The Dangers of Obesity in Pregnancy

If you are overweight and planning a pregnancy, it is in your best interest to lose unhealthy fat before attempting to conceive. Obesity is a factor in infertility, as well as in gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes is a dangerous situation both for mother and child. Moms can get full-blown diabetes after having gestational diabetes, and the unborn child could gain enough weight from all the excess sugar in the mother's bloodstream to the point that vaginal delivery is difficult or even impossible. It also puts the child at higher risk for diabetes when he or she is older.

Of course, it goes without saying that any woman and her partner who are suffering the heartbreak of infertility need to be evaluated for underlying causes by a physician. But obesity wreaks havoc with hormone levels, and normal hormone levels are necessary for ovulation. Losing weight can be an easy way to fight infertility without having to resort to expensive and exhausting fertility drugs and treatments.

As well, losing weight before conception and maintaining a healthy, physician-supervised weight gain in pregnancy means less time recovering your pre-pregnancy body after delivery. After all, who doesn't want a healthy pregnancy and baby and be a hot mama afterward too? Another thing to consider is the role of excess belly fat in heart disease. If you want to live to see your new baby dance at their wedding someday, you owe it to him or to her to lose that weight.

Losing weight doesn't have to mean subsisting on carrots, either. Learn proper portion sizes--for example a portion of rice is about the size of half of a tennis ball. A portion of meat is the size of a deck of cards, not half the size of your dinner plate. Get over processed foods containing, white flour, sugar,trans-fats and high-fructose corn syrup out of your diet, and replace them with whole grains, and natural sweeteners such as agave nectar, honey and pure maple syrup that don't wreak havoc on your blood sugar. Combine a healthy diet with interval cardio and a weight-lifting routine and watch those pounds melt away.