associated with pregnancy-related excessive weight gain, which not only increase the risk of delivery complications but also create problem to lose weight after childbirth. Therefore, it is always better to prevent excess weight gain during pregnancy to avoids its complications.
If you have created a habit to intake a balanced diet during the gestational period, then you need to take less pain to gain your previous body shape after the birth of your child. But the diet plan should be adequate for supplying all the nutritional substances to the fetus for ultimate growth and development. The right selection of food ingredients is essential for healthy weight gain. In the following sections, some important information related to weight gain during pregnancy is mentioned.
How much should I increase during pregnancy?
How much weight gain during pregnancy is considered as healthy weight gain is important to know for prospective mothers. According to Obstetrics & Gynecology experts 25-35 pounds weight gain during 40 weeks of gestational period. Therefore, half to one pound of steady weight gain per week is considered a healthy weight gain during pregnancy.
How much quantity more should I eat to gain healthy weight?
During the gestational period, you need to eat not only for you but also for your baby, so you are eating for two. Therefore, the quantity of food should be more. But how much quantity needs to increase depends upon some factors, like weight before conceiving and maternal age.
It has estimated that 300 more calorie intake per day is sufficient, which you can add by taking a small bowl of cereal with milk and fruit. Following this healthy meal option helps you to gain four to six pounds in the first trimester, and a pound a week during the second and third trimesters.
But the weight gain goal becomes different if you conceive with over or underweight. The estimated weight gain requires for underweight women is 28 to 40 pounds. The calculated weight gain requires for overweight mothers is 15 to 25 pounds. Exceeding weight gain during pregnancy may create difficulty during labor and resulting from this need a cesarean delivery. However, insufficient gain also risky during pregnancy as it increases the risk of premature delivery. Therefore the healthiest weight gain is one of the essential factors for normal delivery
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