Worried about calories...

[kdmalk]

The more pregnant I get, the less hungry I am. I suspect it's because I have a short torso and my stomach is completely squished. Hubby has been commenting lately that he is worried I am not eating enough for baby. I always brush off his concerns so he doesn't panic, but it worries me as well. I mentioned to my doctor last time that I am not sure I am eating enough, but I still gained weight and I guess my belly measured alright, so she said not to worry about it.

I was already a little overweight before pregnancy and so I was worried in early pregnancy about gaining too much, so I tried to be careful about what I was eating. She specifically said that as long as I am not severely restricting calories, everything will be okay. As time has gone on, I am now worried that I might be in the "severely restricting calories" category without trying.

It has gotten to the point that I will forget to eat, but will eat when I realize that it has been like 6 or 8 hours. It is just so strange not to FEEL hungry. So then I eat anyway, and feel full very quickly and start feeling a nauseous if I keep eating. I'll put the last several days as an example of what I have been eating. This is actually more than usual because I was out of town with family and my family eats a LOT, so I had the opportunity to eat even when I wasn't hungry. Friday is probably a typical day and then I ate more than normal over the weekend.

Friday:
Breakfast (7:15am)- bagel and cream cheese, glass of milk
Lunch (11:15am)- at a meeting all day. They served turkey sandwiches and baked chips with a cookie. I think I ate all of that.
Dinner (9pm)- 1 and a half shrimp tacos and a slice of bread at a restaurant.

Saturday:
Breakfast (9am)- 2 pieces of bacon, small bowl of cereal, small bowl of oatmeal (hotel breakfast)
Lunch (3pm)- Cheeseburger and apple slices
Dinner (9pm)- couple slices of a small pizza

Sunday:
Breakfast (8:30am)- 2 pieces of bacon, some cantaloupe, and a small bowl of cereal (hotel)
Lunch (2pm)- kids meal on the road (2 chicken tenders and a kids size fry) and I got a small shake with it.
Dinner (8pm)- Moe's (anyone familiar with this chain? It's a build-your-own burrito restaurant) bowl with chicken, rice, beans, tomatoes, sour cream, and onions. Ate MAYBE half of it? Tried to at least pick out most of the chicken and eat it.

Today:
Breakfast (7:15am)- bowl of cereal, apple sauce pack
Lunch (12pm)- side of mixed veggies, most of a side of peas, couple bites of soup (stomach did not like it for some reason), and a cookie (all from work cafeteria)
Dinner- I'll probably try to eat something with meat since I haven't really had any today.

Today is a pretty typical day for me lately. Eating a smallish breakfast on the way out the door, picking at my lunch because I feel full and get sick, and then I'll suddenly realize it's 8pm and I haven't eaten and I'll find something to pick at. Breakfast seems to be the only meal I can actually finish. I usually get 2 veggies and a meat (90% of the time that's chicken) from the cafeteria at work and eat about half of that at lunch, and then I'll have some sort of vegetable and maybe meat for dinner and eat about half of that too. Nothing ever sounds good when I'm not hungry, so I just can't decide what to eat.

How can I get enough calories when I am never hungry and feel sick when I eat without being hungry? The last thing I would want to do is barf up the calories I AM actually eating. Advice? Or does this look like enough? What is everyone else eating?

 

[twiggy327]

I think you're eating fine. I typically eat about the same everyday and still do cardio 5 days a week. The doc said my gaining is good, not too much and not too little. I eat one of those nature valley bars for breakfast, a salad and a pepperoni roll from italian village pizza ive been eating like 3 days a week lately or ill bring in cereal and a banana or a pb sandwich and a piece of fruit for lunch, a snack around 2:30 and then whatever I make my family for dinner (tuna noodle, pasta, hamburgers, etc) I've noticed lately that I haven't really been over hungry around dinner time. Myabe a couple bites and some water and I'm done. Throw in an extra snack in the afternoon if you don't think you're getting enough.

 

[K8te]

I'm the same. For the past few weeks I can usually manage cereal for breakfast and some fruit as a mid morning snack. Dinner I'll manage a small sandwich and a yoghurt and after that I just pick in the evening because I'm not hungry.

Today I've had some cereal, a toasted ciabatta from the coffee shop and I had to force myself to eat a burger when we went out for tea. I'm paying for it now as my stomach feels too full and I know I'll struggle to sleep with feeling sick.

X

 

[IsabellaJayne]

I think you're eating enough. You're eating a lot more than me. I've also lost my appetite. Today I've had two cups of tea, at about 2pm I finally ate two fried eggs on potato waffles and just now at 9pm I've managed a pack of crisps. I'm just not hungry at all I cannot eat.

 

[Kitteh_Kat]

It doesn't sound like you're low on calories; you don't really need that many extra calories when pregnant anyway. You could try plugging your food into a free calorie tracker like MyFitnessPal and that should give you a better idea of how you're doing with your intake. Since you're measuring on track it sounds like you're doing fine.

You could look into calorie dense food for an easy snack if you feel like you need more - if you're a peanut butter fan, a tablespoon or two of it goes a long way!

 

[kdmalk]

You guys have made me feel much better! Obviously I was just way overeating before pregnancy (which might explain the extra weight! Lol).

Kitteh, the worry originally started weeks ago when I decided to start tracking my food on my fitness pal and I was ending up with like 1600 calories each day. My eating hasn't changed much since then, so I just made the assumption that I am still short. Perhaps I should start tracking again (especially since I have pizza and a burger on there from the weekend, which probably has a significant amount of calories, even though they are mostly useless).

I am just feeling relieved that other people just pick at food like me. All of my pregnant friends are having no issues eating, so it is nice to see that it's normal to be at the other end of the spectrum.

 

[jlw617]

Hi Kylee! Good to see you in the 3rd tri!!!!!!! Don't worry about it, there were times in all my pregnancies where I was lucky if I could keep down water and my second pregnancy was the only pregnancy where I actually gained weight! Your baby will steal what it needs from your body. Most doctors/midwives are totally fine unless you're pretty underweight to begin with and with the fact that you're still actually gaining is a good sign I lost 20lbs and literally did not start gaining anything back until this previous week, so far I've gained 3 lbs back of the 20 I've lost

 

[kdmalk]

Every time someone speaks, I feel better. Lol.

I did input my food today (including my small dinner, but maybe I'll eat something else later) and apparently I've only taken in 1056 calories today. That is what worries me. Aren't pregnant women meant to be taking in like 2200??? Though I probably shouldn't do that! Lol

But if this is happening to everyone else and all the babies are doing alright, I'm going to quit stressing about it. Thanks again for the reassurance, everyone! This is why I love BnB.

 

[K8te]

Try not to worry. I wouldn't use myfittnesspal it can cause extra worry. I started tracking my eating and it was coming out between 800 and 1200 calories over a week so I stopped inputting as it stressed me out even more. I'm still slowly gaining weight and measuring on track. Baby is at a good weight and it happily moving about so I'm just carrying on.

After posting about my meal last night I was up all night feeling ill and ended up getting stomach cramps, diahorrea and was sick this morning so forcing yourself to eat doesn't work at all it just makes you feel a lot worse.

I'm just carrying on eating when I'm hungry and making sure it's meat, veg and fruit. People at work comment on how little I eat but I'm not forcing food down and making myself ill just to please other people.

You know your body and both your body and baby will let you know when you need food.

X

 

[Kitteh_Kat]

You guys have made me feel much better! Obviously I was just way overeating before pregnancy (which might explain the extra weight! Lol).

Kitteh, the worry originally started weeks ago when I decided to start tracking my food on my fitness pal and I was ending up with like 1600 calories each day. My eating hasn't changed much since then, so I just made the assumption that I am still short. Perhaps I should start tracking again (especially since I have pizza and a burger on there from the weekend, which probably has a significant amount of calories, even though they are mostly useless).

I am just feeling relieved that other people just pick at food like me. All of my pregnant friends are having no issues eating, so it is nice to see that it's normal to be at the other end of the spectrum.

Unless you're weighing and measuring all of your food and liquids, you're probably at least 300 calories over what you log, so you're getting more than you think.

 

[sunshine2014]

I had this concern as well....

I use myfitnesspal as a way to track things, and also make sure I'm getting enough fibre, protein etc...

It sounds like you're getting enough, so I wouldn't worry. I mentioned to my OB a few weeks ago that I was only hitting around 1100 calories a day, even though I felt like I ate all day, and he said as long as it's good, healthy food, the numbers don't really matter. Especially if baby is measuring on track. It gets hard to eat so much in third trimester because it can be uncomfortable, but I'm sure you're doing fine! Don't forget, baby takes what he/she needs first!

 

[CandiceSj]

You seem to eat a variety of foods and the calorie count doesn't seem especially low. If you get all the good things your body needs, the baby will be in full health

 

[chathamlady]

If you are really concerned you can add a protien rich shake in premade like glucerna or ensure( my dietician recommended this because i lost 30lbs and wasnt gaining) you can just sip at through the morning or afternoon as a snack

 

[minties]

If you don't want to log it with myfitnesspal, then just add in a few small snacks here and there. Some nuts, an extra bit of bacon, or half an avocado. It's much easier to pack on the calories than you think (myfitnesspal user since Jan). Cream in coffee and butter on bread could help too. Dark chocolate is high in calories and yummy, I like lindt 90%.