People say when you're pregnant you're eating for two, but according to the math you're
really only eating for one point one five.
Half of Earth's population takes nutrients from food and uses them to build a human inside
of their body, but what's the construction cost?
How many calories does it cost to make a little bundle of joy?
How many calories it takes for a pregnant woman to healthily make a baby day-to-day,
is a little nebulous.
It's not just food intake, because existing muscle, bone and fat tissues will be broken
down for fetal needs too.
But, according to the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and the American Pregnancy Association,
the average cost over the entire pregnancy seems to be about 300 extra kcal, a day -- or
about three tablespoons of peanut butter or a couple hamburger buns.
If you multiply that out: human gestation averaging 280 days, 40 weeks, or close to
10 months at 300 calories a day means a pregnant woman will eat 75,000 calories to CREATE A
HUMAN.
But to put 75,000 calories in perspective -- it's only a snack or two per day.
U.K.
Dietitian Sasha Watkins describes 200 calories as "A small, toasted pita, filled with a tablespoon
of reduced-fat hummus and grated carrot, followed by three dried apricots… or a low-fat yogurt
with six almonds."
So overall, eating for two, while technically accurate, doesn't mean doubling food intake,
and instead could mean eating as little as [[weirded out]] two slices of wholegrain bread
with a tablespoon of cottage cheese??
Brits are weird.
What the body DOES with those calories is even more weird though.
Caloric increases aren't spread evenly across the whole pregnancy and do not directly correlate
with actual fetal growth.
They could be used for anything!
Pregnant women will grow 50 percent more blood.
Also, the 75,000 is the TOTAL.
It's not 300 calories from day 1 to day 280… it ramps up.
At the end of the first trimester the fetus is only 28 grams, and doesn't require additional
nutrition, but let's run the numbers.
The Journal of Tropical Pediatrics reports the mean increases for the women they studied
were: 9 calories per day for the first trimester, 8 for the second, with a sharp increase to
216 for the third.
While the American Pregnancy Association says: women should eat normally in the first trimester,
increase by 340 calories in the second, and 450 in the third.
Then researchers in the UK say normal in the first, increase by 200 in the second and 300
in the third.
These numbers will change based on BMI, activity level, metabolism and height!
But honestly, all this variation shows we still have a lot to learn about pregnancy.
It's not like we can slap a meter on a fetus and see what they need!
Scientists aren't entirely sure how the body decides which nutrients go to the fetus and
which go to the mother, but one thing was clear across all the research I found.
Since growing tissues takes food energy, and we are what we eat -- it was heavily emphasized
that the diet of a pregnant woman should be a healthy one.
Craving fatty or "unhealthy" foods is normal, and shouldn't be ignored or derided!
But, we could all use a reminder to eat healthily.
So, eat those extra 75,000 calories, ladyfriends, and enjoy building your own human!
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