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Gaining weight is one of the many “inevitable” side effects of pregnancy. However, it doesn’t mean you have got a free reign to eat junk. In fact, it’s probably never more important to be careful with your diet and avoid certain foods than during your pregnancy.
Some may argue that it probably isn’t really worth it as you’re going to gain weight anyway. While it may be true to a certain extent, you need to keep in mind that there’s always a limit to how much weight you’re supposed to gain. Similarly, you may also want to note the fact that it’s incredibly difficult, if not almost impossible, to lose all the weight you gain during this period.
Hence, you may want to be really careful about how much weight you gain during your pregnancy, as some (or most) of it may just refuse to go away even after your pregnancy.
While it is a bad idea to starve yourself, it is best to just steer clear of certain “scary” foods out there that would otherwise make you gain weight and look fatter than you’re supposed to be during your pregnancy.
So without further ado, let’s take a look at those foods.
Foods Containing Sugar and Junk Carbs
Foods containing sugar and junk carbs have been proven to lead to an increase in weight and more fluids during pregnancy. Such foods include pasta, breakfast cereals, white bread and pretty much all kinds of baked products.
These foods would be broken down into sugar by your body, meaning that they would bring about almost the same results as raw sugar. The excess blood sugar would then be converted into fat, and unless you manage to burn it in time (which is very unlikely), it will end up getting deposited around your adipose, which is exactly near your stomach (hence making you look fat).
On top of that, these foods don’t even let your body use this fat as fuel, hence leaving it with no choice but to find its way to your adipose.
Foods Rich in Trans Fats
Trans fats are considered quite harmful not only during pregnancy, but also before and after it, or pretty much at any point of your life for that matter! While some of these foods may seem “irresistible”, they are actually mostly “empty” calories. This means that they don’t support your body in any way, but can result in a significant increase in your weight.
Furthermore, as a study concluded, they may even be harmful for your baby, and this means you just cannot afford to take the risk. During the study, mothers-to-be that ate such foods in their second trimester saw their babies’ fetal growth increase considerably, but in a bad way. It was also found this could lead to many complications for large babies, including preterm labor.
While there’s actually a long list of foods rich in trans fats, some of the popular ones include cookies, frozen pizza, fried foods, crackers, frosting, margarine, pie and pie crusts, pancakes, and many more.
Finally, though the AHA recommends limiting your trans fats intake to less than 1 percent of your total calories, it would actually be wiser to avoid it completely. It doesn’t do any good to your health anyway.
An Important Note
Well, besides the information shared above, you may want to note that if you enter your pregnancy with the right weight, you may want to restrict your weight gain to no more than 25-35 pounds.
However, these numbers tend to vary quite a bit if you don’t have a healthy bodyweight when you get pregnant. The underweight mothers-to-be may expect to gain around 40 pounds, while the overweight ones will have to be very careful with their weight gain, as it isn’t recommended for them to gain more than 20 pounds.
But again, these are just some rough numbers and you need not panic if you gain more weight. Many women gain weight in the range of 45 to 60 pounds and still don’t come across any pregnancy issues.
A Final Word
While you may obviously want to stay away from the above mentioned foods, it may not be enough to keep your weight under check. Learn to curb those food cravings and stay at a healthy weight throughout the pregnancy.
If you find that you’re gaining weight faster than you should, you may want to consider doing some exercises, eating smaller meals, or resorting to a diet more focused on fruits and vegetables. But before you think of doing anything drastic, you must contact your physician as they will guide you towards good decisions.