Is It Safe To Lose Weight During Pregnancy?
Congratulations on getting pregnant!
The stork had visited you, and it is time to look at expanding your home team. You will now fall into one of these two categories – the ones who don’t care about how they look and the ones who do!
Managing weight during pregnancy is nothing short of a challenge. You may find yourself in a hopeless situation of no appetite in the first trimester, thanks to morning sickness. If you are pregnant and losing weight at an alarming rate, don’t worry! Here is everything you need to know about this pregnancy related issue – unhealthy weight loss, effects of weight loss on your growing baby, and effective measures to counter this concern.
Is It Safe To Lose Weight During Pregnancy?
Losing or gaining weight has a natural course of its own during pregnancy. The morning sickness during the first trimester early on will make you lose your appetite. It automatically makes you shed a few pounds. You will see a sudden urge to indulge in the following two trimesters and more than make for the initial weight loss. It is a healthy way of losing and gaining weight during pregnancy.
[ Read: Causes Of Low Birth Weight Baby ]
Unhealthy Weight Loss:
Losing more than what you were supposed to should ring some alarms. Shedding more weight than expected while nauseous is not considered to be healthy. It happens mostly at the onset of the first trimester because of morning sickness.
The best way to deal with this crisis is to watch your weight. If you think you are going on an anorexic overdrive, there is something wrong.
[ Read: Nausea During Pregnancy ]
Effects Of Weight Loss On Your Growing Baby:
It is well known that what you eat will largely determine the health of your growing baby. It is an important factor to be mindful about even in your first trimester, when the possibility of a miscarriage is high. Your undernourished body can cause significant growth defects in your baby:
- Your child may be born underweight.
- Chances of miscarriage due to anorexia in the first trimester are high.
- Lesser amount of amniotic fluid formed due to lesser nutrition.
- Your baby’s cognitive function may be impaired.
- Your baby may be born smaller in size.
[ Read: Fruits To Eat During Pregnancy ]
Consult Your Doctor:
Once you have identified the definite signs of weight loss, consult your gynecologist without any further delay.
- A thorough health check up may be required to evaluate and understand what is causing weight loss.
- If there are secondary causes for weight loss other than morning sickness, your doctor will diagnose and treat the same.
Measures To Treat Weight Loss During Pregnancy:
While your doctor will prescribe the necessary supplements of iron and folate, there are things that you must ensure from your end to understand how to lose weight safely during pregnancy:
- Make sure you consume the prescribed supplements on time.
- Eat healthy and balanced meals.
- Your everyday diet should cover equal proportions of vitamins, essential minerals and fiber to ensure a healthy pregnancy.
- If you feel extremely nauseous during the first trimester, try and lower the iron dose after consulting your doctor.
- Never have an empty stomach for the fear of morning sickness. Check what stimulates your appetite and eat little portions of the same. Empty stomach causes nausea in turn, making things worse.
- Try few simple yet effective home-tested remedies like chewing ginger and ginger based candies to feel better.
- You can also opt for acupressure wrist bands available in the market. These are said to get rid of queasy sensation.
- Eating large meals can cause queasiness. Try switching to smaller meals.
- You can resort to options like fruit, cookies and energy bars in case nothing else works to satiate your condition.
[ Read: Pregnancy Diet Chart ]
Feeling great comes from within. Do not worry about gaining weight while you are pregnant. As your pregnancy progresses, you are constantly trying to watch what you eat. There is no telling when the cravings takeover the game, and you start putting sinful things into your mouth. The inevitable cycle of gaining weight and feeling guilty follows.
If you are planning to take on those culpable pangs and vying to lose weight, we suggest you take a step back and contemplate. Ensure you manage your weight well. Eating right is more important than eating for two. Talk to your doctor today to understand more options with healthy weight and pregnancy.
Hope by now you might have known whether is it safe to lose weight during pregnancy if overweight. Do you have a personalized weight loss story of your own? Do not hesitate to share with other moms here.
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