There’s often a lot of anxiety surrounding pregnancy weight gain. Some women are more than happy to put on the pounds and others are terrified of the scale. Personally, I dread getting weighed at every doctor’s visit. With my last pregnancy I gained about 30 pounds, which is fairly normal— but I still hated it.
This time things are different. I'm 31 weeks pregnant with twins and I’ve gained 17 pounds. It doesn’t sound like much but my doctor says it’s fine. I don’t need to gain the 35 to 45 pounds that can come with twins.
Here’s the news: There are new pregnancy weight gain guidelines that may make the numbers a little easier to swallow.
Weight guidelines for pregnant women have not been updated in about twenty years. But recent research has lead to the release of new guidelines from the Institute of Medicine . According to the IOM, the guidelines are based on revised Body Mass Index (BMI) categories and now include guidelines for obese women.
The Guidelines For Weight Gain:
* A woman at a normal weight = 25 to 35 pounds (BMI of 18.5 to 24.9)
* Underweight women = 28 to 40 pounds (BMI less than 18.5)
* Overweight women = 15 to 25 pounds (BMI of 25 to 29.9)
* Obese women = 11 to 20 pounds (BMI greater than 30)
How much weight did you gain during your pregnancy? Where you able to lose the weight? Let us here from you!
Determine your BMI with this online calculator: www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/.
