! Overweight and Pregnant

[samantha-jane]

Hey Everyone

My first pregnancy I was only 72kg and full term went up to 85kg (Im 5ft7) Was happy with that but now...........
My DS is almost 2 1/2 and I have done nothing but gain weight since I had him There is some history of health problems (long story but this limitied my physical activity) and the rest bad food choices (mostly sweets

Im 91kg and need to lose some weight ! hoping to find a weight loss buddy/ies perhaps we can help each other ?


PS
Starting healthy eating plan tomorrow Monday 16th April

[RhiChiChi]

Hi, I am happy to buddy up with you. I am overweight and have been eating alot atm. I was really hungry and struggling to work out what I wanted to eat and those habits have continued. I can't afford to put on weight since I am considered in the obese category already.

[samantha-jane]

Hi RhiChiChi

Im the same stuck in old patterns
I'm sure we can do this if we stay strong and have support, thanks for joining me on this journey Off to bed chat soon

[Catherine]

Hello.
Can I suggest a book? "the don't go hungry diet"...this book is not a diet (in that you have to follow set rules or foods), but rather a book about how bodies work, and how to best manage weight, It also so explains why some people store fat very readily (me) and others can eat and eat and never put on weight (DH). It is also safe to follow when pregnant.

I have been plus-sized for all my pregnancies (first was about 90kg, second about 96-102, this one started at 107, am down to 102). I find that when pregnant I don't tend to put on much weight, and if I am very careful I can keep it to none or even lose a little. In the third trimester In my second pregnancy I put on a few kg.

Walking, swimming, gardening, trying to be active in someway is a good idea. Walking and doing squats is particularly useful for getting ready for birth. By squats I means slowly and supported (if needed) lower yourself, hold for as long as comfortable, slowly rise). Choosing healthy foods and eating to match hunger, and drinking water to thirst is important.

Choosing iron-rich foods will help keep our energy up too.

My midwife suggested I see the dietician for support (which I am yet to do...but maybe you guys are the kick in the bum I need!).

hope this helps.

PS - I am 18 weeks pregnant. (lost 5kg in first trimester, not sure of weight now)

[samantha-jane]

Thanks for the tips Catherine


The trouble I have is I love to sit and relax for 30 minutes after a hard day and watch tv with a treat, I'm generally good during the day but really struggle after dinner with sweets

Today I've eaten well, tonight will be the tester

[~Ash~]

I have been shocking with food throughout this pregnant so far - I would love to join you all to help me get on the right track because I'm feeling really guilty about it!

I am the same as you with this pregnancy, Catherine - at my last antenatal (24/40) appt I was still 7kgs under my pre-pregnancy weight. I have no idea why because I have just been eating terribly the whole time - especially over Easter!!

So I would love to join you!!


**Sent from my phone using Tapatalk.

[Catherine]

I find BMI to be a useless measure of health. My BMI meant that my preferred hospital would not accept me, than I lost weight and became "conditionally acceptable"...and will require assesssment in third trimester. Thankfully, in the meantime, I was accepted into the birth centre program which does not discriminate by BMI.

To quote the midwife at my first assessment last week: "you are an Ox"! She was very impressed with my overall health and history. I have excellent blood pressure, do not have diabetes and did not have GD in previous pregnancies. I have birthed naturally and fairly quickly, without complecation or intervention, after having uneventful and lovely full term pregnancies.

During my second pregnancy, my bmi-healthy friend experienced morning sickness requiring hospitalisation, GD and had a fairly miserable first half of pregnancy. Another healthy-bmi friend had GD...

so BMI is not a good way of assessing health, but there are still risks associated with being overweight...all very dependant on your medical history and lifestyle.

Dieting in pregnancy is not recommended, but it is not uncommon for plus size women to lose or maintain weight during pregnancy.

I was doing really well foodwise pre-easter...we got a few 'gifts' that have been begging me to eat them...so it is time to get serious again.

here's my plan:

try to walk everyday (this means with the kids...so can easy end up being a wander)...so if we are walking slowly I can lunge or squat, do a silly walk of some sort to entertain the kids but also increase my exercise...
time in the garden is good for the soul
motivate myself to dance with the kids. or kick the soccor ball, or totem tennis...general activity.

food: eat to suit hunger, making variety key and focusing on the 2 and 5 thing. I have salmon and basic veggies for tonight (which is nearly ready and smells goooood). we have chicken and lamb and good ol' spag bol for later in the week, and I need to do the veggie shop. I find that making a casserole, bolannaise sauce or soup in bulk to freeze helps on the too tired to cook days. I also find that the weeks I am more organised and plan the meals and shop for the plan, are easier and more interesting.

All the best lovely ladies. Together we will have wonderful and healthy pregnancies and beautiful births!

xox

[samantha-jane]

Catherine you are a most helpful thankyou xx

Ash love to have you aboard ! day one down for me and only one small sweet (choc chip muffin when mum came for a cuppa, I caved other then that I feel todays effort was 8/10

[samantha-jane]

Day two very impressed I didn't pigout before bed last night, hope everyone has a lovely day

[Hahamama]

Samantha-Jane, you should stop beating yourself up so much! It is great that you want to make changes to make your lifestyle healthier, but as Catherine said, you can't diet when you're pregnant (and I know that you're not trying to) but you shouldn't be so hard on yourself every time you eat a muffin! You are pregnant, after all! Keeping treats to a minimum is good, but in my experience, trying to restrict yourself too much is a recipe for failure.

Catherine I also agree with you that BMI can be a very misleading measure of a person's health. Someone who has a "healthy" BMI can be constantly sick, I have friends like this!

My own weight hovers around 70-72kg usually, and it often makes me unhappy. When I was younger I was more around 63kg, but I think now that I'm older (and have had a baby) it's not realistic anymore. My BMI is around 24 I think, so I guess technically I'm not overweight, but I really want to eat more healthily than I do! I put on almost 25kg with my first pregnancy, I looked so awful. I want to try to keep my weight gain to a minimum this time.

The one upside to my constant nausea is that I'm totally off sweet things! Even over Easter I barely ate any chocolate, I just have no desire for it! That was part of the problem with my first pregnancy, I was a chocolate fiend! Ha ha, gotta look for the silver lining!

[samantha-jane]

Thanks for the support
Its not just about pregnancy though its about being comfy in clothes (being able to find clothes that look ok and fit well) everyday if I need to go out its a sad moment when I go through 'Cant Find Anything To Wear" and thats not being picky is simple way to much stomach fat I dont feel nice about myself, before my son I was within normal weight range or a little below so its a shock now Im the one in the fat clothes (sorry if that offends some) but I hate looking like this and its not healthy.

I wont be crazy with diet while pregnant but I have to try not to gain too much. I have been told if I get up over the 100kg mark my local hospital wont accept me I'll have to travel an extra 40 minutes to a hospital who caters to overweight pregnant women. (cant be 100% sure about this info I will confirm when I see my Doctor again)



I really appreicate the support I do worry alot about weight and I guess its the focus in my life and I WANT it to stop being the focus

Samantha-Jane, you should stop beating yourself up so much! It is great that you want to make changes to make your lifestyle healthier, but as Catherine said, you can't diet when you're pregnant (and I know that you're not trying to) but you shouldn't be so hard on yourself every time you eat a muffin! You are pregnant, after all! Keeping treats to a minimum is good, but in my experience, trying to restrict yourself too much is a recipe for failure.

Catherine I also agree with you that BMI can be a very misleading measure of a person's health. Someone who has a "healthy" BMI can be constantly sick, I have friends like this!

My own weight hovers around 70-72kg usually, and it often makes me unhappy. When I was younger I was more around 63kg, but I think now that I'm older (and have had a baby) it's not realistic anymore. My BMI is around 24 I think, so I guess technically I'm not overweight, but I really want to eat more healthily than I do! I put on almost 25kg with my first pregnancy, I looked so awful. I want to try to keep my weight gain to a minimum this time.

The one upside to my constant nausea is that I'm totally off sweet things! Even over Easter I barely ate any chocolate, I just have no desire for it! That was part of the problem with my first pregnancy, I was a chocolate fiend! Ha ha, gotta look for the silver lining!

[Hahamama]

Aww hun sorry to hear you're feeling unhappy.

It's a good idea to not put on too much while you're pregnant, that's what I'm trying to do, too. It's pretty hard though! It's a bit rough that your hospital won't accept you if you're over 100kg. I mean, you're pregnant, it seems a bit unfair!

[Catherine]

S-J, it is interesting what you say about fat clothes and offence...

My midwife chastised me when I referred to myself as Fat (I said it in an accepting, matter-of-fact tone, I wasn't down on myself), and she said "we don't use the F word here!".

So it is plus-sized, larger, curvy, volumptous...whatever...I am comfortable with fat! 'cause that is what it is, biologically!

I focus on my overall health rather than how I look. Since having kids I have found it easier to accept me as me, and not give two hoots how I might appear to others. This does lead to shock when I see me in photos...I think really? That isn't what I see in the mirror! Having kids has made me LOVE my body. I can MAKE people! I can nurture them and care for them, all with this body...I am cuddly! Nurturing, and HEALTHY!

Yes, I am 'at risk', yes I am putting stress on my bones (apparently)...but I am healthy. I choose to live in this moment. I wasted my 20s focused on 'when I lose weight', or 'when I have a baby"..now I try to live in the day.

In 2002 (pre-kids) I had alot of success with 'easyslim'. this has since be absorbed by another weightloss company (can't remember which). It involved a weekly meeting/weigh in, which talked about different foods and exersise, had success stories for inspiration. The diet part involved 'units', you had to eat a minimum of 15 units a day, divided into veg, meat/alternative, fruit, grains...and then depending on your weight, extra units. So my minimum a day when I started was 17. You could 'earn' units through exersise, so if you had an event where you knew your food would go over the units, you could cancel them out. If you did exersise but stuck to your minimum units: bigger loss! It was very much about energy in versus energy out, eating a variety of healthy (but interesting foods) that you prepared yourself (they had menu and recipe guides).

Interesting for me, though, I found my best successes were when I was away on field work (I was a marine biologist back then), and food was restricted alot more and meals were social. At home I was much less careful, often ate alone, and would eat much bigger portions than I needed.

Having kids helps with the social thing: they are watching! They are learning from me.

Eat conciously - definately, but denying the 'treats' leads into greater temptation!

Being pregnant it is very important to be active. Walking is the best, cheapest way to do it. It is great for your mental health to.

When you have kids it is often hard to find time to walk properly. I found that before my eldest was two I could march around town, her in the pram and away we go! I even had a bike with a trailer, and would ride that around even when I was pregnant with number 2. But after number 2, it got harder. My DD wanted to walk, so walking became a stop and smell the roses exploration (which was great, but didn't get my heart rate up).

I liked it when we would all walk as a family, so dad could carry DD (shoulder ride), and I had DS in the carrier.

If it works, you can walk alone (or with a friend) early in the morning or later evening?
I used a wii fit until the batteries ran out on the board...really shoudl replace them, as that or exersise videos can be a good way of getting active. We borrow binde fittness, so DD and I could move together.

Being Active is not necessarily about weightloss as the aim, but rather fittness. Stamina.

I'd be interested to hear everyone elses ideas for being active: the more ideas the better!

xoxo

[samantha-jane]

You guys are wonderful

I'll try to be a little easier on myself there are many factors to my weight gain (other health problems which I wont go into) its just hard to adjust after years of always being the skinny one .

My aim right now is to eat healthy and hopefully I wont gain too much during this pregnancy

[samantha-jane]

Little bit bummed today I had appointment with Doctor yesterday general check, blood, ultrasound referal etc and my BMI is 34, if I get to a BMI of 40 my local hospital wont accept me for delivery Im only 6 weeks so its a case of I really need to lose a little weight. He told me not to stress and Im trying hard not too but having to travel an extra 40 mintues to another hospital is depressing. I think hormones are making me a little miserable tonight, tomorrows another day


Hows everyones else doing ?

[Hahamama]

Awww hun Try to stay positive. Your weight would have to go up a lot to rise more than 6 BMI points. Anyway, I think it's wrong for them to pay so much attention to your BMI, everything I've read says that BMI when you're pregnant isn't reliable.

But if you're really worried about it, maybe talk to your doctor about getting a referral to see a nutritionist or dietician or something? You could talk to them about getting your diet on track for your pregnancy. It's not as though you're stressing for nothing, you are concerned about your health, which is good. Hope you're feeling a bit better today.

I'm doing okay, though I did have pizza for lunch. Problem is, my ms is dictating what I can eat at the moment, so I'm just going with it! Can't wait till second trimester when I'll feel better.

[samantha-jane]

Thanks for your support Hahamama

My GP was supportive and told me not to worry too much, its more me being a worry wart Morning sickness has kicked it and I'm craving more sweets wont help my case will it lol Easter is my fav time of year so now thats over I will be strong

I hope you're doing ok MS is just the pits

[samantha-jane]

I can't stop eating this morning sickness has me eating constantly, this week will have the scales go up for sure Its hard to stick to healthy food when I crave naughty biscuits..........anyone heard of those pregnant pops (I think the name is correct) ? Might help my weight and MS at the same time