Pregnant... do I have to gain?

victoria_1024

Soooo just found out yesterday that I'm pregnant! I've been working my butt off for the past few months and I'm in such GREAT shape so there's that part of me that was bummed to have my progress derailed (BUT I'm also excited, don't get me wrong... this is my 4th baby!). I'm still considered to be in an "obese" BMI range. I really don't want to gain a ton of weight and I'm thinking about continuing to count calories and wondering if I should change my settings to maintenance??

I also want to continue working out, but I was working out pretty hardcore before, lots of high impact stuff. Anyone know if it's still ok to do that stuff or do I need to tone it down? I plan on talking to my doctor at some point but I won't get in for a while yet.

mandy5135

I would discuss this with your dr. I always lost weight when I was pregnant, by simply eating healthier and dropping caffeine. But I was very overweight. I also had 4 very healthy sized babies.

makelemonade14

I lost 10 pounds my first trimester with each pregnancy. I just didn't feel like eating, so was making sure to choose quality foods to make it count. I was told a good weight gain for me would be 15-20 pounds in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. You have to gain some... the baby alone will be 7-9ish pounds, the placenta, amniotic fluid and extra blood volume are more pounds. If you already have a doctor, you could call and talk to the nurse about nutrition and exercise to get you through until your appointment.

eta: CONGRATS on the pregnancy!! It's a very exciting time.

SunofaBeach14

I'm going with "talk to your doctor."

sun_fish

I'm going with "talk to your doctor."

Absolutely this.

__freckles__

When you asked your doctor this question, what did he/she say? I would go with that.

JojoEffeckt164

i´m not a doctor but from what I read online:

the first 6 months you wont need more calories than usual, because your body digests better
only the last three months your body will need 200kcal more each day.

So what I´m planing to do is that I will set MFP to maintain and eat what it recomments. not more not less. And I will eat my exercise calories back....

I aggree though that you definately should discuss that with at least one doctor who knows what he is talking about.


MOST IMPORTANT: CONGRATIOLATIONS!!!!!!! :flowerforyou:

oregonzoo

Congrats! Talk to your doctor about your diet and exercise.
You WILL gain. But you're supposed to.


This isn't about just you right now

Cranquistador

seriously?

LynneW1983

This is only my personal experience. When I was pregnant with my first
I ate a bit unhealthy before so when I fell pregnant I made sure to eat my five a day drank milk for calcium had fruit juice with my dinner to help absorb the iron from the meat. I had musli for breakfast for the oats and fruit to keep things moving along so to speak and doing all this I lost more than a dress size in first month I was pregnant. I didn't count calories I ate good meals snacked on berries and grapes. There is no need to put on a lot of weight. If you already run and have no pelvic floor problems it's safe to carry on running. Any sport with tackling is not a good idea, I always went to aqua natal an water aerobic class for pregnant women.

gypsy_spirit

Baby's health first. Talk to your doctor.

tifftheneutron

When I got pregnant with my first, I weighed 250 lbs, so I was obviously already eating way over what I should. it is uncomfortable to be that heavy and pregnant, so with the help of a nutritionist, I managed to not gain, but I didn't lose either... so obviously I lost some to make up the difference, lol. That was the first two trimesters. My overall gain was 10 lbs, and he was 8lb, 8oz.

I also worked out when I could, but I was pretty sick through most of the pregnancy. I cut out the really high intensity stuff and focused on walking, swimming (swimming felt GREAT), and lifting weights up to a point. I had a heart rate monitor and was told to keep my heart rate within a certain range (but I don't remember what it was now). I had a doctor that was really understanding!

You will probably gain, BUT it is easy to keep it low, especially if you are larger to begin with.

Congrats!!

fuhrmeister

I say talk to your doctor.

But I am in the obease range and I have been trying to get pregnant so I have read a lot. You should gain some weight but not too much. Remember the baby will weigh 6-10 pound then the placenta and amneotic fluid will weight about 3 pounts. So expect a 15 pound gain.

Also you can definatly continue working out. But I would curb things that are really high impact or that involve crunches untill you talk to the doctor.

Personal openion, I would move to maintanance. The baby needs energy to grow and both your health and babies health should be a huge priority.

Good luck and congratulations.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Talk to doctor.

You should be eating at least at maintenance. You're doctor can direct you as to how much more to add and when, and as to what kind of activities are appropriate.

WeepingAngel81

Congrats.....but talk to your doctor. Babies don't derail anything in life.....you may want to also talk to your doc about your feelings on this. Post partum is a very real thing, and you don't want to harbor ill feelings towards your pregnancy and baby going into this. 9 months is a long time to feel "derailed" and as you already know, your body is going to change......

PhearlessPhreaks

Hey OP, congrats!!!

As countless others have (and will!) say, you need to discuss this with your doctor.

Anecdotally.... I was (still am) severely overweight when I found myself pregnant with my 2nd child. I tracked my calories on here, and made eating healthy AND not gaining serious weight my priority. I gained a total of 18lbs, most of it in the last trimester. I gave birth to a nearly 9lb baby, and within days was back to the weight I was when I found out I was pregnant with her.

12by311

Gah, I love being pregnant. BUT I don't go all ape **** and say "YAY EAT ALL THE FOODZ". It's the most important job you'll ever have- growing another human! So I just look at it as very important that eat healthy and not worry about it from there.

Talk to your doctor though.

But maybe not count calories or focus on the gain but more about what nutritious foods your can eat for your baby.

ETA - congratulations

12by311

Also, as far as working out. I kept running with my first pregnancy (before I went to my first appt) because I had read over and over that whatever you were doing prior to getting pregnant, at that point was probably okay. And at my first appt my dr found two large cysts, one on each ovary…and told me no more running because of risk of torsion. I was so naive. I could walk after that though and did some arm stuff with 10 lb dumbbells. And prenatal yoga.

AllOutof_Bubblegum

They say it's usually ok to continue doing what you're already doing, but yes, double check with your Dr.

Qskim

I'd lost weight before 5th baby and felt the same as you. What to do? Definitely speak to your Doctor as they can give you better information in regards to what is the appropriate weight gain for your current BMI. They don't want you to overly gain either if already in the obese range for the sake of a healthy pregnancy/birth for mum and baby but neither do they want you to undermine nutrition.

I ate for health/energy. Pretty much stopped logging to avoid having a dieters head. I kept up training too but that was under the guidance of a PT who was experienced in training pregnant women. The first trimester I gained (ate a greater balance of carb due to nausea), the second sort of levelled out with a slower gain and I ate normally (as in nutrition being well rounded), then in the third my appetite definitely increased so I just ate more protein, veg, pulses, dairy and fruit and put on slightly more than first trimester. Obviously this may be individual. Once bub was born, I was pretty much back to where I started and baby was healthy/average size. I knew that if I let it all go, I'd be an unhappy mum and I didn't want that. I understand why you are asking.

It's really important to speak to a doctor though to give you confidence/knowledge with this. Obviously you know you will gain but it doesn't have to blow out completely. You need to have a balance in your head of acceptance, nurturing baby, your health and patience.

RaspberryKeytoneBoondoggle

Really? And this is your fourth child.??? You need to eat when you need to eat and I think you probably already know how much you can exercise safely when pregnant, and hopefully can tell when you have overdone it.

Every pregnancy is different so I hope your number one priority is taking care of what your baby needs over following some prescriptive goal for having your best body. I could hardly keep any food down with both my pregnancies and lost weight in the first trimester. Honestly, this was not a good scenerio at all and I'm just blessed to have had full-term, heathy children.

On the bright side, I think it's easier to get back into shape when you have been there already, even if you end up with extra weight in the short term.