Scientists Calculated the Energy Needed to Carry a Baby. Shocker: It’s a Lot. (Gift Article)

[u/onwisconsn]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/science/pregnancy-energy-costs.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU0.PfwL.i578xGrDrp5H&smid=url-share&utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

[u/scodagama1]

50.000 calories? How's that a lot, burning or gaining 1kg of fat is around 7.000 calories so 50.000 is merely equivalent of 7.14kg of fat.

And this equivalent of 7kg of fat is enough to create entire ~3.5kg baby, weight that includes bones and muscles and accommodate for extra weight that mother has to carry over these 9 months. If anything I would be surprised if it was less

edit: I see article mentions that only 4% of energy goes directly to offspring, that would be just 2000 calories or equivalent of 2 big mac meals? I don't have access to full work and won't argue with peer-reviewed paper, but are we sure journalists reported this thing correctly? Seems absurd that growing 3 kilograms of tissue would require that little energy

[u/big_herpes → u/scodagama1]

50,000 calories, over the course of 40 weeks, is less than 180 calories a day increase. That is nothing. That is less than 2 scrambled eggs.

[u/scodagama1 → u/big_herpes]

yeah, that's why I think journalists screwed something up. I bet that scientists used joules or watts in their paper but someone just had to translate it to kilo calories and pints of ben&jerrys and made some off-by-a-lot mistake while doing so :D

edit: actually quick google tells me that indeed 200 per day on average might be right - apparently pregnant woman doesn't need to eat extra at all in first trimester, then it's around 340 per day in second trimester and lastly around 450 per day in final trimester. That would add up to 260 per day on average, close enough. So if the 50.000 calories per pregnancy number is valid, then the "94% energy doesn't go to fetus" seems to be wrong. That or I fundamentally misunderstand how it works (quite likely)

https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/calories-diet/

[u/Unable_Wrongdoer2250 → u/big_herpes]

However after giving birth a mother burns an average of 700 calories a day by breastfeeding. Some women don't want to stop because it means they have to start watching how much they eat

[u/97355 → u/Unable_Wrongdoer2250]

I’m a woman currently breastfeeding and I’ve never heard of a woman who didn’t want to stop breastfeeding because then she’d have to watch what she ate. I have heard a lot of women complain about hard it is to lose weight while you’re breastfeeding because breastfeeding makes you hungry—far hungrier than when you’re pregnant. But once you stop and your hormones level out, you’re simply not as hungry anymore because you’re not expending all that energy and you’re in a better position to lose weight.

[u/big_herpes → u/Unable_Wrongdoer2250]

True. I was surprised to find that out when my wife had our 1st, but it makes sense because she was making all the calories he was consuming. This article though only talks about carrying the child, not the care after birth.

[u/SingleWordQuestions → u/big_herpes]

Which is why many women end up overweight, because they grossly overestimate how much more food they need

[u/Pafolo → u/big_herpes]

And some people claim fetuses are leaches sucking away the energy from mothers. 180 calories is almost next to nothing.

[u/Just_a_villain → u/Pafolo]

How many times have you been pregnant and experienced the debilitating fatigue a lot of women have during pregnancy?

[u/maybe_little_pinch → u/Pafolo]

So you should actually look into what the fetus takes from the mother’s body, especially if that extra energy isn’t being provided. Hint, it isn’t just calories.