It's common to feel uncertain about your weight gain during pregnancy. If you find that you're gaining weight faster than you feel you should, or if you were on a diet prior to becoming pregnant, you may be tempted to diet for weight loss during pregnancy. In general, however, weight loss isn't safe during pregnancy.
Weight Gain
During your pregnancy, you'll in all likelihood need to gain weight. Women who were at healthy weights before becoming pregnant stay healthiest when they gain around 25 to 35 lbs. over the course of their pregnancy, say Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel in their book "What To Expect When You're Expecting." Even women who were overweight before becoming pregnant generally need to gain a small amount -- or at least maintain their weight -- during pregnancy.
Problems with Weight Loss
The reason your doctor won't likely want you losing weight during pregnancy is that when you diet for weight loss, you are by definition providing your body with less nutrition than it needs to maintain cellular function. This forces the body to pull energy from stored fat to make up the difference, but it's easy to become nutritionally deficient -- especially with regard to vitamins and minerals -- while depriving yourself of calories. Both caloric deficits and vitamin or mineral deficits put your baby at risk.
Epigenetics
Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, in their book "You: Having A Baby," say that there's a field of medical research called epigenetics that focuses on the ways in which your behavior during pregnancy can "pre-program" your child. If you deprive yourself of calories during pregnancy, this can program your developing baby to conserve calories once it's born. This increases the baby's risk of childhood and lifelong obesity, as it encourages fat storage.
General Guidelines
In general, if you have concerns about your weight during pregnancy, talk to your obstetrician. If your doctor agrees that you should lose weight, she will be able to recommend a plan that allows you to lose the weight gradually -- or avoid gaining further weight -- without depriving yourself and your developing baby of important vitamins, minerals and cellular building blocks. Fad diets, diet pills and self-prescribed diet plans simply aren't safe during pregnancy.
References
- "What to Expect When You're Expecting"; Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel; 2008
- "You: Having A Baby"; Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.; 2009
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