Struggling with first trimester weight gain

[Hotdamndiggitydam]

At the beginning of this journey, I was a healthy weight, a low risk BMI, I’ve never been the body confident type, even at my slimmest so it was a relief to find out that I was okay when I first found out I was pregnant.

I had a pretty awful first trimester, constant sickness and nausea, throwing up about 3/4 time’s a day. I’m usually a fairly healthy eater, salads are daily, binge a bit at weekends, but as soon as the symptoms kicked in I couldn’t eat anything I was used to. I turned to the help of toast and potatoes and fizzy drinks to settle my stomach. This pregnancy ended in a MMC and whilst I was in the hospital preparing for the treatment, I was weighed and I had put on a fair bit of weight. It was the least of my worries at that point but when my body was back to normal, so were my eating habits.

This was in July and in October, I found out I was pregnant again. I went to my booking appointment at 10 weeks and whilst I have lost weight since my miscarriage, currently weighing 2kg less, being two and bit weeks behind, my BMI tips into the obese range (30) and I’m absolutely mortified. I get that I’ll have put weight on again this pregnancy because it’s been the same symptoms wise and only stomaching the same foods, and that’s normal, but I feel like absolute shit that I’m having to have the importance of healthy eating explained to me and that I’ll be put forward for gestational diabetes testing etc.

It’s like I’ve put my baby at risk for just trying to survive 7 months of hell. I’m generally a size 12 and I still fit into my clothes, I get that I carry a bit more muscle because I used to play a lot of sports, and the only exercise I seem to be getting at the minute is the daily run to the toilet but OBESE?! My husband keeps telling me that it’s all a load of bollocks because it doesn’t take into account anything personal but the NHS take it seriously so I’m a liability.

Rightly or wrongly, I’m not getting my hopes up about this pregnancy, I refuse to get excited, I’m just protecting myself because I’ve learned that I have no control over the outcome, but this has been a kick in the stomach that all I could get out of this is just becoming really unhealthy.

Has anyone else struggled with this? Or is there any sort of healthy eating diet plans that you can find online? I get that some people will think get over it, it happens in pregnancy, but I’d rather not be deemed unhealthy and a threat to my baby because I can’t look after myself. Especially after losing a baby already. I feel like the only person who could throw up several times a day and still put on weight. I just want to lose weight and get myself out of the danger zone but even that’s frowned upon.

I’m struggling with the weight gain too. I was a healthy bmi - about 23 - before, but piled on weight as soon as I got pregnant and am now 25. Like you I still fit into most of my before clothes so I’m taking comfort in that. When I start to feel really bad about it I try to focus on the baby - clearly the baby needed all the carbs and fat! So I’m trying to be easy on myself, and you should be too. The body reacts how it reacts, and it does what’s best for the baby. In terms of healthy eating I feel like if you can just fill your body with as much wholesome, healthy food as possible like lots of veggies, fruits, lentils, sweet potatoes etc and avoid sugar, bad fats and junk food then you must be doing good for baby.

BMI is a load of rubbish please do not take this personally. It does not take into account the full picture, my friends children have had letters home from the school nurse re their unhealthy weight and I can honestly say she had every right to be fuming as they are the most active kids, with very healthy diets and you can tell just looking at them they do not have a problem. Also under those guidelines, I went from having an low BMI to gaining almost 5 stone (mainly in bump) that declined significantly at birth, I always go to my 12 week scan and have them ask if it's my 20 week and I know plenty of tiny women who have gained a lot in pregnancy and it's not in the main down to food it's just how their body responds. We all experience weight gain in pregnancy very differently and they are just going off generic guidelines. I hope you're OK.xx

There’s generally a belief that if you gain a significant amount of weight in the first trimester you will continue to gain weight as you continue the pregnancy, as it’s to do with poor eating habits. And a movement from overweight BMI to Obese is significant. That’s why you are being monitored more closely. Weight gain in the first trimester should be minimal, 1-2kg (i.e regular period bloating at most).

Also, I don’t mean to be rude, but if you are a proper size 12 at an average height then you couldn’t be obese. I am fairly muscular (rock climber and body builder) with a bit of softness, am a size 12/14, five foot 6, and am in the overweight category. The categories only don’t count if you have less than 10 percent body fat i.e if you’re an Olympian!