Losing Pregnancy Weight – Weight Problems During Pregnancy And The Effect On Your Baby

Putting on an excessive amount of weight during pregnancy makes it difficult to lose weight after pregnancy and can cause a decrease in the birth weight of your infant. A child which has a reduced birth weight may have a higher risk of infant death, brain developmental complications, and learning issues. A baby’s birth weight is usually most affected by gestational age. According to a study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the birth weight of the infant can be influenced by the mother’s weight before pregnancy along with the weight gain while pregnant. Interestingly the final results they discovered from their study might seem unexpected to most, nevertheless they supply awareness regarding postpartum weight reduction.

This scientific study categorized three groups of mothers depending on her postpartum weight as a percentage of their height. The groups of women were labeled as having a less than average pre-pregnancy weight, an average pre-pregnancy weight, and a higher than average weight prior to maternity. Curiously, the three groups experienced a similar decrease in weight immediately following childbirth by an average of 15 pounds. This specific weight reduction seemed to be independent of the baby delivery weight and therefore shows that the total increase in maternity weight is indicative of a mom’s nutritional eating habits during her pregnancy.

With regards to nutritional consumption, many find the fetus as being a form of organic parasite which leeches from the mother to develop and grow. Quite a few moms sense the unborn child draining them of all energy and nutrition. If the fetus is utilizing extra energy reserves it would indicate that in women having a lower pre-pregnancy weight the unborn infant may directly benefit from the mom’s pregnancy weight gain and would indicate that a unborn infant of an overweight mother might therefore grow the most.

Intuitively all of this adds up. Throughout the pregnancy women feel that they must eat for two people. We all want a healthy baby and eating more during the maternity is the best way to achieve this, right? Unfortunately, this is illinformed and this is simply not the case. To make matters worse, increased eating in the course of your pregnancy makes it difficult to lose weight after pregnancy.

Let us consider there are two types of energy sources and two types of energy costs. Energy is produced by the pre-pregnancy body fat and our energy gained in the foods consumed during pregnancy. This energy will be utilized through the needs of mom and the growth and development of the developing fetus. The study found that the lowest delivery weights occurred with the most underweight and overweight moms. Furthermore, mothers having a reduced pre-pregnancy weight acquired the most weight while the overweight moms obtained the least weight as a percentage of the height. Thus, in the two cases, the increased nutritional energy was being used by the mothers instead of the infant.

How is this possible?

Nature splits the dietary energy from the pregnancy diet between the mother and the child. It seems that nature will put the largest energy expenditure in the area having the lowest biological risk, the mother. All of the additional calories are used by the mother instead of the child. For underweight mothers, nature favors increasing the mom’s weight over the fetal birth weight. Obese women have higher energy costs in order to keep their increased bodyweight resulting in less energy for the unborn infant. This causes the baby to be born having a reduced birth weight.

Therefore, not only is disproportionate eating throughout the pregnancy unneeded, it may harm the child simply by resulting in a diminished birth weight. The most beneficial scenario pertaining to you and your baby is to be at your ideal bodyweight just before getting pregnant and to eat properly in order to achieve the suggested weight throughout the pregnancy. This can boost your chances to have a healthy infant and it will certainly enable you to lose the weight after pregnancy.


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