Reasonable to only gain 15lbs while pregnant?

[Blenders]

Hi all! I just found out I'm pregnant again! Yeah!
I gained 70 pounds during my last pregnancy and I refuse to do that again this time around. I plan on staying low-carb the whole way...but not as strict as I was doing to drop all the baby weight from before. My main source of carbs will be from fruit, and probably only one apple or one peach a day, making more of an allowance for low-carb fruit like berries. Along with that, I plan on eating lots of meat, eggs, some cheese and veggies, and a few nuts.
I'm still considered overweight at 180 lbs, so I've gone through a few calculators that say I only need to gain 15 lbs. during the whole pregnancy. I would be thrilled to only gain that much but I'm wondering if it is really realistic. This is daunting coming from a 70 lbs weight gain!
If I stay low carb throughout, is it really possible to only gain 15 lbs (maybe 20 lbs )? I know a lot of women succumb to carbs due to morning sickness, but I'm hoping to get through that phase carb-free (keeping my fingers crossed). Anyone do their pregnancy low-carb all the way and only gain the minimum amount of weight?

[duchesse]

I just found out I was pregnant too, I am looking forward to see what others have experienced.

[LC-Laur]

Congrats to both of you on your pregnancies! :)

I think anything is possible, so in theory I'm sure you could gain 15-20 lbs and stay pretty low-carb.

I don't have any personal experience with staying really low-carb, but I've been keeping it around 100 net carbs most days. I'll have some days at 50 or 75 and very rarely will have one around 125 or 150 (usually if I'm eating at a friends house or out, which isn't often). I've found that for me, I feel like crap if I'm not eating at least 75 net carbs most days. I don't know why, I'd been a good little low-carber for years, but I tried in the beginning to stay around 50 net carbs and I just didn't feel good. When I added more fruit, veggies, and the occasional whole grain, I felt great. Again, I'm not sure why. But every person is different.

Sorry I'm not more help. This is my first pregnancy and I'm just about to enter into my second trimester, so I'm not exactly experience central here. :lol:

Good luck to you!

[Blenders]

hi duchesse, congrats to you! when are you due? my due date is December 11, 2009.
Hi LC-Laur, thanks for the insight and congrats to you too!
We'll see what happens in the upcoming weeks/months. I'll be the guinea pig, so to speak. I'm really going to try to keep the weight gain between 15-20 lbs. Theoretically, I shouldn't gain any body fat while eating low carb, no matter how much I eat. But I don't know if that rule still applies while pregnant. I know the hormones are different, I'm not sure if insulin is affected by pregnancy in and of itself.
I'll keep things posted here.

[dearmommy]

My first baby I gained 80lbs because I used the pregnancy to justify eating whatever and whenever. My next one I gained only 11lbs and the last pregnancy I gained 9lbs. Normal pregnancies all around. Doctor wasn't worried about the little weight gain as I was quite overweight to start with and ate healthy(pre-lowcarb)whatever that means, lol.

[duchesse]

hi duchesse, congrats to you! when are you due? my due date is December 11, 2009.
Hi LC-Laur, thanks for the insight and congrats to you too!
We'll see what happens in the upcoming weeks/months. I'll be the guinea pig, so to speak. I'm really going to try to keep the weight gain between 15-20 lbs. Theoretically, I shouldn't gain any body fat while eating low carb, no matter how much I eat. But I don't know if that rule still applies while pregnant. I know the hormones are different, I'm not sure if insulin is affected by pregnancy in and of itself.
I'll keep things posted here.

Congratulations Blenders and LC-Laur and thanks for sharing your experiences dearmommy.

My due date is November 27th. So far, like you, I am keeping it mainly low carb with the addition of a variety of fruits but I am staying away from flour and sugar.

[lexypie]

I wasn't doing strictly LC when I was pregnant with my son but I was eating like a diabetic. I got GD very early in my pregnancy. I lost 12 pounds over the course of my pregnancy and didn't gain until the end. I delivered my son 5 pounds over my start weight. My doctor told me that if you are feeding your body in a healthy way it is ok if you lose weight but gain weight the last two months... which is the babies weight not so much yours. C

Congrats and GOOD luck!

[capmikee]

Don't worry about the scale - what's important is for you and your baby to be healthy. You don't need carbs for that, but you also don't need the stress of worrying about your weight.

[sadia]

hi i am pregnant too any tips on what to eat as i am a low carber my self and was on induction before i found out that i was pregnant please lis t the food item sthat will be great

[capmikee]

Most people whose reputations are on the line say to keep out of ketosis during pregnancy. However, I think this is more of a CYA policy than a severe warning.

I would say generally: listen to your body, avoid grains and frankenfoods, and eat what you feel like. Meat and fat will give you what you need - egg yolks, butter and organ meats are especially good sources of nutrients needed in pregnancy.

You may crave carbs. It seems like a good idea for the most part to eat what you're craving when you're pregnant. If you're not sure about something you're craving, ask yourself - is it something that would make you feel better, or will eating it just lead to more cravings?

[LC-Laur]

hi i am pregnant too any tips on what to eat as i am a low carber my self and was on induction before i found out that i was pregnant please lis t the food item sthat will be great

Congratulations on your pregnancy!!

There's really no set formula for pregnancy. Everyone has something different to say about what you *should* be eating. I think you need to try to listen to your body (hard after years of dieting, I really struggled with this in the beginning) and eat accordingly. It's important that you get plenty of protein (at least 75 g per day is what I've heard recommended, but who knows who came up with that number), plenty of fat, and some carbohydrates from veggies, some fruit, and maybe some whole grains. But really no one can tell you what exactly to eat. I figure as long as you're not eating junk food or fast food every day and gaining like a mad woman, you're good. Whole, fresh food is always best.

I write out what I eat nearly every day in my journal and My P.L.A.N., so you are more than welcome to skim back over the last four months and see what I've been eating. Most days I think I stay pretty dang healthy, but I definitely have days where I eat some bad things - but I never lie about it. I just list it in there and go about my business.

Good luck and I hope to hear more from you around here!

[Malishka31]

if you only gain 15 pounds during pregnancy it would imply you lost body fat because the placenta, fluid and baby will weight right around 15 pounds at the very least, so you basically gain nothing or drop a bit of weight.

[jschwab]

"Most people whose reputations are on the line say to keep out of ketosis during pregnancy. However, I think this is more of a CYA policy than a severe warning. "

Hey hubby, this is actually no true. Mainstream dogma is that ketosis is perfectly fine during pregnancy - it's the alternative health people and midwives who think it's bad due to the possibility of releasing fat-stored toxins into the placenta. But I think this is kind of bunk and you know I was in ketosis my whole pregnancies from nausea.

[KvonM]

blenders & duchesse, i'm smack dab between the two of you... due december 4th/5th (depending on whose charts you use).

blenders, my first time around i had just lost 70lbs on low carb and kept it off for a year. when i got pregnant, i swore that i'd only gain 20lbs, no more, because pregnancy was not an acceptable excuse to eat anything i wanted anytime i wanted.

by 18 weeks i'd only gained 8lbs. then we found out it was twins and my midwife, doctor, and entire nursing staff freaked out. they threw the rules out the window as i gained 70 MORE pounds over the next 20 weeks. they were making sure the babies were growing and healthy, and since my blood labs kept coming back normal, they ignored my weight gain.

the good news is that the babies were born perfectly healthy and were well into normal singleton baby weight when i had them. the bad news was that i've never been able to fully lose all the weight i gained with them. for the sake of the children, the skinny jeans were lost.

this time around i'm not letting the same thing happen. my doctor is apparently a real stickler about weight (i have my first appointment with her in about 2 weeks... i had the preliminary visit with the NP), so my intent this time is to break even by the time i'm done. and fortunately, she's a big advocate of low-carbing even during pregnancy.

the challenge i'm running into is what my stomach is willing to handle. the nurse said to go for protein instead of carbs when nausea hits, but honestly i can't bring myself to get meat. everything tastes and smells off. it's becoming a case of my stomach dictating what i eat instead of my brain, and unfortunately the stomach is going to win every time.

so for now, i eat low-carb when i know my stomach can handle it (or at the very least when i'm not blatantly nauseous), but if the only thing that sounds even remotely edible is a cinnamon graham cracker or a bunch of ice-cold grapes or the pint of ben & jerry's cherry garcia or a couple of twizzlers, then for right now, so be it.

[duchesse]

Congratulations KvonM! How nice to see others due around the same time. :) I hope your nausea subsides soon.

I am eating around 100 grams a day, mostly coming from fruit and veggies. Are you trying to keep your carb intake at a certain number?

[Blenders]

Hi all! Good to see this thread is still active. Well, I just wanted to post an update. I've just entered my 10th week and the nausea has been in full swing for a few weeks now. It has been much worse this time than it was with my 1st. Consequently, the low-carbing has gone out the window. I'm really having trouble finding things to eat and I see that I'm actually losing a few pounds despite the increased carbs. This is quite a change from my first pregnancy when I ate everything, had minimal nausea, and was up 15 lbs by now. I'm trying to get back to low-carbing, I'm just taking it one meal at the time. This morning I made some Oopsie pancakes and sausages. Those were pretty good. The nausea really kicks in by afternoon/evening which causes me to skip dinner or eat very little.
Unfortunately, I've taking up the bad habit of drinking soda (ginger ale) to ease my queasiness. I'm gonna try to wean myself off with some sparkling water mixed with lemons/limes/orange juice. But it's just doesn't hit the spot like the ginger ale does.
How are the rest of the preggos doing?

[LC-Laur]

At least your in your 10th week, which means you should just about be over the morning sickness!!!

Ooh, I forgot about Oopsie Rolls... :yum: Might have to whip out a batch of those this weekend!

I'm doing well. I'm going to be 19 weeks already tomorrow!!! I cannot believe how fast time has been flying by! I have a doctors appointment too. I was *supposed* to find out the gender last week when I had a sonogram at the hospital, but I was informed that they made a new policy that they can no longer disclose the sex of the baby. I was so bummed out! Now I have to wait for my doctor to find time to do it, she's thinking sometime in mid-June. I'm hoping if I give her puppy dog eyes tomorrow, she'll find the time to do it (though I doubt it). I'm up 10 lbs so far, which is right on track, so I'm happy. I've been eating well. I'm not eating super low carb or anything. Lately I've been around 100 net carbs a day, give or take a few, but I'm going to get a little more strict on myself now and keep it lower. Still, most of my carbs are coming from fruit, beans, and the occasional whole grain - so it's not like I'm eating junk. But I want to make sure that after I have the baby I am able to get back on track pretty quickly, instead of craving carbs like crazy.

[capmikee]

Lucozade is a British energy drink that contains only glucose, no fructose. It has a little caffeine, but less than most other sodas. I just checked if you can get it in the United States and it looks like you can order it on Amazon.

Ginger is good for nausea. One of the few places in the world where morning sickness is not a problem is Jamaica. Ginger is the national crop and everybody smokes pot!

You can make your own fresh, low-carb, fermented ginger beer pretty simply, though it uses a LOT of ginger. Let me see if I can find the thread:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=7744460#post7744460