Moms Pregnant With Boys Eat More

Most every pregnant woman is at least a little bit curious as to what she's having, and there are few Doctors in New Brunswick that will give you any hints, let alone a glimpse, but there may be a new way to tell if you're carrying a boy or a girl, and it's proving to be more accurate than looking in the mirror for a high or low belly. It seems that women who are pregnant with boys are consuming about 10 % more calories (energy) per day than those moms-to-be who are carrying girls.

On average, boys at birth weigh in about 3.5 ounces heavier than girls do, and a study recently published in the British Medical Journal suggests that this difference in weight is driven by chemical signals coming from the fetus stimulating Mom's appetite, showing that even in the womb, males are already demanding more calories. Fetuses trigger their mother's appetite in proportion to their requirement for optimal growth. This finding may also indicate that boys are more susceptible to problems linked to fetal nutrition.

The researchers who conducted the study assessed the diets of 244 pregnant American women from their first prenatal visit on. It turns out, that moms-to-be of boys were consuming almost 200 more calories per day by eating more carbs, animal fats, proteins, and more vegetable fats than moms pregnant with girls. All the women later gave birth to normal-weight babies at full term, and though the baby boys were heavier than the baby girls, the mom's prenatal weight gain was not affected by this additional caloric intake.

So stop counting kicks and analyzing heart rates, the answer to your question might lie on your plate.