to ask how much you managed to control pregnancy weight gain?

[dietcoketime69]

I'm currently expecting dc1 and in 1st trimester. I'm curious to know more about how realistic it is to try to control weight gain during pregnancy.

I'm normally a healthy BMI and as I'm sure is similar for lots of women, I'm hoping to be able to monitor my weight gain to avoid it going through the roof... cue everybody telling me I'm looking at this through rose tinted glasses!!

I completely understand weight gain is inevitable/healthy etc and would never consider "dieting" during pregnancy - I'm just keen to hear experiences from women who have been there and done that :-)

Would love to hear your stories, whether you felt you succeeded in keeping your weight gain in check or whether your good intentions just went to pot?! :-)

I put on 10 kilos with first pregnancy. I checked my weight every fortnight against an online calculator to make sure i was in range and had an extra slice of toastat breakfast and cut out alcohol, those were my only diet changes. I lost all my baby weight 2 weeks after birth, to my astonishment. Breast feeding probably helped. Second baby, much more complacent, put on 13 kilos, ate what i wanted. Took me 7 months to get back to pre baby weight, again, breast feeding probably helped.

Weigh yourself.

I put on 4 stone with my first dd. lost it. Put on 2 stone with ds. Lost it. I have zero willpower when pregnant.

I don't have scales (or know anyone with them). Do they still have those weighing machines in boots?

in both pregnancies have eaten loads as i felt i needed to and put on more weight than recommended. Both times the weight has come off quickly with bfing. I was 9 stone ish before getting pregnant this time, more than 12 when I was full term, baby 5 weeks old and i'm 10 stone.
i think if you feel able to watch what you eat while pregnant then great, but I felt i needed a lot of food and given the rapidity of post birth weight loss i don't regret going with my instincts.

This is encouraging. Thanks for the link it's good to have a figure to bear in mind. I'd like not to worry about it but I don't want doctors nagging either. I've managed to lose half a kg since my appointment anyway just by cutting out coke sweets and crisps so I'm just going to do that but no strict diet. It's also good to know a lot of people don't have much problem losing it afterwards. Hoping I don't have to worry about that too much either. It took me 6 months to lose 25kg before which isn't bad but dieting makes me miserable!

Yes mrskoala they do. And probably in other places as well.
As far as controlling weight gain in pregnancy - just eat a healthy normal diet and keep as active as possible.

I say this as someone who never had morning sickness though, so I'm not sure how that would come into play.

Lol at the 'listen to your body' message. If I listened to my body I'd be probably double the weight I am now. My diet would consist of chocolate (in various forms) fried food, alcohol, very little veg and no fruit.

My body is really not on side with this at all.

I put on 2st with dc1, most of which went on in the kast trimester. I managed to loose a littlw of it post birth but was back up to that 2st when I fell pg with this one. Im 16wks now and have put on 5lbs so far, so probably will end up about the same.

Im due end of October and this time round will be joining SW in January.

A lovely friend if mine vomited daily for the whole pregnancy. She gained literally the weight of the baby (6lbs).

I would rather be four stone heavier at the end than have to go through what ahe did.

Very true think, but I have been sick nearly every day too I just had so many food aversions it was the bad stuff that was helping the nausea. Thankfully I've found some fruit I can tolerate so I'm snacking on that.

The other point I'd like to make is that isn't it funny that the hcps that gave me the most grief that probably have non pg related salad aversions themselves? Skinny nurse at my first apt said my weight was fine.

My hospital takes bp, weight and urine analysis with the nurse before every scan. If they didn't do this I'd happily dodge the scales forever!

I ate whatever I wanted, junk or otherwise, the morning sickness really dictated what i could cope with putting in my mouth but overall I love good food and have a very healthy diet. I didnt put on any extra weight and cold fit my jeans again within a few days of the birth. My shape is slightly different though and i carry a little looseness in some spots:( this time also I havent really put on weight other than what would be appropriate to account for the baby etc. Dont really undrrstand why people put on weight during pregnancy though some people get major bloating and water retention.

This is turning into a bit of a stealth - boast thread methinks!

I think that's everything to do with your perception and nothing to do with the stories being told.

I put on 12kg. For some weird reason, I went off cake completely (positively freakish for me), and all I wanted to eat was brown rice, broccoli and tuna with lemon juice. All. The. Time. - to the point where my poor husband said 'do we have to have it again?' Yes.
I lost 10kg immediately after the birth, as well as finally losing the rash around my face which made me look like Homer Simpson. Lovely;
And my hands and feet deflated as well. My feet looked like pigs trotters and I couldn't wear any of my shoes.

I try only to eat things that have nutritional value when pg. So whole grains, lots of fruit and veg, yoghurt, that sort of thing. I remind myself that my body is looking for extra nutrients, not extra calories!

Droflove, do you really not understand why some people put on weight? Have a look at my above posts. Or you could just write me off as a greedy pig..

I would also add antenatal depression to the list of reasons for excessive weight gain.

Do you know, when I am not pregnant I have no trouble eating well.

Droflow - well, babies, placenta and sacks of fluid tend to weigh a little bit :)

I was 40 and a bit overweight when I had DD put on 20lbs (1st 6lbs) lost the 20 lbs within 6 weeks I did eat healthily during pregnancy and BF for 8 weeks still have not managed to lose more weight

I didn't bother, After baby I went back to riding horses, mucking out stables, bedding down cows, skipping breaks and meals and breastfeeding and it went away. pregnancy to me was always great - an excuse to eat proper, not miss meals, not run myself into the ground and I got much better kip. don't worry about weight too much, you will have much more important things to worry about both during and after your pregnancy

You don't have to put on a ton of weight you know! In fact it's really not a good idea to get too big.

I was advised by the hospital dietitian that all I needed extra in my diet was the equivalent of a chicken sandwich, (400 cals) but only on the last trimester, and breast feeding, and to try not to go mad!

Fwiw I put on two and a half stones, and was a stone heavier after having my babe. I breastfed and I gradually lost half a stone without thinking about it much. I was 8stone at three months pregnant, (had morning sickness) and 10 stone at full term, 9 stone after 6 months pp.

I only started to show at 6 and a half months, at 7 months I had quite a big bump, and at 8 and a half months I was absolutely huge, got smaller towards the end as babe dropped down. I was terribly bloated with water during the last month- my feet were huge - I put this down to eating too much wheat in the last month, as I suddenly craved cake.

Very different shape now though, (emergency c-section, and split abdominal muscles) and I would buy a corset now, if I got pg again, to cinch myself in afterwards!!

In some ways it doesn't really help to beat yourself up over any weight gain, or lack of it.
It's a bit of a rod to beat women with tbh- A lot of 'weight' is water retention.

Just make sure to take a lot of folic acid in the first part, and before you get pregnant, to build up your stores.

Mor

Morning sickness for the full pregnancy helped, it's ML that I pulled on the weight.

I put about 2.5 stone on in each pregnancy which sounds like a lot when each baby only weighed approx half a stone but apparently this is quite average. I ate more or less what I normally do but got hungry in the afternoons so often had an extra sandwich and crisps. I didn't count calories at all but must have had some to make up anyway from my usual alcohol intake which went down to almost nothing.

I was lucky that the weight came off fairly quickly with DD1, but quicker with DD2 because by then I had a toddler so didn't spend so much time sitting around doing long feeds and eating toast - when it gets to DC2 you can't really eat anything that you're not prepared to let DC1 have a bit of! (Unless you bolt it down behind their back of course which I do do but it's not as satisfying).

I weigh a bit less now than before having DC and my clothes still fit but my shape has changed a bit - smaller boobs, bigger knuckles so it's mainly bras and rings that don't fit!

I ate healthily and walked most days whilst I was pregnant. I also had a spreadsheet of projected baby/pregnancy weight gain and I logged against that (in my defence I looooove spreadsheets and am not usually obsessed with my weight!). Once I had dc I was back to my original weight in a few days.

However, my midwife kept telling me I had to eat hundreds of calories more each day because I was breastfeeding (without checking how many calories I normally ate ) and about a year after the birth I realised I'd put on 1.5 stone!

So my advice would be eat healthily and keep active for as long as you can during the pregnancy and if you are ebf don't take that as carte blanche to eat tonnes (like I did!) [shame]