Pregnancy Advice – Are you eating for two or a few? How much weight should you gain while pregnant?

You may have heard about the crazing cravings and heard several of your pregnant friends make excuses for all the extra eating, saying things like: “I’m eating for two now!”  Well, let me tell you that this is somewhat of an old wives tale.

You may think that you are hungrier, but the truth is that you only need an extra 300 calories per day.  The baby doesn’t even start to get really big until the last couple of months, so any additional calories or eating that you do before that is only adding to the extra weight you will have to take off after you have the baby.  Not to mention all the stretching and sagging.

Listen up, ladies.  Do yourself (and the baby and your husband) a favor and stick to your fitness and good nutrition while you are pregnant.  Craving a whole pie is only going to make you fat and is not contributing any nutritional value to your unborn baby.  Exercising regularly will help you keep your weight down and will help with the delivery because you will be strong and fit, which may make it easier to have the baby.

The suggested amount of pregnancy weight gain is only 25 pounds!  Gaining 30, 40, 50 or more is not necessary and will be a whole lot tougher to get rid of after you have the baby.

Another thing, make sure you take your prenatal vitamins. I recommend the all-natural organic vitamins that you can find at your local health store. Ask for capsules rather  than tablets and the ones high in calcium. Baby takes away a lot of your calcium while pregnant so beef up the calcium to prevent bone loss density, which can lead to osteoporosis later on. Some natural foods that are high in calcium are quinoa, raisins, yogurt, broccoli and tofu. Try to incorporate these foods into your diet. 

So remember these six pregnancy essentials:

1. ONLY 300 more calories a day while pregnant are necessary

2. You should only gain about 25lbs. more while pregnant

3. Snack throughout the day on nutritional snacks (bananas, carrots, yogurts)

4. Take your prenatal vitamins

5. Exercise (swimming or aqua-fit are recommended)

6. Add more calcium to your pregnancy (Eat lots of quinoa, raisins, yogurt, etc)

That way you can recover fast, for the sake of health of both you and your newborn!