While expecting a child, many women experience changes in their bodies and, in particular, changes in appetite. Appetite in the early stages of pregnancy either disappears completely or comes with some oddities that are unique to pregnant women. These may be addictions to certain foods or combinations of products that are striking in their originality. So, first you want fresh strawberries in the middle of winter and certainly at night, another time vanilla ice cream with pickles.
It is not uncommon to experience a sharp aversion to a particular product. Most often it is fish, meat products, cottage cheese. Moreover, you used to enjoy this type of food, but now you can’t even look at it. This is a normal situation in the early stages, and you just need to endure the “unpleasant moments”, which usually disappear after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
However, despite some pregnant women’s aversion to food, others’ appetite flares up so much that they want to eat more and more food throughout the day. Doctors usually explain this manifestation of an enviable appetite by the growth and development of the fetus. Increased appetite in the early stages of pregnancy is not a whim at all, but a natural reaction of your body to hormonal imbalance, which determines the increase in food intake and its variety. Women expecting a child seem to intuitively feel what type of food they need, in what quantity and how often. However, this is not always the right food, and you should stick to a special diet for pregnant women, excluding fast food, some processed foods and foods loaded with chemical additives. If you have an increased appetite and prefer unusual combinations of foods, you can try to create your own individual diet, taking into account your personal taste preferences.
The important thing is that a woman’s desire to eat any product is a signal of a lack of vital elements. If you, for example, have a calcium deficiency, then you strive to compensate for it by consuming an excessive amount of dairy and fermented milk products, and if there is not enough sodium, then your main food will be foods such as cheese, celery, carrots, and seaweed. A lack of iron in the body will be expressed in the consumption of apples, pomegranates, and chalk. I would also like to note that the majority of all pregnant women suffer from anemia, which is precisely characterized by poor iron (hemoglobin) levels. If you have anemia, then for the health of your unborn baby, in addition to iron-containing foods, you need to take special medications prescribed by your gynecologist, and it is better to start taking medications in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Eating too much sweets while expecting a baby can significantly improve your mood, but you should know that this can gradually lead to a drop or rise in blood sugar levels and, in the future, to the development of diabetes and obesity. Therefore, you need to approach food consumption wisely, take into account the nutritional properties of each ingredient and do not forget about additional vitamins.

Many pregnant women have an increased appetite. As a result, the woman gains extra pounds. However, what causes the feeling of hunger during early pregnancy? Let's try to figure it out together.

A constant desire to eat something during pregnancy is considered mostly normal. Since a woman during this period needs a lot of calories to bear a healthy baby. However, doctors say that the main reason for the “wolfish” appetite lies in psychology.

It's all because of estrogen. When the level of this hormone increases in the female body, the brain receives a signal that it is time to eat something. A person’s emotional state also depends on the level of estrogen. This is why pregnant women experience constant mood swings and strange taste preferences. In the middle of winter, a girl may want strawberries or watermelons.

However, there is another factor in increased appetite. A woman, bearing a fetus, begins to think that she now needs to eat for two. However, this belief is wrong. After all, the daily diet should increase by three hundred to four hundred calories, depending on the trimester.

A constant feeling of hunger can be overcome, just follow some rules. The nutritional recommendations are absolutely safe and can be used by every woman. But we still recommend consulting with your doctor.

• As a snack, it is best to use natural and healthy foods: vegetables, fruits, muesli or cereal cookies.
• Instead of white bread, it is better to eat whole grains.
• Try to eat small portions, but often.
• Drink more fluids; you may feel thirsty instead of feeling hungry.
• Avoid eating sour and too salty foods.
• Eat meat. This product will help you keep you feeling full for a long time.
• Don't forget about foods high in calcium.
• Try to find a hobby that takes your mind off food.

Weight gain during pregnancy

Don't starve yourself or go on strict diets. This will have a bad effect on the health of the unborn child. A woman must gain kilos during pregnancy. The following indicators are considered the norm:

• If you were underweight before pregnancy, then during pregnancy you should gain 13-18 kilograms.
• Normal weight moms should gain between 11 and 16 kilograms.
• Overweight women gain 7-11 kilograms.
• In case of obesity, normal weight gain during pregnancy is considered to be 5-9 kilograms.

There are a number of foods that are not recommended for pregnant women to consume. Forbidden foods include:

• all types of smoked meats and pickles;
• marinades and hot sauces;
• fast food, including crackers and chips;
• seafood and citrus fruits, since these foods are allergens;
• flour products in large quantities;

As we already said, feeling hungry during pregnancy is quite normal. You need to accept this factor and try to adapt to it. However, gluttony may also indicate illness. These include: peptic ulcers, diabetes mellitus, hyperthyroidism.

As a rule, expectant mothers know about their diseases in advance. In case of illness, hunger elimination occurs in a different way and is of a medicinal nature.

The promotion of an ideal image of women through the media and the obsession with their appearance lead to the fact that some women find it difficult to accept the fact that their figure changes during pregnancy. Lack of self-acceptance pushes some women to take drastic measures. Is fasting appropriate during pregnancy? Is it possible to ignore food? Absolutely not!

A lot has been said and written on the topic of fasting, and there are still many very different points of view on this issue. Among the many advantages and disadvantages of refusing food, there is still one indisputable point: fasting should not be practiced by pregnant women and nursing mothers.

Sometimes malnutrition is not a healing procedure at all. It happens that ladies simply ignore certain dishes, hoping that providing the body with fewer calories will save them from gaining weight. Skipping meals also occurs due to negligence, forgetfulness or constant busyness. However, whatever the reason, this behavior can have serious consequences for the developmental health of the fetus and even health problems later in the child's life.

Fasting during pregnancy: negative consequences for women and children

The body, deprived of sufficient amounts of nutrients, begins to rebel. The expectant mother develops a severe headache, and problems associated with cardiovascular diseases, if any, worsen; Kidney stones and hypertension may develop. In general, fasting can lead to exhaustion of the body (depending on its duration), which leads to vitamin deficiency, protein and fat deficiency. This is unacceptable for an expectant mother! A diet that is too strict weakens the body, often causing a feeling of chronic fatigue, and sometimes even leading to depression, which is also completely unnecessary for women carrying a child.

What do experts say about the consequences for a child of fasting during their mother's pregnancy? Researchers from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands found that hunger in the first weeks of pregnancy has a significant impact on a child's health even into adulthood. From their research it follows that ignoring food can lead to genetic changes, the result of which will come back to haunt you in adulthood. The study authors concluded that children who are undernourished during the first ten weeks of pregnancy have some characteristic differences in genes compared to their siblings of the same sex. “Starving” children had fewer substances that control the amount of protein synthesized by cells.

A mother's use of a hunger strike during pregnancy can increase the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, the birth of a low-weight baby, and lead to future diseases of the nervous system: depression, mental disorders, and poorer brain development. Hunger in the early stages of pregnancy (the first trimester) can affect brain development and is associated with the risk of developing addictions and disorders in the future, such as schizophrenia.

At the same time, fasting does not solve the problem of extra pounds for the expectant mother. Most often, weight loss associated with malnutrition occurs due to the burning of muscle tissue instead of fat and ridding the body of water (due to non-absorption of carbohydrates).

Pregnant women should not starve – what should you do?

Active weight loss in an interesting position is excluded, but excessive weight gain also does not benefit either the mother or the baby. What to do?

As in many areas of life, the key is moderation. To lose weight, you need to eat, but eat healthy. In this context, it seems clear that proper nutrition, providing the necessary amount of calories and nutrients, is the basis for the health of both mother and child. It is also worth remembering that you should not skip meals, but you should try to balance them. Weight gain during pregnancy is an absolutely normal phenomenon, and there is no need to protect yourself from it, remembering that on average body weight gain ranges from 11-13 kg. There will still be time to lose weight after pregnancy, but now you need to think about something completely different.

When conceiving a child, a woman may already have an increased sense of appetite in the early stages. How to get rid of hunger and maintain your figure?

Increased appetite in the early stages of pregnancy The constant desire to eat is explained by changes in hormonal levels. As the fetus develops, estrogen production decreases and progesterone production increases. Progesterone affects the appetite of the expectant mother. For many women it decreases, while for others it increases. What influences the growth of appetite?

Hormones

The main reason is progesterone. Its production prepares the body for bearing a fetus. The walls of the uterus begin to thicken and the muscles relax. This happens for a favorable birth and to avoid miscarriage.

The body begins preparations for bearing a child, which consists of accumulating subcutaneous fat in case the woman does not receive the required amount of important substances on time. A pregnant girl regularly saturates her body. A feeling of hunger begins in the first three months.

We must not forget that organisms are individual, some pregnant women do not eat every half hour, others lose their appetite.

According to women who have given birth, signs of pregnancy begin from the first days of fertilization, and from the same period, attitudes towards food change.

Emotional state

The news of an unplanned pregnancy evokes emotions in every girl. Some have the habit of relieving stress by eating, which leads to increased appetite, while others are so immersed in thoughts due to unexpected news that they forget about food. Women can also react to a planned pregnancy.

Most girls are sure that the presence of a fetus in the body requires food for two. Those girls who, due to problems with excess weight, denied themselves certain foods, lean on food. After conception, such women justify their appetite by pregnancy.

Not all expectant mothers feel hungry all the time.

A pregnant woman in the first trimester suffers from toxicosis and vomiting, which causes an aversion to any food.

Changes in appetite occur for two reasons:

• changes in hormones;
• psychological mood.

Appetite in the second and third trimesters

In early pregnancy, the cause is a change in the level of progesterone in a woman’s body. After normalization of progesterone levels, the appearance of hunger is explained by a lack of nutrients in the body. If the substances are not supplied in the required quantities, an increased appetite will haunt the pregnant woman until childbirth. Why does your appetite increase during pregnancy?

Before identifying the reasons for your growing appetite, you need to figure out what you want more. Preferences stop at salty, sweet, fatty, sour and starchy. How to get rid of this and bring your diet back to normal? Why do you need sweets?

At the beginning of the first trimester, insulin begins to be actively produced in the blood, which leads to a decrease in blood sugar levels and a desire to eat sweets. After eating sweets, a woman’s desire to snack disappears. But this period does not last long, and everything repeats itself.

1. To maintain sugar levels, it is better to stick to healthy sweets: marshmallows, marmalade, honey, dried fruits, a little black or dark chocolate.
2. The reason is not only the production of insulin. After conception, women experience a deficiency of magnesium and phosphorus. To remove hunger, add nuts, seeds, broccoli, and spinach to the diet.

Why do you want salty and sour?

The reason for the desire to eat salty foods is also progesterone. It relaxes the muscles of the uterus. This leads to a deterioration in blood flow in the vessels, which provokes weakness in the pregnant woman. Consuming salt increases blood pressure.

Based on this, the body needs a volume of salt to normalize overall health. An increased need for salty and sour foods appears in the first weeks. When progesterone returns to normal, the feeling of hunger disappears.

• If the need for salt does not disappear in the middle and end of pregnancy, then this is a sign of a lack of chlorides in the body. It can be taken from fish, seeds, nuts, milk.
• Drink the required amount of water per day.

Why is there not enough fat?

Due to changes in blood glucose levels, the body requires fatty products. This is necessary to normalize the amount of fatty acids or vitamins A, D. Fatty foods help bring sugar levels back to normal. This is explained by the fact that the more caloric a product is, the longer it takes to break down.

• Add pumpkin, flaxseed or sesame oils to your food.

Why is flour required?

If a pregnant woman eats buns, baked goods, bread, her body needs nitrogen. If you feel hungry, you don’t need to try to remove it with buns or cakes.

• Add protein to the menu, which is found in meat, fish, legumes, etc.
• For faster blood circulation, a pregnant woman needs to increase physical activity.
• For this purpose, there are trainings for pregnant women, where they show available exercises.

How to overcome your appetite

• Kefir. Its use helped in the fight against toxicosis and hunger. If your appetite appears at night, then it is better to put homemade crackers nearby. This is better, floury.
• Nuts and dried fruits. At the first sign of hunger, eat them immediately.
• Drinking tea frequently.
• Bran is an excellent solution for satisfying hunger.
• Before eating, drink a glass of milk.

Standard rules during pregnancy:

• Chop food.
• Eat only healthy foods.
• Don't overeat.
• Drink the amount of water prescribed by your doctor.
• Don't forget to consult your doctor.

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During pregnancy, feeling constantly hungry may seem like a normal response to the demands of your growing body. However, the state of hunger should correspond not only to the condition and lifestyle of the expectant mother, but also to the period of pregnancy. And if the question is why hunger occurs at night or why, when we are full, we continue to eat, then we need to understand this in more detail, which we will try to do together.

According to the sensations of hunger, pregnancy can be divided into trimesters corresponding to the period of gestation.

In the first trimester, the desire to eat may constantly arise not because it is required by the fetus, which at this stage of development requires an increase in the diet by the mother, but rather due to the self-hypnosis of a woman who has learned about her situation. Overeating during this period may be prevented by the presence of toxicosis. Nausea and refusal to eat will please obese women with weight loss, but do not forget that toxicosis is a temporary phenomenon and weight gain during pregnancy is inevitable. And if there is no toxicosis, then excessive food consumption, especially with regard to such psychological issues as “eating” stress, will lead to an expansion of the stomach and the presence of extra pounds in the woman, and not in the fetus.

In the fight against anxiety or stress, food should not be allowed to become a kind of antidepressant when you want to eat a lot of sweets or fatty foods. Subsequently, it can be much more difficult to cope with extra pounds; the stomach will get used to more food.

The opinion that food is needed not by the mother, but by the child - these are temporary excuses that will cease to be relevant immediately after the birth of the child. But the child will be born, and hunger will not go away, which can lead primarily to endocrine disruption and obesity. A friendly environment and daily walks in the fresh air will help you cope with such hunger. And when you have free time, you should find something to do that will allow you to take your mind off things. For me, attending water aerobics classes for pregnant women became a similar hobby.

In the first trimester, a woman should eat in small portions, but quite frequently - up to five times a day. Nutrition during all periods of pregnancy should be given special attention. Cottage cheese and other dairy products, whole grain bread and other fiber, as well as fruits and vegetables must be included in a pregnant woman’s diet. There is no need to ignore taking vitamins. During this period, the body begins not only to work with redoubled force, but also to secrete hormones that are unusual for it. Therefore, to prevent excessive weight gain, nutrition should be moderately high in calories and always healthy.

It is worth mentioning that in the first trimester the baby does not yet require to eat a lot, but if the pregnant woman feels the desire to eat something special, then this typical state of hunger should be satisfied. For example, during my first pregnancy I constantly wanted ice cream and meat without eating enough other foods. But as soon as I satisfied my great hunger needs with very small portions of meat, the feeling of hunger went away. And if you know that by the end of the first three months of pregnancy the child reaches a weight of 20 grams and a height of 9 cm, then questions about excessive hunger should disappear even for particularly suggestible mothers. It costs nothing to feed such a baby with regular portions.

The second trimester of pregnancy is a very comfortable period, but passes quickly. The belly is not yet visible, the health is excellent, hemoglobin is normal. The child begins to grow and the skeletal system is formed. You want to eat a lot more, and the feeling of hunger during this period is explained by the growth of the fetus and its new needs. The diet must continue to be followed. At the same time, it is worth increasing your intake of foods rich in calcium. For normal stomach function, you should not indulge in fatty, salty foods and avoid smoked foods. We continue to enjoy vegetables and fruits that will not be available after the birth of the child, but during pregnancy will help the functioning of the stomach.

During this period, the feeling of hunger at night may increase. Such hunger is dangerous for mom’s health, because when we eat at night, we activate our stomach. The stomach works, and at this time the intestines sleep. Overeating at night is fraught with discomfort in the general condition, leading to constipation and, again, weight gain. Therefore, the best option for the night is to leave an apple or carrot nearby (by the way, these products perfectly clean plaque from teeth and prevent caries) and a glass of water or milk. This way we will avoid extra pounds and satisfy the feeling of hunger.

There is no need to eat before going to bed; a working body will not be able to get proper rest and will force a pregnant woman tossing and turning in search of sleep. What if you go to work in the morning?! Therefore, you need to have dinner for the last time 2-3 hours before bedtime. Then we won't have time to get hungry. And as additional information, I will give the average height and weight of the baby for 6 months - the child on average reaches 32 cm in height, but the weight remains small - up to 650 grams. The baby's main weight gain will begin in the next and hungriest period of pregnancy.

The third trimester has its own characteristics. Hunger in the last three months has been a constant state. It is during this period that the baby actively gains weight, adding an average of 600 grams per month. But if we compare the concept of hunger with the development of the child, then it is necessary to take into account that hunger during this period is dangerous for both the child and the mother. In the last months of pregnancy, it is necessary to use calcium and food products containing it with caution. Now the child’s skeletal system is forming and strengthening, and during childbirth, the baby’s bones should be able to adapt to the mother’s body, and then childbirth will be easier.

Another difficulty that arises as a result of a constant feeling of hunger is overfeeding a child who is in the process of building up subcutaneous fat. It is more difficult to give birth to a large baby and surgery is often required.

During the entire period of pregnancy, it is considered normal if a woman gains up to 16 kg in weight. Of course, a lot depends on growth, but this is the golden mean that speaks about proper nutrition and the healthy functioning of the body. With the birth of a child, it is this weight that will be easily lost with standard child care.

As a result, I would like to note that during pregnancy you can eat everything, but not much. You can suppress the feeling of hunger without harm to your health with fruits and berries. And I can only hope that my experience will be truly useful for expectant mothers. Good luck with your pregnancy and healthy children!

Video. Nutrition during pregnancy