After 30...baby

ashlee954

I know that our metabolisms slow as we get older and I have heard/read that the magic age is 30 for this horrific transition. My boyfriend and I plan to wed and conceive within the next two years (marriage THEN baby). My question is this: If I have acquired the necessary knowledge/tools for healthy weight loss will it be THAT difficult to lose the baby weight? I am 29 and have no children of my own.

hdchic78

I had the first of my 4 babies at 25, had the last one at 30....and I can say that losing the baby weight (I only gained 8-11 pounds with each and lost it right away -- thanks to breastfeeding) I am struggling with the last 7 pounds from baby #4 -- who was born 2 years ago -- AFTER i had turned 30 ;-)
In my opinion it is MUCH harder to lose the weight after 30.......I have been relatively active all my life, it just seems to take much longer to see the scale go down after I hit 30....maybe it's just me though :-)
Either way -- I wish you luck in the wedding and family-making business....it's the greatest reward ever!!!!!

Abby98

You can get pregnant and still only gain mostly baby weight as long as you eat the right foods and dont overindulge.
If you need tips on how to conceive I do have a few. If you have "do it" exactly 14 days after the first day of ur menstrual cycle it is the best day to conceive. Good Luck to you!

carolinalori

I don't think it is.... I gained entirely too much wait during pregnancy. If I were to get pregnant again, I plan on monitoring my calorie intake and continuing to safely exercise throughout pregnancy. After both children I lost the "baby weight" within several weeks (maybe 4?) It was all the extra weight that I gained that was hard to lose!

binsylad

As you should be looking at this process on here as a tool to aid lifestyle change and not just a diet, I would say that you will be fine. Get into good habits with food and exercise and you wll have no problems - And anyway, You are not exactly looking at shifting a lot of weight!

A baby in a pram is a great motivator, so that will get you out and walk it off!

You wont sleep as much so you will burn more cals!

Just make sure that you get into eating the right foods so that you dont have to change your habits later on.

Rgds.

rachel5576

for me it was harder to lose weight after 30 and after baby not because of my age but because i was tired from already having 3 other children. Once i finally committed to losing weight it came right off. Dont get me wrong it wasn't easy it was hard work but that's because we have to work hard to burn those calories at any age. This biggest difference i noticed about turning 30 is that the elasticity and texture of your skin changes almost overnight.

Kate_UK

You can get pregnant and still only gain mostly baby weight as long as you eat the right foods and dont overindulge.
If you need tips on how to conceive I do have a few. If you have "do it" exactly 14 days after the first day of ur menstrual cycle it is the best day to conceive. Good Luck to you!

It depends your your cycle then your most fertile time is, while 14 days is the average, its not true of everyone. I ovulate on day 11 or 12, if I waited for day 14 I'd never have gotten pregnant. www.fertilityfriend is a fantastic site for those ttc.

30 isnt the 'magic number' at all. As the others have said if you eat well during your pregnancy thers no readon that the weight wont come off easily afterwards. I however didn't eat well and put on 4.5stone (more than 60lbs) don't do that!

ashlee954

I however didn't eat well and put on 4.5stone (more than 60lbs) don't do that!

Lol! Ok, I will try not to. Thanks everyone for the advice! I will just make sure I don't go crazy with food when I am pregnant and use the tools I have acquired through my journey here on MFP. :happy:

up2me2lose20

For me it wasn't so much the weight as it was the way my entire body changed. My hips spread and the jeans I wore pre-baby never fit right post-baby even when I did get back to my normal weight. That was 11 years ago.

I'm 35 now and trying to lose weight to get back to that pre-baby weight AGAIN! I'm not finding it difficult...yet. 30 isn't the end of the world! In fact, I love life a lot more at 35 than I did at 25. And I can see that only getting better.

ashlee954

My hips spread and the jeans I wore pre-baby never fit right post-baby even when I did get back to my normal weight.

I think I would be ok with this. I have little hips and no butt!

Sasssy69

It is harder to lose weight after 30. I had my first child at 30 and my second at 32. In my 20s the weight just seemed to fly off whenever I tried. Now, it takes a lot longer.

However, I did indulge with my first one, but not my second. I gained 50 with my 1st, and only 25 with my second. I was back down to pre baby weight within a few weeks after #2. So if you don't over indulge and make excuses about needing "more food for the baby" (Your body only really needs 300 more calories a day when pregnant), then you'll be just fine.

Keeping active while pregnant will help with your labor as well.

Your body will change after pregnancy anyway. Things will shift. Your hips will get a little wider. You will probably get stretch marks. And let's not even talk about your boobs. These things all come with the "motherhood territory." Everyone is different.

But babies are worth it.

fuhrmeister

I'm so glad you posted this. i just turned 30 and my hubby and I have been tryign to concieve forever. I am in a huge debat with myself of wether we should got back to teh firtltily specalist in Feb or wait until I have lost more weight. I have read a ton on the subject. if you eat healthy and exercise throuhgt out your pregnancy the baby weight should come off. I intended to make a diat plan with my dr. and still record my food when i do get pregnant so I don't gain an unhealthy amount with my pregnancy.

Good luck to you.

And as for sex on day 14....it's a good way to start but i ovlulate on day 18 almost every month. Try for fun for 6 months....then try ovilation test if you don't have sucess.

HealthyHereICome

I had my first child at 31. If you watch your diet while pregnant and don't gain too much (I only gained 19 lbs my entire pregnancy), breastfeed (I lost all 19 lbs 1 WEEK after giving birth!), then do a lot of walking that baby in a stroller (I walked him to get him to sleep for his nap and then walked the entire 2 hours he was sleeping - enjoyable for him and me) you'll lose that weight in no time!

aportz

My advice to you is not to stress so much over it. I can beat you all on this board. I had my last child one month to the day before I turned 40. I gained about 35 lbs. with both my kids and it took a year with both until I was back to prepregnancy state. Eat the right things and in moderation. Exercise throughout your pregnancy. Understand that your body will get larger during pregnancy. That's what it's supposed to do. Yes, your body isn't the same after having kids. It's so worth it!!! For what it's worth, I weighed 140 before both kids. I was up 5 for a few years after my last. Now I'm back down to 138....and I wouldn't change a thing! Good luck to you. I hope you have twins:laugh:

punkrockmama

All the docs and nutritionists I've ever spoken to have told me that 30 is NOT a magic number at all.

You are fit and active and healthy, so you should have no problems, provided you keep it up!!!

I have had 2 children, including one who was conceived with fertility treatments, and have spoken to several docs/obgyns/nutritionists regarding fertility, weight loss, and hormonal imbalances including insulin resistance so I'm pretty familiar with this!

Also, there is definitely not a magic day that will conceive and it is definitely not the same day for everyone.

To the previous poster who I ttc and needs to lose 80 lbs, it has been shown that a weight loss of just 10% increases your chances.
I was not overweight with either of my children's conception or birth, but still needed fertility assistance with the first one! There's no shame in it, and most cases are solved pretty easily!!!!

Good luck!!!

AHealthierRhonda

I had my daughter at 29 & 1/2 years old, breastfed for 15 months, and was able to get back down to a decent weight fairly quickly. I am 41 now and find the 40's seems to be the really magical number for weight issues. I can't eat like I used to and not exercise. I need to exercise at least a little everyday to maintain.
As for conceiving, we had difficlties due to sporadic periods. I used Chlomid after a liottle over a year of trying. It took us 2 months of the meds to become pregnant. The best advice I got for conceiving was from a very close friend. She said, "Every other day"!! It worked !! LOL She had 3 kids that way!
Congratulations, best wishes and good luck all around!!

Paige1108

I don't know anything about the baby stuff. But I can say that your metabolism is not that ravaged by age, at least not as much as we are led to believe.

I came to MFP with a 40th birthday challenge for myself. I lost 20lbs in about 21-24ish weeks and that includes a few weeks of a plateau because I had not learned that when your working on those last 20lbs the most important thing is to eat enough calories. Once I got that through my think skull the weight just kept coming off.

I also have a friend I introduced to MFP and she's in her upper 50s early 60s. And she was shocked, that if she ate what she was told, she consistently lost weight. She really thought her metabolism was toast, but really she just needed to eat some toast. How fun and diet pun.

Good luck with all the changes headed your way, everything sounds wonderful.

heathersmilez

There is no magical cut off date. Women have feared getting older historically, its built into our society but 30 is nothing but another decade of numbers but it’s just a number. Metabolism slows as you age but 32 won’t be that much different than 29 for you. I noticed a difference between 20 to 28 but you should be fine in a smaller window.

The most important thing is to be healthy first and enjoy your body now in case you really can’t tone up your lower tummy afterwards – it is possible no matter how hard your work out.

Also it will be more beneficial for your baby that you eat healthy now. Some pregnant woman just made a post today about how much pop, sugar and fatty food she eats and how to get herself off of that junk and I’m like WHAT??? Are you insane! Destroy your own body but not the life of a newborn. And I am not pro-babies so therefore If I was disturbed I can only imagine what MFP parents were thinking. Put down the fork, ahhhh!

jbootman

go to any very upscale area and you will see almost all the new mothers, those with strollers and pregnant are older, 30-40,

it is a matter of being even more careful of what you eat and how you exercise,

I had 2 before 30 and 5 after 30, babies are wonderful,

look into something called a bellywrap,

my daughter used this last year, she is 32, her stomach has returned to concave, she is breastfeeding,

she got all the proper support underwear,

she is getting enough rest, eating very healthy,

but it does take work, so if you are going to do this, prepare, prepare, prepare,

and send us baby pictures :flowerforyou:

kchooper

I'll be 29 in March and I just had my first baby this past Nov. I started out (before becoming pregnant) being a little overweight. I gained an average of 15lbs. during my pregnancy and by the second month, after I delivered, I was 10 lbs lighter than what I was to start with. I think breastfeeding had a little to do with it. I just knew that I was going to gain alot of wieght and it was going to be hard for me to loose it. My family is heavy and hippy and I just knew because of my family genes and I was hitting that 30 year mark that I was going to be this really obese mom. Thank God this didn't come to past, but I think every woman is different and age has nothing to do with it....

blbradford87

i only gained 16 pounds with my last baby and it was easy to get off... i am only 23 though.. but 16lbs is nothing! with my first i gained 44 and it took 5 long months of busting my *kitten* to get it off.. i was 21..

jcch00

I'm 31 years old and have had 3 kids. I gained 25 lbs. w/ my first child, 50 lbs. w/ my second, and 53 lbs. w/ my third (whom I had just last May). I was able to get the baby weight off with all 3 pregnancies within the first year. It was difficult, but doable. I will say that the biggest challenge is finding the time and energy. When you're getting up all through the night and caring for a demanding newborn/infant/toddler 24/7 it is extremely difficult to find the spare time and willpower to exercise. You will have to give up workouts every now and then (especially on nights where you got very little sleep) and focus more on eating habits.