How do I try and limit my weight gain during pregnancy?

It's really easy to become obsessed over weight-gain when you're pregnant. Especially if you were a super fit and healthy person before, it's hard to see the numbers on the scale rise. But depending on your pre-pregnancy weight, especially if you're within a normal range, you need to gain weight. That's really important to the health of your body and your growing baby. So it's OK. Take a deep breath and know that it's OK to gain weight. You did say that you're a little bit concerned, your doctor was concerned, because at your last appointment, you went in and you had gained 10 pounds since your last appointment, which was a month ago. They told you to really watch it, and not gain much weight for the rest of the pregnancy. But it almost sounds like you're already starving yourself and not eating very many calories each day.

You're wondering what do you do to stop it. A lot of women, including myself, notice that between 24-28 weeks gestation, they seem to gain a lot of weight. I'm a Labor & Delivery nurse, and we sit around and talk about these things at work. Many of us were told to gain less weight at this point in our pregnancy. For whatever reason, a lot of women see a lot of jump. I gained 8 pounds, and they told me to eat healthier snacks, and I was already eating really well. But up to that point, if you haven't gained a lot of weight, it has more to do with your overall total.

Let's say that you were at a normal weight before you got pregnant. You actually should gain 25-35lbs. So if up to your 28 week appointment, you only gained 10lbs and then you gained another 10 in that month, your total up to this point is 20lbs. That means that you have a range of about another 5-15lbs that you could put on and still be within a healthy range. You mentioned that you have 9 weeks left, and so that would put you at about a target goal. So that's OK. Don't stress out too much about it. Just do what you can to be as healthy as possible. Make sure that you're consuming enough calories.

What you need to do is search for an online basal metabolic rate calculator. It will ask you some questions like your gender, your weight, your height. Based on that information, it will tell you how many calories your body needs everyday to survive. If you were to lay in bed all day, how many calories does your body need to function and do basic things? Let's say, for you, that's 1400 calories. When you're pregnant, you need 300 extra calories a day. So you would need a minimum of 1700 calories. It sounds like you've been eating even less than that. Make sure you're consuming enough, so that your needs and your baby's needs are being met.

Exercise is another important part of the puzzle. If you've been exercising up to this point, continue with the routines you've been doing, trying to get about 30min of moderately intense exercise on 4-5 days of the week, if you can. If you haven't been exercising, then you can start now by walking. Just go for a walk for 15min today, and see how it goes. If it goes well, do it again tomorrow. Continue with it for a week or so, and then incrementally increase the amount of time you spend walking. Pick up the pace a little bit so that you're working your way towards about 30min of quick walking on most days of the week. Of course, watch your body closely. If you start to cramp, or you have a lower backache, or spot and bleed, stop what you're doing, rest, and call and let your doctor know. Exercise is actually very beneficial for you and your baby as long as you're having an uncomplicated pregnancy.

Another concern you have is that in the last day, you've gained 2lbs, and you're wondering where is all of this coming from? It could just be extra fluid, because at this point in pregnancy, your body is putting on extra fluid in order to feed your baby, meet your body's needs, and to plan for losing blood at the time of delivery. So it's normal to have about 5 to 8 pounds of extra fluid just from that. There's a couple of other thoughts that I had. One is the possibility of constipation. If you're constipated, that can make someone's weight fluctuate pounds in a matter of days. In addition, dehydration can make you retain fluid. A lot of women think that if they're retaining fluid, then they should stop drinking water because it will make the problem worse, but actually, the reverse is true. If you start to drink water and you're better hydrated, then you'll start to shed all that extra fluid your body is holding onto, because hormones are telling you to hold onto it because you're dehydrated. So make sure that, at a minimum, you're drinking 8-10 tall glasses each day.

If you have more questions or concerns about weight-gain, don't hesitate to talk with your doctor, who can give you the best advice, based on their knowledge of your circumstances, like how much weight you've gained total thus far, and what your pre-pregnancy weight was.