Does Eating for Two Lead to Health-Damaging Weight Gain?

Pregnancy is a brilliant excuse to eat what you want, right? I mean, you’re going to get bigger anyway, and you’re eating for two, so as long as you’re not damaging your baby’s wellbeing, surely it’s all-systems-go on the pig-out front. However, according to a study from New Zealand researchers, the saying that pregnant woman need to “eat for two” is a myth that may have contributed to high rates of excessive weight gain.

Researchers at the University of Auckland investigated the rates of excessive weight gain during pregnancy across three citiess. Altogether, 74% of women studied across the three cities had put on excessive weight in their first pregnancy. The rate was 62% Auckland, New Zealand, 67% in Adelaide, Australia, and 80% in Cork, Ireland.  These women had an increased rate of caesarean births and a far higher rate of babies born large than the 17% of women in the study who had normal weight gain.

Professor Lesley McCowan of the University of Auckland, one of the study’s authors, commented that the need to “eat for two” during pregnancy is a widely held belief, but in reality you only need a little extra food to sufficiently nourish you and your baby. She noted, ‘One of the things we were really shocked about was 74% of these so-called low-risk women – in their first pregnancy – had an excessive weight gain. It’s a really worrying statistic.’

When you gain excessive weight during pregnancy, you can also put your own wellness at risk to developing high blood pressure, the potentially fatal disorder pre-eclampsia and pregnancy-related diabetes, which, although it resolves after the baby is born, carries a 50% chance of developing type 2 diabetes. According to Canterbury District Health Board guidelines, you don’t require any extra food in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and you can gain all the necessary extra energy after that by eating just one slice of wholegrain bread or two apples a day. If you are at a healthy weight when you conceive, you should only put on 11kg to 16kg while pregnant with a single baby. Obviously, this guideline changes if you are underweight, overweight or obese. You should consult your doctor or midwife to find out your personal target pregnancy weight.