Losing weight when pregnant

[Isthisthe]

I know all the literature says you should not but then it also says that the baby will take whatever it needs.

I am 4 stone overweight and can’t help but the baby has months of reserves even if I was to starve myself (which I won’t of course.)

But if I was to aim for a safe steady 1lb a week I could lose nearly 2 and a half by the time baby arrives (I am 7 weeks) thoughts …?

No. You shouldn’t deliberately try to lose weight when you’re pregnant.
I was on the border between overweight and obese when I got pregnant. I ate very healthily from the start and later got diagnosed with gd and followed the diet to the letter. Also went for walks every day. I gained weight appropriately to begin with but then I started losing weight. Some of the midwives accused me of not eating enough but I was following the gd diet. The doctor saw me and said it was ok because the baby was growing fine and I had weight to lose. After I gave birth and started breastfeeding I lost even more. I weighed myself about a month postpartum and I weighed significantly less than when I got pregnant. (Have since gained it all back and more unfortunately).
Anyway, if you eat healthily and keep active, you may lose weight anyway but you definitely shouldn’t do it deliberately. Plus your weight will be monitored and the midwives/ doctors will pull you up on it. It’s advised against by experts, don’t do it. You can always lose weight after the baby is born.
(Just as a side note, the gd clinic I went to was awful. We had no self testing kits, just a standard diet to follow and fasting bloods done once a week. I don’t think it was healthy how I was losing weight looking back. I never had high blood sugars. I was hungry all the time and kept getting lightheaded. It didn’t feel right. Baby was fine and everything turned out ok but losing so much weight in pregnancy didn’t feel right).

if you eat healthily and keep active, you may lose weight anyway - but then how is this different to a conventional diet? I know that probably sounds argumentative which isn’t my intention! But if I stick to three healthy meals a day and keep active, with the aim of shifting about a pound a week, why is that different to the advice bolded above?

I think there's a difference between 'eat healthily and keep active' and 'dieting'.

If your normal lifestyle doesn't involve eating healthily and keeping active then I can't see why it's not fine to start whilst you're pregnant.

What they are recommending against is dieting and over-exercise. So you shouldn't be limiting foods, you should eat when you're hungry but eat healthily. And you shouldn't be going to the gym to do a crazy workout to burn off that burger you just ate.

But 3 decent meals a day and a walk is not going to harm your baby. But I'd maybe shift the goal to 'eat 3 meals a day and go for a walk' rather than 'lose a pound a week'. Don't focus on weight loss, focus on health.

Thanks yes, that’s good advice. My diet has been pretty awful for the last twelve months or so - start every week with good intentions - and a good three stone went on in the last year. I am annoyed with myself as I really did not want to be fat and pregnant!

Yes, this exactly.
Try not to worry too much. Just focus on staying healthy and looking after yourself. It’s also not a time to put pressure on yourself or give yourself a hard time.
As I said, it might happen anyway if you cut out unhealthy food, you just have to replace it with healthy food though.

Wifey tried to lose weight with our daughter and I talked her out of it. I cooked all her meals at home and cut out all refined sugars. She didn’t put much weight on and daughter was a healthy 8pound 2 baby. If you eat well then you will not add much weight. Think of the baby.

It is a very bad idea to severely restrict calories, nutrition and starve oneself. whilst pregnant from a genetic point of view. You baby will grow and even be born health, but this doesn't mean their epigenome will and chances are there will be a predisposition to obesity later in their life as it was famously demonstrated with the Dutch Famine epigenetics studies
.
Now is the time to think long term for both you and baby. Put nutrition first. Avoid high fat food/diets as they have been proven to negatively affect baby's brain neurodevelopment. Increase drastically your intake of vegetables and fibre, avoid processed food including processed meats (ham, bacon, sausages, burgers, ....) . Eat for body and brain, for bite of you. Focus on whole grain, so no white bread, white pasta, white rice, have at least three meals based on pulses, so one meal will be red lentils, one chickpeas, one cannelloni beans.

You need to make changes that are life long so that your household will have a healthy diet when baby is born and later when baby is weaned.

Eat a normal amount of calories, on the low but not starving side, not the high amount you are eating now and make every single one of these calories count. Every morsel has a purpose. Eliminate the rubbish, the junk, the snacking, have your three meals, and if you absolutely need a snack, have a piece of fruit, a different one every day. An apple on Monday, a pear on Tuesday....

Keep in mind that your metabolic need of calories is to maintain body systems' function and metabolism, your excess fat has no metabolic requirement, so whenever calculating your calories need, don't use your current weight, but an adjusted weight. Most TDEE calculator online are absolutely rubbish.

Maternal nutrition matters what more than most people think.