feeling blobby

Morning sickness symptoms are often made worse if you go long periods without food, so eating may well be a good way of keeping the nausea at bay. However putting on too much weight carries many risks, including increasing the risk of gestational diabetes and a more difficult birth. The medical profession are acknowledging more and more the importance of putting on the right amount of weight during pregnancy.

The optimal weight gain during pregnancy depends on your pre-pregnancy weight. For those women considered underweight (with a body mass index (BMI) lower than 20) a weight gain of 0.5kg or 1lb per week from week 12 onwards is an approximate target. For normal weight women (BMI between 20 to 25) their target is a weekly weight gain of 0.4kg or ¾lb per week from week 12 onwards and for overweight women (BMI over 25) 0.3kg or 1/2 lb per week is recommended.

The best thing is to try to eat a range of low fat, low sugar meals and snacks, not eating until you are over full at meals and being honest about how hungry you are. A low fat snack every two hours should not mean that you put on too much weight, however eating chocolate, crisps and cakes will.

Here are some ideas for healthy snacks that will stave of the hunger and hopefully nausea without adding too many extra calories:

• A small bowl of high fibre cereal with semi skimmed milk and a banana
• Any piece of fruit, try to eat fruit that is different colours
• 2 crackers with cheese and grapes
• A portion of dried fruit e.g. raisins, dried apricots or prunes
• Carrot sticks and hummus
• Apple and cottage cheese
• Small piece of malt loaf
• A slice of toast with low fat cream cheese or half a can
• Two rich tea biscuits
• A small bowl of soup
• A home made smoothie with banana, natural yoghurt and a teaspoon of honey

forgot to say before i started packing it away later on in pregnancy like last few weeks (it was nerves i think and boredom!) i put on 3 stone but lost 2 simply by giving birth lol. last stone been a beeatch to get rid of- lily is 19 months old and still have 4lbs to shift i yoyo alot tho! never deny yourself- you'll just feel worse but definately advise not to eat for sake of it coz i really wish i hadnt in last few weeks- i'm hoping to have another baby at some point and determined not to put on too much weight! x x

i constantly feel lardy! and im not pregnant! lol. trying though :-) ive always had a major love for food (mostly healthy stuff but then im not having pregnancy cravings obviously!) i need loads of exercise to keep the jelly belly off and read a great book recently about exercice during pregnancy, turns out you can eat what you wnat (within reason of course, and as prozacfairy says best not to eat for two!) as long as you're moving about enough to burn off the calories. the book (wish i could remember what its called, i'll add you as a friend and mail you when it comes to me/ otherwise im sure you'll find something if you search online) really helped me calm my worries, i dont use weights or raise my heart beat to cardio training zones anymore, but swimming, hill walking and weight loss training zones on cardio machines are ok apperently. best speak to a trainer and your doctor first. anyhooo hope this helps. ooh, pretty sure gurgle has a video about excerising during pregnancy. if you cant find it let me know, pretty sure i book marked it. xx

Ahh thanks feel better knowing someone felt the same early on : ) yeah hopefully when the sickness eases I can go back to my normal diet! I'm hoping to go out walking when I get better too xx

dnt beat yourself up bout it hun. chances are you'll find you have more energy soon when the morning sickness eases which should also mean you dont eat as much as you are. know how you feel tho when i was in early stages and had morning sickness didnt have appetite but was retaining so much water! horrible coz all these other women i know who were or had been pregnant seemed to stay in their normal size jeans or whatever til they were like 6 months along and i had to wear jeans with a jersey band from bout 10 weeks! very depressing! just remember that the term "eating for 2" is a load of bull- you really do not need to! i knew someone who did and put on 5 stone! i swear to god when she told me that i threw away a full pack of wotsits! totally not like me at all! x x

Hi The only thing that is keeping my morning sickness calmer is to keep eating. I'm only 9 weeks but feel like I'm piling on weight as a result : / anyone else out there finding the same thing or just feeling plai lardy too!? xx