Pregnancy is a transformative journey, and ensuring proper nutrition is paramount for both the mother's well-being and the healthy development of the baby. Counting macros and tracking your diet during pregnancy can offer numerous benefits, from managing gestational diabetes risk to improving sleep and postpartum recovery.
Why Track Macros During Pregnancy?
As a pre and postnatal specialist, I work with pregnant women all the time, and they tell me how much better they feel when they're eating a balanced diet and are working out regularly. Counting macros while you’re pregnant can have a lot of benefits. Getting to understand macros and their benefits helps you eat intuitively so that when you're sick you can eat the best you can and know what you need to balance your body. Counting your macros is an awesome way to nourish your body throughout pregnancy.
Improved Pregnancy and Recovery
I recently gave birth to my fourth child. I've had pregnancies where I was a little more health conscious, and then I’ve had pregnancies where I just did not care. When I tried to be healthy during pregnancy, and I was conscious of what I was eating, and I kept working out, my pregnancy and recovery were easier in so many ways. My labors were faster, and I retained my muscle mass a lot better. Ultimately, it was quicker for me to feel like myself again. I'm here to tell you, just because you're pregnant does not mean that you have to just throw in the towel with all of your goals. Counting macros is going to help you get back into better shape after you give birth.
Lower Risk of Gestational Diabetes
Bonus - it actually helps to lower your risk for gestational diabetes because you're not eating an excess of carbs. Gestational diabetes is a common condition that affects pregnant women. It can be managed through various interventions including lifestyle changes, medication, and monitoring blood glucose levels.
Reduced Swelling and Water Retention
Swelling can be one of the most uncomfortable parts of pregnancy. Many women experience edema, which is the gathering of excess fluids in the cavities of the body leading to swelling. You might find that your feet and hands in particular feel swollen at the beginning or end of the day. Counting macros and watching your food intake also helps prevent water retention and swelling. High protein diets help to thicken the blood. Eating plenty of healthy fruits and veggies that are natural diuretics, like celery, bell peppers, onions, cucumbers, watermelon, eggplant, cabbage etc., help to rid the body of excess water and sodium.
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Better Sleep and Mood
For me, a big bonus of being aware of my macros is improved sleep. Portion size control means you’ll feel less full when you lay down at night, which can be a big help when things are moving around thanks to the baby. Heartburn affects many pregnant women, and eating healthy foods can keep this at bay, making it much easier to fall asleep. Also, when you’re sleeping well, your mood and general attitude will be so much more positive.
Active Participation in Your Health
You are empowered knowing that you're fueling yourself and caring for your baby. Counting macros means you’re actively taking in the foods that your body and your baby need.
Key Considerations for Tracking Macros During Pregnancy
A couple things to keep in mind when tracking macros while pregnant is that your macros will increase depending on where you're at in your pregnancy journey.
In the beginning, you should not increase your protein. I recommend eating your body weight in grams of protein before you become pregnant, not after. I also know that eating that much protein when you're pregnant can be tough, especially if you are in your first trimester or maybe you're feeling more full than usual. Keep your protein intake the same, but you will slowly increase your carbs and fat to an additional 100 calories per trimester if you’re already at a healthy weight.
It’s important to know that you don't have to be perfect at tracking your macros. This is totally okay! You might have a really hard time hitting your protein goals because you may feel nauseous and can't eat anything but carbs. I want you to give yourself grace and remember that you do not have to be perfect. Just do your best and try to get nutrients in when you can.
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Stay in tune with how you feel. My favorite part about staying active while pregnant and counting macros is that I just have more energy and more self-confidence. This is in large part due to the fact that I'm eating enough. I know that if I wasn't counting my macros then I probably wouldn't be fueling my body and my baby properly. It’s really important to know how much you should be eating. If you need help with this, it can be useful to work with a macro coach who will help calculate your macros to your specific body depending on what trimester you're in and what your goals are.
Medical providers will suggest a weight gain of between 25 and 35 pounds during pregnancy. Some women will retain a lot more water than others and that will obviously impact your weight. Just focus more on fueling your body and staying active, and then you'll feel great.
Most importantly, the quality of your food matters. You can certainly fit treats into your diet when you count macros, but you do want to make sure that the majority of your food is coming from healthy sources. If you've had gestational diabetes before, then chances of you getting it again are very high. Even though I'm a personal trainer, I still struggle sometimes too. I can't tell you how many Chick-fil-A Oreo shakes I ate throughout my last pregnancy. It's okay to indulge every once in a while, but keep in mind the fact that you're growing a baby and this baby is literally made from the cells that are in your body. Your cells are made from the food you're eating. I know it can be difficult, but during pregnancy you can keep working toward your goal of living a healthy lifestyle!
The Role of Pregnancy Nutrition Calculators
While a nutrition calculator isn’t the only resource you should use to optimize your pregnancy, it does provide a number of benefits. Here’s why I love recommending a calculator to enhance a pregnancy diet plan…
Eating Enough
With a diet of processed foods and a cultural emphasis on weight loss (yes, even during pregnancy), eating enough food can feel like an uphill battle. Sure, a holistic prenatal vitamin can offer some support with essential nutrients like folate or choline. But a morning supplement isn’t going to overcome a poor diet. If you’re not getting enough fuel, you’ll likely experience symptoms like fatigue, brain fog (or “pregnancy brain”), dehydration, and lack of motivation. Tracking your nutrients on a pregnancy nutrition calculator should help remedy this issue. You’ll want to focus on protein, fats, carbs, and veggies while checking in on micronutrients as needed.
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Getting Exact Stats
A pregnancy nutrition calculator removes the guesswork from your pregnancy diet plan. When I work with pregnant moms, I want a broad overview of their current nutritional profile. This can be difficult to find without actual data. But it’s so helpful when creating meal plans that nourish and support women exactly where they’re at. By tracking your meals for a few weeks, you’ll be able to create a customized meal plan and grocery list that fills nutritional gaps. A pregnancy nutrition calculator helps empower your body to rise to the occasion for a healthy and vibrant pregnancy.
Intentional Food Choices
There’s nothing like a first-time pregnancy to compel you to eat better food. It’s natural to obsess over your diet, supplements, and lifestyle when you’re nurturing another life. But many women are confused and overwhelmed by the amount of conflicting information available. A pregnancy nutrition calculator can eliminate some of this confusion - and help you hone in on your actual nutritional needs. You’ll be able to make better food choices with real accountability and data.
Supporting a Diet to Avoid Gestational Diabetes
Special circumstances like gestational diabetes or preeclampsia may call for a prescribed pregnancy diet. Food is one of the most powerful tools you can harness to lower blood sugar and reduce pregnancy symptoms - and it should be one of the first options you turn to. A pregnancy nutrition calculator can help empower you to follow the right diet using the right data. It can also help your pregnancy nutritionist, who may need specific information about what you’re eating throughout the day.
Weight Gain During Pregnancy
This is one of the most common questions I get from pregnant moms, and my answer might surprise you. The average mom will gain around one pound per week in the second trimester, with the weight gain slowing around the third trimester. Some pounds may be due to hormonal changes and your body holding onto nutrients for postpartum. But most weight will account for your baby’s growth, the placenta, and increased fluid. Since every woman is different, I don’t usually find weight to be an accurate indicator of health. Yes, it plays a role in conditions like gestational diabetes or preeclampsia. But for the average woman, weight gain offers only a small glimpse of a much larger picture. Instead of focusing on weight gain, I want moms to focus on the nutrient density of their food - both macro and micronutrients. That’s where the pregnancy nutrition calculator comes in.
Who Should (And Shouldn’t) Use a Pregnancy Nutrition Calculator?
A pregnancy nutrition calculator is a helpful tool, but it should be used with care and intentionality. I recommend a pregnancy nutrition calculator for women who feel undernourished and moms navigating a healthy diet for the first time. Tracking your macro and micronutrients gives you amazing insight into your vitamin, mineral, and protein intakes. I don’t recommend pregnancy nutrition calculators for women who experience patterns of disordered eating. For some moms, this can be a trigger that spirals them back into undereating and calorie counting - two things that are usually unhelpful during pregnancy. If this is you, a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) paired with an intentional pregnancy diet plan is the best course of action.
Recommended Pregnancy Nutrition Calculator
I personally love using Cronometer as a pregnancy nutrition calculator. You can download the app, set your nutrition goals, and easily log your meals throughout the day. Unlike other pregnancy nutrition calculators, Cronometer emphasizes micronutrients (calculating up to eighty-four from your meals). This is extremely beneficial - especially if you haven’t done any lab testing during pregnancy. The data collected by Cronometer should provide insight into nutrient deficiencies and gaps in your pregnancy diet. It’s also a wonderful accountability tool for moms who are undereating fats and protein (I recommend 30-40 grams per meal).
Listen to Your Intuition
Women’s intuition is famous for a reason. And it only grows as you become a mom. For thousands of years, women have grown and birthed babies without the help of nutrition calculators and trackers. While I love these tools, I also encourage moms to tap into their own intuition. Over time, you’ll learn to rely less on the calculator and more on your cravings, symptoms, and gut feelings. And hopefully you’ll gain the knowledge and information you need to make empowered decisions about your health and your family’s health.
Micronutrient Self-Assessment
A pregnancy nutrition calculator is a helpful tool, but it isn’t a must-have. There are other resources you can use to achieve the same results. I always recommend taking a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) a few times during pregnancy to get even more intentional about your nutritional needs. But you can also use a resource like my Micronutrient Self-Assessment. This is a free guide I created for moms who want to understand the vitamins and minerals they need during pregnancy - without relying on testing or apps.
Mobile Apps for Managing Gestational Diabetes
Mobile apps are an effective tool for managing diabetes, and there are many apps available that can help pregnant patients with gestational diabetes. In this article, we discuss the top 5 mobile apps that pregnant patients with gestational diabetes can use. We will highlight their features, what is free and what is a paid feature, and share 5-star reviews!
Malama Health
Designed specifically for pregnant patients with gestational diabetes, its features are exactly what patients need. The app allows to log fasting, pre & post meal blood sugar readings, diet, exercise, sleep, stress and open notes. Keep track of your meals by taking a picture or adding text, and understand trends easily through a visual diary. It has a carb calculator for easy carb tracking, and allows to set reminders to test blood sugar 1 or 2 hours after each meal and to snack in between meals. The App scans your meal and analyses your levels to give you real-time actionable tips & feedback after each meal, which are easy to implement. This app syncs with Dexcom CGM, Bluetooth Meters (Contour, One Touch, etc.).
GD Tracker
Designed for Gestational Diabetes patients, this app is streamlined, offering the essential features without unnecessary distractions, making it an excellent choice for managing gestational diabetes. The app allows users to track their blood glucose levels and add notes such as food intake, exercise, and medication. Users can also set reminders for blood sugar checks 1 hour or 2 hour after meal. The app provides users with a visual representation of their blood sugar levels over time.
mySugr
This app is available for both iOS and Android users. It allows you to log your blood sugar readings, meals, and insulin doses. The app also provides personalized reports to help you understand your glucose patterns. The basic features of this app are free, but there is a paid version that offers additional features such as reminders, blood sugar target ranges, insulin tracking, report generation and integration with Apple Health. One 5-star review said, "This app has been so helpful in managing my gestational diabetes.
Glucose Buddy
A comprehensive app for tracking blood glucose levels, medication, and nutrition. While it is not specifically developed for pregnant patients, its robust features can be adapted to monitor blood sugar fluctuations and help expectant mothers maintain better control of their condition. The basic diabetes logbook features of this app are free: It allows you to log your blood sugar, medication and food in one place.
One Drop
One Drop is a comprehensive diabetes management app that allows users to track their health data, sync with other health apps and devices. It allows users to schedule reminders for blood glucose, meds, activity amongst others, and to share comprehensive PDF reports and logbooks. The basic features of the app are free, but for a membership fee of $19.99 per month, it also provides users with personalized coaching and support via text and personalized learning content. Although it is not designed specifically for Gestational Diabetes, the paid membership offers health forecasts and insights available for Gestational Diabetes patients too. Users have praised the app for its helpful features and excellent customer support.
Pregnancy Apps: A Closer Look
Over 50% of pregnant women use pregnancy applications (apps). Some apps lack credibility, information accuracy, and evidence-based clinical advice, containing potentially harmful functionality. We used the keyword “pregnancy” to scrape (automatically extract) apps and app information from Apple App Store and Google Play. Unique functionalities were derived from app descriptions and user reviews. App descriptions were screened for evidence-based content and expert involvement, and apps were subsequently analyzed in detail. Apps were opened and searched for used commercialization techniques, such as advertisements or affiliate marketing. In total, 495 apps were scraped. 226 remained after applying exclusion criteria. Out of these, 36 represented 97%/88% of the total market share (Apple App Store/Google Play), and were thus considered for review. Overall, 49 distinct functionalities were identified, out of which 6 were previously unreported. Functionalities for fetal kick movement counting were found. All apps are commercial. Only 15 apps mention the involvement of medical experts. Problematic features and inadequate advice continue to be present in pregnancy apps. App developers should adopt an evidence-based development approach and avoid implementing as many features as possible, potentially at the expense of their quality or over-complication (“feature creep”). Financial incentives, such as grant programs, could support adequate content quality. The use of pregnancy applications (apps) is widespread among pregnant women. Literature reports that over 50% of all pregnant women use or have used at least one smartphone app for pregnancy in the past, based on studies in Australia, China, and Ireland [1-3]. This demand is matched by severe supply: The number of pregnancy apps surpasses the market for all other medical topics [4], with the most popular apps featuring over 10 million installations and 1.5 million user reviews. Pregnancy apps offer a wide range of features and functionalities. Previous studies have investigated numerous aspects and relationships of pregnancy apps, such as their use by expectant mothers, overall perception [6-8], as well as the impact on medical caregivers and in general [9, 10]. Pregnancy apps are mainly used for information seeking, particularly for health and fetal development information, and are perceived as useful [2]. Earlier pregnancy app reviews revealed that only a few apps offer an overall high quality based on an assessment using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) tool, particularly concerning pregnancy-focused nutrition information [12, 13]. They furthermore showed that most apps lack desired features [14, 15] and that literature or science boards were seldomly cited/stated [14, 16].
App Quality and Credibility
The quality and correctness of information vastly differ between apps. An earlier review identified a lack of evidence-based clinical advice to guide women experiencing decreased fetal movements [17]. References to scientific sources or evidence-based medicine are often missing, particularly for controversial topics such as exercise or alcohol intake [18, 19]. Some apps deliver mostly medically accurate information [20]. Pregnancy app users state lack of credibility as a major weakness of pregnancy apps, and a structured analysis found information credibility to be overall low [8]. The regular use of antenatal care apps, particularly disease-screening functions, is associated with a higher rate of antenatal depression [21]. Incorrect information can also lead to raised anxiety [2], which is particularly relevant in the presence of “Cyberchondria”, an escalation of self-enforcing online searches associated with health anxiety [22-24]. Consequently, pregnancy apps have an impact on pregnant women, their pregnancy journey, and involved healthcare professionals. Apps offer the potential to increase patient awareness, participation in their health journey, and to empower patients’ autonomy. Prior pregnancy app reviews are subject to several limitations: They have only reviewed less than 10 apps [15, 19, 20], solely focused on overall quality using app assessment scores such as MARS or APPLICATIONS [12-15], focused on behavior-change techniques [12, 15, 27], or provided only broad information on features and functionalities [8, 14, 19]. Analysis of expert involvement has been limited so far [18, 19]. User perception was analyzed through user surveys, focus groups, and interviews in the past [2, 8, 28]. To the best of our knowledge, app reviews have not yet been analyzed for this purpose, despite the large amount of available user reviews.
App Functionalities
This work contributes to the existing body of knowledge by (i) being the first to cover and review the majority of pregnancy apps in practical use based on objective criteria, (ii) providing a comprehensive list of pregnancy app features for future medical analysis and discussion, (iii) analyzing scientific rationales and employed commercialization and monetization techniques, and (iv) being the first to investigate pregnancy app user perception based on app reviews using natural language processing (NLP).
The identified 49 distinct features are:
- Regular reminders, notifications and information about current pregnancy progress
- Any arbitrary calendar function
- Baby development tracking, often including milestones
- Keeps track of appointments with physicians/midwifes
- Enter measurement data to track growth
- Ability to share photos
- Advice on and/or creation of a birth plan
- Information and suggestions on lifestyle related matters
- Vivid comparison of current fetus size
- Export and/or synchronization functions
- Access
- Integration of partner/family into app functions
- Any mention of “AI technology”
Expert Involvement and Evidence-Based Content
Another aim of this work was the analysis of expert involvement and evidence-based content. 15 out of 35 apps mentioned for example articles, tips, supports from experts, information reviewed by doctors, or cooperated with organizations in their descriptions. They were thus selected for in-depth review in the next step. Out of these 15 apps, 11 mention physicians, nurses or midwives by name, 4 mention organizations (such as the “United Nations Population Fund in the area of reproductive health”), 2 mention an “own team”, and for 1 app no details could be found, despite such a statement in the app description.
Commercialization Techniques
Pregnancy apps use various monetarization approaches. With respect to purchases, app upgrades or additional offerings, 18 out of 35 apps offer in-app purchases, ranging from 0.99$ up to 100.00$ per item. 10 apps provide additional features i.e.
The Benefits of Tracking Daily Food Intake
In a world bustling with information, one aspect of our lives often overlooked is what we put into our bodies. The journey to a healthier lifestyle begins with awareness, and one of the most effective tools for cultivating this awareness is the daily tracking of food intake.
Heightened Awareness
Tracking your daily food intake creates a heightened sense of awareness about what you consume. It encourages you to be more mindful of your food choices, fostering a deeper connection between your body and the nourishment it receives. This awareness is the first step towards making informed decisions about your diet.
Portion Size Control
One of the key advantages of food tracking is gaining insight into portion sizes. It's easy to underestimate or overestimate the amount of food we consume. Tracking allows you to visualize your portion sizes and, over time, develop a more accurate understanding of what constitutes a balanced meal.
Nutritional Content Focus
Beyond just counting calories, tracking daily food intake enables you to focus on the nutritional content of your meals. Are you getting enough vitamins and minerals? Is your diet well-balanced? Tracking helps you identify areas where you might be lacking and make adjustments to ensure you meet your nutritional needs.
Weight Management
For those on a weight loss or weight maintenance journey, tracking food intake is a powerful tool. It provides a clear picture of your daily caloric intake and allows you to set realistic and achievable goals. This precision can be a game-changer when working towards weight-related objectives.
Identifying Patterns
By consistently recording what you eat, you can identify patterns and potential triggers for unhealthy eating habits. This self-awareness is instrumental in breaking negative cycles and developing healthier alternatives to cope with stress, emotions, or environmental cues.
Accountability
Recording your daily food intake creates a sense of accountability. It's a tangible record of your commitment to your health goals. Moreover, looking back on your progress can be incredibly motivating, reinforcing positive habits and inspiring you to stay on track.
Improved Digestion and Energy Levels
Understanding how different foods affect your body allows you to make choices that promote better digestion and sustained energy levels. Tracking helps you pinpoint foods that may cause discomfort or sluggishness, leading to a more energized and comfortable daily experience.