Before or After Baby

Losing2Live1989

I was wanting to know if it is easier to lose your weight before or after a baby...I think after..I wanna lose 80 lbs and I want to lose it first before I have a baby! What do yall think...anyone that has a story or input would be great to hear from yall!

Uptopargolf

I was wanting to know if it is easier to lose your weight before or after a baby...I think after..I wanna lose 80 lbs and I want to lose it first before I have a baby! What do yall think...anyone that has a story or input would be great to hear from yall!

I would assume either way will be difficult. But probably a bit easier after.


I would assume you want to lose it before so you are in good health to have a baby. That would be the best. IMO.

abyt42

I had an easier time losing weight after....but LONG after. If I had the opportunity to do this over again, however, I would have tried losing weight before I got pregnant to attempt to avoid gestational diabetes.

catcrazy

I'd go for it before trying to conceive, pregnancy can take a lot out of you, especially lung space towards the end. Also at the moment you are free to exercise at will, that won't be the case once you have a young baby, tiredness due to sleepless nights, baby demanding attention etc means exercise can be nigh on impossible at times.

silveryflutterby

It would be healthier to try to lose as much as you can before getting pregnant, but it can be easy to lose after, especially if you breastfeed. After my first child, I got to my prepregnancy weight within a few weeks. It was unreal. I gained some back though, because breastfeeding makes you hungry! If you keep to a good diet, you would probably lose very fast.

BeautifulScarsWECHANGED

BEFORE!! Trust me on this!! Lose it before so you have a healthy pregnancy, keep an eye on calories while pregnant (talk to your dr about what your caloric intake should be while preggo) so that you don't have much to lose after.

LanakilaGirl

The healthier you are the healthier your baby will be. . .

brooke0206

I say before! I wish I would have lost before but my pregnancy was a suprise ( I was on birth control when I got pregnant....) I have struggled to lose now. My son is almost 16 months old and I still have 11 lbs to lose just to be pre baby weight... I want to lose a total of 55 more tho. And like everyone else is saying you want to be healthy before pregnancy and thru so that you know your baby is healthy! I think that if you get into the habit of eating healthier and exercising now, lose some and then get pregnant it will be easier for you to watch your weight while pregnant. I plan on having more children in the future but I want to be 100% happy with my health and weight before I even consider it! Also just remember when you are pregnant you really only need 300 extra calories a day (from what I have been told) so dont go crazy (which is what I did and thats why I have struggled to lose...) because then you will put on way more weight than you need to and that will be more for you to lose after. Good luck and let us know whatever you choose to do!

Brooke

Losing2Live1989

Thanks yall for answering.....I was thinking like a lot of you...I really wanna be healthy for my baby....it will be a better pregnancy....plus after the baby comes I will only have the weight I gain with the baby to lose which hopefully wont be much. I also thought if I took the time to get healthy before the baby then I will be able to raise my baby with healthy habits instead of trying to teach the both of us!!!!

melodyg

I don't know that it is easier either way. My experience with weight loss AFTER baby is that I lost the pregnancy weight pretty quickly but anything besides that wouldn't budge. I was also breast-feeding and found that after I stopped that I gained the weight all back plus some because I was used to the increased calories from breast-feeding.

If you are not looking to get pregnant immediately, I'd work on losing the weight. Being healthier will only make pregnancy, childbirth and new motherhood easier on you. However... others may disagree... but I wouldn't put off getting pregnant just to lose weight either. I'm trying to get pregnant while losing weight right now. I figure anything I lose is good... but if I wait until I lose the weight I highly doubt I'll be able to GET pregnant. I'd rather keep a few pounds around for a few months.

Also... being overweight does not mean you will automatically get gestational diabetes. Yes, you have an increased risk... but it isn't a 100% sentence. (Yes, I am fed up with people acting like if you are overweight you shouldn't have children and you are dooming them to a life of poor health and obesity and shame).

Also, one more bonus to losing weight now, regardless of when you get pregnant... better choices in maternity clothes. Trust me, clothing manufacturers don't think fat people should get pregnant either.

CreativeRedhead

Well having 4 children and 5 pregnancies in 8 years qualifies me on the subject. I would say it would be much better for you, your body, and the baby if you lost most of your weight before getting pregnant. I was never super active before my kids came but having one after the other and then a few more after that have essentially left me still carrying alot of that weight even now. I won't say that it's all from having babies, I never ate as healthy as I could have and didn't exercise. I agree with most of the others, it's not super easy before or after but it would serve you well to be healthy before you get pregnant.

clairebeej

It's really important to be healthy while you're pregnant and it will make it easier to want to get BACK there afterwards.

I was losing weight when I got pregnant with my son (now 2.5yrs), so then stopped dieting. I gained 28lbs while I was pregnant and I have now lost 38lbs since I had him - it's been slow and hard to drop it. Life changes a lot once you've had a baby and you can hope that you'll be motivated to walk constantly when the baby is born but lack of sleep and constant daily demands on your time can play havoc with your diet and exercise habits.

I'm trying to lose more so that pregnancy # 2 (if/when it happens) will be a healthy one and I will still be able to keep up with my BUSY toddler! But I will stop dieting as soon as I do get pregnant and then hope I can drop the weight as soon as possible after a new baby comes along.

Just remember that you WILL gain weight when you're pregnant and if you're already overweight, your just moving the goal post even further if you don't lose before you get pregnant.

But things don't always go to plan and if you don't lose the weight before a family comes along, just be as good to your body as possible while it is doing that important job of growing a baby and it will be easier to maintain good eating habits afterwards :happy: Good luck!

tamaramtz

Before!!! At least, it was for me. I am one of those people who can't lose a darn thing while breastfeeding, and you never know if you are going to be *that* person until you get there. Don't count on the baby sucking those lbs. off; it doesn't always work that way. I know a lot of women who have had babies and only a few of them actually managed to lose weight while breastfeeding without putting a lot of effort into it. Furthermore, it is common for women to develop low thyroid function and adrenal fatigue during preg. and postpartum, which makes it incredibly difficult to lose weight. In my experience (I've had 6 kids and am newly preg. with my 7th), if you lose as much as you can before getting preg. and then do your best to stay fit and healthy while you are pregnant, not only will it take less work to shed the baby fat later, you will also be less likely to develop other health problems that make it harder to lose weight.

misslizz6958

Its just as easy before and after. With that beingsaid I was way hotter at 140 before baby then I was at 130 after. Not till I got a tummy tuck did I have a flat tummy. No amount of dieting and exersize will give you rock hard perfect tummy after a kid only surgery. Anyone that says diff is either lieing or super human