I joined about two years ago but life got busy and I didn't stay on the forum. I actually did stay with the dieting and I'm down about 60 lbs. I still have some way to go. I want to reach my goal weight and maintain for a while before we start trying for another baby, but I am starting to feel a little pressure. I know my husband wants another one soon! But I am very scared after how long it has taken me to lose the weight from the first baby! I gained 80 lbs and it was very hard on my body and made for a difficult pregnancy. I just need the extra motivation to drop the last 20 lbs. I seem to be really stuck now.

The doc once said you only need 300 extra calories per day while pregnant. When you go in to the next one, maybe ask your doc about that too. Then you have a guideline to help and you might not have so much gain this time around?

Welcome back!

Thank you for the reply, MauiKai. I know I can do something about the weight gain while pregnant but it still makes me nervous. My sister exercised and watched what she ate and still gained a lot while pregnant (we were pregnant at the same time). That makes me think it might be genetic. Also, I was on bed rest for about 4 months which I know did not help the situation.

I think it's no extra calories the first trimester, 200-300/day for the second, and 300-400 per day for the third. I'd ask your doctor to verify, because lord knows I gained entirely too much while pregnant.

I gained 70 and it took me an entire year to lose it!

What are you doing to reach your goals?

I'm counting calories (1200 calories), making healthy choices and on a running program. So far I've lost 70 lbs, but now I seem to have hit a plateau.

At only 1200 calories I would guess that you've had enough metabolic adaptation happening that you have only a couple of choices;

1 - You can further reduce calories (NOT ideal)
2 - You can take a week or so to return your calories to maintenance or just slightly above and hope for a corresponding increase in letptin (only a short term fix)
2 - You can increase calories and focus on lifting weights and building muscle... essentially doing a nice slow reverse diet. From there you can actually increase your metabolic rate and continue to lose fat, or at least get to a higher set point and then, after a while, continue to cut and focus on fat loss once again (ideal scenario)

Thanks for the advice! I've started to do yoga for strength training just recently. Do you think this will help?

Yoga is wonderful, and has a ton of benefits, but it's not the type of strength training I am referring to.

What I mean is picking up weights! Yoga is not going to add muscle mass, no matter what Shape Magazine tells you.