KickStart Fitness

A pregnant woman called to ask my opinion about this scenario:  Her doctor told her she needed to start gaining more weight.  Her husband, trying to do his part, drove her to a fast food restaurant insisting she drink a large milkshake and eat fries.  Unfortunately, there is rarely a discussion about nutrition during prenatal appointments.  The goal during pregnancy is to grow a healthy baby by eating enough nutrients.  There are almost no nutrients in French fries and a milkshake.  It is not necessary (or healthy) to pack on excessive body fat during pregnancy.  Eating junk food in a misguided effort to “gain weight” during pregnancy only exposes your baby to chemical additives, excessive sugar, and caffeine while starving him or her of the vitamins and minerals needed to grow. 

The current trend is that one in five women gain too much weight during pregnancy which increases the mother’s and baby’s risk of many complications from gestational diabetes, C-section, hypertension (I could go on and on).  I provide specific guidelines for weight gain along with a weight gain timeline in my book MOMMY FABULOUS.  Here, I want to highlight a factor that many pregnant women and healthcare professionals overlook.  As pregnancy progresses, your activity level decreases.  Even if you continue going to the gym for an hour a day as I did, your workouts won’t/can’t have the intensity they did during your first trimester.  Your everyday movements will become slower too.  Overall you will progressively burn less and less even if you are active.  If you ate only one extra banana and bowl of oatmeal a day, combine with the decrease in calories burned, you will gain enough weight.  In fact, many women find that it is difficult to not over-gain even on a strict, healthy diet.  Gaining an appropriate amount of weight is improtant for a healthy pregnancy, but it makes me nervous when I hear medical personnel tell women to eat more when they ask nothing about their activity level or give any guidance on what to eat or why they need more weight. 

Check out the Feb/March issue of Fit Pregnancy Magazine devoted to weight.  I share advice on staying motivated to exercise while pregnant in an article called ”Winterize Your Pregnancy” on page 76.

Above photo courtesy of Jayme Franklin Photography