Weight gain

[imiss]

I have stupidly jumped on the scales this morning to see I have gained a whopping 12 pounds in my first 15 weeks of pregnancy. This is second baby and I really struggled to get the weight off after the first, unfortunately breastfeeding didn't help and nothing fell of easily! Dd is 20 months and only managed to lose half the baby weight gained last time before becoming pregnant again. At the start of the pregnancy I was on the higher end of healthy - 23 BMI. I know it's petty to worry but I want to do some damage limitation and try to curb this before It escalates.

I exercise a few times a week and would say I'm fairly active as much as you can be when pregnant - swim three days on lunch break doing a moderate pace of laps for 30 mins, yoga once a week, water aerobics once a week and walk at least 40 mins a day.. it's got to be the food which has been slightly out of control as feeling full is the only thing that stopped the sickness.

I'm not sure what I should do about eating - obviously I'm eating too much if I'm gaining this quickly, but it's difficult to know how much I should eat. Do I eat the extra calories burned off during exercise (especially if I up the exercise)? Or leave myself in a 'deficit'?

If the recommended weight gain is 25 pounds on the nhs website in the 2nd/3rd trimester (nothing for the 1st) do I still need to gain this on top of what I have gained already.. Just worried about losing it all again!

You sound very anxious about this. The best plan is to talk to your midwife about your concerns. I suspect she'll say there's nothing to worry about.

Some things to note:

• The NHS no longer has any particular recommended weight gain for pregnancy, because everyone's different. You have no idea how much is water, how much is fat, how much is extra blood, etc.

• There's no relevance to being 'the higher end of healthy'. The healthy BMI range is a range for a reason. Anything in that range is absolutely fine. In fact, there's no increased risk for most health conditions, including in pregnancy, until BMI 30+, and even then it's just a blunt instrument and doesn't necessarily mean there will be a problem. So you are fine.

• Sounds like you are very active, so you're doing the right things for a healthy baby.

• Listen to your body. If you're tired, rest. If you're hungry, eat.

I suspect the midwife will tell you to continue to be active, eat well and not worry. Definitely don't try to create a deficit - losing weight or restricting your diet is not a good plan in pregnancy unless recommended by your midwife or doctor.

Congratulations!

Also - your body is doing an amazing thing! It needs fuel to grow this new person!

Remember that pregnancy weight gain is rarely at a constant rate. You might find this article helpful (though it's American, so does make reference to recommended weight gain, which is not a thing here):

expectingscience.com/2017/11/14/five-little-known-facts-about-pregnancy-weight-gain/

Suggest you use something like Myfitnesspal or Fitbit on maintenance mode and track what you eat in a day. I do this to ensure I don’t eat more than 2k calories per day which is my sweet spot. Having said that though, I find my weight can fluctate by up to 3kg depending in whether I have a poo or not; or if I eat salty food; so it’s possible a lot of it is just water.

Thanks for the replies

You're right that i am a little anxious, i suppose it was a bit of a shock how much id gained, i was expecting about half that! After DD i had literally zero energy to exercise, she was a terrible sleeper and had colic for the first few months so i couldn't leave her for enough time to get to the gym nor could i be bothered. I walked a lot and ate well but it was a long hard slog to lose a single pound, and this time round ill have two so i cant imagine having any more energy! Looking to limit the damage if possible but looks like i just have to go with what my body is doing and cant really control it.

What is the recommended daily calories for women in the second trimester? Problem is i know women are meant to have 2000, but pre-pregnancy i gain if i go over 1500 so i have no idea how much i should be eating. Interested to know how other people keep a handle on it if they're prone to over eating! :)

I have pcos so my metabolism is lower than normal and so my exercise doesn’t really offset my caloric intake. I still find myself losing at 1800 cals per day and 2k seems to be a good maintenance level during pregnancy. It does depend on your height and weight though. I am taller (5 7) and 80kg.

Personally speaking I don’t calorie count as 100 calories of veg is not the same as 100 calories of biscuits. Your body will process it differently as will your baby. If you cut out refined sugar and fatty foods 90% of the time and keep active you won’t overgain in weight and you’ll be able to relax knowing baby is getting everything needed. Hard not to panic when looking at scales so ditch them. So much of my weight was water so scales won’t always give an accurate idea of what is fat anyway. You’re doing really well with the exercise!