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“I’M OBSESSED WITH BABY WEIGHT”
Considering post-pregnancy weight loss while you’re still pregnant is, on the one hand, a sensible thing to do. “[The] most important thing is NOT to gain too much weight in the first place while pregnant,” explains explains Nancy Kraus, LM, a midwife with Downtown Women OB-GYN Associates in New York City. “Pregnancy is NOT license to eat. A pregnant woman having a singleton baby only needs about 300 calories per day over her normal adult caloric requirement; that’s about one extra glass of milk per day.” Staying up to date on the guidelines for gaining weight while pregnant is a good idea, too. “The US lowered weight gain guidelines about 1-2 years ago to be more in line with what European women gain, which is about 20-25 pounds,” says Kraus. “If a woman gains 50 pounds, she will have a lot more to lose in the postpartum period.”
