Hi folks! I have a few questions about pregnancy weight gain. For those who don't know me, I've been maintaining a ~50lb loss for seven years and am currently 18w5d pregnant with twins. Here are my questions/issues.
1) My doctor told me that I need to gain at least 40lbs during this pregnancy since it's twins, and he said, "It's not possible to gain too much weight." I'm currently up ~19lbs as of this morning (depending what you consider my start weight). I read that for twin pregnancies, you should gain most of your weight early, including at least 24lbs by 24 weeks. Am I on track? I feel like I've been gaining a lot of weight each week the past couple weeks, like 2-3lbs. If I keep up at this rate I'll overshoot the 40lb goal if I make it to 36 weeks, and despite what the doctor said I'm pretty sure it's possible to gain too much weight. Will the weight gain slow down?
2) Relatedly, how do I know that my weight gain is going to the right place? When I look in the mirror it's mostly belly and boobs, but this past week I've noticed that my thighs and arms seem chubbier too. Is that okay? Or does that mean I'm gaining too much too fast?
3) If I need to slow down the weight gain, how the heck do I do it? I mean, I know how to cut calories and all, I've lost before and maintained for years, but my doctor says I need 175g of protein per day to help prevent complications because I'm having monochorionic twins. I have no idea how to eat that much protein without also eating a lot of calories, and I'm so hungry all the time that it's not like I'm stuffing myself.
4) This question is specific to maintainers who've been pregnant -- how do you cope with watching that number on the scale go up and up and up when you've worked for so hard for so long to keep it steady? I'm pushing up close to 160lbs right now and all I can think about is how fat I was when I weighed 160 before, and how when I get to my 40lb pregnancy gain I'll be almost right back where I started.