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The updated guidelines by the Institute of Medicine regarding gestational weight gain provide clinicians with a basis for practice. Health care providers who care for pregnant women should determine a woman’s body mass index at the initial prenatal visit and counsel her regarding the benefits of appropriate weight gain, nutrition and exercise, and, especially, the need to limit excessive weight gain to achieve best pregnancy outcomes. Individualized care and clinical judgment are necessary in the management of the overweight or obese woman who is gaining (or wishes to gain) less weight than recommended but has an appropriately growing fetus. The amount of weight gained during pregnancy can affect the immediate and future health of a woman and her infant. The population demographics of women who become pregnant have changed dramatically over the past decade; more women are overweight or obese at conception. Evidence supports associations between excessive gestational weight gain and increased birth weight and postpartum weight retention but also between inadequate weight gain and decreased birth weight (1). Gestational weight gain recommendations aim to optimize outcomes for the woman and the infant. In 2009, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published revised gestational weight gain guidelines that are based on prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) ranges for underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese women recommended by the World Health Organization and are independent of age, parity, smoking history, race, and ethnic background (Table 1) (2). Other changes include the removal of the previous recommendations for special populations and the addition of weight gain guidelines for women with twin gestations. For twin pregnancy, the IOM recommends a gestational weight gain of 16.8–24.5 kg (37–54 lb) for women of normal weight, 14.1–22.7 kg (31–50 lb) for overweight women, and 11.3 –19.1 kg The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists WOMEN’S HEALTH CARE PHYSICIANS