female losing weight to have a baby!

Hey, just wanted to let you know I saw another thread like this within the past few weeks. I think a couple ladies commented on it. If you use the search option you can find it and chat with some of them too.

Look up pre/during pregnancy exercises, thinks like pelvic tilts and pelvic floor exercises, these won't help you lose weight but pelvic exercise can be so important when having a baby - if you get the hang of it now (it's easy, doesn't hurt, takes very little effort!) then you can continue confidently during pregnancy and post partum. PFEs (or Kegel's) help to maintain the strength of the pelvic floor which undergoes quite a bit of strain in pregnancy and in labour. They can help post partum for blood circulation and healing as well as continued strengthening.

Anyway! As for weight and getting in shape, it's the same as for anyone: eating fewer calories than you're burning, and move more. Personally I use a Fitbit to track my calorie burns as my sole form of exercise is walking. Walking is also great exercise when you're pregnant as it is very easy to maintain doing it throughout all of your pregnancy, so if you don't walk much now then see if you can start walking more, eg replacing a car or public transport journey or going for morning/evening walks, whatever fits in with your life. Keep increasing it and that alone will help you now as some muscles will get a little stronger and you will burn more calories. Keep it up as much as possible throughout pregnancy. Some people say walking a lot in pregnancy helps in preparation for labour - I have no idea if this is proven! But I walked loads in both of my pregnancies and found it helped me feel good during pregnancy, I had relatively easy labours but that might have been the case anyway It was also an easy exercise to get back into post partum and easy to do if you don't have childcare, as you can walk with the buggy or with the baby in a carrier.

There are plenty of women who do a lot of exercise pre-pregnancy and then continue with many things during, but if you don't already have a lot of higher impact stuff in your routine and you may potentially conceive soon then something easier like walking is good to have. Continuing with higher impact exercise is usually advised for those who had a well-established routine pre-pregnancy. This is according to NHS advice in the UK, everywhere is different.

Also remember that when you do get pregnant, you just continue to eat normally (ie at maintenance). Eating for two is a myth In the UK guidelines are to add 200cals/day in the third trimester, in the US I believe this is a bit different. Either way follow your doctor's advice on that, and as upthread take your vitamins - you should start as a minimum with 400mcg of folic acid daily at least 3 months prior to conception, as this helps to prevent certain birth defects related to the development of the neural tube. In the UK 10mg of D3 is also recommended as a minimum. If you decide to buy pregnancy/prenatal supplements, they usually contain these minimum amounts.

jumblejups wrote: »

Look up pre/during pregnancy exercises, thinks like pelvic tilts and pelvic floor exercises, these won't help you lose weight but pelvic exercise can be so important when having a baby - if you get the hang of it now (it's easy, doesn't hurt, takes very little effort!) then you can continue confidently during pregnancy and post partum. PFEs (or Kegel's) help to maintain the strength of the pelvic floor which undergoes quite a bit of strain in pregnancy and in labour. They can help post partum for blood circulation and healing as well as continued strengthening.

Anyway! As for weight and getting in shape, it's the same as for anyone: eating fewer calories than you're burning, and move more. Personally I use a Fitbit to track my calorie burns as my sole form of exercise is walking. Walking is also great exercise when you're pregnant as it is very easy to maintain doing it throughout all of your pregnancy, so if you don't walk much now then see if you can start walking more, eg replacing a car or public transport journey or going for morning/evening walks, whatever fits in with your life. Keep increasing it and that alone will help you now as some muscles will get a little stronger and you will burn more calories. Keep it up as much as possible throughout pregnancy. Some people say walking a lot in pregnancy helps in preparation for labour - I have no idea if this is proven! But I walked loads in both of my pregnancies and found it helped me feel good during pregnancy, I had relatively easy labours but that might have been the case anyway It was also an easy exercise to get back into post partum and easy to do if you don't have childcare, as you can walk with the buggy or with the baby in a carrier.

There are plenty of women who do a lot of exercise pre-pregnancy and then continue with many things during, but if you don't already have a lot of higher impact stuff in your routine and you may potentially conceive soon then something easier like walking is good to have. Continuing with higher impact exercise is usually advised for those who had a well-established routine pre-pregnancy. This is according to NHS advice in the UK, everywhere is different.

Also remember that when you do get pregnant, you just continue to eat normally (ie at maintenance). Eating for two is a myth In the UK guidelines are to add 200cals/day in the third trimester, in the US I believe this is a bit different. Either way follow your doctor's advice on that, and as upthread take your vitamins - you should start as a minimum with 400mcg of folic acid daily at least 3 months prior to conception, as this helps to prevent certain birth defects related to the development of the neural tube. In the UK 10mg of D3 is also recommended as a minimum. If you decide to buy pregnancy/prenatal supplements, they usually contain these minimum amounts.

Great post!!

I'm losing weight to get pregnant too, add me!

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

Eat at a deficit and you'll lose. It's that simple.

This. Calorie deficit 100%.

I lost 58 lbs in order to get pregnant (hubby set the weight goal). Had my baby in January.

Log consistently, weigh your food on a food scale if you can, and maintain your deficit.

Hey, I am losing weight to get pregnant too. I have always been a UK size 12 ( sometimes 10), then I got pregnant and the day I went in to have my baby I was 70pounds heavier.
He is 20 months old now and I still have the last 20lbs to lose. I am trying to get to a healthy weight and have another baby. My second pregnany will be very different!
We are on the same sort of journey so feel free to add me and we can support each other xxxx