anxiety over weight gain
dydn11402
Posts: 103 Member
i feel pathetic about the anxiety i have over gaining weight. prior to getting pregnant, i lost around 30 lbs and was feeling pretty great even though i had wanted to lose about 15 more. now im just about 15 weeks pregnant and have gained about 5 lbs which really put me over the edge to make me look really fat (i didnt have much leeway). in previous pregnancies i didnt gain too much (18 was the most) but i cant help but feel panic when i see the number on the scale go up. i hate that i feel this way because i know that it is a good thing! i am growing a baby and want to be healthy and i know that weight gain is unavoidable but that number is freaking me out! staying off the scale is not an option because i really need it to stay accountable with my eating and exercise.
anyone out there relate to this feeling? how do you deal with it? i can use some perspective... TIA
anyone out there relate to this feeling? how do you deal with it? i can use some perspective... TIA
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I'm feeling a little fat at this point in my pregnancy. I'm only 10 weeks, but I feel so friggen bloated and I'm not showing. My gut just looks bigger as in I had a few too many Big Macs. LOL. However, I'm concentrating on eating healthy and keeping up with moderate exercise. Also, I'm telling myself that this isn't a permanent state and I can diet all I want after I have the baby.
Just keep eating healthy and stay active. That should make things easier for you.0 -
Yep. 100% the same here. This is pregnancy #2 for me. I gained about 55lbs with the first and it took me 2 years before I even started working on losing the 30lbs that was left from that. Now that I've lost it all and was feeling great about me we started on baby #2 and ended up pregnant within the first month. I didn't think it would happen that fast so I thought I had more time to lose a few more pounds. I was 150lbs when I got pregnant and now I'm 155 at 19 weeks. I'm freaking out and trying to slow it down because it seems every day the scale adds another .2 to my weight. I'm 5'6 so 150 is my max weight for the healthy range and any more than that I start looking fat. I know I need to gain for a healthy baby but I only need to gain so much.
Ok now that I got all that out my trick to trying to stay positive and on track...yoga and walking. I only started yoga when I was 12 weeks pregnant and I fell in love. For the hour I'm in there my mind is free. It doesn't have time to think about life because I'm thinking about the next move and I love the flow. Walking gives me time to think but I also like to listen to nature which helps clear my head. I also log 99-100% of what I eat every day. I have to or I might lose control.
For foods I try to eat a lot of simple foods. I try to stay away from the processed foods and junk. I usually fail once or twice a week. For some reason nacho cheese Doritos taste like they were made by heaven and I didn't eat them before I got pregnant. I also have a terrible sweet tooth which I had gotten under control when I got my butt in gear to lose the 30lbs. I find it harder to fight now that I'm pregnant. The key is not to deprive your cravings but to only give in a little. The more I deprive the craving the more I fail so instead of a bag of skittles I eat a fun size bag.
It's even harder when some of my mom friends are all about giving in and letting yourself go during pregnancy blah blah blah. Nope. I disagree 100%. I felt so terrible when I gained all that weight with my first that no way am I doing that again. Keep your body fit and stay with the guidelines for weight gain. I'm shooting for 25lbs this time.
You are doing great with your weight gain. Keep it up and don't worry if you go over the 18lbs. They say 25-35 is what heathly weight people should gain. Keep in mind every pregnancy is different too. Good luck to you and your lo!0 -
I hear where you are coming from. This is my first pregnancy so I had no idea what to expect. I'm 15 weeks pregnant and have increased 5lbs which people tell me is fine. For me, weirdly it's not seeing the number on the scale go up that freaks me out but seeing the higher number of calories eaten - and not getting too paranoid if I go over for the day. I know that I need to be eating more but I'm conditioned to eating within my limits and i'm finding the transition quite hard.
As others have said, keep eating healthy and exercise as much as you can. I was so tired in the first three months (and worried about what damage I might do) that I barely did any exercise. Since I've moved into the second trimester I'm trying to kick myself back into exercise - and with the healthy eating, I feel better in myself. And of course, the exercise is giving me more scope on the calories and weight gain
Stick with it, try and keep active and don't worry about it - we've got plenty of time afterwards to get rid of it all again!0 -
thanks everyone for the support!
im doing my best with eating healthy and exercising and to be honest, i have no idea where the 5 lbs i gained even came from because until about 13 weeks, the nausea made me eat so little (definitely less than i was eating before which was about 1500 calories). i stopped logging when i got pregnant because i didnt want to be too obsessed with it and usually have a suppressed appetite during pregnancy anyway. plus i really needed a logging break after logging for so long! i work out 5 days a week and barely eat any junk at all. i just keep telling myself it will be ok... and big deal so ill be fat. is it really so bad to be fat? lol.
i gained 2 of those lbs in the last few days and im convinced its water retention from the sudden heat. im starting to see it in my face a bit and my rings are tight. trying to drink extra water to get rid of it. if anyone knows of any magic solution to water retention, feel free to post!0 -
Just to put things in perspective not all of the weight you gain during pregnancy is fat here is a breakdown from WebMD of where exactly all that weight goes. I know its so hard to not let the number on the scale get to you but trust me only 5 lbs gained in 15 weeks you are doing awesome and right on track!
" Where Does the Extra Weight Go During Pregnancy?
Baby: 8 pounds
Placenta: 2-3 pounds
Amniotic fluid: 2-3 pounds
Breast tissue: 2-3 pounds
Blood supply: 4 pounds
Stored fat for delivery and breastfeeding: 5-9 pounds
Larger uterus: 2-5 pounds
Total: 25-35 pounds NOTE: This is for a "normal pre-pregnancy" BMI
If overweight before pregnancy the numbers should be more around 15lbs- 25 pounds gained.
"Subtracting one 7- to 8-pound baby, about a pound or so of placenta, and another few pounds of blood and amniotic fluid leaves most new moms about 12 pounds lighter."The weight keeps coming off, too. All the extra water your cells retained during pregnancy, along with fluid from the extra blood you had in your pregnant body, will be looking for a way out.
So you'll produce more urine than usual in the days after birth – an astounding 3 quarts a day. You may perspire a lot, too. By the end of the first week, you'll likely lose about 4 to 6 pounds of water weight. (The amount varies depending on how much water you retained during pregnancy
_ www.babycenter.com
Just keep eating healthy and exercising doing the things you have control over and it will get easier as you get used to idea of theresa person growing in there. So hard to do cause I know personal experience this is my first and I really had hard time first trimester accepting that I would gain weight but now that Ive accepted I am pregnant I try to think about what I can control. what I put in my mouth and how much I move around!
Good luck and and congrats on the baby!0 -
(1) If you've had "food issues" in the past putting on weight is scary. I put on rapid weight during the first trimester when I had ravenous carb cravings for some reason, but then things tapered off. One thing I found really helpful was printing out the the recommended weight gain chart associated with my pre-pregnancy BMI (found at nal.usda.gov/wicworks/Sharing_Center/NY/prenatalwt_charts.pdf). I log my weight on the chart every couple of weeks to make sure I'm on glide path or adjusting to get to glide path for a 35 pound weight gain. Printing off that chart and staying within my range is a reminder I am putting on a reasonable amount of weight for me without putting my baby at risk.
(2) I read this article about a woman who restricted too much. She ended up with IUGR and her baby was born with some issues. I decided right then and there if I was going to err (i.e., gain too much or gain too little) during my pregnancy, it was going to be to my detriment and NOT my baby's. The link is here www.cnn.com/2013/11/20/living/pregnant-dieting-pregorexia-moms/ and it's eye-opening. BTW, I've observed other people's weight gains on this site and wondered how they are gaining so little. As their pregnancies progress, they are now posting about IUGR and their babies measuring behind/too small. I don't say that to be judgmental, but to opine that gaining too much is the lesser of the two evils.
(3) Keep in mind the first 20 pounds will come off pretty much on their own the first month after delivery - everything above that will generally require a little work, but it's well worth it.
(4) FInd your inspiration. I love being fit and was terrified of the perspective weight gain. Then I read that a famous marathoner (Kara Goucher) put on 35 pounds during pregnancy and bounced right back. She undoubtedly had a team of folks looking out for her best interest throughout her pregnancy and monitoring her gains. Her advice about pregnancy weight gain is poignant - she says "get over yourself." You're gonna gain weight/you're gonna get slow.
Hope that helps. Good luck!0 -
I've just had my third baby, and with each pregnancy I've had the same anxiety about weight gain. I got pregnant with my first just after our wedding, and I'd lost weight for that, so was upset to gain again. But I lost it all...only to get pregnant when my first was 13 months. I put on loads in my second pregnancy as I wasn't as careful and didn't exercise. Then I lost it all and more, to end up thinner than when I got married. Then when my 2nd was just 2 I got pregnant again. I exercised until 38 weeks and watched what I ate and I still gained weight. I'm still thinner than I was after my first pregnancy though, and I know I can lose it.
I'm 7 weeks post partum and I started logging properly at 3.5 weeks pp and I've gone back to proper exercise this week, and been walking pretty much every day for weeks now. I haven't actually weighed myself though, I'm a bit scared!
It's hard, and I do get depressed about it, but I know that this time next year I'll be wearing my sundresses again, and I'll have my 3 beautiful children.0 -
I was the same way. When I got pregnant, I had just got into amazing shape and I too lost close to 30 pounds, puting me into the underweight category, but I felt awesome. So when I got pregnant and ate a little more, and couldnt work out as much, I gained a lot. 60 pounds by the end of my pregnancy! I went from 128 to 180 something. I was so depressed! I cried at almost every doctors appointment when they weighed me because I was watching all that hard work go down the drain. 2 weeks postpartum I was back down to 159 pounds. I did it by staying active during my pregnancy. Lots of yoga, walking on my treadmill and doing the Leslie Sansone walking workouts. YOU CAN DO IT TOO!
Doing small workouts and eating right during your pregnancy will help you bounce back SO much faster!! Add me if you need some extra motivation! Oh & dont be afraid to FEED THAT BABY lol I ate about 2500 calories my whole pregnancy! 0 -
I understand how you are feeling girl. I was super anxious about gaining too much too fast. Well, I am 34 weeks pregnant and at my weekly appointment yesterday, she classified me as IUGR! I cannot workout and now am worried about my boy. With that said, IUGR can be caused my a lot of different things BUT I cannot help but wonder if my "diet" and obsession this pregnancy, with measuring and calorie counting has affected growth. So my advice is too eat healthy but eat enough calories (though hard) and don't weigh yourself outside of the your appointments! As long as your eating healthy, the weight will surely come off after birth. I know it's easy for me to say now but I have "only" gained 8 LBS this pregnancy, which is OK for some women and they have perfectly healthy babies, and cannot help but wonder if that's the reason behind this.0
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i feel pathetic about the anxiety i have over gaining weight. prior to getting pregnant, i lost around 30 lbs and was feeling pretty great even though i had wanted to lose about 15 more. now im just about 15 weeks pregnant and have gained about 5 lbs which really put me over the edge to make me look really fat (i didnt have much leeway). in previous pregnancies i didnt gain too much (18 was the most) but i cant help but feel panic when i see the number on the scale go up. i hate that i feel this way because i know that it is a good thing! i am growing a baby and want to be healthy and i know that weight gain is unavoidable but that number is freaking me out! staying off the scale is not an option because i really need it to stay accountable with my eating and exercise.
anyone out there relate to this feeling? how do you deal with it? i can use some perspective... TIA
You're in that phase where you don't look pregnant, but you're growing... so you just feel fat. We all hit that point! Give it a few weeks, when you finally pop it won't feel as bad.
As far as gaining weight, I feel the same as you. I've always been overweight, and I was losing weight when I got pregnant. I gained too much with my son, and now I'm paranoid about gaining too much this time around. I've been told to only gain around 15 lbs by my OB, so it's making me a little anxious.
I HAVE to weigh myself every day, or I'll get out of control. But, as the other posters have said... it's much better to make sure your gain is in a healthy range. It WILL come off again! Obviously we don't need to binge or use it as an excuse to eat whatever we want all the time... but as long as we eat healthy and exercise, the numbers don't matter as much. Your doctor will be able to help guide you if you discuss it with them.0 -
My first pregnancy I gained 44 pounds I exercised and ate moderately till 38 wks. I lost the first 20 pounds in amonth by doing nothing, 15 pounds I had to work hard on took me 3 months and the remaining nearly 10 pounds stayed at that time I didn't care I was thin to start of with so the extra weight didn't bother me.
I then got pregnant again now at 37 wks pregnant I have gained the same 44 pounds ( I may put on a little more in the last 3 wks who knows ) my body just knew how much put on.. Yes I am slightly bigger and heavier this time being 10 pounds heavier, I have also exercised and ate moderately ( under 2500 cal a day 3x a wk walking or T25 no longer than 30 min each day . I am also upset about the weight agin but there was nothing I could do.. I was in No way limiting my calories or increasing my exercise. I had also a Fitbit zip I wore daily to track my steps too to motivate me a little.
I'm hoping I can lose all the 44 maybe a few more pounds in 6 monthspp ... Or maybe 12 months sounds better lol
Oh and I got myself a jogger pram I walked a heap while pregnant and after and planning on doing this again to lose weight0
