It is significant for pregnant women to eat a balanced diet to ensure optimal health for their unborn child and themselves. While ensuring that the woman and her baby gain sufficient amount of nutrient to ensure that they are healthy, the pregnant woman usually put on some amounts of weight. That brings us to our topic for today: Weight loss during pregnancy.
It is normal for a woman to gain weight during pregnancy but the question is what quantity of weight gain during pregnancy is considered normal. This article provides some clue to that question.
Weight gain is a must for a healthy pregnancy. The extra weight usually wears off after delivery and during the period that the woman is breastfeeding.
Nonetheless, if you gain more than the recommended weight for your BMI, your baby will as well be bigger and you could be in for some problems. To ensure a healthy pregnancy, you must eat healthy diet and engage in regular exercise.
Weight loss during pregnancy is not very common, but is more expected to occur during the first trimester and perhaps among smokers and drinkers, women who are diabetic or are very overweight.
Weight loss During Pregnancy: How Much Weight Gain is Considered “Normal” During Pregnancy?
Medical guidelines and recommendations of what weight gain is normal during pregnancy are based on BMI. There is no one ideal standard weight gain that applies to all women. Petite and underweight women may have to gain more weight than women who are overweight before pregnancy.
The Body Mass Index (BMI)
The body mass index (BMI) is the most widespread way to establish when an individual is underweight, overweight or normal weight. It is an evaluation of the relationship between the person’s weight and height.
A BMI below 18.5 is taken to be underweight, a BMI of 18.5 to 25 is “normal weight,” and a BMI of 25 to 30 is “overweight.” An individual who has a BMI that is above 30 is considered to be highly overweight.
BMI alone is not sufficient to say if an individual’s weight is likely to result to health issues as a lot of overweight individuals are very healthy.
The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) issues guidelines about BMI and weight gain during pregnancy. These have been presented below:
- Women who were underweight (BMI smaller than 18.5) before pregnancy should gain weight of between 12.5 and 18 kilograms during pregnancy.
- Women who are normal weight before pregnancy (BMI 18.5 to 24.9) should gain weight between 11.5 and 16 kilograms during pregnancy.
- Women who are overweight before pregnancy (BMI 25 to 29.9) should gain weight between 7 to 11.5 kilograms during pregnancy.
- Women who were obese before pregnancy (BMI over 30) should gain weight between 5 to 9 kilograms during pregnancy.
What’s Causes Weight Gain during pregnancy?
The greater part of the weight a woman gain during pregnancy is not fat; it is related to the baby, Placenta, Amniotic fluid, Breast tissue, Blood supply and the growth of the uterus.
Managing Weight During Pregnancy
Diet
A pregnant woman is advised not go on a diet or try to lose weight during pregnancy. The best way is to focus on eating the appropriate foods and becoming active.
Just like too much weight gain is not good for you, less weight gain than normal is also not good for you and your baby.
You can make changes to your diet to get the required nutrients without gaining too much weight. You health care provider should be able to advises you on the best thing to do.
Exercise
- Engaging in moderate exercise as recommended by your provider can assist you to burn extra calories.
- Walking or swimming is commonly safe and great exercises for pregnant women.