Can you lose weight/diet when pregnant?

[MammyToMany]

I am only 14 weeks but have piled weight on and most of its due to eating rubbish and being lazy. My face and chin are really showing it and my skin is awful.

I've had cravings for double cheeseburgers among other things and yesterday had 3 for lunch!

I was doing slimming world up until a few months ago but gave up about the time I fell pregnant.

In the last 6 weeks I have put on 9lb. I'm not hugely overweight but could lose a couple of stone to be healthier.

I'm classed as high risk at the moment and I think it's partly down to my weight - I'm 5'5 and 11.9st.

I was thinking of following slimming world again on my own at home, but don't know if it is safe to do so?

Yes you can but talk to your midwife first, she'll guide you as to what is appropriate. I follow a low GI diet and my weight is stable from my pre pregnancy weight despite being 21 weeks now. I limit carbs, fat and sugar. I mostly eat lean meat, veg and small portions of low GI carbs such as wholewheat pasta, oats and brown rice. I only drink water, herbal tea and one cup of tea a day.

My friend was over weight at the start of her pregnancy and was referred to slimming world, she had to have a doctors note though and i think she followed the plan slightly differently. I would speak to your GP/ midwife and do it properly, not on your own as you need to make sure you are eating enough to keep you and the baby healthy and getting all the right nutrients. Shes done really well, shes lost wieght and is putting the right amount of baby weight on.

I wouldn't have called you high risk, I am 5'5' and was 13st 8lb before pregnant and My midwife has put me in the low risk catergory and even suggested I should go for a home birth. I would just eat healthy as best as you can and worry about it after the pregnancy. Your BMI is in the overweight catergory not obese so really chillax ! x

Practically speaking it's 2 weeks to your 16 week check. You can go to that armed with lots of questions and a plan of action (if you want to) to get approval from your midwife. You could contact Slimming World to get a sample plan/programme ahead of your check so you are ready to get started immediately?
You may be high risk due to your blood pressure as well as weight - I would suggest that you need to get some clarity as to why you have been classifed as such and what you should be doing to tackle it to make sure you don't endanger yourself or your baby.
In the meantime, lay off the cheeseburgers or at least make sure that it is lean beef and good quality cheese. You need the iron in red meat but try to get it healthily - no one said that you have to eat tofu for 9 months, but McDonalds or similar is going to leave you with a lot of weight to shift afterwards and quite possibly a tricky birth if the baby is v large because you've been consuming too much sugar.

I agree with Oscar, I should have said, my seemingly puritanical diet is because with dd1 I developed diabetes and had complications as a result. Getting and keeping my weight under control in this pregnancy may mean I avoid the GD or at least make it less severe and hopefully with less complications.

Thank you all.

I would like to give birth at the birthing centre and need to be low risk to do so, so will definetly try and find out why I'm high risk - blood pressure is fine, had 3 easy births in the past so I can't see any problems.

Will speak to her about slimming world too - I struggled to lose weight after ds3 and don't want to be in the same position again, better stay away from McDonalds.