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Pregnancy, second trimester: calorie and protein needs

The second trimester is where the energy increment becomes big enough to plan for: roughly a quarter of a standard meal added to the day, every day, on top of what you needed before.

These are population averages, not a plan for you. Energy and protein needs in pregnancy, second trimester are individualised by a midwife, doctor or registered dietitian who knows your history, your measurements and your blood work. Do not use this page to decide to eat more or less than you have been told to.

Pregnancy and afterWomenReference age 30

By the second trimester the tissue being built is real: the placenta is at full size, blood volume is climbing, and maternal fat stores are being laid down deliberately as an energy buffer for late pregnancy and lactation. EFSA's additional energy requirement for this stage is around 260 kcal a day. Unlike the first trimester, that is a number large enough to be worth building into how you eat rather than leaving to appetite.

The way to add it matters. Two hundred and sixty kilocalories of confectionery and 260 kilocalories of yoghurt with fruit and nuts do the same thing to the energy balance and very different things to the iron, calcium and protein columns. Because the protein increment (about 9 g a day) and the micronutrient increments arrive at the same time as the energy increment, the sensible move is to add food that carries several of them at once.

Appetite usually returns in this trimester, which makes the arithmetic easier than the first. Weight gain has a recommended range that depends on your pre-pregnancy BMI, and that range is set by your maternity service — this site deliberately does not print one, because using the wrong band is worse than using none.

It is also the trimester in which activity level starts to drift without anyone deciding to change it. Sleep gets worse, joints loosen, and the sessions that used to be automatic become negotiable. Because the whole estimate below hangs on a physical activity multiplier, a quiet slide from an active week to a sedentary one moves the real requirement by more than the entire pregnancy increment does. That is worth watching precisely because it does not announce itself.

The adjustment for this stage

About +260 kcal a day on top of the pre-pregnancy requirement.

PAL 1.4 is the sedentary/low-activity level WHO/FAO and EFSA use. If you are still training or on your feet all day, the real multiplier is higher.

Source: EFSA Dietary Reference Values — energy, protein and micronutrients (European Food Safety Authority) · checked 2026-09-02

The equation this page uses

BMR (men)   = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age + 5
BMR (women) = 10 × weight(kg) + 6.25 × height(cm) − 5 × age − 161

Daily target = BMR × 1.40 + 260

Worked through for the middle row of the table below: a woman of 75 kg and 168 cm at age 30 has a Mifflin-St Jeor BMR of about 1 489 kcal. Multiplied by PAL 1.40 that is 2 085 kcal, and adding the 260 kcal increment for this stage gives 2 345 kcal a day.

Worked example: by height and weight

Worked example: how age moves it

What changes if your activity is different

Protein for this stage

EFSA adds roughly 9 g of protein a day in the second trimester on top of the 0.83 g/kg adult reference intake. Nine grams is a large egg, or 250 ml of milk.

Source: EFSA Dietary Reference Values — energy, protein and micronutrients (European Food Safety Authority) · checked 2026-09-02

Your own numbers

The nutrients that matter most here

• Iron. Plasma volume expands faster than red cell mass, so haemoglobin falls by dilution in a pattern that is normal in pregnancy. Whether your own numbers need anything doing about them is a blood-test question.
• Calcium. Fetal skeleton mineralisation accelerates in the second half. EFSA's adult reference intake is 950 mg a day; absorption efficiency also rises in pregnancy, which is part of how the requirement is met.
• Vitamin D. Works with calcium. Northern latitudes make no meaningful skin vitamin D between roughly October and March, which is why national winter advice exists.
• Iodine. Still elevated relative to non-pregnant adults, for the same thyroid-development reason as the first trimester.
• Choline. Present in the USDA reference data used across this site; eggs and liver are the standout sources. Reference intakes exist but there is far less consensus than for the classic vitamins.

Source: EFSA Dietary Reference Values — energy, protein and micronutrients (European Food Safety Authority) · checked 2026-09-02

Nutrient reference values are population figures. This page never tells you to take a supplement or how much of one to take — that is a decision for a clinician who can see your blood work and your medicines.

What to actually do

• Add the increment as one extra composed snack rather than by enlarging every meal — it is easier to keep track of.
• Pick additions that carry protein and a mineral at the same time: yoghurt and fruit, cheese and rye bread, hummus and vegetables.
• Keep some form of movement in the week if your maternity team is happy with it; it changes the PAL your real requirement sits at.
• Ask your maternity service for your weight-gain range rather than taking one off the internet.

Frequently asked questions

Other life stages

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