How much weight do women REALLY gain in pregnancy? Just curious... - Page 2

[rainbow_mandala]

This post has been removed due to privacy reasons.

Edited by rainbow_mandala - 11/15/12 at 11:15pm

[Hannah32]

I gained just over 50 with my first. It was too much. It was unhealthy. I still am up about 15 pounds from my prepregnancy weight. I have food issues. After about three years of maintaining  a healthy weight for my height, I just let loose when I got pregnant and ate whatever I wanted during the entire gestation. Ugh. 

[josie423]

I gain 45-55 lbs during each pregnancy. I haven't weighed myself in a couple months, but have a feeling this pregnancy will be my highest gain. Honestly, I had the most trouble losing the weight after my third, whom I gained the least with.  I generally lose the weight in 4ish months.

[Peony]

I've gained anywhere from 19 lbs to over 50. I usually gain around 40. It doesn't really matter what I do, exercise, eat well, my body just does what it wants to. I always lose the weight, well I did the first 3 times, I'm 3 months pp from #4 and still have 20 lbs to go which is normal, it takes a lot of hard work to get the weight off. 

[tooraloora]

With my first, I gained over 60 lbs. I craved orange juice like crazy and went through a gallon a day. I was borderline diabetic. I ate considerably less than before the pregnancy (morning sickness through the whole pregnancy), but the weight just kept piling on. I went two weeks overdue, and was shocked when DD wasn't enormous. 7lbs 4oz. With my second, I struggled to put on weight, but finally gained almost 30lbs by the end. I can't count how many times I went to an appointment to hear my midwife fussing at me over ketones in my urine sample. Stress was giving me a tough time eating and keeping food down, and I didn't want anything to do with anything sweet. I pretty much lived off greens.

[DaisyO]

I started at 130 and gained between 50 and 60 lbs.  It was all normal until about 35 weeks, when I started to gain more than a pound a day for no apparent reason...no GD...but my thyroid levels were not the best, although my midwives weren't worried.  I half suspected an iodine deficiency (ate non-iodized sea salt, and was only on 1/3 of a prenatal a day), but that doesn't totally add up b/c I live near the sea and ate lots of seafood and even seaweed salad.  Still confused about that fast weight gain, it was scary since I couldn't stop it.  It stopped itself when I had my baby (induced after early rupture of membranes) at 37+1.  She was only 5.5 lbs, too.  Very strange pattern of weight gain that makes me feel nervous about any hypothetical next time (although I think I'll be happy with just one!), especially since the birth was not as expected and that in my mind was tied to the weight gain.

As far as weight loss goes, I'm now only 120, with almost no effort on my part.  The baby is 15 months old and still nursing a lot, and I've been vegetarian for about six months now also.  So, it all just kind of disappeared.  Still confused about the whole thing, as I said..not to hijack, but if anybody has insight I'd be interested.

D

[Amylcd]

65 with my first  (no diabetes or health problems causing the gain)

40 with my second

lost 15 in the first trimester with my third... gained it back plus an extra 2 pounds.

[quantumleap]

with dd - I started out a bit underweight, ate and exercised well (was handling several sled dog teams, walking/biking everywhere, yoga, etc. etc), and gained 75lbs. Lost all but 5-10 within about four months by just living my life.

with ds - was still hanging on to that extra 5lbs to start out with, gained closer to 80lbs. I still ate well and was reasonably active, but the spd the second time around was excrutiating, which limited me more than I liked. At 10 months pp, I'm still hanging on to 15lbs. I'm still a reasonable weight, but I would love to get rid of the extra, so I think I'll actually have to put in some extra effort!

I make big babies (9lbs2oz and 9lbs13oz), and big placentas. 

I would have had to severely restrict my intake to stay with the recommended guidelines.

[Just1More]

I gain a lot, too.  I don't know exactly because I don't keep super close track of it.  But, I start off somewhere in the 135-145 range (which is good for my height), and end up in the 180-220 range.  Dd3 was the most, around 80 pounds probably, now that I do the math.  Whew.  Ds was the least, probably in the 45 pound range.  My midwife with him was surprised when she saw me for the first time at 32ish weeks and I told her I'd gained 30 pounds.  She said, "You?!?!"  So, I guess I carry up to about 165-170 well.  Nearing the 200 point, I start getting uncomfortable.

This time, I am hoping to gain a fair bit less...in the 20-30 pound range.  I'm eating whenever I am hungry, but carrots and grapes instead of brownies and ice cream. ;)

I, too, make bigger babies (8.7, 8.10, 9.6, 8.14).

[coldandsleepy]

Originally Posted by semmel84130 

I only have one so far, and I gained 68 lbs. I started off at 150, and gained at almost exactly what the books say is a "good" rate... until about 32 weeks or so, when I suddenly started to gain multiple lbs per week. I didn't make any substantial changes in my diet or anything

This describes my gaining pattern with my first pregnancy and (I suspect, much as it dismays me) my pattern this time, too.  I gained 55 lbs with my older son, and almost all of that was in the third trimester.  Before the third tri hit, I was smack in the middle of normal pregnancy weight gain.  Same thing seems to be happening this time.  I'm up about 25 now with 10-12 weeks to go but my gain per week is going way up despite the fact that I'm eating the same, still biking at least an hour a day, etc.  Peculiar and frustrating, but I guess that's the way my body works.

I expected to have a lot of trouble losing it all last time (55 lbs is not an insignificant amount of weight), but in fact, I lost 24 lbs by about 5 days post delivery (first time I could face weighing myself) and the rest melted away over the course of about 9 months with no big effort on my part.

[rtjunker]

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum, I have trouble gaining weight. I started out at around 100lbs (I'm only 5'2"), dropped between 5-10lbs in the first trimester, before finally gaining, so I'm at 115lbs now. I was concerned at first that I wasn't gaining enough, but my midwives reassure me that my LO keeps measuring right on track, and that I should keep doing what I've been doing. I still can't help cringing every time I step on the scale to see no weight gain...but I'm starting to gain more steadily now.

[MelW]

With my first I gained 20 lbs, and lost 40 in the first year postpartum (so 20 lbs below pre-preg)

With my second I gained 30 lbs, and again lost 40 in the first year postpartum.

Interestingly, I didn't get my first postpartum period until I got back up into my "normal" weight range after postpartum weight loss. With #1 it was at 21 months, #2 was around 15 months.

[Just1More]

Did you loose a bunch of that weight very rapidly?  Could it have been water weight?  I gained 50+ with my first, and lost 30 pounds in a week after her birth.  All water (well, and baby :) )

Originally Posted by DaisyO 

I started at 130 and gained between 50 and 60 lbs.  It was all normal until about 35 weeks, when I started to gain more than a pound a day for no apparent reason...no GD...but my thyroid levels were not the best, although my midwives weren't worried.  I half suspected an iodine deficiency (ate non-iodized sea salt, and was only on 1/3 of a prenatal a day), but that doesn't totally add up b/c I live near the sea and ate lots of seafood and even seaweed salad.  Still confused about that fast weight gain, it was scary since I couldn't stop it.  It stopped itself when I had my baby (induced after early rupture of membranes) at 37+1.  She was only 5.5 lbs, too.  Very strange pattern of weight gain that makes me feel nervous about any hypothetical next time (although I think I'll be happy with just one!), especially since the birth was not as expected and that in my mind was tied to the weight gain.

As far as weight loss goes, I'm now only 120, with almost no effort on my part.  The baby is 15 months old and still nursing a lot, and I've been vegetarian for about six months now also.  So, it all just kind of disappeared.  Still confused about the whole thing, as I said..not to hijack, but if anybody has insight I'd be interested.

D

[2002rulz]

I gained 38 lbs during my pregnancy and it took 4 1/2 months after giving birth to lose all that. I didn't gain much if anything during first trimester; in fact I think I lost during first trimester because I was sick. I just ate whatever I could keep down and sounded good during first trimester.

[Thursday Girl]

I gained about 25 pounds with my first, but that's from start weight to end weight. I actually gained 13 more then that b/c I lost 13 pounds in the first trimester which was bad b/c I started out pretty dang skinny.  2nd I gained almost 60lbs and and 3rd, I think about 35-40. I know they mentioned it once, me maybe gaining too much weight. which I fund annoying.

[*MamaJen*]

Oh, jeez, I gained like 40 pounds during my pregnancy. And I'm 5'2" and started out at 117-ish, so that was a LOT on a petite frame. However, I do think that at least 10 or 15 pounds of that was due to quitting smoking. I was a pack a day smoker when I got pregnant and I definitely did some unhealthy snacking to deal with the quitting pangs. 

The good news is that the weight dropped off really steadily and easily without me doing much of anything. Nine months after DS was born, I was within 7 or so pounds of my pre-baby weight, and by the time he was a year and a half, I was actually at below my pre-baby weight. 

[Baby_Cakes]

#1 - 62 lbs

#2 - 49 lbs

Both healthy normal pgs.  I just gain a lot!

[olw3k]

#1 - 49 lbs

#2 - 34 lbs

#3 - 25 lbs (but started 25 lbs heavier than my previous pgs)

[Katie8681]

I gained 25lbs, I'm 5'4 and started at 115. Breastfeeding sucked all but 5lbs off in short order. Thanks for the genes, Mom! It didn't happen because I was particularly virtuous, that's for sure :)

[Fly Girl]

I gained 25 with my first and 20 with my second. I started off at 125lbs with both so I was concerned about only gaining 20 lbs with my second but she was 8lbs 3 oz; 3oz heavier than DD1. I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight with each by 6-8 weeks. I am 24 weeks pregnant with my 3rd and am up 10 lbs so far. I usually gain a lb a week from here on out so that puts me at about 25 lbs for my total. But I am so much bigger this pregnancy so I'll be surprised if I end up under 30-35 lbs.