Hello, gals!

I have a very innocent question regarding trying to lose weight while pregnant. I do plan to meet with my ob/gyn for a preconception checkup and I will ask her the same questions, so please please don't flame me for asking! I am curious if anyone here knows if it is possible to intentionally lose weight while pregnant IF you are consuming enough calories for your baby's development. I am 5'2" and 215 lbs. I would like to begin the process of losing weight and exercising prior to becoming pregnant. Ideally, I would like to make it to my goal of 115 lbs before getting pregnant, but I wonder if it is possible to continue my health plan while pregnant. Also, does anyone know if one can enhance their fitness level while pregnant, or are you just in maintenance mode during that time? Thank you for any advice or experiences you can offer!

My best,
Dawn

You can increase your exercise when pregnant but you have to go slowly. It is not wise to lose weight when you are pregnant as there is a risk to the health of the baby. There are some doctors who think you can maintain your weight but most just feel it is best to eat healthy.
There was a story here recently of a woman who thought she had cancer as she could not eat and kept throwing up. She had been to many doctors and had many tests. Finally she was called to the doctors and told she was not dying but was infact 8 months pregnant!
She had lost 40 pounds(she was overweight to start) in the course of this pregnancy and had only 2 weeks to get used to the idea of having a baby. Her daughter was born healthy but weighed in at only 1.2 kg.

You can lose weight while you're pregnant, but you shouldn't set out to do so. Your baby can and will take whatever it needs from your body while you're pregnant, but following a restricted-calorie diet is generally not recommended. All other things being equal, the stress of trying to lose weight while you're pregnant is one thing you really, really don't need to be adding on to yourself during that time.

Now, as to continuing a health plan...Good nutrition is very important while you're pregnant. If nothing else, you want to get into the habit of nourishing yourself well so you can nourish your baby well once she's here. It's also a great idea to exercise.

But

You have to keep in mind that you don't know how a pregnancy is going to affect you until you are pregnant. Some women never have a second's worth of nausea. Some women wind up in the hospital on IV fluids because of hyperemesis gravida. And there's a huge amount of variance in between. I personally tend towards the low (sick) end of that scale. There comes a point where you eat what you can keep down. You hope that will be whole grains and lean protein and the sort...But sometimes it's soft serve. And sometimes you're not sick but you're starving to death and you have to eat.

And when it comes to exercising, the illness thing comes in to play there too. As do changes in your body. Your center of gravity changes, especially in the second and third trimester. And in the first trimester exhaustion is pretty common. Second trimester is when your blood volume drastically increases, which often results in dizziness. Late in the second trimester or in the third when you've got this giant stomach sticking out in front of your body, your back is probably going to start aching.

I'm not trying to be a downer, I swear. I barely crawl through my pregnancies, but if you'll look at my signature you'll see I've got a habit of doing it. What I'm saying is...You can and should go into it with the best of intentions, health-wise, but you've got to be very, very aware that pregnancy is pretty much a crap-shoot physically. I'm huge on pregnant mamas not stressing themselves out more, because pregnancy is a huge stress on you and on your relationship. So go into it with the intention that you'll keep on eating healthy and exercising as best you can, but don't kick yourself if you have to abandon some things temporarily.

One last thing: Don't feel bad for asking what you've asked. I'll be willing to bet most of us here have at least thought about these things if we haven't come right out and asked, and in the almost year this forum has been here, the questions have popped up periodically. So don't feel like you're the only one.

You are allowed to do abwork, but only in the form of a proper prenatal exercise regime. If you buy a prenatal Pilates, prenatal yoga, or pregnancy workout-they will have abwork that you can do that is not traditional situps.
The reason being, in the second and third trimesters you are not supposed to lie in the supine position (back lying flat like in sit ups) because it causes restricted bloodflow to the baby. If you want to still do core movements-I fully recommend looking into prenatal exercise videos.

In the first trimester, the weight gain should be maintaining your current weight up to about a 5-6 pound gain.

The recommended weight gain that women should gain varies on their situation. Overweight women can get away safely with about a 15 pound weight gain, but normal weight women are encouraged to gain about 25-35 pounds. Underweight women are encouraged to gain about 40.

I know for those who have never had a child that it may be hard to swallow, because a baby is only 5-10 pounds, but you also have an increase in blood volume, an increase in your breast size due to the milk factory setting up extra weight from the placenta and the amniotic fluid, and other changes as well that add weight-all things that are completely necessary, but are not the actual baby itself. This only leaves in a normal weight woman, about 10 pounds or so of actual fat to lose afterwards-which is put there to help us nourish the baby with breastfeeding. It is the way our bodies were designed, to have the extra fuel stores to feed the baby, since we did not always live in modern times with such a plentiful food supply.
So, if you eat right, stay active, and try to keep your gain in the guidelines for your current weight and situation, then you won't really have the entire 25-35 pounds to lose afterwards-you may have 10 or so.

What I think is important to realize, is that the whole "eating for two" thing isn't really correct. You shouldn't be eating whatever you want, just because you are pregnant. Standards for a healthy diet for a non-pregnant woman is about 2000 calories per day on average, and a pregnant woman only needs about 300 more per day to adequately sustain the baby.

I'm kinda glad someone asked this, because I was wondering the same thing. This is the year DH and I are finally thinking about getting pregnant. But I was thinking of losing 20 pounds first, so I could gain it back with the kid.

Like I said, we all at least think about it. I will be dead honest--it was pregnancy that got me started on weight loss. I was so sick my first pregnancy that I lost thirty-three pounds--bear in mind, I started out 100 pounds overweight. I don't recommend getting pregnant to lose weight, or trying to lose weight while you're pregnant, but when it was dropped into my lap I took it and determined I would NOT gain back the weight I lost. And I haven't, not even in subsequent pregnancies. Thanks to 3FC, in no small part.

You all had some great advice! I appreciate you taking the time to write about your experiences/knowledge. I am working my best to lose weight and have some fitness gains prior to TTC. I am 31, and I can't put this off. I am in such a maternal mode right now. Seeing small babies gets me teary-eyed, but I know that I want to do this right by improving all facets of my health prior to conception.

Thanks again,
Dawn :0)