to wonder why some expectant mums gain around 80 pounds?

[eliza456]

This isn't meant to cause offence. But if a baby weighs 7-10 pounds (full term) then why do some women gain over 80 pounds in total?

i understand there are fluids etc that contribute, but, 70 pounds worth??

purely curious to see if anyone has any insight into this

I'm 35 weeks and have gained about 10kg which I thought was about average. It is however less this time than my first pregnancy as I am eating very carefully due to gestational diabetes.

I gained quite a bit both times, the first time was a shock - I stepped on the scale and had almost 2 stone excess to shift, but that was due to me, I ate what I wanted and naively had it in my head that it would all melt away after birth - how wrong was I?
80 lbs sounds a lot but we are all different, some of that has to be overeating though, surely?

Obvious answers - water weight, boob gain.... but some people take the 'eating for two' thing too literally. My friend literally ate a 12 pack of donuts for breakfast each day because she 'craved sugar' and could get away with it and a take away each night because she was pregnant. Was somehow shocked and upset that she had put on 3-4st yet only had a 6lb baby. I put on a stone and a half and had a 9lb-er - I certainly didn't eat well and suffered from HG half the time (many pizzas), but I didn't gorge myself on the basis I could do it just because I was pregnant.

I probably gained about 80Ibs during pregnancy - I owed this to a combination of a metabolic condition brought on by pregnancy (now something I have to manage for life) which is one that causes weight to go on and also be hard to shift. I also had SPD, so couldn't be as active as before as walking felt like someone was stabbing me. Before pregnancy I was incredibly active - had a very physical job. This gradually decreased due to both the SPD and the tiredness as my metabolism hit a go slow due to the metabolic condition. I probably then did eat a bit too much - as I'd been so active & skinny before and could eat anything without thinking about it, I wasn't used to having to monitor what I ate. So three factors that all conspired to make weight a big problem - and actually an ongoing one, even post-child.

I don't know anyone who gained anywhere near that. I'd say that's a pretty extreme and unusual occurance and that there's probably a medical reason.

I gained a stone in pregnancy after dreadful morning sickness. I left hospital weighing less than the day I found out I was pregnant and had to hold my pre pregnancy trousers up as we left the hospital.

However due to pre eclampsia I was horrendously swollen. I couldn't believe the difference in me after 1 night at home.

With Ds I also weighed less post birth than when I fell pregnant.

No idea why it happened with Ds as I was sick daily but only til 9am but my cravings was Caesar salad.

I gained 4 stone during pregnancy one but was half a stone lighter than I started when baby was born.

I have no idea how that worked out, baby was less than 9lb and I barely ate because I couldn't stop being sick. I pretty much flummoxed the doctors through the whole process too according to my notes.

DH was really concerned about how thin/drawn I looked in the days after the baby was born. Not something you expect to hear after spending months like a blimp.

Pregnancy is the single most weird transformation the female body has to endure. No two are the same and they all leave a unique signature behind.

Judging someone for getting through pregnancy by gaining/losing weight is incredibly unhelpful at best and damaging for an emotionally vulnerable woman at worst.

Have you ever been pregnant OP? Why are you asking?

I gained differently in each pregnancy. Most of the weight gain was fluid given by how much I sweated out postnatally!

I haven’t been weighed throughout my pregnancy so I have no idea. But I am rather large. For me it’s befause I am usually on slimming world and I have not stuck to it while pregnant, so I’ve just gone wild because otherwise I feel sick. I will regret it when I’ve had the baby I’m sure!

I gained 70lbs - I was so hungry, it was the only thing that stopped the nausea - eating food or drinking a full sugar fizzy drink

10 days post partum without even vaguely trying, I had lost 38 of those lbs

Also I’ve really struggled with a very low mood in pregnancy and have totally lost my confidence socially- no idea why. So I’ve eaten all my emotions!

Well done to the person who didn’t even need maternity clothes. I’m not entirely sure why that’s such an achievement though...

Er, because all women are different?

I'm an odd exception - I not only didn't gain weight, I actually lost weight while pregnant before - I weighed less at 38 weeks, when my daughter was born, than I did before I got pregnant. The same appears to be happening in my current pregnancy. It's not because I throw all the food up, I eat plenty, and I certainly don't exercise while pregnant - hypermobility means I'm in hideous pain and can barely move. It's just the way I'm made but I'm certainly not going to judge those who don't find pregnancy a great way to lose weight. Everyone's hormones react differently.

While I’ve never actually met anyone who has put on 80lbs during pregnancy, I can see how it might be possible.

You’d only have to eat/not burn off an extra 700 or so calories a day to gain 50lbs over 9 months. That’s really only one less excercise session plus one extra sugary snack a day. Then there’s the baby weight, placenta, extra blood, fluids etc. I can see how it could easily happen if you weren’t careful.

I know why i put on 4 stone with a 7lb baby- non stop eating! And i enjoyed every second of it.

Lost the baby weight ( mostly )

I was overweight to start with but had been a very stable weight for quite a few years before getting pregnant. I gained 50lb with DS. Two weeks after the birth l had lost 35lb of that. DS weighed 6lb 13oz!!

The final 15lb came off by the time DS was months old with no effort at all. I often joke that my pregnancy weight is the only weight I have ever lost easily.

Unfortunately, when DS was 3 months old we went to the USA fo ,6 months and I put on that 50lb plus more in that 6 months because I was depressed (PND with no family or other support). That weight I have struggled to lose

I always lose weight when I'm pregnant. At 42 weeks with DC1 I was two stone lighter than my booking in visit and was 2.5 stone lighter with DC1! It all went back on though within a few months!

What do you want from this thread, OP?

I gained loads, massive bump with too much amniotic fluid and spd from 16 weeks - walked every lunch time at work for. As long as I could- however no gd and did not eat any extra. I do have pcos and seem to be V sensitive to progesterone putting weight on and that is V much a hormone of pregnancy

I gained 37 pounds first time round and 45 pounds second time round.

I was enormous at the end of my second pregnancy - comically so, so 80 pounds must be quite something. I am short though.

I felt constantly sick for the first 25 weeks. The only thing that made it better was shovelling carbs in my face. I remember sitting on a train with a bottle of Fanta in one hand and a bag of those 'party mix' M&S crisps in the other. My body has never welcomed food more

So while I'm sure the Pippa Middleton types are eating avo and eggs with superfood salads, most of us mere mortals aren't.

It came off pretty easily the first time and 3 months post partum after the second one, I'm 10 pounds over my ore pregnancy weight so not too concerned.

I put on 4st with my eldest and lost 1.5st with my youngest, we had fun working that out with the midwife

I gained 5 stone but alot of it was comfort eating due to depression. I was single and pregnant.

First baby, as soon as I was pregnant I was in the maternity smocks given to me by a friend (this was the 90s) and started eating for two. it was like I'd been given carte blanche to eat what I liked when I liked and I did. I shudder to think how much I scarfed down my throat during those nine months.

After I gave birth, I caught sight of myself in a full length mirror in the hospital bogs and I looked like Bessie Bunter. I even had fat legs, and I've never had fat legs in my life.

Cue vigorous dieting and exercise to get it all off.

Two years later, 2nd child .. a complete different story. A week before I gave birth, I was in the local supermarket and the girl behind the checkout said "when did you have the baby?". I was 9 months pregnant - but hardly showing due to careful and sensible eating throughout the pregnancy.

I realise it's not the same for everyone of course, but in my case when I ate like a pig for 9 months I gained loads, and when I didn't, I hardly gained any weight at all.

Because they are hungrier due to growing a new human and because they don't or can't exercise as effectively and the toll this takes on the body. Bit hard to go to the gym when you're puking every half hour, your back and pelvis hurt just by walking and your centre of gravity is fucked.

Expectant mothers in the past never used to gain that much weight.

They never went to the gym either.
Do they still weigh mothers at every appointment? If not, perhaps it would be a good idea if they brought back weighing.

Undiagnosed gestational diabetes?

I put on lots of weight during my first pregnancy and felt unwell but wasn't tested for GD. Second pregnancy it was discovered early and I was able to use insulin to have a healthy pregnancy.

No idea re weight gain in lbs as I didn't weigh myself but there was a huge, massive difference in the two pregnancies.

I gained almost that with both pregnancies (first one was twins, second one wasn’t!). Took me 3 years to shift it. It was mostly due to the fact that I had horrendous nausea and food aversions. I literally couldn’t stand even the thought of eating vegetables and couldn’t eat meat either. I felt so rough and the only way I could get through it was to trough my way through beige food. It was awful - I don’t eat like this normally!