From deficit to pregnant - question

VeryKatie

So I am curious if any of you ladies were losing weight (eating a deficit) and then had to jump straight to maintenance when you found out you were pregnant. My reason for asking is I am wondering if you found it difficult in terms of not gaining too much weight.

In other words, is it harder, easier, or the same if you're coming off a deficit when you get pregnant opposed to coming from maintenance?

DawnieB1977

I carried on in a deficit when I was pregnant, just a smaller deficit. I carried on exercising until I was 38 weeks too. I still gained too much weight anyway, so wish I'd just relaxed more and eaten cake lol.

EmmaDetermined

It won't be any more difficult than going from deficit to maintenance when you are not pregnant. First trimester you would eat normal maintenance calories (as if you were not pregnant) so it will be the same anyway. Just use those first few months to get to grips with maintenance and then when second trimester sets in, you will be a bit more prepared to up the calories a little (although if you are still really overweight you could maintain the same calorie level until the third trimester)

ashliedelgado

I had a rough time for the first few weeks, but it got easier. My weight the day I tested positive (Valentines day) was 185, but I had just gotten over an awful stomach bug where I couldn't hold anything down. After stabilizing from that, I've stayed between 188-190, I upped to maintenance, which has me feeling like I'm bursting at the seams, and I have no room to eat back much, if any exercise cals.

VeryKatie

So did you all know what your maintenance calories were supposed to be before hand? I am still questionable on mine.

amgreenwell

I googled several calculator sites and averaged the maintenance calories for myself.
I was eating 1500 for weight loss for about two years and had to switch to maintenance and add calories in my last trimester.
Currently I eat about 2330 calories for a day, exercise at least 30 minutes every day....and yes, it is weird to switch from loss to maintenance but once you realize you are growing that healthy human it is all worth it.

DawnieB1977

I googled how many calories I should eat. Your baby will be fine if you eat at a deficit - you're not going to be starving! Women in third world countries manage to give birth to healthy babies.

I'd say eat what you're comfortable eating, and eat more if you're hungry. I was nauseous until week 14 so I ate more carbs because that's all I could stand. Towards the end I got hungrier, but I exercised a lot, and I worked, and had 2 children already to run round after.

I exercised in my first and third pregnancies and was more careful about what I ate than in my second pregnancy, but I gained about the same in all three.

VeryKatie

So basically there isn't a need to worry about going straight from deficit to pregnancy in terms of extra weight gain I'm assuming as long as I still watch it, it's the best I can do, right?

Thanks so much ladies!

amgreenwell

Your doctor can also tell you what your expected gain should be. Play around with your maintenance calories and see how much you are gaining. You really should gain anything until second trimester.

LisaTcan

I went from working out at and eating 1600 calories a day to working out 3x a week and eating 2000 calories and I found I gained weight really quickly - 10lbs by 16 weeks. I've since dropped my calories to 1800 to try and slow the weight gain and will up it again if I don't gain enough

VeryKatie

LisaTcan wrote: »

I went from working out at and eating 1600 calories a day to working out 3x a week and eating 2000 calories and I found I gained weight really quickly - 10lbs by 16 weeks. I've since dropped my calories to 1800 to try and slow the weight gain and will up it again if I don't gain enough

Hmm see that is my concern also..

LisaTcan

Yeah, I think it was a mixture of dropping intense workouts (long distance cycling and heavy weight lifting) and increasing my calories and carbs too soon. I was also maybe a little too lack and started eating dessert every night to replace my usual glass of red wine, and eating pizza more than once a week.

This week I stopped eating sweets every day, cut my carbs and calories, and did 4 days of low impact cardio and weights and I dropped a pound. I'm just glad I caught it early on!