Surveys of Food Intakes by Individualswere not specifically designed to study perinatal outcomes, we cannot evaluate the potentally negative impact of low energy intake on maternalweight gain, birthweight, and lactation performance. It is likely that, as has been noted for selfreported diets, our participants were underreporting their intakes of energy.9-10 It is also possible that their energy requirements were lower than the Recommended Dietary Allowance as a result of lower than average energy expenditure. The postpartum intakes of many nonlactating mothers did not return to prepregnancy levels, which may be a risk factor for retention of pregnancy weight gain.These findings are provocative and indicate a need for additional study of nationally representative samples to determine whether the maternal energy intakes observed here are associated with adverse effects on pregnancy outcome, lactational performance, and maintenance of desirable body weight. O