Body Changes during Pregnancy and Weight GainThere are many body changes during pregnancy. An inevitable one is that pregnancy and weight gain go hand in hand, but this doesn't make it any easier for our body image during pregnancy in a culture where 'thin' is so revered. Suddenly you're fearful that you might never regain your pre-pregnancy figure. You're worried about what to eat, how much to eat, whether your tummy is growing too fast or too slow. About what you look like from the back and the side.  You wonder whether you should diet or not? Whether you should exercise, and if so how much? You wonder endlessly whether it's ok to eat blueberries, tomatoes, grapes and much more during pregnancy Yes, the body changes during pregnancy and weight gain come with a lot of uncertainty. At least they did for me. Here's what I wish I'd known about Pregnancy and Weight gain: Irene Borquin child-birth and postnatal educator and author of ‘The New Practical Pregnancy and Birth Book (Maskew Millar Longman) said what I wish I'd known about my pregnant body: "pregnant women need to know what is ‘baby building’ versus ‘fat building’."I mean let's face it, your body has to go through some pretty awesome changes.. Your clothing has to change along with pregnancy and weight gain, your ideas about yourself have to change... it's a pretty big transition to make.Now intellectually I knew that I was carrying twins and that a lot of what I was carrying was 'babies' but emotionally it was as if I couldn't access that knowledge - so my body critic just convinced me it was all fat I was growing. (Yes - I know sounds pretty dumb doesn't it?) What to expect regarding body changes during pregnancy To know what is the baby part of a pregnant body, says Irene, we need to take into account: the amniotic fluid,
uterus,
placenta,
the increased blood volume,
the increased percentage body fat (which needs to increase to between 25-30%),
the increased volume of the breasts.... plus
the weight of the growing fetus itself.As a rough guide, shorter and taller women with single pregnancies should expect to gain between 10-12 kg and 12-15kg of ‘baby’ respectively with a single pregnancy. During the first trimester your pregnancy weight gain should be between 1-2 kgs, and then about 500g per week for the rest of your pregnancy term.Body changes during Pregnancy and calories While I don't ever encourage calorie counting, I think I would have felt reassured to know that: during my first two trimesters I needed to eat approximately 630 additional kilojoules (150 kcal) per day - I didn't need to eat for two though and about 1260 kilojoules (300 kcal per day) during the third trimester. that these figures would need to be even higher if I was exercising as well and needed to eat more complex carbohydrates to replace the glycogen found in muscle which might be lost during exercise. Return from Body Changes during Pregnancy to female hormones
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