Pregnancy Break! Staying healthy through a pregnancy.
Welp!
I found out I am about 5 weeks pregnant. So I've switched from "weight-loss" mode to focusing on eating healthy and eating maintenance calories until I need a bit more toward the end of pregnancy.
I keep doing a lot of research of how to stay healthy & fit during a pregnancy (I do NOT want to gain all the FAT back that I just lost) and one thing that frustrates me is that I see this arbitrary guidelines of that you must gain weight but no where does it specify what exactly the weight is made up of.
So, it says a normal Women should gain around 30lbs..
Well, 30lbs of what? Excess fat from snickers bars? How much is baby? fluids? and how much is actual "fat"?
And does an OBESE woman actually have to gain "fat" when she already has plenty of fat stores?
I have so many questions to ask my Doctor and I am interested in what her answers will be!
I gained about 25 pounds in both of my pregnancies. I would say a majority of the weight came in the last 3 months. The last month was like a pound or more a week. The weight was mostly water and baby but my " shape" was not a good one....I actually gained more weight right after I had my baby. ( no sleep and more junk etc. In the middle of the night feedings were the worst for me. I remember drinking large glasses of milk and water and eating oatmeal cookies in the middle of the night.)
Do you know your maintenance caleries? Check free dieting.com for prepregnancy weight maintenance numbers and try to stick around that number. If you are hungry eat, just eat the good stuff. If you stick to that, you should be ok after.....but don't expect all of the weight to come off the minute you give birth. It will take a few months.
Last edited by dstalksalot; 11-12-2012 at 12:30 AM.
I dunno if this helps, but before I got pregnant I was 170, then I got up to 216, a week after I gave birth I was at 188. So really I only gained 18 pounds of 'stuff' that i had to work to lose. I was already chubby so my doc said that I didn't really have to gain that much (she said expect 15-ish because of my son + fluids and whatnot) and I shouldn't worry about it but that I should make sure I'm getting good quality food as opposed to looking a how much I'm eating.
I think a lot of that weight is fluid and baby. A lot of people retain water, too. Especially with the junk that they might crave while pregnant
Oh, and by the wayy
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3
Congratulations!!! I found out I was pregnant last year when I was 180. I was upset but my son is totally worth it. Anyway, I gained 38 lbs with him and lost 25 lbs right off the bat. (I then gained 5 lbs on vacation, oops) Anyway, I ate healthy and swam every day. I didn't count calories but made sure I ate enough to feel satisfied. I was hungry more than normal but that's to be expected.
I am 3 months postpartum and it's really hard to lose the remaining weight with breastfeeding. I'm losing only 1/2 lb a week with exercising 6 days a week for 30 minutes and eating enough to satisfy baby and me. BUT I am losing slowly and I adore my son. So as long as you stick to healthy habits during pregnancy and afterwards, your body should be just fine. You'll have to tweak things, just be healthy.
Oh, and in terms of cravings, indulge but try to find ways to satisfy that craving in other ways. Like I wanted ice cream during my last trimester because I was hot all the time. But I satisfied it with popsicles.
Cravings and aversions can be a good thing. I could not stand chocolate with my pregnancies and I had to eat salad constantly. Avocados were my new chocolate!
I know how you feel, last year I started working to lose weight and after only a few weeks I found out I was pregnant. I went from around 170 to 212. When I stepped on the scale after my son was born I was 186. A lot of my weight was from water, as I had pretty severe edema in the last trimester. I'm pretty sure that the leftover 16 or so pounds were from mcdonald's (I craved 1/4 pounders, cherry pie, fries, and root beer like you wouldn't believe!).
Personally I feel like I let my eating get a little out of control while I was pregnant because I told myself I had a good excuse to eat whatever I wanted. Next time I hope to eat more "healthy" calories and work with my doc on nutrition/weight maintenance.
My 2nd is only 7 days old. I ate healthy(ish) and worked out in both my pregnancies (the 2nd moreso than the 1st).
May I recommend a few books to you?
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding
Dr. Sears Pregnancy Book
These were great to answer many of my questions. I would also recommend exploring midwifery care (I had an OBGYN with the 1st and a midwife with the 2nd) because I found I got a lot more personalized attention which was very useful in labour and post-partum.
In regards to your main question, the whole "gain 25-35lbs" is such a general guideline. I don't think you are obese enough to warrant not gaining weight (but of course, consult your provider). My SIL was able to lose when pregnant, but she was well over 300lbs.
And I agree with the others who warn about "letting go" and using the pregnancy as an excuse. Like many women, I did that with my 1st too - I ended up with a macrosomic (oversize) baby and a very complicated delivery. I gained less with #2 and had an "easy" (heh) 12 hour drug-free labour with smaller size baby. Of course, I still enjoyed my potato chips every now & then, but no restaurants every night either like before!
The best thing to do is work out as long as your doctor approves, of course. And eat healthy foods. Don't let it all hang out...but at the same time ENJOY the pregnancy.
I learned the hard way that you cannot have total control over what you gain. You only "need" whatever weight the guidelines say, but what your BODY says may be entirely different. I gained 40 pounds, even though I worked out at nearly the same intensity as I did pre-pregnancy throughout my entire pregnancy (I was getting up to do yoga when my water broke), and ate BETTER than before. And gained and gained and gained. Nothing I could do.
Don't stress yourself over weight gain. Just be as healthy as you can.
My advice after having done this twice while on the weight loss journey and twice before? Don't focus on gaining or not gaining weight, focus on your behaviors. Plenty of sleep, adequate calories for your size (your caloric needs don't really jump until postpartum, I am comfortable on 1600-2000 pretty much the entire time wheni maximize them), and keep exercising! Those simple steps will keep your body in excellent shape postpartum.
My advice after having done this twice while on the weight loss journey and twice before? Don't focus on gaining or not gaining weight, focus on your behaviors. Plenty of sleep, adequate calories for your size (your caloric needs don't really jump until postpartum, I am comfortable on 1600-2000 pretty much the entire time wheni maximize them), and keep exercising! Those simple steps will keep your body in excellent shape postpartum.
Great advice here and thanks to everyone else that responded
I don't mind pregnancy breaks during weight loss because even when it delays me from my goals, it gives me much practice for maintenance. There is something very educational about maintaining a healthy lifestyle while the scale holds steady and then goes UP. It really breaks you of the need to see consistent losses or otherwise go off plan. You have NO feedback except for your own body's responses and learning to manage that and still stay on plan, without the reward of scale drops, turned out to be the biggest blessing in disguise for me. I figured out maintenance while still losing weight, and now am confident that I can maintain when I get to goal, because I've done it before.
It has also kept me calmer during times of losing when I'm not getting the results I want - more patience and a longer perspective, all due to maintaining a healthy diet and exercise plan while pregnant. It's been such a huge payoff both time - and when I did go off plan for the first trimester of this pregnancy I felt AWFUL, that broke me of any desire to do that again. It's food logging and exercise for me, and I'm healthier in the middle of this pregnancy for it.
It's a bonus that these behaviors also prevent or greatly decrease the severity of a number of dangerous conditions during pregnancy, like pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, and even things as simple as back and pelvic pain.
Last edited by Arctic Mama; 11-15-2012 at 01:03 AM.
My experience was much like Mindi's...I ate exactly 100-300 cals a day more than I was eating pre-pregnancy, with far better attention to nutrition, and did cardio/weightlifting/yoga throughout, at the same intensity as before I got pregnant. I still gained 40 lbs (at one point, I brought my food logs into my midwife practically in tears!). I had to learn to focus on my behaviors, continue my food logging, and continue my exercise. And I will say that although I am heavier now (and STILL having issues, because of breastfeeding! Apparently the hormones of pregnancy and my weight are not friends), I am just as healthy cardiovascularly and much stronger than before I was pregnant.
One of my biggest motivators for healthy eating was the knowledge that, after baby's taste buds develop, they actually taste what you eat in their amniotic fluid, and you can influence their eating habits for life by getting them familiar with healthy foods and flavors in utero. I wanted my son to have a taste for healthy foods, so I focused on eating them. And now, his favorite baby-food-puree is KALE of all things.
Agree - pregnancy is one of those times that you can really use to your advantage.
Here is a quote from a Sports Nutrition book I have, meant for pregnant female clients who are used to dieting/gaining/training to the max and need a suggestion to slow down:
"Life has seasons and pregnancy is one of them"
You can use the pregnancy to either (a) go completely out of control or (b) use it to practice wise choices, healthy behaviours, and general "maintenance" or gaining in a healthy condition. Easier said than done, but a good learning experience.
I gained 10lbs less with my 2nd than my 1st, but started out 10lbs heavier. I was the same weight with both pregnancies, no matter what I did (#1 was out of control eating, #2 was healthy eating), but #2's delivery was much easier and postpartum recovery much faster.
Pregnancy Break! Staying healthy through a pregnancy.
Anyway, I gained 38 lbs with him and lost 25 lbs right off the bat. (I then gained 5 lbs on vacation, oops) Anyway, I ate healthy and swam every day. I didn't count calories but made sure I ate enough to feel satisfied. I was hungry more than normal but that's to be expected.
