Do you have an increased appetite during early pregnancy

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The frequency with which you get hungry increases when you’ve got Baby on the way.

What causes it?

The number one cause of increased appetite during pregnancy is the growing baby, who needs certain vitamins, nutrients and calories to grow and develop properly. In addition, a woman’s body must have enough food to maintain higher blood levels and body processes active during gestation. During the latter part of the pregnancy, increased hunger may be associated with milk production.

Tips?

Eating several small meals a day, choosing filling meals with high fiber intake, and making healthy snack selections instead of fatty and processed foods can all help to combat hunger and provide healthy foods for Baby. Pregnant women might only need to increase their calorie count by 300 or so a day, but it’s best to talk to your healthcare provider about your appetite.

Reviewed by Dr. Jamie Lo

Read more

• Healthy snacking during pregnancy
• Weight gain targets during pregnancy: eating for two

Sources

• “Weight Gain During Pregnancy: Number 548.” ACOG. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 1/13/2015. Web.
• Mayo Clinic Staff. “Pregnancy diet: Focus on these essential nutrients.” Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic, 3/1/2014. Web.

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Whether you're trying to become pregnant or would prefer not to, you're not alone if you find yourself scrutinizing your symptoms for potential signs of pregnancy. While many people experience headache, nausea and some cramping as early signs of pregnancy, other signs and symptoms may be less common and less well-recognized.

Time Frame

Technically, you're already two weeks pregnant when you conceive, explain Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel in their book "What To Expect When You're Expecting." This is because you conceive about two weeks after the start of your last menstrual period, and pregnancy is dated from the first day of your last period. The early pregnancy period during which you'll start to show symptoms, therefore, is from about three to six weeks gestational age, or one to four weeks after conception.

Reason for Symptoms

The reason you start to show symptoms of early pregnancy--and not all people show all, or even most, of the typical symptoms--is that your hormone levels start to rise. This leads to the most common early symptom, a missed period. You may also notice some nausea, commonly called "morning sickness," explain Murkoff and Mazel. Many people also have headaches, and some experience low abdominal cramps that aren't unlike menstrual cramps.

Hunger

It's very typical for pregnant people to feel quite hungry, notes Dr. Miriam Stoppard in her book "Conception, Pregnancy and Birth." Typically, however, the hunger strikes closer to the start of the second trimester than the start of the first. Most people--though not all--have either no appetite changes or else experience reduced appetite in the first few weeks of pregnancy, as their hormone levels adjust.

Considerations

If you're experiencing significant hunger in the complete absence of other signs of pregnancy, it's not likely that you're pregnant. There are many other reasons that you might be more hungry than usual. For instance, some people find that their appetite increases around the time that they're expecting a menstrual period. Dr. Stoppard, however, notes that all people respond differently to pregnancy, meaning that just because most people don't feel much hungrier right away doesn't mean you can't.

What To Do

If you're experiencing an increased appetite--or any other unusual symptoms--and there's a chance that you might be pregnant, it's probably best to confirm or refute your suspicions with a home pregnancy test. Home tests tend to be most reliable on or around the first day of your missed period, explains Dr. Raymond Poliakin in his book "What You Didn't Think To Ask Your Obstetrician." Because people can experience the early days of pregnancy in so many different ways, a pregnancy test is the only way to be sure of what your symptoms mean.