7 Tricks to Control Your Appetite during Pregnancy
In this article you’ll find some tips to help you control your appetite during pregnancy.
Your appetite may vary greatly while you’re pregnant. There may even be stages when you’re not hungry for anything at all.
You may also go through phases where you’re so hungry you run to the fridge to eat large quantities of food and concoct strange combinations. This is when you realize you need to control your appetite.
The urge to eat a lot and those strange cravings are very particular to pregnancy. Not all women experience them the same way, but it’s important to monitor your diet and learn to control your hunger level, whether it’s noticeably high or low.
The first thing you have to do is start actively keeping track of your diet. This is very important because it’s increasingly common that nutritional intake during pregnancy is only slightly adjusted to the real needs of the child and the mother.
Luckily, nature is wise and takes care of the necessary adjustments to ensure that the nutritional needs of both parties are satisfied, even when those needs are less than ideal.
If you maintain a healthy diet, but still feel hungry often, then keep in mind that you’re going through a very normal stage of pregnancy.
In order to deal with it in a healthy manner, you have to do your part and try to eat rationally. Don’t worry: eating healthily doesn’t mean you’ll feel like you’re starving. You just have to use some of these tricks.
Tricks to control your appetite during pregnancy
Eat breakfast like a queen
If you’re having a full and balanced breakfast, you should’t feel hungry again until lunchtime.
It’s recommended that you should eat a lot in the morning. This will open up the stomach little by little, especially if you start your morning with a glass of water. Then, treat yourself to a breakfast worthy of a queen.
Here’s an example of the kinds of foods and portions you should include in the first meal of the day:
- 1 portion of dairy (with coffee, if you like)
- 1 yogurt or 150 grams of fresh cheese
- Cereal
- 1 piece of fruit or its juice
If you feel the need for something to make you feel a little more full, you can also eat a piece of whole-wheat bread with turkey. Keep in mind that if you eat a good breakfast, you’ll have better energy for the rest of the day.
In general, you’ll need about 15 minutes to enjoy your breakfast. When it’s impossible to have the full breakfast, or you’re short on time, save part of your portion of cereal or fruit to eat before noon.
And if you normally like to have a snack, you can have a piece of bread with a slice of cheese, an apple, or a yogurt.
Splitting your meals
If you notice that your day’s schedule means you’ll spend many hours without eating between breakfast and lunch, you should split up your meals even more. You shouldn’t go more than four hours between them.
For example, if you eat breakfast at 7:00 a.m., save the fruit for 10:00 a.m., and eat a small snack (cheese, tuna, ham, or a small cup of dried fruit).
This way, you could eat your next full meal at 4:00, enjoying a salad, a plate of pasta with tomato, and a piece of fish.
Keep in mind that the days of “eating for two” are over. It’s not about eating huge quantities, but rather eating well and healthily.
An early dinner
If you get the urge to eat in the afternoon, you can satisfy the craving by having a snack and an early dinner. In the afternoon, for instance, you could have a yogurt or a glass of milk with bread and fruit.
Dinner should be light and contain foods from the main groups: cereals, vegetables, fish or eggs, and salad or fruit.
Choose healthy snacks
If you follow all these suggestions and still feel hungry, needing to snack between mealtimes, at least choose low-calorie foods that contain vitamins and minerals.
Make friends with dried fruits
Dried fruits offer quality nutritional value and minerals like calcium. This is especially true of almonds, but be sure not to overdo it because they are high in calories.
Enjoy them in small quantities. Make sure to select the roasted variety, as raw almonds are harder to digest. Meanwhile, peanuts and similar snacks are best enjoyed without salt.
Eat a lot of fruit
During pregnancy, you should eat three to four pieces of fruit per day. Due to the fact that you need more vitamin C than before, place a special emphasis on citrus.
If you’re really hungry, eat an apple. They’re low in calories and will make you feel full.
Keep in mind that the days of “eating for two” are over. It’s not about eating huge quantities, but rather eating well and healthily.
Pregnancy is a very complex process requiring a series of special measures to ensure your proper care. For this reason, you need to watch what you eat and ensure you’re getting what you need from your food intake.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Cendrowska-Pinkosz, M., Dworzański, W., Krauze, M., & Burdan, F. (2017). Kofeina a zmiany adaptacyjne układu krążenia u kobiet w okresie ciąży [Caffeine and adaptive changes in the circulatory system during pregnancy]. Polski merkuriusz lekarski : organ Polskiego Towarzystwa Lekarskiego, 42(247), 42–45.
- Forbes, L. E., Graham, J. E., Berglund, C., & Bell, R. C. (2018). Dietary Change during Pregnancy and Women’s Reasons for Change. Nutrients, 10(8), 1032. doi:10.3390/nu10081032
- Orloff, N. C., Flammer, A., Hartnett, J., Liquorman, S., Samelson, R., & Hormes, J. M. (2016). Food cravings in pregnancy: Preliminary evidence for a role in excess gestational weight gain. Appetite, 105, 259–265. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2016.04.040