While most women gain between 11.5 kg and 16 kg, how much weight you gain is influenced by:

your weight before you were pregnant — if you’re underweight you may need to gain a little more, and if you’re overweight you should gain a little less
if you’re carrying twins
if you have morning sickness

It’s important to eat well when you’re pregnant to give your baby a healthy start. But you don’t have to ‘eat for two’, as some well-meaning people may have suggested.

or most women, the weight gained during pregnancy is linked to their pre-pregnancy ‘body mass index’ or BMI. The formula for calculating BMI is:

Your pre-pregnancy weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of your height (in metres).

So if you weighed 68 kg and you’re 170 cm tall, your BMI calculation would be 68 / 1.7 x 1.7 = 23.5.

You can use the healthdirect BMI calculator to work out your pre-pregnancy BMI.

If you are in the healthy weight range before becoming pregnant (BMI 18.5-24.9), ideally you should gain between 11.5 kg and 16 kg: 1 to 1.5 kg in the first three months then 1.5 to 2 kg each month until you give birth.

If you are above the healthy weight range, you should gain less. If you are below the healthy weight range, you should gain more.

I didn’t gain enough during my pregnancies according to this story.

I think it varies a lot. I only gained baby weight and went straight back to my normal weight after the birth, but I have read that some women can gain many kilos of extra weight.

It varies so much. A lot of women gain a lot of weight due to fluid. Others is a lot baby weight. So hard to answer this one