MyFitnessPal Pregnancy Guide: Track Nutrition & Wellness During Your Journey

Pregnancy is an exciting yet challenging time, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is crucial for both the mother and the baby. MyFitnessPal, one of the leading health and fitness apps, has recognized this need and offers a variety of tools that can help expectant mothers track their nutrition, exercise, and overall wellness throughout pregnancy. This article will explore how MyFitnessPal supports pregnant women with customizable tracking features, expert-backed advice, and tools that help manage pregnancy symptoms and promote a healthy lifestyle during this important phase.

Tailored Nutrition and Fitness Tracking with MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal is more than just a simple calorie-tracking app. It is a comprehensive wellness tool that enables users to track their food intake, exercise routines, and overall health habits, which is crucial during pregnancy. While it doesn’t offer a dedicated pregnancy mode, MyFitnessPal is incredibly flexible and allows expectant mothers to tailor their settings to accommodate their unique nutritional needs. Pregnancy brings about specific dietary requirements, and MyFitnessPal makes it easy to monitor these needs, such as calcium, iron, folic acid, and other key nutrients essential for both the mother and the baby.

By using MyFitnessPal’s detailed tracking features, pregnant women can stay informed about their nutrition, adjust their diet and exercise routines, and ensure they’re getting the right balance of nutrients throughout their pregnancy journey. Here’s a closer look at the key features MyFitnessPal offers for pregnancy tracking:

Key Features for Pregnancy Tracking:

1. Food Diary: MyFitnessPal’s food diary allows you to log your daily meals and snacks, including any pregnancy-specific nutritional adjustments. Pregnancy can change a woman’s appetite and food preferences, and by logging your meals, you can make sure you’re meeting both your needs and your baby’s needs. This feature helps track the balance of food groups, monitor portion sizes, and ensure proper nutrient intake.
2. Calorie Adjustments: A significant part of pregnancy is managing your calorie intake to support the growth of the baby while ensuring the mother’s health is maintained. MyFitnessPal allows expectant mothers to adjust their daily calorie intake based on their trimester. For instance, during the second and third trimesters, caloric needs increase to support fetal development, and MyFitnessPal makes it easy to customize your daily goals. This helps prevent excessive weight gain and ensures a healthy pregnancy.
3. Macronutrient Breakdown: During pregnancy, it’s crucial to maintain the right balance of macronutrients, protein, fat, and carbohydrates, to ensure optimal health for both the mother and the baby. MyFitnessPal helps users track their macronutrients, making it easier to see how much protein, fat, and carbs they are consuming each day. Pregnant women can set specific protein goals to support muscle growth and fetal development or adjust fat and carb intake to maintain overall health and energy levels.
4. Micronutrient Monitoring: Pregnancy increases the need for several vitamins and minerals that are vital for the development of the baby and the mother’s health. Key micronutrients like folate, iron, calcium, vitamin D, and others need to be monitored carefully. MyFitnessPal allows users to track these micronutrients and set personalized goals to meet the increased requirements during pregnancy. This feature helps expectant mothers stay on top of their prenatal vitamin intake and make food choices that meet their specific nutritional needs.

Although MyFitnessPal does not have a dedicated pregnancy setting, many users have discovered ways to customize their experience by manually adjusting their goals. This customization allows them to align their calorie intake and nutrient requirements with the recommendations from their healthcare provider. For example, pregnant women can set their calorie goal to account for weight gain, increase protein intake for fetal growth, or monitor iron and calcium levels to ensure healthy bone development.

With these customizable tracking tools, MyFitnessPal provides expectant mothers with the resources they need to make informed decisions about their nutrition and fitness. Whether you’re in your first trimester or nearing delivery, MyFitnessPal helps guide you through the stages of pregnancy while promoting a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

Support for Pregnancy-Related Symptoms with MyFitnessPal

Pregnancy often comes with a range of symptoms that can be difficult to manage, from morning sickness to heartburn and fatigue. While these symptoms are a normal part of the pregnancy journey, they can make daily life challenging. MyFitnessPal offers valuable tools that can help expectant mothers track their health metrics and make adjustments to their lifestyle in order to ease these symptoms. By logging food intake, exercise, and hydration, you can gain insights into what’s working and what isn’t, helping you manage the common pregnancy-related discomforts more effectively. Here’s how MyFitnessPal can assist with managing some of the most common pregnancy symptoms:

Morning Sickness

Morning sickness is one of the earliest and most common pregnancy symptoms, affecting 50 to 90% of pregnant women. The nausea and vomiting that often accompany morning sickness can be triggered by specific foods or smells. By tracking what you eat in MyFitnessPal, you can identify any foods that might be contributing to nausea. For example, you may notice that certain greasy or spicy foods trigger symptoms, while bland or easily digestible foods like crackers or bananas might be gentler on your stomach. Keeping a food diary can help you understand these patterns and take action to avoid triggers, improving your overall well-being.

Heartburn and Digestion Issues

As the pregnancy progresses, many women experience heartburn and digestion issues due to a growing uterus pressing on the stomach and slowing down digestion. These symptoms are common, especially in the second and third trimesters. MyFitnessPal can be a useful tool for managing these issues by allowing you to track your food intake and notice which foods exacerbate heartburn or constipation. For example, spicy foods, caffeine, or large meals can be hard on the stomach and increase acid reflux or discomfort. By keeping a detailed food log, you can make more informed choices about what to eat and when to eat, potentially alleviating some digestive discomfort.

Fatigue

Fatigue is another common symptom, especially in the first and third trimesters. Hormonal changes and the increased energy demands of pregnancy can leave many women feeling tired, even after a full night’s rest. MyFitnessPal helps track your energy levels and food intake, which can provide insights into how your diet and activity levels may be affecting your energy. For instance, you might discover that eating certain foods, such as those rich in iron and protein, helps boost your energy, while others, like refined carbohydrates, leave you feeling sluggish. Additionally, tracking your exercise and hydration helps ensure that you are staying active and properly hydrated, both of which are essential for combating fatigue.

Hydration and Exercise

Hydration and exercise are key factors in managing pregnancy symptoms. Keeping track of your water intake in MyFitnessPal ensures you are staying properly hydrated, which is essential for preventing dehydration-related issues like headaches, fatigue, and constipation. MyFitnessPal also allows you to log light exercises, such as walking or prenatal yoga, which can be incredibly beneficial in reducing stress, improving circulation, and alleviating pregnancy discomforts like back pain or swelling. Regular exercise, when done safely and according to your healthcare provider’s recommendations, can also improve sleep quality and overall mood, helping you feel better throughout the day.

By using MyFitnessPal to track hydration, exercise, and food intake, expectant mothers can better manage the common symptoms of pregnancy. The app’s ability to offer real-time insights into how your body responds to different foods and activities helps you make informed choices, leading to improved comfort and well-being during pregnancy. Many pregnant women find that focusing on nutrient-dense foods, staying hydrated, and maintaining regular, light exercise routines can significantly reduce the frequency and intensity of pregnancy-related symptoms, enabling them to enjoy a healthier, more comfortable pregnancy.

Customizing Exercise During Pregnancy

Exercise is essential during pregnancy, but it’s important to approach it with caution. MyFitnessPal allows users to log their physical activity and track fitness goals, even when adjusting their routines to accommodate a changing body.

Deja Riley, a fitness expert and expectant mother, partnered with MyFitnessPal to create an easy-to-follow pregnancy fitness plan. The plan emphasizes gentle movement and modified exercises that are safe during each trimester. Some of the fitness goals to consider include:

• Strength Training: Modify your routine to focus on lighter weights and lower-intensity exercises.
• Walking: A simple yet effective form of exercise to keep the body active while maintaining safe activity levels.
• Stretching: Pregnancy can bring discomfort in the form of back pain, swelling, and stiffness. Incorporating stretching into your routine can provide relief.
• Yoga or Pilates: These practices help with flexibility, balance, and relaxation, which are important as your body changes.

By using MyFitnessPal’s exercise tracker, expectant mothers can find a balance between staying active and listening to their bodies’ changing needs. The app can be tailored to track workouts that are specifically safe for pregnancy.

Pregnancy and Weight Gain: Healthy Management with MyFitnessPal

Managing weight gain during pregnancy is a common concern, and MyFitnessPal offers a customizable way to track your progress. Gaining the right amount of weight is essential for both your health and the baby’s development. MyFitnessPal helps you monitor this process with the following features:

Tracking Weight Gain Goals

MyFitnessPal allows you to set goals for healthy weight gain based on your pre-pregnancy weight and your healthcare provider’s recommendations. This helps ensure that you stay on track and focus on overall health during pregnancy.

Caloric Adjustments by Trimester

During the first trimester, you may not need to increase calories significantly, but in the second and third trimesters, MyFitnessPal lets you adjust your caloric intake to meet your growing baby’s needs. Typically, 300-500 extra calories are recommended in the later trimesters.

Tracking Pregnancy Symptoms That Affect Weight

Pregnancy-related symptoms like swelling and bloating can affect your weight. MyFitnessPal helps track these symptoms, giving you a clearer picture of your weight fluctuations and helping you differentiate between normal pregnancy changes and other factors.

By using MyFitnessPal to monitor your weight, calories, and symptoms, you can stay informed and maintain a healthy weight gain throughout your pregnancy.

How to Adjust MyFitnessPal Settings for Pregnancy

Although MyFitnessPal doesn’t have a dedicated pregnancy mode, it is highly customizable, and with a few simple adjustments, you can tailor it to meet your pregnancy-related needs. Here are some key settings to modify in order to make the app work for you during pregnancy:

1. Set Your Calorie Goal

In the first trimester, your calorie requirements might not change significantly, but as you move into the second and third trimesters, your body’s energy needs increase. Typically, expectant mothers need an additional 300-500 calories per day in the second and third trimesters to support the baby’s growth. MyFitnessPal allows you to adjust your calorie goal to reflect these changes. It’s important to follow your healthcare provider’s recommendations, as they can give you specific guidance based on your individual health and needs.

2. Adjust Macronutrient Goals

During pregnancy, the balance of macronutrients – proteins, fats, and carbohydrates – is crucial for both maternal health and fetal development. MyFitnessPal helps you track your intake of these macronutrients. For instance, increasing protein intake is often necessary to support both the mother’s and baby’s health, particularly in the second and third trimesters. The app allows you to adjust your protein, carb, and fat goals to ensure you’re getting the right balance to maintain a healthy pregnancy.

3. Track Nutrients

Pregnancy increases the need for certain vitamins and minerals, including calcium, iron, folate, and vitamin D. MyFitnessPal allows you to track these micronutrients to ensure you’re meeting the recommended daily intake. Adjust your nutrition goals to focus on these essential nutrients and check your progress daily. Monitoring these vitamins and minerals is vital for the healthy development of your baby and to support your own health during pregnancy.

4. Log Your Weight

Regularly logging your weight during pregnancy is an important step in monitoring healthy weight gain. While the general weight gain recommendations depend on your pre-pregnancy weight, tracking it consistently in MyFitnessPal helps you stay within a healthy range. This also provides a helpful overview, especially as pregnancy-related weight changes can be gradual and influenced by factors like swelling or water retention. By logging your weight, you can keep track of whether you’re staying on target and adjust your diet and exercise habits accordingly.

By making these adjustments, MyFitnessPal becomes a powerful tool for expectant mothers, helping you stay on top of your nutrition, weight management, and overall health throughout pregnancy. It allows you to monitor and adjust your progress with ease, ensuring a healthier, more balanced pregnancy.

Meal Planning with MyFitnessPal: Healthy Eating for Two

Eating well during pregnancy is essential for both your health and the baby’s. MyFitnessPal helps by offering meal planning tools that make it easy to organize your meals for the week. Here’s how you can use MyFitnessPal for meal planning during pregnancy:

• Access to a Large Food Database: With many foods in its database, MyFitnessPal makes it easy to find pregnancy-friendly foods, from nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables to protein-rich options like lean meats and legumes.
• Recipe Recommendations: MyFitnessPal offers recipe suggestions that are designed to meet the nutritional needs of pregnant women. You can filter for healthy recipes that support your pregnancy goals.
• Grocery Lists: After selecting your recipes, MyFitnessPal can automatically generate grocery lists, helping you shop efficiently for all the ingredients you need for the week.

Pregnancy is a time when meal planning becomes especially important. MyFitnessPal’s tools can help you stay organized and ensure you’re getting the nutrients you need to support a healthy pregnancy.

ReciMe: A Recipe-Centered Alternative for Healthy Pregnancy Meal Planning

If you’re looking for a more personalized and focused way to plan your meals during pregnancy, we created ReciMe as a great alternative to MyFitnessPal. While MyFitnessPal excels at tracking general nutrition across a wide variety of foods, ReciMe is designed to help you organize and manage the recipes you actually cook. This makes it a perfect tool for pregnancy meal planning, allowing you to track the nutritional content of the meals you’re preparing in a more tailored way that aligns with your dietary needs.

With ReciMe, everything starts with the recipes you save. You can collect your favorite recipes from platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, and other sources, and store them all in one easy-to-access place. From there, we automatically calculate the calories, protein, carbs, and fats for each recipe, ensuring you have the nutritional information you need to make informed decisions about what you’re eating during pregnancy.

We focus specifically on the meals you’re preparing. Instead of manually logging every ingredient or relying on generic data, ReciMe gives you personalized nutrition insights based on the exact recipes you’re using. This makes it much easier to monitor your nutrition and ensure it fits your pregnancy dietary goals. 

In addition to recipe storage and nutritional tracking, ReciMe helps you plan your meals and grocery shopping. We let you create grocery lists based on the ingredients in your recipes, so you can shop efficiently. You can also categorize your recipes by meal type – whether it’s breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and plan your meals for the entire week.

For those of us navigating pregnancy meal planning, we offer a simpler, recipe-centered solution to help you stay organized and track our nutrition. Whether you’re following a specific pregnancy diet or just trying to eat healthily, ReciMe makes it easy to plan your meals, track your nutrition, and streamline grocery shopping – all while focusing on the recipes you love to cook. Our tool is available as a Chrome extension and as an iOS app.

Just try it – you’ll love it:

Conclusion

Pregnancy is an exciting and transformative time, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is key for both you and your baby’s well-being. Tools like MyFitnessPal offer valuable features for tracking nutrition, exercise, and overall wellness, helping you manage weight gain and monitor pregnancy-related symptoms. However, for those who prefer a more recipe-centered approach, ReciMe can be a wonderful complement. It allows you to save, organize, and calculate the nutritional content of the recipes you love, helping you stay on track with your pregnancy diet. Whether you choose MyFitnessPal for its broad tracking capabilities or ReciMe for its recipe-focused tools, both apps provide essential support on your pregnancy journey, making it easier to achieve a healthy, well-balanced lifestyle.

Frequently Asked Questions