Low Carb And Pregnancy

[stacey rae]

I have been low-carbing for almost a year and recently found out that I am about 6 weeks pregnant. I have concerns about excessive weight gain if I abandon my current eating habits. My number one priority, of course, is the health of my baby.

Are there any others out there who can relate? I would love some advise.

Thanks!

[Natkins]

HI!!!!!

I am so happy to find you! I posted a similar thread a while back.

Anyway, I am 10 weeks pregnant and staying low-carb.
I discussed it with my doctor and he is on board. You just have to increase your carbs to a maintenance level, primarily by adding in fruits and veggies.

I have been making sure to get 5 servings of fruits and/or veggies each day. For fruits, I am sticking to melons and berries. I am actually enjoying that quite a bit!

I truly believe that staying on a low-carb woe is what I have to thank for a total lack of morning sickness. I feel great!!

How are you feeling?

Well, maybe (hopefully) there are more of usout there who will respond, but if not, let's at least keep it going! Feel free to check out my journal.

Oh, and check out the yahoo group, Pregnant Atkids for preggos who are low-carbing. Lots of wise wonderful women there, too.

Hope to hear from you soon and
CONGRATULATIONS on your soon-to-be little one!! :rheart:

[stacey rae]

Hi-

Thanks for responding. It's nice to know I'm not alone.

I was feeling good until this week. I have been hit with quite a bit of morning (all day, really) sickness. When I'm not feeling sick, I have terrible cravings for the wrong kinds of foods.

When I first found out I was pregnant, I got really paranoid about being in ketosis ( I hear that's bad for baby). So I started eating potatoes, rice, etc with dinner. I think that was probably not a good idea because I am up about 4 pounds in two weeks. So, your doctor approves of low carb? That's good to know. Is he worried at all about ketosis?

The fruit thing sounds like the way to go. I don't think I'll be able to get good melons or berries this time of year in my area. Pears and oranges would be good, though.

Hopefully, my morning sickness will ease up soon. Maybe getting back on track with my eating will help.

CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU TOO!

Is this your first? I have two boys (12 and 2).

[LadyBelle]

This time of year get frozen unsweetned berries. Fresh are way too expencive.

Other good LC fruits are Apples, oranges, grapefruit, plums, and so on. Melons are actually higer GI.

Also get your dairy in. Get fresh dairy such as plain unsweetnened yogurt, cottage cheese, riccotta cheese and so on.

Have moderate carb veggies such as squashes, carrots and so on.

What you might try doing is getting Atkins for Life. He lists what foods to eat regularly, in moderation and rarely. There is also a boo a Mother-To_Be does Atkins.

The sickness feeling could also be from the fact you are going through carb withdrawl all over again. Remember you need all kinds of nutrition and empty carbs like sugar have none. Go ahead with eating rice, but get brown rice as it has nutrition where white rice has had the nutitous husk stripped away. Also remember a serving of rice is only 1/2 cup.

[supbughan]

Stacey Rae!! i'm just like you with the age split ...almost. My two girls are 10 and 3 and i'm also about 5-6 weeks prego! I, too, am a bit fearful about gaining the weight I've lost but I truly have changed my eating habits to not include any sugar or junk so I will gain what the baby needs. Period.

I was fearful about getting pregnant again for several reasons...the first is that my mom died two years ago when my youngest was jsut turning 1 and it really crushed me. How can I do this again without her?...and all the many fears of not having your mom around anymore. It was awful but God, as He always does, has healed that hurt to an approprite level to where I can function and know that i have other friends and family in which to rely on.

Second reason for apprehension is that with my last pregnancy, I had to have a shot , morning and night in my tummy, of Heparin, a blood thinner, to prevent another blood clot (which I got after a car accident in '94 in which I was taken by helicopter to hospital and stayed there for 3 weeks) The shots were painless at first but gradually, even being huge and fat(45 lbs more than i am now-240)
it was so painful...I would cry like a baby when my husband gave me the shots each day and night and I am not looking forward to hearing that I might need them again. But, I remain hopeful that my change of life has made them unneccessary now. We will see. I go to my first prenatal next Friday.
I'd love to go thru pregnancy together with you if you want.
I will send you my personal email and we can write to each other...want to??
LIsa

[20lbstogo]

Hello I am so happy to have found this thread., I am in my sixth week of my pregnancy and I still have 20-25 lbs on from my last one. I weight 170 now but prior to my first pregnancy (19months ago) my weight was 145. Totally devastating to me.

I am curious as to whether this is okay or not. I am introducing fruit in the mornings (when I can keep it down) A typical lunch is veggies and tuan salad or chicken, snacks are a handful of almonds or cottage cheese. My dinners are small and lacking as I am so not hungry these days. I am keeping bread, potatoes, rice and pastas out completely though and am trying to elimnate sugar

I don't want to gain a lot of weight in this pregnancy and am scared of having fifty pounds to lose aside from 25lbs.

[Natkins]

Sounds like a good diet to me. I say, eat when you are hungry (I am at 14 weeks and now am STARVING every few hours!!), just eat all low-carb stuff and you'll do great!

I have fruit every morning (usually melon and/or berries) and quite often for dessert too. So far, I have only gained about 5 pounds (it was 2 at my last doctor visit) and I feel great!!!

Good luck and keep in touch!!! :)

[p_rosie]

Hi girls,
I wish I had had this WOE while pregnant but I hav ebeen following since my baby was 4 months old and I had concerns about LC and nursing...I found a good support group for LC moms-to-be, http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/PregnantAtkids hope this helps. There are many women out there doing this.
Best wishes for your successful LC pregnancy!

[lyzmarie]

I've been following my low-carb plan for little over a month. maybe closer to two? Anyways I found out about my pregnancy the beginning of this month. My concern is that I have been having terrible morning sickness, actually all day sickness. I haven't experienced this with either of my prior pregnancies and was wondering if it was at all related to the diet? Any ideas?

[tigersue]

I'm glad I found this thread too. I'm about 28 weeks now, and I have gestational diabetes, no suprise since I had that with my other two children as well. The good thing is that I have been low carbing for about 1 1/2 years so I know what to do with this pregnancy instead of the other two following the ADA junk that just made me sick all the time. Lizziemarie, your morning sickness is probably hormone related, particularily this early in the pregnancy, I very much doubt that it is related to the diet. Just find what you can eat and don't worry about it. I love almonds, that is one thing that really gets me through, they don't cause a huge swing in my blood sugar, and they helped my nausea alot. Try ginger tea too.
If you have to eat a little more carb in the morning I wouldnt' worry about it too much. hopefully in a few weeks it will abate and you will feel much better.
20lbs to go, it is possible to not gain too much. I started around 183- 186 with this pregnancy, and since my first Dr. visit my weight has been stable around 192, give or take a pound or two and various times. Eat sensibly, don't skimp on your fats and your proteins. Since I have gestational diabetes I'm not to have fruit in the morning, milk also makes me sick, so I eat whole milk plain yogurt with some type of berrie for lunch or snack, depending on what else I eat. My dietician stated that cottage cheese really doesn't have that much calcium in it, not as much as you would think, so that is why I'm going the yogurt route. Almonds are great, loaded with calcium, and magnesium. Make sure you eat what you can at night, it will help you sleep. I know I couldn't eat much in the evening until about week 18 or so. I'm still slowing getting my appetite back for chicken, and fish, and ground beef.
I try to do about 30 grams of carb for Lunch and dinner, about 5-10 for breakfast, more than that my head feels funny, and then aroun 15 for a couple of snacks in the day.
I'm also trying to increase my workouts so my bloodsugars are a bit more stable during the day.
I do weight lifting, walking, pilates for pregnacy by Sara Picot(I really like this tape, it is great for the legs, back and abds, and split into the three trimesters.) and sometimes I do fitmama, I don't like it as well but it does have some good stuff in it.
I also have a pedometer to help me keep track of the steps I take in the day, to be sure I try to keep activity up.
I have 2 other children, a girl 13, and a boy 10, so this is a big change for us, but I can say that it is because of Following TSP that I am having a baby now, because we tried one other time and clomid failed then. You can go to the first page of my journal to see my history.
I hope to see others around here it would be great.
Tanya

[MsSammy34]

How timely with this thread! I have been low carbing since June 03 and have lost 61 lbs. Last night I got the biggest surprise of my life when I found out that at age 36 I am pregnant for the first time (unplanned). I didn't think that I could have children. I have about a million questions running through my head and and lc through pregnancy is one of them. I am going to the dr today to confirm pg and start prenatal visits and ask as many questions as I can remember.

If anyone has any links to websites that would be extremely helpful.

[Natkins]

BIG CONGRATS to Ms. Sammy!!! :)

What a fun surprise. Check out atiaran's journal, she low-carbed throughout her pregnancy too. And check out the yahoo group Pregnant Atkids. Lots of good resources there, too!

Take care :rheart:

[Emagine]

What a wonderful post. I too have had many questions. I have DS who is 17 months and want to start on ttc #2 soon. (just need to get my ducks in a row for it :) )

Anyways, I find alot of you on here full of positive information and you ladies give me hope and a jump in that direction.

TY all... also I invite you to check out the parenting link in my siggy.

Hugs and happy parenting!

[tigersue]

I found the other day at a grocery store close by a dairy product by hood, that is low carb. I picked up both the whole fat, and the chocolate and they aren't bad. They both are 3 grams carb/ cup, the chocolate adds 1gm fiber. They have 350 mg calcium, more than milk, 12 gm protein. They are tolerable, and they don't seem to bother me too much. Just thought you would like to know. They also have the atkins symbol on it.
Tanya

[LadyBelle]

Congrats MsSammy :)

lyzmarie - Are you eating enough. I know it's hard at times when yoru pregnant and just not hungry, but could it be stomach acid? Also what are you eating, is there a possible food intolerence (they can pop up in pregnancy when you've never had them before) or an artificial processed type food your body maybe doesn't like?

[Redeemed]

Congrats to those who are pregnant!

I just wanted to let you know, when I was pregnant with my son, I continued eating LC throughout my pregnancy. I gained a healthy 22 lbs. and had a beautiful, smart baby boy. My husband and I are convinced that all of the healthy veggies and limited sugar/starches helped our son to grow properly inside the womb. I ate an apple (or some low-carb fruit) almost daily to stay out of ketosis. Sometime I was in ketosis though. (just because the body tends to burn up more carbs while pregnant) Atkins has said it is a great WOE to be on while pregnant! Just don't limit the healthy carbs or maybe think about trying more of a South Beach 'diet' since it doesn't limit veggies and whole grains/low-fat yogurt are engouraged.


Best wishes!!!

[passbud]

well, I just found out I am pregnant as well and hope to stay in Low Carb throughout. I am SCARED AS HELL of not being able to do it and gaining back the 100 lbs I lost...

I have added in fruits to pump up my carb numbers, but do I have to watch fat as well? Like, opt for leaner meats since my sugars have been increased?

[Elsah]

well, I just found out I am pregnant as well and hope to stay in Low Carb throughout. I am SCARED AS HELL of not being able to do it and gaining back the 100 lbs I lost...

I have added in fruits to pump up my carb numbers, but do I have to watch fat as well? Like, opt for leaner meats since my sugars have been increased?


Congrats on your pregnancy. :) I am pregnant too, this is my first LC pregnancy so I am just trying to figure it out as I go. Seems there is so little info out there on doing a LC pregnancy! I did drop my fat when I upped my carbs. I used the article on the atkins website as my rough guide one what to aim for when it came to carbs,calories, protein, etc. I am 24/25 weeks I think it is now and I have only gained back 10 lbs so far. So maybe I am doing something right. There are several of us mommies to be that are trying to figure out the lc pregnancy journey right now so you aren't alone. Best of luck!

JEnn

[tigersue]

I didn't drop fats when I upped my carb count. Remember being pregnant your metabolic needs go up, what the baby needs most is Fats, and protien. I lost weight during the pregnancy eating roughly 100 to 150 grams of Carbs a day. I had gestational diabetes. Don't worry too much, do what feels good, and eat well. Your body will be okay, and that baby will take what it needs. Keep exercising, I did prenatal pilates by Sarah Picot, The Firm Super body sculpting adapted, and fitmama, as well as walking. All that will help.
Tanya

[cranial33]

Thank you all for the great information and questions. My wife and I read through the threads/replies and are beginning to feel more at ease about our weight lose program and having children. It has been a great concern to both of us, since Atkins has been such a great program for us both. We have lost so much weight, and done it together. I know how difficult it would be for both of us if she were to go off the program to have our child. It is good to know that pregnancy and LC can go hand in hand.

[LUCKYLADY]

What a godsend this thread is.......I am scared out of my head!!!! I am just 5 weeks pg today and have been low carbing since January.....This way of life has made it possible for this baby I'm sure of it....I didn't think I could get pg again but after a 72 lb loss here I am pg once again and so scared of gaining weight back! I gained over 50 lbs with my son! I posted a new thread in this section and am anxiously awating replies!!! Congrats to all the new mommies/ mommies to be I'm so happy to be joining you!

[Elsah]

Congrats lucky! ;) you will find a few of us pregnant ladies lurking around the boards. :) I am now 27 weeks along, I have gained 12 lbs and everything is measuring perfect. My doctors are really pleased with my low carb diet as well.

Jenn

[LUCKYLADY]

Jen This gives me hope! I'm so glad I did some sniffing around and found you guys! Thanks and cograts to you also!