Introducing the No-Weight-Gain Pregnancy

Some of the risks associated with pregnancy are higher for overweight and obese women. What’s more, obese women often retain some of the extra weight they put on during pregnancy, long after the baby is born.

Now, researchers are asking whether it’s possible — and advisable — to radically limit weight gain in women who are obese when they become pregnant. Women participating in a new study will get nutrition counseling, meet in regular group sessions and keep food diaries. The goal is to keep weight gain during pregnancy in a very low range, from zero pounds to 3% of a woman’s baseline weight.

Guidelines released earlier this year recommended that obese women gain between 11 and 20 pounds during pregancy. Limiting or eliminating weight gain for these women may reduce certain risks, but it may also increase others, the New York Times notes this morning in an article on the study.

“What we don’t know is: Are there effects on the babies’ neurological development, or other adverse effects, from women not gaining weight?” a doctor told the Times. “Some of these women may be losing fat mass, and the question is: Is losing fat mass during pregnancy, when you’re in a higher B.M.I. category, is that safe for the baby?”

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