This is my first pregnancy, so I'm hoping those who have been through this can offer some wisdom. I'm currently in that first trimester food aversion-nausea-hunger-heartburn wasteland.. I had NO IDEA. You hear about some people supposedly avoiding morning sickness completely due to their LC WOEs, but no such luck here. Things that were staple foods for me before just aren't working. Breakfast, especially, is rough, now that eggs are making my stomach turn (and then some). At this point I've resorted to bread, which I hadn't eaten in months. I didn't really want to go there and I'm nervous about it being a 'gateway carb', but the thing is, I can get it down, keep it down, and it makes me feel better!

What did you all do at this point? What LCish foods were palatable to you? Or did you end up doing a 'whatever it takes' approach to getting through the worst of morning sickness, and just try to keep it within reason?

Thanks!!

Hi Verde,

I really feel with you and I hope this is just a short phase of Morning sickness. I have been low carb for years and just gave birth 2 wks. ago. Yes, I know exactly what you are going through as I had months of food aversion, nausea, heart burn, etc. Yes, I did stray from low carb off and on, but stayed rather semi-low carb when I could. I had lots of Granny smith apples, whole grain high fiber bread, Sweet Potatoes. I found that the higher the amount of fiber I ingested the better I felt. There were days where I only ate a plain baked potato (not low carb at all), but I had to survive this phase. Please do not sweat it, just hang in there, & when you can try to be at least semi-low carb when you can.

As healthy as I ate it paid off, I only gained 15 lbs, my entire pregnancy & I went back to my pre-pregnancy weight and even lost 5lbs. within one week. So just hang in there, you can do it!

I wish you well and all I can say it sooooooo worth it to have a little angel in your arms, congrats!

for lowcarbing to prevent morning sickness, dr fox says to take in less than 20 grams of carbs per day. i had a look at your journal and you said you've been eating beans/hummus, nuts, plantains!!

i couldnt go near foods like that without triggering nausea and vomiting in the early days of my pregnancy. i had to stay vlc to prevent the morning sickness.

When I first found out I was pregnant, I was already about 7-8 weeks along, and I had NOT been low-carbing (actually found out I was pregnant shortly after returning from a week-long vacation to San Diego and sure wasn't concerned about what I was eating while I was away!). So, some of the very first symptoms I had that triggered me to test for pregnancy were food aversions (Diet Pepsi had been my FAVORITE and suddenly repulsed me), taste changes (most cheeses were suddenly way too salty for me to eat plain/alone), and some nausea.

However, I knew low-carbing is what I wanted for me and baby during pregnancy, so I started eating just meats, cheeses, eggs (breakfast-style eggs weren't appealing, but I liked deviled eggs), and non-starchy veggies. I'm not gonna lie - I didn't WANT to eat those foods most of the time. But, within about a week of sticking to it, my nausea was completely gone, and even other symptoms started to go away (my breasts had been very sore and started to feel better).

After I'd say about 1.5-2 weeks of sticking to it, I felt like a completely normal non-pregnant person. I actually complained many times that I hated being pregnant because it was frustrating that I KNEW a baby was growing in there, but I had NOTHING to feel or show for it - no symptoms, no weight gain, no nothin'!

And now I'm just over 31 weeks along, baby's size at last ultrasound measured in the 28th percentile (normal), and the perinatologist who reviewed my ultrasounds seemed disappointed because she didn't have anything to say other than that everything looks perfectly healthy and normal.

Around Halloween, I fell off the wagon BIG time - stupid candy! I haven't been back on track much since then. And that's about when I started gaining weight and feeling super tired. I don't think it's a coincidence. I need to get back on board!

I really feel for you!!!! I just finished my first trimester of my third pregnancy. The first two, I had nausea, but it was manageable and didn't hamper my lifestyle. I was only eating semi-low carb. This time around...totally different ball game. I was very low carb, averaging 15-20 carbs. I had just come back from a visit to America and was wanting to take off travel weight and to get my head back in the game. Surprise! Pregnant. I started puking my guts up. I some days, all I could eat was deviled eggs or chicken breast, only to throw it up. I tried just eating meat, but it usually didn't stay in my stomach more than a minute or two. So, I too resorted to eating carbs. I lived on apples, which usually stayed down and cheese. I did eat some bites of rice, which usually stayed down. I was so dehydrated that even water wouldn't stay down. Now, I tell you all that because (well part of me likes to whine, I guess) because I want to remind you that this will not last forever. Try going very low carb, but if you are not able to tolerate it, like me, then do what you need to do. I just wouldn't recommend eating to soothe nausea. I did that with my second child and I gained too much weight, in my opinion--36 pounds, but 29 according to the doctor. Anyway, just take care and survive. As soon as you are able to resume a low carb lifestyle, get back on track. I've been back for about a week, but probably could have 2-3 weeks ago. I've only gained 2 pounds and I'm 17 weeks. Of course, puking regularly for 9 weeks probably contributed more to that low number than my self-control. Hang in there. It will pass!

I'm honestly beginning to believe it is just about what the baby wants. For some that's carbs, for others (like me) very few carbs.

I am 6 weeks pregnant. No MS yet, but I do have nauseous feelings. Those feelings get fifty times worse when I eat over 50 carbs a day. I splurged last night on carbs (aka a california roll and gluten free brownie with a little almond dream ice cream) and almost lost it. Not only did my energy decline severely, but I felt extremely sick.

But if you have been eating plantains and beans, then you probably should cut that out for awhile and see if that helps. While I'm not crazy about food in general right now, I stick to mostly meat and healthy fats like butter and coconut oil.

Thanks, ladies!! It's helpful to get a variety of viewpoints. I was hopeful in the beginning that eating LC would help me avoid all this, but I'm with paleogirly at this point- there really seems to be a lot of individual variation involved, and what works/what's needed for one woman might not be true for the next. My carb levels pre-m/s were just as low as those of some other women (outside of this site) that have attributed their LC/paleo eating to avoiding symptoms, but it didn't work out that way for me! If I tried to go VLC my aversions at this point are such that I just wouldn't be able to eat (hell, since the onset of all of this at about 6.5 weeks, I can't handle the smell of cooking food, so I'm not even sure how I'd try!). On the bright side, I've lost my taste for sweets, too.. Maybe aversions aren't all bad

Jill, I love that you were able to buckle down! (And a big AMEN to complaining about hating being pregnant, though for different reasons here!) Brandy, you're (hopefully) right about this being temporary, and as soon as I can handle meat and all that again I plan to get back on track. And koolaunt, in the meantime your approach sounds really balanced- you did what you needed to do to get through the worst of it, but kept things in check. Thanks for the encouragement, everyone, and continued good wishes for staying happy and healthy throughout your pregnancies and/or raising of little ones!

I didn't find out I was pg until almost 8 weeks. I was still trying to lose weight and was pretty low carb at that point. My m/s hit about the time I found out I was pg and lasted until about 12 weeks. I also found that about the only things I could keep down were carbs. Once the 2nd trimester hit, I did have some trouble getting motivated to go back to low carb, but was able to eventually. I added more things like sweet potatoes and carrots. I wish I had been able to stay low carb the whole time, but my Dr was more concerned that I keep some food down.