Need quick thoughts on Celebs losing weight v quickly post pregnancy/and not putting much on during - how do we feel about this?

[carriemumsnet]

On the back of this article The Sunday Telegraph have asked what Mumsnetters think out the pressure on women to stay in shape during their pregnancies. Are celebrity magazines to blame? Why are we expected to marvel at a flat-stomached Nicole Kidman just ten days after the birth of her baby and what effect will all of this have on the babies themselves in the long run?

There's a tight deadline but I promised we'd have some thoughts in the next few minutes.... so over to you.

Well, I kept getting hassled for having a bump and nothing else. (Growth checks etc) Lost loads of weight within seconds of starting breastfeding, and am a size 8 after 4 kids, so, up to them. I'm healthy, the babies were normal weights - i don't feel any pressure to lose weight, it just happens. Plus, it is their job to look good - look at the pasting they get it Heat etc for looking a bit lumpy. As long as the babies aren't starved (unlikely) I don't care.

Ugh. Just realised the article was from the Mail. Women can't win then.

Frankly I find all those celebrity types so divorced from my reality, that it doesn't affect me at all, anymore than it worries me that Jo of the Chalet School could pop out triplets without putting on any weight.

I feel no pressure. The life of a celebrity bares absolutely no resemblance to my life, so I don't really compare myself to them.

And I avoid celebrity magazines

I just think thank God I'm not a 'celebrity' and don't have to worry about such things. I've never felt any pressure myself.

I couldn't really care to be honest.

bears

i didn't excercise at all in any pregnancy but after ds1 i did spiral back into ED's BECAUSE celebs were so thin days afterwards and i kept being asked why i hadn't lost the weight.

same as peppermint patty

I think the magazines are irresponsible. I don't give a monkeys whether ms c list celeb has a flat tum 3 seconds after giving birth but I am fairly sure that there are women out there who do care and who do feel huge and very unhealthy pressure to lose baby weight quickly

I think it's sad for them and their children if they feel under pressure to be in shape double quick time, but I don't feel it has any bearing on my life whatsoever.

To be honest, that first six months to a year after having DS, I was so wrapped up in him and being a mum, that I didn't care about much else!

But then I don't read celebrity magazines. Ever.

Well, perhaps at the dentists'.

I've never met anyone who has said "I'm trying to lose my jellybelly to look like Posh" I did meet someone who said, "It is much easier to eat wagon wheels for breakfast rather than faff with cereal, bowls, milk, which is why I still have a jellybelly"...

I don't want to know one way or the other. am fed up of the constant focus in media and sleb mags about who has put on/not put on weight and the routine question to new sleb mothers about what they are eating/baby weight.

I think it's just a part of the whole body image issue tbh, I don't separate it at all.
I pity those who are so influenced by celebs that they feel pressured into losing weight (whether pregnant or not).

As for the children, I think they are liable to have 'issues' not because their mothers lost weight quickly after giving birth but because they will be raised by skeletons.

The only irritating thing is hearing their pearls of wisdom about eating raw carrots/ salted popcorn/ etc like the rest of us will go 'omg, that's how to get thin again!'

I wonder if part of the problem is that staff at Heat etc are all pre-parents and don't actually know what a full-term bump looks like - I'm always amused by pictures of celebs with perfectly normal seven-month bumps with captions that say "good lord!! either she's gestating a hippo, or she's much further along in her pregnancy than she's letting on!". This may be because we don't see all that many full-term bumps out and about.
Other than that, I agree with PP - Liz Hurley once said there was no way she'd be so thin if she was a civilian - and I don't feel any need, as a civilian, to emulate celeb foolishness.

Really think "Celebs" are in a no win situation, if they don't gain much weight during pregnancy/lose the weight quickly then the media portray them as vain and having an eating disorder. If they gain a lot of weight then struggle to lose it then they've "let themselves go".
It's a shame we can't just embrace the fact that women are different, some gain lots of weight whilst pregnant, others don't. For some it falls off, for others they really have to work at it.
Personally, I am glad that I had time to lose the 4+stones I gained each time slowly, healthily and without pressure. For me, my priority was spending time with my newborn/growing family not getting into skinny jeans.

don't care what they do tbh

BUT I do worry that women see it as appalling that they put on (gasp) a couple of stone during pg when that's well within the recommended guidelines

or that they haven't lost all the baby weight in 6 weeks or whatever

I think our perception of what is normal re: weight gain and loss is being skewed and not just in pregnancy (lose a stone in X weeks anyone?)

I think it takes the obsession with the perfect figure to ridiculous new levels. I doubt it would cause the babies much harm whilst the celebs were still pregnant, as the body nurtures the baby first, but it must have some impact on the mother's health. Also, it's not setting a great example to the children, in that you must look perfect to get anywhere. I think people have seriously got their priorities wrong if losing weight is their greatest priority after giving birth. There is far too much obsession with weight these days, it's just a joke. It would be much better to see more celebs who were just comfortable in their own skins. Saying that, I put on no weight at all when pregnant with DD, but it wasn't for want of trying. Piled it on whilst bfing!

we prob all know women who have put on loads/no weight at all when pg and who have lost it immediately/after a year or so/only partly or not at all. And they are all normal. It's only when it comes to the DM that normal healthy women have Problems

bluestocking has a poinmt actually. You see so often pictures of celebs with "baby bumps" when actually they have NORMAL bellies! or its their clothes making a wierd shape!

I agree that it is very sad that some women's prirorities in teh first few weeks of motherhood are not about the baby but about their body. I don't think blame for this can be pinned on the celebs themselves, alot of it is how the media focuses on those celebs and pins nasty comments on the likes of Britney when they are still sporting a small pot belly 9 months after birth. Don't blame the few women like Nicole who may have naturally elastic figures, blame the journos who focus on them and compare everyone else negatively.

Before I had DD I was totally unaware that in real life it takes most women MONTHS to regain any semblance of thir former figure. Twenty-four hours after I had given birth I was horrified that I still had a huge bump and I asked the doctor to check it. She chortled away and explained it would be there for a good while. I felt horrible for the first four months after pregnany, I just had not antipicated the damage that would be done to my body.

On the other hand I am not sure there is "pressure to stay in shape during pregnancy". In some respects I would have welcomed more information about the importance of staying in shape but by MW said nothing and my (very expensive) local gym refuses to allow pregnant women to particpate in any of its exercise classes. I am not six months into my second pregnany and I have made an effort to swim several times a week and I am much smaller than at this stage in my last pregnany. I think women need more info about diet and exercise in pregnany and better access to pregnancy tailored exercise. We could also do with more info about losing weight post-birth. I found breast feeding really helped but it was not a miracle quick fix. You need a big baby with a healthy appetite to take enough calories from you. For me the weight dropped off once DD was 5 months and very hungry.

a lot of celebreties are thin because that is part of their job descritpion

a lot of them work at it 24/7

nicole kidman has always been very slender - she didn't put on much weight when she was PG anyway so unsurprisingly she has lost it all quickly

none of my friends have ever said they felt pressure to lose babyweight because of a celeb doing it

i assume when i see the photoshoots A LOT of airbrushing and Spanx wearing is going on plus lots of shots of mum and baby with baby strategically positioned over tummy etc

I think it is a pressure, and for some mums will be another reason not to breastfeed. As although you can lose a lot of weight that way - you can retain a certain amount of fat. It also means it's more difficult to get back to exercising etc.

I agree with Huw that's it's all bound up in the whole body issue image.