Pregnant and scared to gain weight??!!

Hi All,

I am just coming up to 14 weeks pregnant and starting to notice real body changes and its freaking me out!!  I have always been concious of my weight and i'm worried about gaining to much weight and looking fat and bloated while pregnant and i'm also worried about having a lot of weight to loose after I have the baby??!!

do any other mums or mums to be have any advice here on how i can feel good about myself and ensure I dont' gain to much weight - my appetite has increased a fair bit and i'm worried I will loose control....

Also, did they find it easy to loose the weight after with breastfeeding??

Thanks for your replies in advance!!

The best advice I can give you is this...   Do not eat "for 2"  you only need between 400-500 extra calories a day for your growing child.   It is okay to still count calories, and if you would like to do mild exercising, this is okay too (walking...), just make sure you're getting your daily allowance plus the amount for the baby.

Also, eat PLENTY of veggies and fruits for the folic acid, and plenty of milk for the calcium.   You can also talk to your OBGYN for any advice, mine was very very helpful.

I was 300 lbs when I got pregnant with  my daughter... I was very strict about what I was eating, and I also tried to walk 2-3 times per week.  Nothing strenuous, just light around the block, maybe for 15-20 minutes.   It helped, until my ankles swelled... :)   I only gained 15 lbs during my pregnancy because I was careful and didnt eat for "two".    My daughter was 7lbs14oz, and the other 7 lbs was water weight.   

Good luck to you!  May you have a happy and healthy pregnancy, and a healthy baby!  :)

I worry about the same thing when I get pregnant I think stlgirl's advice is VERY good. :-D

A quick google search and lo and behold, a fun website about having a person!

http://www.babycenter.com/calculators/weightg ain/

Don't give in to cravings. They're a figment of your imagination!

depends on the cravings... I craved macaroni and cheese, and milk...  Not at all a bad thing...

stlgirl's advice is really good, unfortunately I did not do the things she listed lol I gained 55 lbs with my first daughter and 65 with my second. When I found out I was pregnant with my second daughter I kept telling myself I was not gonna do the same thing I did with the first one. Well that lasted about a month.

The first time I lost the weight really fast, in about 2 1/2 months, but I did in a really unhealthy way. This time it did take me about 5 1/2 months to get to my normal weight, but I did it in a much more healthy way and I feel a lot better.

I'm not pregnant, but hope to be someday!

I found a few programs around that are for women who are pregnant to do with their partners or alone (with other pregnant ladies)..... like certain yoga, low impact aerobics, etc.

Look in your cities activity programs book or call them (or local rec centers or gyms)... you can stay fit, eat healthy and pop that baby outta there like a football when it's ready!  he he

My mom craved tomatos..... like a bag a day, so I hope I have something similar ;)

tomatos have alot of acid.. I bet your mom had a bunch of heart burn too!!  Which is something I had while prego and DONT WISH IT on anyone!!!   that and Acid reflux.. .ick

Thanks for your replies - I'm loving talking and hearing from people that have gone through what i'm about to go through or that are experiencing it also.

I was eating alot in my first few weeks but have realised that I had to snap out of it or i'll only regret it!!  its so hard to control such a large appetite that i'm not used to having :-(

sarah - my obgyn told me that your "appetite" isnt real... you think it is, because you're eating for "two", back to that again.   Its not that your hungry, you just think you need to eat.  This was my case anyway.

I would eat smaller portions, because I would fill up faster, especially toward my final 3 months.. the baby would take up so much room, and I carried really high, that my food would just kinda get "stuck" and i couldnt eat anymore.  Then, 30 minutes later i was hungry again.  

I just advise you to speak to your doctor... they can give youthe best advice needed!  also, sign up for EVERY free baby thing out there... get the magazines, get the free coupons.. trust me, you'll need em! :)   www.baby.com was the best website for me.

oh thanks stlgirl - thats sooo interesting that the appetite isnt' real!!  I guess it kinda makes sense really!!  I do feel that I need to maybe eat more often to keep my energy levels higher but not necessarily eat more!! 

Thanks for the great link - i will get as much free stuff as poss!!

There's really no need to gain a crap load of weight while pregnant. I have felt the same as you, scared to put on any excess weight while pregnant, I mean, heck I work my ass off to keep fit, right? Anywho, currently, I'm 25 weeks pregnant with my 3rd son (in 3 1/2 years...yikes!), and have gained 9 lbs thus far. I keep track of what I consume, eat 6 or 7 small meals, a day and everything I eat has a purpose. Lean protien, low fat dairy products, fruit, veg, salads, whole grains, a good filling breakfast cereal, lots of fiber, water, just basically good solid nutrition. I ate the same way during my previous pregnancies, and gained around 20lbs with each of them, had no complications, healthy babies, and speedy return to prepregnancy weight and shape. Keep excercising too. No reason to quit now!

As for breastfeeding, made me absolutely ravenous! But the extra 6 or 7 pounds I had left to lose came off within about a 5 or 6 weeks. You can do this sarah! Hang in there!

thanks fluffy - all really good and positive stuff you said there!  don't want to gain to much cos i know i'll regret it when the time comes for me to loose it all again!!  I want to nto worry about my weight and concentrate more on my new little baby!!  I think i'm starting to get back on track with a good diet - i just have to not eat crisps and sweets (my boyfriend has them in the house and they are my 2 weeknesses right now) but as long as i'm excersising (which i am now with all the energy the 2nd trimester has brought) then i dont think i'll feel quite as bad about it every now and then!!  Can't beleive you only put on 20lbs tho - thats about my goal i would say!!  Does that mean you avoided stretch marks??

OMG!! Really?? I'm pregant too! And trying to not throw away all the hard work I've done... I'm in my 8th week, and my weight has stayed the same for 5 weeks now... so I'm bummed about that, I'm hoping it can go down a little more before it starts climbing again...

I was told that the trick is that baby weight is in your tummy and chest, so watch your thighs! Your thighs shouldn't really change shape...

I've lost 40 pounds, and I really really hope I don't put the 40 back on again, BUT a healthy baby is the most important, and if I do, I know exactly how to lose it again ;)

Good luck to you!

Just a word of caution:

BE HEALTHY.  I was super worried about weight gain in my second pregnancy.  I cut out all processed sugars and ate really really well with healthy foods.  I maintained a 5 pound gain total (starting at 200 and going to 205) and left the hospital in pre-pregnancy pants.  I also left the hospital with NO BABY.  Anily died.  It most likely had NOTHING to do with my healthy eating, but my obsession over it was fuel to a LOT of guilt.  She had a velamentous cord insertion, the umbilical cord attached to the amniotic membranes instead of the placenta and then the vessels traveled via the membranes unprotected by wharton's jelly (the bulk of the cord) to the placenta.  Now, in reading up about this, it is generally caused by the placenta moving during pregnancy.  Sometimes the placenta will get less nutrients in one place and more in another so it will grow faster and better in the place that it gets more nutrients.  Over the course of time, it basically appears that the placenta is migrating.  Where the umbilical cord attaches though, doesn't move, so it get's left behind.  I kept thinking that if I had eaten a fattier diet then my placenta would not have had the need to migrate to a better location and my water would not have broken right across Anily's vessels and let her bleed to death before being born.  It's probably not true though - I mean - they don't really know all the reasons why velamentous insertion would happen and mostly it is just random.  Even then, my intake wasn't bad, just healthy so there was no deprivation.  Still - your baby dies and I promise guilt will be there no matter what.

Just, don't over think it.  A healthy baby in the end is most important.  Also, BTW, make your doctors do an ultasound about 16-17 weeks in to look at cord/placental attachment areas to make sure you don't have a velamentous cord. They don't like to spend the money to look for it since it is uncommon but trust me, if YOU are the unlucky one and knowing they just had to look would've saved your baby's life, cost savings and statistics are a sore consolation.

robynanne - i'm really sad and sorry to hear your story - i can only imagine how hard that must have been!!  But we have to remember that everything happens for a reason - no matter how strange it may seem at the time!!

anyway, thats for the advice - its really given me a huge reality check to whats really important here!!

robynanne - oh I am so sorry!! What a horrible situation!!

... and now I'm freaking out about that too now...

Oh, don't freak out about it.  Very very rare.  Just ask the doc for an ultrasound to look for it and that's all it takes.  They can easily see and diagnose it - just like placenta previa - it should not scare you.  (Well, it should scare anyone that they would rather let 1/3000 babies DIE from it then spend the $$ to check everyone, but that's a different story.)

Just trying to help out.  I know I wish someone would've told ME about that while I was pregnant.

As an aside, Sarah, just for the future, it's really not the best idea to say to the parent of a dead child that everything happens for a reason.  The answer, of course, is that there is no reason on the planet that could say that it was better for my child to die.  It didn't happen for a reason, it was stupid and senseless and horrid.  And that's life sometimes.  Me, I'm not that bothered by it because I've been in these shoes for a long time and I've heard it all.  All the same, if you're ever in the situation that you need to come up with something to say to someone that has lost a child, the number 1 worst possible thing would be to say that everything happens for a reason.  (And everyone says it, so don't feel bad about that.  I think honestly that it makes other people feel better - like tragedy struck that person because there was a reason and therefore it won't hit me.  Maybe anyway.)

robynanne - I'm sorry if this upset you as that was not my intention - it is something I could not imagine and could not possibly understand unless it happened to me.  I know it didn't make you feel better but knowing that EVERYTHING happens for a reason is what keeps me going through tough times ( i am a christian and believe that god knows what is going to happen and what choices we are going to make and we cannot control that - one day everything will fall into place to make us understand everything ).  I guess everyone deals with things there own way that works but I wish you nothing but happiness in the future!!

Take Care