Exercise/losing weight whilst pregnant

Need some help,
Jumped on the scales recently and was shocked at what I saw, I am already a 'big' girl so to see the scales jump even higher was devastating.

Is their a safe way to still lose weight whilst pregnant (I have only just found out), and what excercises can I do. I would love to go walking but do need alternative ideas as this is often not possible. I am desperate - as mentioned I am a heavy girl so losing a little weight should be ok for bubs, and its gotta be better for me. Really cant afford to put on heaps of baby weight. I am now fearful, I will turn up to give birth and they will tell me I cant have my baby as I am too big :crying: :help:

Hi,

Unfortunately you wont find many people that tell you trying to lose weight or exercise is a good idea during pregnancy. Its sounds awful, but now is not the time to be selfish and worry about what you look like! Its all about making the healthiest little baby you can.

IN saying this, alot of people lose weight in the first trimester. Up until about 9-10w, the baby is sustaining itself regardless of what you eat by its little egg sac, so thats why when people have terrible morning sickness, babies still turn out OK.
Generally just feeling "off" will contribute to you not eating too much in the first tri.

In addition, if you are more overweight, chances are you wont put on too much babyweight anyway.

As for exercise - were you doing anything prior to falling pregnant? Not a great time to start a new exercise regime either. If you were doing something before, you can continue doing that, monitoring your heartrate, and not overdoing it, but starting anything too energetic is not great.

So my only advice is to eat small meals, try and stick to healthy snacks, and keep up walking and maybe swimming.
Its so probably not what you want to hear, but I know you realise bubs is number 1.
And think of the great diet you can go on afterwards :)

Oh Kris :hug: I am sure that they wont tell you that!

What sort of exercise are you interested in doing? How about joining a gym cause then you have everything at your finger tips and you can change what you do each day.

Maybe go for a walk or even a swim?! Swimming should be ok.

But I too would like to know how much is too much exercise... Pre-pregnancy I was going to the gym 4 times a week and I would still like to go. I am planning to go for a light walk, or ride on a bike and do some light weights - would this be ok in early pgncy?

I know how you feel, but losing weight while pregnant is not recommended for anyone, even bigger girls. But you won't necessarily put on heaps of weight either. Weight gain during pregnancy is unavoidable but you could try to minimise it by eating well and doing some light exercise. But unless you are used to doing regular exercise it is not recommended to start this while pregnant - so basically only stick to the level of exercise you were doing beforehand.

I was worried I would put on heaps of weight this time too but I have actually not put on that much. And I figure that I will have plenty of time to lose the weight after I have bub.

Thanks girls - I already use my exercise ball (can I still do situps etc - I know I've already had kids but I've forgotten), and I try to walk but it is difficult with my two kids (they are not walkers) and If I wont to walk it has to be before 5am or after 10pm at night, I dont mind that but its not the safest.
I don't care what I look like as such, more worried about the effects of being excessively over weight to bubs and me - I already have high blood pressure (not weight related but probably doesn't help) but I have never weighed this much. I am a bit of a deceiving person, I definately dont look as much as I weigh in kg's, in fact was 20kg's heavier than a friend who was 2 dress sizes bigger - but my kg's are alot, therefore my bmi is riduculous. I'm not a snacker - could cut down my meal sizes, am trying to eat healthy. I'm just a little anxious as I really want to relish in everything great this pregnancy.

I hope my question wasn't offensive and I probably should've worded it better, I don't not want to put on weight (baby weight is great) and I certainly don't want to starve myself or do my baby harm, just trying to do whats right!

I too am a bit of a bigger girl, and I had a chat to my GP about it, because I too was worried. Basically she said to me that my goal should be to not gain any weight during my pregnancy, and just to do all of the other things that the girls have suggested.

I guess I am lucky in a way, because my m/s has been really yucky and have lost weight already.

HTH!

Harjacmum - I am also a bigger girl, and have been very stressed in my previous pregnancies about putting weight on. Well I got through both pregancies without putting more than 1 kilo on either time, and all I did was make sure I ate healthy (which I actually do already) and kept active with walking etc. The bonus is pretty much as soon as you give birth you lose 10 to 15 kilos!

My Obs has always been great and never referred to my weeight, other than when I brough it up, and even then he just said that the less I gained while pregnant the better, and that bubs will always take what it needs first!

Hello Kris, It must be tough trying to get your excersise when you have the kids to look after. If it's tough to get out walking then I can imagine swimming would be tricky too. I have a 'walker' that I bought cheaply (from a friend - I don't know if they have them on eBay?) It's low impact and gentle like walking, but you swing your legs back and forth... Anyway, my suggestion would be to maybe have a look online or in the paper and see if there's one of those or a treadmil or something? That way you can be at home with the kids and still get your walking done... I'm sure you'll be fine anyway - you seem to be really conscious of trying to be healthy and that's the important thing. HTH and I really hope you enjoy your pregnancy!

Hi Kris :hello:

I've just recently started seeing a dietician for very similar reasons - I feel like I'm at the maximum weight that I can carry and still be healthy, so I just don't think my body would deal with another big pregnancy weight gain. So I'm seeing this dietician who has put me on a low-GI style diet (still fairly close to what i would normally eat, with a few small but significant differences - ie LOTS more veggies than usual). I have no idea yet whether it is working or not, but I do know I'm in a much better position to stay healthy throughout pregnancy as a result.

If I lose weight before I fall pregnant - good - if not, I'm really aiming for long term lifestyle changes that will mean I will lose it all eventually, with a big emphasis on not gaining any more than the absolute necessary while PG. So I'd suggest seeing a dietician and take it from there!

Re exercise- they say the incidental stuff adds up more than big exercise sessions, so try to build it in where you can - a short walk to the park with the kids or down to the shops on a regular basis, is more manageable in the long run than longer 'formal' exercise sessions.
:-)

Thanks again - you've cheered me up. Knowing I'm not the only one out there. I am definately looking long term, my diet isn't that bad but I can make changes. Would love to get a treadmill again, but can only use it when kids go to bed cause every time I tried when we did have one, the boys would always try and get on - lol. I'm thinking of taking up water aerobics again, really enjoyed doing that and I know its good in pregnancy.

Anyway, I really appreciate your replies and support. Thank you. :hug:

As far as excersise goes it all depends on what you were doing before. It's not the time to start up something high impact (aorobics) if you weren't previously but it is ok to continue if you were, you will have to modify things though, walk instead of running and jumping. WIth weights it's best to keep to light weight high repitition. Walking and swimming are great as are yoga, pilates or if you can find a gym that does it Body Balance is great for pregnant ladies!

You also have to remember when doing things like yoga and pilates that your ligaments are alot more stretchy during pregnancy so be careful you don't over-stretch. Also as you get bigger your centre of gravity changes so be careful when balancing, holding poses etc.

The best thing to do if you are a member of a gym is to speak to a trainer. If you're not I would suggest buying some pregnancy excersise DVDs they are great!

Have fun too - excersise should be fun!

You didn't offend anyone - its a perfectly reasonable question :D I was hoping to have dropped to my pre-preggie weight before falling pregnant again, and I didn't which was pretty disappointing. At my first check up their scales told me I was 82kg (at 167cm) which I was really disappointed wiht, and it put me in the obese BMI category. Anyone who sees me knows I may be overweight, but I'm not obese.
Besides which, I was playing netball about 2-3 times a week, plus umpiring, plus chasing after my active toddler, so there really wasn't much more I could do. Even the midwife said that the weight was ridiculous.
Thankfully I kept playing and running around til about 19w, and everyone kept telling me I looked like I was losing weight. Luckily at about 20w pregnant, I was down to about 76kg on my scales (about 2kg light) so I was stoked with that. Of course since then, with 5w to go I'm up to about 85kg and rising..... Grrrr. As long as I stay under 90kg I'm happy-ish.

So try not to worry about the weight. Really just eat as healthily as you can! And no - dont do any more situps ;)

Try not to worry about it too much.
Best thing is to Excersise lightly. Walking, swimming or what ever you were already doing before hand and EAT WELL.

Kris - I'm in the same boat, mate. I went to the gym today before I realised I was preggo and did a bit on the exercise bike, weights, situps - the works. I won't be doing that much again but I will probably keep up the exercise bike. What about aqua-aerobics? That's SO much fun. I'm going to see if they do it at the aquatic centre in Hamilton (the preggy one if possible). ETA: Doh.. just read your last post properly and you've already mentioned that!! hehehe.
Honestly... I'm a good 10kgs heavier than I was when I first fell preggo with Gab. Back then I was working full time, running around after grade 1/2's etc. Even for the first 22 weeks of pregnancy I was using up a lot of energy working. My classroom was way over the other side of the school so I was walking stacks. I figure some time on the exercise bike and some walking will probably amount to the same. I will hopefully get some emergency teaching work too so that'll help me with snacking etc. cos I am a fiend for it during the day.
Just take it easy... do what you can and try not to stress. The way I figure it is, I'll get this pregnancy out of the way then try to drop major kilos. With any luck I won't put on a stack (I only put 10kgs on with Gab... most of that was in the last 5-6 weeks).

Thanks again! I will continue to eat as healthy and as sensibly as possible, and somehow will try to get some more walking aqua aerobics in (you'd think running after a 5 & 3 yr old would be exercise enough :D).
Deb - I too dont usually put on alot of weight (already enough padding I guess ;)) with pg's so far, and have thought the same thing re losing baby weight. This is it for us so I will focus on the after and become that yummy mummy I know I can be (even as a 'bigger' girl)
Wishing those who are pg a safe and happy journy, & those ttc - lots of :bluedust: Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Good on you, Kris :)
I just know how tough it is for me to lose weight. I'm a total food addict and I loathe exercise, LOL. So to lose the 40-odd kgs I need to lose, I'd need 100% dedication and a WHOLE lot of will-power. If I'm gonna go to all that effort, I don't want it being spoiled by pregnancy, iykwim? So... my theory, get the pregnancy and BFing out of the way (we only want 2 kids) then get stuck into it!

Hi. I actually weighed 104 kilos when i got pregnant and at 40 weeks i weighed 103 kilos - i used to walk every day and went to water aerobics - not alot of people do loose weight - I thik coz i didn't drink when i was pregnant ( which i was a big social drinker before i got pregnant) it helped me loose weight too - good luck with your pregnancy. hope its healthy one - don't worry about the weight too much

Hi I can understand where you are coming from as I was trying very hard to loose weight before falling pg and I am now concentrating on staying fit and healthy with this pg. I didn't do too much exercise in the first 12wks as I felt like crap. Now I have a treadmill, pilates for pg and there are aquaaerobics and some gym programs for pg people. I have been trying really hard to eat sensibly and I have managed to only put on 4kgs so far.