How does weight gain in pregnancy work?

Post date: 2020-06-29 14:20:01

Is a calorie still a calorie?

When I was pregnant I gained a bunch of weight in my first trimester that seemed kind of inexplicable. Everything except cheese and crackers, turkey breast, apples, and certain raw vegetables made me retch, and I could barely keep even those things down in normal quantities. It seems hard for me to believe that I was eating the extra calories my body would need in non pregnant circumstances to gain a pound of new fat (which I understand to be roughly 3500 calories). My morning sickness was not remotely bound to the morning, or to the first twelve weeks, and I spent a lot of the time on the floor puking up bile, despite high doses of diclectin and gravol.

I was not one of those pregnant people whose weight gain was "all bump." I didn't start 'showing' until mid second trimester. For about the first 22 weeks, I just seemed to gain fat in my hips, face/neck, thighs, and butt. My clothes stopped fitting, but not because of a visible or palpable bump. I don't believe this could have been the kind of water weight I gain before my period, because it was damn hard to lose.

I'm 5'4 and range between 130 and 140 lbs normally, right in the middle of the normal BMI for my height (although I know BMI is garbage).

What logic does weight gain in pregnancy follow, if 3500 extra calories do not roughly equal a pound of weight gain?

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