Weight Gain: The Pregnant Woman's Dilemma
Weight Gain: The Pregnant Woman's Dilemma
March 2, 2001 -- Ask any women who's been pregnant, and she'll tell you: "It ain't easy."
Women who have been through it know just how tough it is for a pregnant woman to balance the needs of her baby and her body against gaining too much weight and then trying to lose the extra pounds in the months following childbirth. Dieting is hard enough for the rest of us, but it is even harder for an overwhelmed, sleep-deprived mom who is trying to get healthy meals on the table and fit in any exercise, all while handling the needs of her family and the erratic schedule of an infant.
To get at how big of a problem this actually is, a California research duo reviewed 13 studies on how and if pregnancy-related weight gain affects body weight changes after pregnancy.
They found that a single birth results in a 4.4 pound to 6.6 pound higher body weight and raises the risk of being overweight within one year to several years after delivery. Overall, up to 20% of women were found to sustain significant weight gain following their pregnancy, according to a review article in a recent issue of the journal Epidemiology Review.
More research is needed to determine why some women have trouble dropping the extra weight and others do not, conclude Erica P. Gunderson, PhD, of the Kaiser Permanente division of research in Oakland, Calif., and Barbara Abrams, DrPH, RD, an associate professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition at the University of California at Berkeley.
"Body weight change during the [postpregnancy] period is probably a retention of [pregnancy-related] weight gain and weight change caused by the lifestyle alterations associated with childrearing," they conclude.
Today, there is an "overweight epidemic," according to the authors. More than 45 million U.S. women are overweight; that accounts for about 50% of all women, with even higher percentages in certain ethnic groups being overweight. Excessive weight gain in pregnancy may lead to a lifelong problem, especially if a woman adds on pounds from each pregnancy.
Women who have been through it know just how tough it is for a pregnant woman to balance the needs of her baby and her body against gaining too much weight and then trying to lose the extra pounds in the months following childbirth. Dieting is hard enough for the rest of us, but it is even harder for an overwhelmed, sleep-deprived mom who is trying to get healthy meals on the table and fit in any exercise, all while handling the needs of her family and the erratic schedule of an infant.
To get at how big of a problem this actually is, a California research duo reviewed 13 studies on how and if pregnancy-related weight gain affects body weight changes after pregnancy.
They found that a single birth results in a 4.4 pound to 6.6 pound higher body weight and raises the risk of being overweight within one year to several years after delivery. Overall, up to 20% of women were found to sustain significant weight gain following their pregnancy, according to a review article in a recent issue of the journal Epidemiology Review.
More research is needed to determine why some women have trouble dropping the extra weight and others do not, conclude Erica P. Gunderson, PhD, of the Kaiser Permanente division of research in Oakland, Calif., and Barbara Abrams, DrPH, RD, an associate professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition at the University of California at Berkeley.
"Body weight change during the [postpregnancy] period is probably a retention of [pregnancy-related] weight gain and weight change caused by the lifestyle alterations associated with childrearing," they conclude.
Today, there is an "overweight epidemic," according to the authors. More than 45 million U.S. women are overweight; that accounts for about 50% of all women, with even higher percentages in certain ethnic groups being overweight. Excessive weight gain in pregnancy may lead to a lifelong problem, especially if a woman adds on pounds from each pregnancy.
