I've has several pregnancies where I have gained under twenty pounds, two where I have gained 20-30, and here at my lightest weight I've gained almost 40 pounds in the first trimester as a bizarre slingshot effect to having dropped about twenty of those a few weeks before conceiving. I've run the gamut. As much as I'd like to say you can control these things, that has not been my experience. Eat nutritious food, in quantities that satisfy you without stuffing you, and screw the scale.

I've been fifteen pounds lighter at childbirth than prepregnancy, and I've had fifteen pounds to lose post baby. I haven't gone nuts in either case. But the fact remains that some pregnancies seem to require different things of my body and the lighter I get, the more I tend to gain, even eating the same whole foods diet.

Think *nutrition* when building babies, not weight. Focus on nutritionally dense food. Don't use if as an excuse to pound back pastries. Do not, under any circumstances, limit protein or fat intake. Simple enough

This is my fifth healthy baby and seventh pregnancy, if there is one thing I have learned it is how not in control I am when it comes to my body's processes and needs. Just give the sufficient raw material and let the rest take care of itself.

Certainly nutrition is vital. I'm just finding that I can take in the raw materials at a pace that both meets our needs and does not deposit extra adipose tissue. I am already carrying something like 175,000 calories around with me!

The fetus only needs an extra 300 calories a day. Those who are mindfully following the newest recommendations make certain that those take the form of protein, healthy fat and colorful produce. It is working, and I am pleased.

Well, I continue on track at 192.

I've encountered my first pitfall. While the scale stayed within 1lb of 194. I was quite focused and thrilled with my high nutrient, weight maintenance eating plan. Well, seeing it go down a bit makes it harder to stay at the 1800 calories, instead of going into full weight loss mode.

I keep my "no weight loss" plan because there has to be some failsafe to what I'm doing besides my own calculations of macronutrients + a gummy prenatal. If I do not lose lbs, then my fat loss is guaranteed not to me more than the weight of the baby plus blood/womb/etc. Gentle. No ketones. So I am trying to get my head right.

The thing I fear is that my appetite will come roaring back post birth. I have always been able to eat a large plate of food, and in fact this was a large part of my weight problem. I don't eat chips and candy, I eat a second bowl of ziti or chicken pot pie. So my main weapon right now is that my stomach is cramped and I and satisfied with appropriate portions. If that goes away, I'm right back to struggling and miserable!

Even with these things in my head, I am pretty happy with my progress. 21 weeks in and my husband has been extra grabby and commenting on how thin my sides and waist are from the back. My belly is growing and lord knows by butt hasn't shrunk, so the weekly ounces of fat are coming from my sides - good for getting back the hourglass eventually.

Well, enough blab about me! Anyone else plugging along?

Every person is different, but I had a net weight loss with 3 of my four pregnancies, and the one in which I had a net gain was actually the one that set me down the path of morbid obesity. 3 of the 4 babies were huge. I had healthy pregnancies with no problems and normal deliveries.

Pregnancy 1: start weight 196, high weight 231, post-baby 231 baby weight 9.6
Pregnancy 2: start weight 276: high weight 276 post-baby 250 baby weight 10.6
Pregnancy 3: start weight 250: high weight 250 post-baby 230 baby weight 8.0 (I should add that I really watched what I ate this time-- didn't want another 10 lb baby.)
Pregnancy 4: start weight 275: high weight 275 post-baby 250 baby weight 9.10

I did not weight this morning. I'll weigh again tomorrow.

Today I had a lot of greek yogurt. Not sure why, it just seemed like a good idea.

Breakfast:

Regular old chewy granola bar dipped in greek yogurt, plus a handful of strawberries to finished dipping the rest of my 3/4 cup serving

Snack:

cheese stick

Lunch: 3 scrambled eggs in butter plus 1/4c shredded cheddar and some salsa, all on a slice of hearty whole wheat bread. REALLY enjoying this combo.

Snack:

More greek yogurt, with my high protein granola. about 3/4 cup between both items.

Dinner:

Picked at the spareribs I made for DH - probably 1 rib's worth of meat. Big green salad with zesty italian, more strawberries/yogurt/granola.

Dessert:

blueberry cheesecake bar that I made. I reduced the sugar in the cake and upped the fiber in the crust. Also several apple slices as I was prepping tomorrow's tuna salad for lunch (I add a bunch of onions and apples.)

It has been two weeks since my last post. Time to update! About to be 24 week pregnant.

I have had a couple of unmeasured, unlogged food days that I estimate as around 2400 calories each. The lowest I've gone is 1600, but I ate such a high volume of veg and eggs that day (was quite full) that I opted not to pile on calories just for the sake of calories. I've had pizza once, and the only days without fruit/green veg I ate a lot of beans (tex mex day.) Whole milk OR greek yogurt is mandatory daily, as are eggs or 6 oz of meat. The rest I try and fill with higher fiber/vitamin fruit and grain products.

For the past 4 days, the scale has hovered around 191.5. I am losing small amounts of body fat - my sides slim out first, and this week I noticed that the midthigh area has slightly narrowed. No idea about the belly fat - too hard to determine much when my uterus is growing simultaneously.

Today is my nephew's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Some have salad bars (?) so I plan for 1 slice of pizza with a salad. We'll see!

My wife developed gestational diabetes with her 1st pregnancy. Because of that her OB put her on a fairly strict diet which was low glycemic. She actually lost weight during her preganacy... but she was eating my healthier than she ordinarily was.

I think it's a great idea. Eating healthy came more easily to me when I was pregnant.
I got pregnant at 230 with #1 and gained 10 pounds and at my 1 week post-partum appointment, I weighed 210. So basically lost "baby weight" and an additional 20 pounds.
I weighed around 240 when I got preggo with #2 and I gained 17 pounds but she had colic, failure to thrive and feeding issues and I let the stress of that get to me and gained 60 pounds in the four months following her birth!

I'm at 1400 calories for the day, and full. I just ate three quarters of a tub of cottage cheese and it was only 270 calories! It filled me up, though, so now I'm pondering whether I'm too lazy to go cut up the pineapple that is in the fridge.

This has happened several times - If I eat well for breakfast and lunch, by dinner I still have half my calories for the day but am not particular hungry. On a normal weight loss plan, this is great! Right now, I know I need to eat something else - if only I had ice cream in the house!

I am in just found out in prego as well. Im big enough don't want to gain either...my calorie intake goal is 1900 the first trimester and 2050 2nd 2200 the third. How that sound? I don't really know what I am doing.

I based mine on the BMR for a woman of my height and weight, not pregnant. I knew that pregnancy adds a fairly small extra demand in the first 6 months, so that is where the gentle loss comes from.

At 300ish, 1900 cals may lead to a bit faster loss than I had (I ate 1800 - 2000 cals at 200lbs even.) Is this a drastic drop from what you are doing now or have you been eating at 1900 for a while?

I am checking in after another couple of weeks of maintaining.

I'm finishing up the second tri, heading into the third - which is where (a) all sources admit that pregnant women need more calories, and (b) blimp out time happens all too often. The "easy" phase is over, since my appetite is almost back to normal and nausea is completely gone.

It seems that I can eat strictly for 2 days, then eat whatever for a day, and still stay right at 190. Calorie wise, it is something like 1800-1800-2500 cycles, and I am liking it.

I had a scan for an unrelated issue and the baby measured at just under 2lbs 2 weeks ago - 80th percentile for length/weight, always remembering that ultrasound isn't very reliable for that. I feel good about the eating thus far (even if I did have Pizza Hut two days ago and felt like crap for the next 24 hours. My system is acclimated to real food! It doesn't like crap anymore.)

Any other pregnant folks still working on this?

Another week, and my first bump in the road. Turning 27 weeks, and the third trimester is here.

I've eaten more junk this week. A couple of poptarts, a doughnut at work, some Coke, pizza (on top of the good, healthy meals.) As a result, I gained a pound up to 191. More than that, I'm bloaty and in pain as a result. What a lesson.

So instead of continuing with the laxness that I THOUGHT was working, I'm back to strict calorie monitoring. Numbers are now 2000-2200, rather than 1800+, since losing is unacceptable at this point.

One thought I've had is how unbalanced our view of pregnancy weight gain can be. No one in this thread has been negative, but I've heard a little bit of it elsewhere. I have consumed double the produce, fiber, tuna and milk during this pregnancy than my last two. I ate at McDonalds every other day w/my older DD, for crying out loud. But somehow, watching overall energy intake is ZOMG EBIL, ur starving ur baybee, whereas "I crave a pint of ice cream a day" is just fine, you'll lose it afterwards! Except so many of us don't lose it afterwards.

Still chugging along. Turning 29 weeks, and up another pound. I guess the strict definition of "zero weight gain" would mean not to exceed the weight I started at. I'm still 8lbs down from that, so I just can't give in totally.

My belly is very big.

I don't mean to rain on any ones parade, but remember we are all individuals.

I have been fat all of my life and when I had my first child 31 years ago I gained 30 lbs and lost 70 lbs within 3 months of her being born. When I found out that I was pregnant again with my 27 year old I stayed at my same weight throughout the pregnancy under the belief that when he was born that I would lose like I did after my daughter.

After his birth I jumped on the scale at the hospital only to see that I had now gained weight and weighed more after the delivery!

I was in the hospital for a few days since he separated my pelvis and fractured his collar bone during birth and every day I weighed I gained weight! Even on the hospital food. So it worked on me in the reverse.

Good luck to each of you on your delivery of beautiful and healthy babies.