Pregnancy Weight Gain: Too Much or Too Little Is Unhealthy

It’s not good to gain or to lose too much weight while pregnant. Studies have shown that almost half of pregnant women gain too much weight. Women who don’t gain enough weight while pregnant are at a higher risk for preterm babies. Women who gain too much weight are at risk for a larger baby, which often requires a cesarean section.

Some doctors say that there needs to be more education and incentive programs set up for pregnant women to motivate them to stay healthy. Women need to understand that it’s important to eat healthy and to stay active during pregnancy. Other doctors claim that this will not work and that women need to be a healthy weight before becoming pregnant.

Studies have shown that more women are overweight and obese than ever, so awareness of this issue is very important. By controlling the amount of weight they gain, women can decrease the risk of complications during birth. Women who are already obese should not gain more than 15 pounds. Normal weight women can gain a bit more, and underweight women can safely gain even more. Being aware of how much weight one should gain could make a huge difference in the way they eat and exercise.

Key Points:

  • 1Weight gain during pregnancy depends on the mothers starting weight, with heavier women being suggested to gain the least and smaller women suggested to gain the most.
  • 2Getting to an ideal weight before pregnancy is highly recommended by medical professionals to increase changes of a healthy mother AND baby.
  • 3Out of date ideas of women resting and eating during pregnancy are debunked – women should actually stay active and eat healthy for the best results.


In a review of more than 1.3 million pregnancies, investigators found that 47 percent of women gained too much weight.

See the original at: https://medlineplus.gov/news/fullstory_166308.html

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Written by HealthStatus
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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