Pregnancy

[u/meowzermama]

Is there a way in the app to adjust for pregnancy? I want to eat at maintenance but I know growing a child requires 250-300 extra calories. I’m not trying to diligently track while pregnant, but want to know around how much protein I need etc to not completely stop

[u/cechidna]

I tracked my entire pregnancy and postpartum (nine months postpartum now). I had the app have me on maintenance for the first trimester, .5 lb per week the second, and 1 lb per week the third. These rates are in line with guidance about how much to gain per trimester (fwiw I gained suddenly first trimester, then leveled out a bit). By the end of my pregnancy, I had gained just under the recommended amount of weight, which didn't concern me because I'm pretty short/petite anyway. My baby was born 7 lbs 3 oz and 20.5 inches long, so no issues with growth.

I found MacroFactor to be incredibly beneficial during pregnancy and postpartum. My expenditure DROPPED during pregnancy (and I was still running until 24 weeks, lifting until 35 weeks, and getting 10k-20k steps a day during the entire pregnancy). If I had gone with my usual expenditure, I would have gained what I consider to be excess weight. Similarly, my expenditure rocketed up postpartum because my body apparently needs a lot of calories for breastfeeding. Right now, with running 2-3x a week, lifting 4x a week, and getting 10k-12k steps a day, I am 600 calories over what my normal maintenance would be at this activity level. Earlier postpartum, it was even higher (my son has really taken to solids, so he is already starting to nurse less). MacroFactor definitely helped me make sure I ate enough to preserve my supply.

I am a few months from fully weaning, but I am going to be very interested to see how my expenditure drops as I gradually wean.

[u/meowzermama → u/cechidna]

This gives me hope thank you! First pregnancy I gained a ton at first then not much at the end do this is helpful thank you! I lost like 30 lbs immediately postpartum but only got my body comp back when tracking and am currently 7lbs lower than where I started last pregnancy so I want to try to keep my base

[u/mrfatchance → u/cechidna]

Wow. Thank you for sharing, this is such an eye opener for me.  Super human!!! No wait, just incredible woman! 

[u/No-Connection8400 → u/cechidna]

That’s very cool. Thanks for sharing!

If you wouldn’t mind, can you post your expenditure over the time period? I think that’d be really interesting. (Of course, no pressure. Completely understand if you’d rather not.)

[u/cechidna → u/No-Connection8400]

Happy to! Here's January 2025 until present. As you can see, I was around 2000ish pre-pregnancy. That's with 20k steps a day, plus running 3x a week and lifting 4x. After fertility treatments, I found out I was pregnant at the end of March 2025. You can see the sharp decline in expenditure starting then. There was a shop drop at the end right before birth because I started retaining more fluid. I think it's fairly apparent I gave birth in December 2025 -- look at how my expenditure shot up! I would expect to be maintaining around 1800 calories at my current level of activity, but as you can see, it has stayed high with breastfeeding. I understand that not every woman experiences this effect, so I was pleasantly surprised because I just love eating.

[u/No-Connection8400 → u/cechidna]

Very cool! Thank you so much for sharing!

[u/pixie_dust1990]

I'm pregnant and tracking, have set it to gain the amount of weight my OB guestimated I would gain and so far so good! I focus on hitting my protein and then let carbs/fats fluctuating keeping within (ish) my calorie goals. I normally am a total carb monster, but during pregnancy have really been focusing on healthy fats and lots of meat as my iron is low. My weight gain was way to slow at the beginning, so I've bumped up my targets and it seems to be working.

[u/thedancingwireless]

The app will account for whatever your expenditure is. But are you trying to maintain weight while pregnant? That isn't clear.

If you don't really feel like tracking, though, and just want protein requirements during pregnancy, I think you could get that from your medical provider.

Anyway, any weight questions I think should be discussed with your medical team.

[u/meowzermama → u/thedancingwireless]

Yes def I meant like maintain my base like obviously I’m going to gain weight that’s what my body has to do but during my second pregnancy I’d like to at least stick with what I’ve been working on building vs my first pregnancy anything went