Pregnant and Hungry!

Hey, friends. I’m happy to say that I’m 13 weeks pregnant and so far, so good. I’ve been sick to my stomach constantly since week 5, but not throwing up or having any aversion to eating…and I mean NO aversion to eating.

I have never been this hungry in my life. Doctors recommend only 300 additional calories per day, and a first trimester weight gain of 3-5 pounds. HA. I’ve switched over to a CDE who specializes in pregnancy nutrition and am trying to do the eat-6-small-meals-a-day thing (even if I disagree with her on a couple key points). But I am ravenous 24 hours a day.

This was never me before. I am up 10 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight, which, while not optimal gain, is not critical…yet. But I could eat three times my normal portions. I’m not eating for two - I’m eating for a village (and no, it’s not multiples). Last night, we went to IHOP and I plowed through 3 eggs, 3 pancakes, and 4 sausage links (extended bolus for the win!) and literally could have ordered a second helping of all of it. I can’t feed this child enough!

My active insulin time is 3.5 hours, but I’m eating (and bolusing) twice in that amount of time. I try to keep my snacks to healthy little 15g of carb with a side of protein, but some days, we’re talking snacks of multiple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and there’s little that’s “small” about some of my 6 small meals.

So did anyone else have a constant need to eat? How did you deal with it? Or alternately, did you find yourself unable to eat and have to battle lows or lethargy? How did your diet change while you were pregnant?

I’ve already had second breakfast and am thinking about my next snack… BG=105. Stomach=growling!

I tried to send you a message but the message feature is acting dumb :slight_smile:

meal plan

I followed this when pregnant with twins :slight_smile: I hope it helps :slight_smile:

I got your message, Cynthia. Thanks!

I have a very specific plan I was given (reminds me of the old “exchange” days), but the protein amounts my CDE suggests are (always) way too low. I disagree with her (and the ADA) that we need to ingest so little protein and so much carb. My kidneys are functioning splendidly and I haven’t had a kidney stone in over 5 years. There is no reason for them to have me eating 4 oz. of protein or less at dinner when pregnant women should be increasing their protein. That’s where I’m disagreeing with her, primarily.

Pre-pregnancy, I took in less than 100g of carb a day to help control my blood sugars, weight (I lost 30 lbs), and A1c. I know I’m taking in a lot more carbs now (180g per day on average) between the baby’s needs and my hunger and that that’s probably responsible for the rapid weight gain, but it’s still within the recommendations. I feel like I’ve got that under control. My A1c is 5.8 and I’m meeting my fasting and postprandial targets usually. And, like you, I’m probably getting about 90g of protein a day. So I’m actually already following a similar plan to your suggestion. Except I’m probably taking in closer to 2200 calories a day now (up from 1600 or less pre-preg).

I’m just struggling with the idea that my body can’t get enough food. It’s just unlike me. I just had another snack and I’m still hungry, but thankfully, I’ll eat lunch in about half an hour. :wink:

have you tried the Isopure Zero Carb protein powders? Those helped tremendously the days when nothing would stay down. I see you just have the nauseousness and not the “return” but it may work too! :slight_smile:

First of all CONGRATS on your pregnancy…

Second, thanks for asking this, lol, bc I am TTC was wondering how people deal with the increased hunger in pregnancy…

And third I am SOOOOOOO jealous of your IHOP meal!
I would give ANYTHING to eat pancakes, real delicious pancakes not the fiber-one pancakes LOL, and have normal post meal numbers!!
The doc did say that my BG’s will run lower when I do get pregnant and I can promise you that I will be out the door and into IHOP faster than you can say pancakes when I get that positive pregnancy test! :stuck_out_tongue:

Melissa,
I don’t have any words of wisdom, but just wanted to say congratulations!!

And, I’m totally with Stacey on the pancake thing!!

Thanks, Di and Stacey!

Stacey, watch out for one thing. I kept hearing my blood sugars would run lower, too, but during weeks 6 and 7, I had to schedule an emergency visit with my CDE because my blood sugars were inexplicably high. It’s like my body wanted to be 170 all the time. My endo later told me that it’s actually more common to struggle with the hormones increasing your blood sugars - which isn’t what I had heard either. She said to expect to slowly increase the insulin throughout the pregnancy, which I had heard, but I didn’t expect it to start so soon. Since then though, I’ve had fairly normal control. My basal rates are almost identical to what they were pre-pregnancy now. And baby is doing great. I saw my perinatologist yesterday.

But yeah, I’m taking a lot more insulin to combat all this extra food! I hadn’t thought of that as something I’d have to deal with.