interesting article on wieght and pregnancey
AlsDonkBoxSquat
Posts: 6,128 Member
CNN has an article up today about Pregorexia. I see women on here post the question frequently "I'm pregnant, how many calories should I be consuming" and the answer is "talk to your doctor." However, this is a great article on the topic. If you are pregnant, it's important to remember that proper nutrition for your child's development and growth doesn't start on their birth day, but at conception. It's also important to remember it works both ways, if you don't gain enough weight it can cause long term complications for your child, just as if you gain too much weight can cause long term complications for your child.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/20/living/pregnant-dieting-pregorexia-moms/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
(CNN) -- Mom-to-be Maggie Baumann knew she most definitely would not be "eating for two." She couldn't.
During her first pregnancy, she was extremely preoccupied with just how many calories she consumed and stuck to a very strict exercise routine.
"Getting on the scale at the doctor's office was very triggering for me," said Baumann of Newport Beach, California, who is now an eating disorders specialist and trauma therapist who devotes some of her practice to pregnant women and moms suffering from eating disorders.
As a 5-foot-8-inch woman weighing just a little more than 135 pounds, she gained 32 pounds during her first pregnancy, which is very much in line with the 25 to 35 pounds doctors say, on average, a woman who is expecting should gain.
But, during her second pregnancy, she was not going to let "that" happen again, she said in an interview.
'Pregorexia'
"I was just like, I am not doing that again, I am not getting that big. I am not getting that out of control," said Baumann, who first went public about her experience in a blog in 2009 and is now co-writing a chapter on pregnancy and eating disorders in a book to be published in 2014.
Conventional wisdom on pregnancy wrong?
She didn't realize it at the time but she was one of a number of women with an extreme obsession with weight during pregnancy, battling what has become known as "pregorexia."
Pregorexia is not a formally recognized medial diagnosis. It is a term coined by the media, public and doctors in recent years to describe the eating disorder behaviors experienced by women while pregnant, which could include intense dieting and exercise, but also binging and purging.
30% of pregnant women in U.S. don't gain enough
While there are no known statistics on just how many pregnant women experience pregorexia, it is estimated that about 30% of American women don't gain enough weight during pregnancy, according to Dr. Ovidio Bermudez, the chief medical officer at the Eating Recovery Center in Denver, Colorado.
"I think you've got to be careful not to overdraw conclusions," Bermudez said. He wanted to make clear that not every woman who "struggles with weight gain" during pregnancy has an eating disorder.
"But I think there is a significant number for whom this is really another struggle, another manifestation of their eating disorder-related pathology. And those are probably the folks that are going to take it more to an extreme and the folks more likely to suffer their own health consequences as well as putting their pregnancy and the fetus, the baby, at risk," he said.
In Baumann's case, she began intense and extended workouts, and she was not eating enough. At 11 weeks, after she experienced bleeding in her uterus, her doctor, fearing she could miscarry, instructed her to stop all exercise immediately. She didn't because she couldn't. At seven months, there were worries the baby was too small and wasn't getting enough nutrients.
"It did not register to me like, 'OK, now I need to start trying for this baby,'" said Baumann. "I was like, 'Oh well, I won't go to the gym ... I'll just go and exercise somewhere else. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing but not really.'"
It was her secret. No one knew about the extended workouts, the calorie restriction, the eating disorder behaviors she battled throughout her life and now again as a mom-to-be.
No one knew how horrible she felt about herself.
"The biggest factor is the shame because what mom ... would be restricting her calories or over-exercising and hurting her baby?" said Baumann.
Celebrity media culture plays a role
It has almost become a given now in our tabloid and celebrity media-obsessed culture, said Claire Mysko, spokeswoman for the National Eating Disorders Association, that any time a celebrity is pregnant, there will be a 24/7 focus on how much weight she gains and how quickly she loses it.
Think Kate Middleton. Beyonce. Victoria Beckham.
"Between 2003 and 2005, the number of baby-related, baby weight-related covers on tabloids doubled and since then, it's almost become an expectation now that if a celebrity is pregnant, there will be a mention of her body during pregnancy and then there's the countdown to how fast she's going to get the weight off," said Mysko, co-author of the book "Does this Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat?"
In interviews with more than 400 women for her book, Mysko said she and her co-author looked at the impact of this media coverage on women, who increasingly feel the pressure to have the "perfect" pregnancy and quickly get their bodies back.
"I think that absolutely has an effect on women and it absolutely fuels, I think, and validates this obsession with weight during pregnancy and after," said Mysko. "We can't necessarily make a direct connection between whether that has increased the rate or the incidence of eating disorders, but certainly it has amped up this anxiety that women feel."
Women who had eating disorders more at risk
Women like Baumann, who battled eating disorders earlier in their lives, are much more likely to suffer from eating disorders while pregnant, experts say.
"I would say for women who know that they have a history of poor body image and disordered eating to really take that seriously as they enter into pregnancy and to be up-front about that history with your prenatal and post-partum health care providers," said Mysko.
But an eating disorder in your past doesn't guarantee you'll have one during pregnancy. In fact, Mysko, who had an eating disorder in her teens, found that she appreciated her body in a new way during pregnancy. Her daughter is 3 now.
CNN's Kelly Wallace opens up about having an eating disorder during college but not having any issues during her pregnancies.
I had a similar experience. Like so many, I battled bulimia in college and still have small bouts of binge eating, even now in my 40s. But during my two pregnancies, I felt better about myself and my body than really at any other time in my life.
Lack of acceptance should be the "warning sign" that a mom-to-be could be experiencing or on the brink of eating disorder behavior, said Bermudez of the Eating Recovery Center, who is a former chairman of the National Eating Disorders Association.
"So, if the dialogue instead of 'Gee, is my baby going to be healthy and what am I going to name him or her?' becomes 'What does this mean for me and what am I going to look like? And are you still going to love me?' especially to an exaggerated degree, one has to begin to say there is an issue with acceptance here," he said.
'I felt like I did this to her'
When Baumann delivered her second child, she had gained only 18 pounds, compared to the 32 she gained during her first pregnancy. Her daughter developed seizures during the first months of her life, which her doctor said were possibly connected to the poor nutrition she received in the womb.
"'I felt like I did this to her, and I blamed myself and my eating disorder got worse," said Baumann.
Nearly 10 years later, she finally got treatment by going to the Remuda Ranch in Arizona, a residential treatment center for women with anorexia and bulimia. Her daughter, now in her 20s and perfectly healthy, was angry at her mother when she found out what she had done during the pregnancy.
"I had to let her be angry at me," said Baumann. "She had to process knowing that I did this and thinking, 'Why wouldn't my mom feed me?'"
"Even coming from her end, it's unbelievable because if you don't have an eating disorder, it's very hard to understand," she said.
Baumann, who devotes most of her time to the issue of eating disorders, is teaming up with the Illinois-based Timberline Knolls Treatment Center next year to launch what she says will be the first Web-based support group for pregnant women and moms with eating disorders.
"There are so many moms ... pregnant women, they're so ashamed, they don't want to tell anyone that they are doing what they are doing," said Baumann.
But, she says, women should know that they are not alone and that they can be helped.
"You can recover from your eating disorder, and you can recover from being a mom or a pregnant woman with an eating disorder, and that shame," said Baumann. "You can recover from that."
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/20/living/pregnant-dieting-pregorexia-moms/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
(CNN) -- Mom-to-be Maggie Baumann knew she most definitely would not be "eating for two." She couldn't.
During her first pregnancy, she was extremely preoccupied with just how many calories she consumed and stuck to a very strict exercise routine.
"Getting on the scale at the doctor's office was very triggering for me," said Baumann of Newport Beach, California, who is now an eating disorders specialist and trauma therapist who devotes some of her practice to pregnant women and moms suffering from eating disorders.
As a 5-foot-8-inch woman weighing just a little more than 135 pounds, she gained 32 pounds during her first pregnancy, which is very much in line with the 25 to 35 pounds doctors say, on average, a woman who is expecting should gain.
But, during her second pregnancy, she was not going to let "that" happen again, she said in an interview.
'Pregorexia'
"I was just like, I am not doing that again, I am not getting that big. I am not getting that out of control," said Baumann, who first went public about her experience in a blog in 2009 and is now co-writing a chapter on pregnancy and eating disorders in a book to be published in 2014.
Conventional wisdom on pregnancy wrong?
She didn't realize it at the time but she was one of a number of women with an extreme obsession with weight during pregnancy, battling what has become known as "pregorexia."
Pregorexia is not a formally recognized medial diagnosis. It is a term coined by the media, public and doctors in recent years to describe the eating disorder behaviors experienced by women while pregnant, which could include intense dieting and exercise, but also binging and purging.
30% of pregnant women in U.S. don't gain enough
While there are no known statistics on just how many pregnant women experience pregorexia, it is estimated that about 30% of American women don't gain enough weight during pregnancy, according to Dr. Ovidio Bermudez, the chief medical officer at the Eating Recovery Center in Denver, Colorado.
"I think you've got to be careful not to overdraw conclusions," Bermudez said. He wanted to make clear that not every woman who "struggles with weight gain" during pregnancy has an eating disorder.
"But I think there is a significant number for whom this is really another struggle, another manifestation of their eating disorder-related pathology. And those are probably the folks that are going to take it more to an extreme and the folks more likely to suffer their own health consequences as well as putting their pregnancy and the fetus, the baby, at risk," he said.
In Baumann's case, she began intense and extended workouts, and she was not eating enough. At 11 weeks, after she experienced bleeding in her uterus, her doctor, fearing she could miscarry, instructed her to stop all exercise immediately. She didn't because she couldn't. At seven months, there were worries the baby was too small and wasn't getting enough nutrients.
"It did not register to me like, 'OK, now I need to start trying for this baby,'" said Baumann. "I was like, 'Oh well, I won't go to the gym ... I'll just go and exercise somewhere else. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing but not really.'"
It was her secret. No one knew about the extended workouts, the calorie restriction, the eating disorder behaviors she battled throughout her life and now again as a mom-to-be.
No one knew how horrible she felt about herself.
"The biggest factor is the shame because what mom ... would be restricting her calories or over-exercising and hurting her baby?" said Baumann.
Celebrity media culture plays a role
It has almost become a given now in our tabloid and celebrity media-obsessed culture, said Claire Mysko, spokeswoman for the National Eating Disorders Association, that any time a celebrity is pregnant, there will be a 24/7 focus on how much weight she gains and how quickly she loses it.
Think Kate Middleton. Beyonce. Victoria Beckham.
"Between 2003 and 2005, the number of baby-related, baby weight-related covers on tabloids doubled and since then, it's almost become an expectation now that if a celebrity is pregnant, there will be a mention of her body during pregnancy and then there's the countdown to how fast she's going to get the weight off," said Mysko, co-author of the book "Does this Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat?"
In interviews with more than 400 women for her book, Mysko said she and her co-author looked at the impact of this media coverage on women, who increasingly feel the pressure to have the "perfect" pregnancy and quickly get their bodies back.
"I think that absolutely has an effect on women and it absolutely fuels, I think, and validates this obsession with weight during pregnancy and after," said Mysko. "We can't necessarily make a direct connection between whether that has increased the rate or the incidence of eating disorders, but certainly it has amped up this anxiety that women feel."
Women who had eating disorders more at risk
Women like Baumann, who battled eating disorders earlier in their lives, are much more likely to suffer from eating disorders while pregnant, experts say.
"I would say for women who know that they have a history of poor body image and disordered eating to really take that seriously as they enter into pregnancy and to be up-front about that history with your prenatal and post-partum health care providers," said Mysko.
But an eating disorder in your past doesn't guarantee you'll have one during pregnancy. In fact, Mysko, who had an eating disorder in her teens, found that she appreciated her body in a new way during pregnancy. Her daughter is 3 now.
CNN's Kelly Wallace opens up about having an eating disorder during college but not having any issues during her pregnancies.
I had a similar experience. Like so many, I battled bulimia in college and still have small bouts of binge eating, even now in my 40s. But during my two pregnancies, I felt better about myself and my body than really at any other time in my life.
Lack of acceptance should be the "warning sign" that a mom-to-be could be experiencing or on the brink of eating disorder behavior, said Bermudez of the Eating Recovery Center, who is a former chairman of the National Eating Disorders Association.
"So, if the dialogue instead of 'Gee, is my baby going to be healthy and what am I going to name him or her?' becomes 'What does this mean for me and what am I going to look like? And are you still going to love me?' especially to an exaggerated degree, one has to begin to say there is an issue with acceptance here," he said.
'I felt like I did this to her'
When Baumann delivered her second child, she had gained only 18 pounds, compared to the 32 she gained during her first pregnancy. Her daughter developed seizures during the first months of her life, which her doctor said were possibly connected to the poor nutrition she received in the womb.
"'I felt like I did this to her, and I blamed myself and my eating disorder got worse," said Baumann.
Nearly 10 years later, she finally got treatment by going to the Remuda Ranch in Arizona, a residential treatment center for women with anorexia and bulimia. Her daughter, now in her 20s and perfectly healthy, was angry at her mother when she found out what she had done during the pregnancy.
"I had to let her be angry at me," said Baumann. "She had to process knowing that I did this and thinking, 'Why wouldn't my mom feed me?'"
"Even coming from her end, it's unbelievable because if you don't have an eating disorder, it's very hard to understand," she said.
Baumann, who devotes most of her time to the issue of eating disorders, is teaming up with the Illinois-based Timberline Knolls Treatment Center next year to launch what she says will be the first Web-based support group for pregnant women and moms with eating disorders.
"There are so many moms ... pregnant women, they're so ashamed, they don't want to tell anyone that they are doing what they are doing," said Baumann.
But, she says, women should know that they are not alone and that they can be helped.
"You can recover from your eating disorder, and you can recover from being a mom or a pregnant woman with an eating disorder, and that shame," said Baumann. "You can recover from that."
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Replies
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That makes me so sad.
Most women, if they eat to satiety. will gain exactly what they and their need. Stay active. Get help if that won't work for you.0 -
I'm so glad you posted this. It really is eye opening.0
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How sad
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I am also very glad you posted this. As a woman who has had an eating disorder in the past and is extremely self conscious about my looks today, I often wonder how I will act and react during pregnancy in the future. I hope to be comfortable with the weight gain and not over exercise. Thanks for posting.0
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This is interesting. I think part of the problem is that because medical professionals are subject to all the constant chat about obesity timebombs and other nonsense it does affect the advice you get.
It's actually more dangerous for your baby to gain too little than too much weight but that's not the impression you get from a lot of the literature in doctors' surgeries. It's all about ticking women off for getting too fat, I think it's because they are so used to weight gain being bad. In the UK they only weigh you at the beginning now (for that reason) unless there is a good reason to weigh you again.0 -
Very sad. This is definitely something that people should be aware of.0
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Makes me so f-ucking angry so much pressure is put onto women. No one supports women during such a critical time. She's growing a human being in 9 months; one cell to 7lbs.
Instead of supporting her changing and developing body, and already weak time emotionally, lets rip her more to shreds by judging on something as variable as weight.0 -
Glad you posted this, been seeing some posts lately about how to lose weight during pregnancy :noway: When I get pregnant I'll continue tracking and exercising but fully expect to gain about 30 lbs and will be more than happy to. Underweight babies have a LOT of problems and you do not want that to happen!
I've talked to some people that have struggled with eating disorders. Most recovered, at least temporarily, through pregnancy because the baby becomes more important. Very sad for those that that's not the case though.0 -
That is sad so many women have so much pressure on them about weight gain during pregnancy. I was on the heavier side with 2 of my pregnancies and only gained 10-15 pounds but I still ate so got enough calories and with the other two pregnancies I gained around 25 pounds.0
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I really enjoyed my pregnancies as a time to relax and not care about my body shape. I really learned to love it as the producer of my babies. I hope almost all women can have that experience.0
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I'm trying to get pregnant right now (well, not right RIGHT now, lol) and this whole topic is scary to me. I'm technically 4 pounds overweight by the BMI chart, but I want to lose about 20. I've been as heavy as 260 before though, at 5'5". I gained 70 with one pregnancy and 60 with the next. It's been ten years since my youngest was born, and although I have developed a lot of good habits since then, I still remember how HUNGRY I felt all the time and how easy it was to gain weight.
Because of all this, I am planning on keeping my calories at maintenance during my first trimester and then only adding 300 in the second and third. But I know that if I blow it, I'm going to berate myself and probably be tempted to undereat and exercise more. I've wondered if I should seek professional help to get my mentality right before I get pregnant.0 -
It is definitely interesting. I was like this woman in the beginning, but once I got it through my thick skull that I was going to get big no matter what, I finally started caring less about appearance and more about my health.0
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I really enjoyed my pregnancies as a time to relax and not care about my body shape. I really learned to love it as the producer of my babies. I hope almost all women can have that experience.
Ditto this. You're growing a human, you need to nourish yourself and the baby. Pregnancy is not a time to calorie count. It makes me sad that people feel this way.0 -
When I found out I was pregnant (planned pregnancy) I had lost 197 pounds over the previous 2 years. I was terrified of gaining back any weight. My Dr told me he wanted me to gain only about 25 pounds throughout the entire pregnancy, because I was still over 200 pounds at that time. This made me fearful and so anxious that I constantly scrutinized every pound I gained. I needed to be sure that I did not exceed this 25 pound marker or I might not be able to get it off after my baby was born! I was so obsessed the first few months that we eventually settled on a pound a week being an acceptable and reasonable weight gain. I felt like this took the pressure off and made it okay for me to gain that specified amount of weight.
I grew to love being pregnant more than any other time in my life - my body was doing what it was supposed to do - what it was made for. Despite the 30 years of abuse I had forced it to endure, it still worked and I was growing a human!
I didn't change much about my eating habits and exercise and in the end gained only 32 pounds total. I think our bodies are amazing and, without much effort from us, will do what they are supposed to do during pregnancy. Eat foods that are nutritious and move around.0 -
I really enjoyed my pregnancies as a time to relax and not care about my body shape. I really learned to love it as the producer of my babies. I hope almost all women can have that experience.
Ditto this. You're growing a human, you need to nourish yourself and the baby. Pregnancy is not a time to calorie count. It makes me sad that people feel this way.
I agree. I loved being pregnant, I was 30 and scared that the weight wouldn't come off easily, but I gained it anyway . . . and then some. I was so happy, and I just ate, although I was always hungry (pretty much because I didn't eat a lot of stuff that actually filled me, lol, twizzlers fill a sweet tooth but not a belly). My husband would ask me every day how I felt and every day I'd tell him "tired and hungry and sore, it's tough running a marathon every day."0
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