Because pregnant women are "eating for two" it's easy to lose track of or ignore weight gain during gestitation. Not a good idea. For the first time since 1990, the government has weighed in with new guidelines on how many pounds women should gain during pregnancy. This is in line with previous studies that have determined that babies born to overweight mother are at greater risk of premature delivery; these infants are also more likely to become overweight or obese as they grow up.
The new guidelines, issued by the Institute of Medicine in late May, make the following recommendations for optimal weight gain during pregnancy:
• Underweight women with a body mass index (BMI) lower than 18.5 should gain 28-40 pounds.
• Women with a BMI between 18.5-24.9 should gain 25-35 pounds.
• Overweight women (with a BMI of 25-29.9) should gain 15-25 pounds.
• Obese women (with BMI of 30 or higher) should gain 11-20 pounds.
The new guidelines also call for better nutrition and exercise counseling for pregnant women and, most importantly, stress that pregnancy is not a time to lose weight. Rather, women are encouraged to get to a healthy weight prior to conceiving.
Source: September, 2009 IDEA Fitness Journal
Note: Are you not sure what your BMI is? You can visit the place where we do our monthly measurements -Nutrishop in Huntington Beach on Adams and Brookhurst and they will measure it for you for free on their special Tanita scale.
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