You just had breakfast and you’re already hungry for lunch? You are not alone. It’s not uncommon to feel hungry all the time during pregnancy, and it’s important to feed your body and baby the fuel they need.

“Establishing a positive diet during pregnancy has been shown to promote healthier growth and development for your baby both in utero and in early childhood,” says Shannon Smith, MD, an OB/GYN at Brigham Faulkner Ob/Gyn Associates and a member of the BabyCenter Medical Advisory Board. “In addition, a healthy diet reduces the risk of pregnancy complications.”

Here’s how you can harness your hunger for a healthy pregnancy.

Are you always hungry during pregnancy? Here’s why

If you feel like you’re always hungry during pregnancy, there’s a good reason: Your body is working hard to support your baby, and that requires a lot of energy. In addition to nourishing your growing baby, your meals encourage pregnancy changes in your body – which include a much larger blood volume, your growing breasts and uterus, and increased fat stores. No wonder you’re hungry!

Starting in the second trimester, most healthy pregnant women should eat about 300 to 350 more calories per day than they did before conception. In the third trimester, that need increases to 450 extra calories each day. Try to stick to pregnancy weight gain guidelines, which vary based on your starting pre-pregnancy weight.

When pregnancy hunger starts and peaks

You can expect pregnancy hunger to start and peak in the second trimester.

During the first trimester, nausea and vomiting (morning sickness) can prevent you from feeling like eating much of anything. That’s okay: Your baby is tiny at this point, and you don’t need to eat extra calories. It’s normal to gain about 3 to 5 pounds in the first trimester (and it’s okay if you don’t gain any weight at all).

After the 14th week of pregnancy or the start of the second trimester, you’ll usually start to feel welcome relief from morning sickness – and your appetite may return. From now on, your baby grows rapidly and needs nutrients to build bones, muscles and other tissues.

In the third trimester, pregnancy hunger tends to decrease as your baby crowds your internal organs, including your stomach. You’ll still need to eat more calories than you did before pregnancy, which means you’ll likely want to eat smaller, more frequent meals to meet your nutritional needs.

How to deal with increased appetite during pregnancy

Hunger during pregnancy is a completely normal and healthy reaction to having a baby. The goal is to satisfy yourself and provide the right amount of nutrients for your developing baby.

You just don’t want an increased appetite during pregnancy to cause you to gorge yourself on foods that have little nutritional value or gain too much weight.

Here are some tips to help control hunger during pregnancy:

• Eat often. Eat something every three hours, which should keep you from getting so hungry that you overeat at any meal. Try eating six smaller meals throughout the day instead of three big ones (which can also help fight any heartburn you have).

• Focus on protein, fiber and healthy (unsaturated) fats. Include foods that contain a mixture of all three nutrients in each meal. They will keep the blood sugar level even and starve.

• Reduce or eliminate nutritionally empty foods. Sugar-sweetened beverages, as well as fast food and highly processed packaged foods (such as cookies, white bread, chips and soda), add calories without benefit to you or your baby.

• A drink enough water. Aim for about eight to twelve 8-ounce cups of water a day. Water aids digestion and helps nutrients circulate throughout the body, among other benefits

• Rule out other causes of hunger. Sometimes you can mistake thirst, stress or boredom for hunger.

  Advertisement | page continues below

• Prioritize sleep as much as possible. Ideally aim for seven to nine hours a night. Being very tired can affect your hunger hormones and make you feel hungry.

• Eat slowly and avoid distractions while eating. If you eat quickly while watching TV or scrolling on your phone, you’re less likely to notice signals from your brain that you feel full.

What to eat during pregnancy

To make sure you’re getting important nutrients while satisfying your hunger, choose nutrient-dense foods with multiple benefits. Focus on:

• Vegetables and fruitswhich will ideally make up half of your plate during a meal
• Whole grainssuch as whole grain bread and pasta, oats, quinoa, barley, brown rice and bulgur
• Low-fat dairy productsincluding yogurt, milk and cheese
• Food packed with proteinespecially beans, legumes, fish, eggs, and lean poultry and meat

Use these tips to add more nutrition to your meals and snacks:

• Use ripe avocado as a sandwich spread instead of mayonnaise and on bagels instead of cream cheese.
• Slice a fruit, such as a mango, and eat it with yogurt or on a green salad.
• Cook quinoa and use it as a side dish or hot cereal. You can even add it to muffins and quiches.
• Double the vegetables called for in any stir-fry recipe to give it extra flavor and volume with minimal calories.
• Substitute ground turkey or lentils for beef in tacos and meat dips.
• Give salads a crunch by adding roasted chickpeas instead of croutons.

Ideas for healthy snacks during pregnancy

These healthy snack ideas can also help you get the nutrients you need:

• Mix 1 cup of nonfat Greek yogurt with 1 ounce of nuts (about the amount that fits in the palm of your hand).
• Combine a handful of walnuts with tart dried cherries for an on-the-go snack.
• Spread 2 tablespoons of peanut butter on the apple slices.
• Top the English muffin with the beaten egg and spinach.
• Eat a bar of fruit and nuts (check the ingredients and skip those that are high in sugar).
• Take 3/4 cup of whole grain cereal or oatmeal with a little fat milk.
• Blend the smoothie with 1 cup frozen berries, 1/2 cup low-fat yogurt, and 1/2 cup nonfat milk.
• Top 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese with sliced ​​cantaloupe.
• Chew 1/2 cup edamame.
• Boil a hard-boiled egg and eat it with a portion of your favorite fruit.
• Eat a handful of whole grain crackers with 1 ounce of cheddar cheese.