Weight Gain

Keep Fit and Healthy During Pregnancy

Keeping fit and healthy during pregnancy is essential for many different reasons. Besides being beneficial to the unborn baby and providing he or she with all the vitamins and nutrients they need to be born healthy, keeping healthy and fit during pregnancy helps the mom to be happier and able to withstand some of the symptoms of pregnancy better.

- Exercise can help prevent gestational diabetes, a form of diabetes that sometimes develops during pregnancy.
- Exercise can help relieve stress and build the stamina needed for labor and delivery.
- Exercise can help new mothers keep the “baby blues” at bay, cope with postpartum depression, regain their energy and lose the weight they gained during pregnancy.
- Seek fitness advice from your obstetrician.
- Incorporate a variety of different fitness activities into a weekly schedule.
- Join a pregnancy club.
- Know your limitations and know when to stop.
- Create reasons to keep the body moving.
- Keep fitness activities simple. By keeping the activities simple, it will encourage you to do them more frequently.
- Monitor your weight.
- Gaining more weight than necessary will contribute to health problems during the pregnancy as well as make it harder to keep your body active.
- Maintain a healthy and nutritious diet.
- Drink plenty of water.
- Pregnant women should never smoke, drink or do drugs during pregnancy.

NOTE : It’s best to check with your doctor before starting any exercise program. You may have a medical condition that would make exercise harmful to you or your baby. If your doctor approves, you can start exercising at a level that does not cause pain, shortness of breath or excessive tiredness. You may then slowly increase your activity.

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Diabetes – Avoiding weight gain due to accumulation of glucose

One of the main characteristics of Diabetes Mellitus is the inability of the cells of the body to absorb the glucose present in the blood steam. This results in a higher level of the glucose in the blood, which is why the sugar levels of the diabetes afflicted is normally higher. However, a high level of blood sugar (with fasting above 110, post Prandial above 140 mg) can lead to damage to different sections of the body such as the blood vessels, the kidney, feet, eyes, and also lead to cardio-vascular problems. However, another side effect is the accumulation of this unabsorbed glucose leading to the weight level of the patient increasing. This increase in weight has other side effects, and is something that needs to be avoided.
How do you avoid an increase of the weight that is normally a part of diabetes ? Well, there is no easy way – you need to control your diet, and increase the level of physical exercise you do. Some of the measures you can take are:
- Have a more regulated diet – Eat breakfast regularly, and eat healthy. Contrary to popular belief that skipping meals helps, it can result in a reduced level of the body metabolism, which means the energy being burnt by the body reduces.
- Eat healthy. In today’s world, the consumption of junk foods such as fried stuff, pizzas, burgers, chips and fries, carbonated high sugar fizzy drinks, all of these tend to increase the weight of the body. You should modify this diet to include more fibre such as vegetables, oats, whole grains, etc. This has a great effect in controlling the gain in weight.
- Exercise. If you are going somewhere close by, walk rather than go by car. Go out for walks after meals. If you can use the stairs rather than the elevator, do so. Go for a jog in the morning, and soon you will find that you get a energy rush in the morning that helps you for the rest of the day.
- Check you sugar levels periodically. This helps in ensuring that your sugar level remains in control, and has a good effect on weight control.

Insulin and Weight Gain

Insulin is a potent hormone that regulates glucose, fat, and protein metabolism. In many cases, people with type 2 diabetes start insulin therapy when oral medicines cannot or no longer control their glucose levels. This means that blood glucose levels in the body have been elevated for an extended period of time. In this state, the body does not metabolize glucose, fat, or protein in a well-regulated or efficient way. Cells that require glucose to function properly begin starving because of inadequate amounts of circulating insulin. Fat metabolism becomes abnormal, which can lead to high triglyceride levels. The body’s metabolic rate then increases as it tries to convert this fat into a source of energy.
Both, type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes (diabetes mellitus) occur when the body can not produce or can not use the produced insulin. As a result you have to provide insulin to the body for diabetes cure and improve the symptoms of diabetes. But, there is a negative side of insulin as well. One such side effect is weight gain. The main work of insulin is to improve the ability of your body to use and store sugar (glucose). When your blood glucose levels are high, your kidneys try to remedy the situation by excreting glucose in your urine. Insulin provided from outside reverses these processes as blood glucose levels return to normal, which can contribute to weight gain.
To keep weight gain under control, you have to reduce your calorie intake and increase your physical activity. If you try to reduce your insulin dosage without changing your diet to control weight you may suffer from diabetes complications. Lowering your blood sugar with insulin or oral medications may lead to weight loss. But, it is suggested that you consult with a physician and keep regular exercise going to tackle weight gain caused by insulin.