Staying Fit While Pregnant: Dieting

The key to bouncing back after pregnancy is in the effort you put into keeping your body healthy. Your lifestyle before pregnancy definitely affects the way your body will look after giving birth. If you were on the larger side before you got pregnant it's not a good idea to try to lose weight while pregnant. The best thing you can do is to eat well and strengthen your muscles which will allow everything else to flow naturally to getting your ideal body after pregnancy.

First things first, eating habits, how should you eat now that you're pregnant? Some say that you should eat for 2 but even a fully developed fetus doesn't need an adult sized meal. You shouldn't worry about adding extra calories until your second trimester because your baby isn't big enough to need or use any of it. 

• Your focus in the first trimester should be to eat normally if you already have a good diet. The only addition you should make to your diet is taking prenatal vitamins.
• During the second trimester you should eat more protein and calcium rich foods for the developing baby as well as building your own muscles (which will use the stored energy in the fat cells). You should add around 200 extra calories to your diet. But your diet shouldn't exceed too far beyond 2,000 calories. 

• During the third trimester you don't have to add more calories but you should eat as many nutrient rich foods as possible because your baby is now big enough to absorb a lot of it.

Now, for those of you dealing with morning sickness it may seem hard to eat at all. The best way to beat morning sickness is to eat and never get hungry. I've heard many people suggest crackers, ginger ale, and light snacks. I would recommend you eat slightly larger meals or more small meals to leave fewer gaps in between meals.

I hope this article has been helpful for you. I appreciate any feedback or suggestions. Thank you for reading.