Research

Energy balance

Dietary interventions during pregnancy significantly reduce maternal gestational weight gain and lower the risk of pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, and preterm delivery compared to control groups.

Adopt a balanced diet focusing on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins while limiting fat to 30% of calories. This approach, managed by dietetic professionals, effectively reduces excessive weight gain and lowers risks of serious pregnancy complications like pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes without harming the baby's growth.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Dietary intervention resulted in the largest reduction in maternal gestational weight gain (3.84 kg, 2.45 to 5.22 kg), with improved pregnancy outcomes compared with other interventions... Dietary interventions in pregnancy were associated with a 33% reduced risk of pre-eclampsia... and a 61% reduced risk of gestational diabetes... and significant reduction in gestational hypertension... and preterm delivery
Shakila Thangaratinam et al. · BMJ · 2012

Why this rating

The paper rates the evidence for gestational weight gain as moderate, but for clinical outcomes like pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes as low to very low due to heterogeneity and study quality.

Source

Effects of interventions in pregnancy on maternal weight and obstetric outcomes: meta-analysis of randomised evidence

Shakila Thangaratinam et al. · BMJ · 2012

DOI 10.1136/bmj.e2088

Meta-analysis · 44 studiesCited 794×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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