[Quickbeam]

Oh goody. Just what we all need- more numbers instead of practical nutrition information. Oy.<br><br>
I have weighed myself exactly once during this pregnancy. My midwife has never weighed me. She measures fundal height and that's always been right on.<br><br>
It's possible to gain the "right" amount of weight eating cheeseburgers. Will that grow the healthiest baby?

 

[Talula Fairie]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>octobermoon</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13908632"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">size 6= fat?? thanks.</div>
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that's what I was thinking...<br><br>
I'm sorry but, a size 6 is not fat. Even my mother who is 5'1" was far from fat at a size 6. And don't even get me started on society's definition of fat. Most of the starlets and actresses you see are actually well into the underweight category.<br><br>
I also had a friend, who was 5'10" and anorexic, who was considered underweight by the medical definition at a size 6.

 

[sunflwrmoonbeam]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>octobermoon</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13908632"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">size 6= fat?? thanks.</div>
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I said above. So, technically, size 8=fat. I use this figure to illustrate just how ridiculous the quote unquote obesity epidemic (more like panic) is, and how insane it is to judge someone's health or make judgments on someone's life based solely on their weight.<br><br>
You've heard about how some ridiculous percentage of Americans are overweight or obese (read: fat, read: fat disgusting slobs who eat baby flavored donuts all day and never move a limb)? Well, that's true according to BMI, which defined me as overweight when I had a 28 inch waist, a 36C bra and wore a size 8. I was SO HUGE, let me tell you.<br><br>
*Disclaimer, as an adherent to the fat acceptance movement, I do not believe that "fat" in any way is a judgment on a person, but merely a descriptor. I am "fat" just as I am short just as I am curly haired just as I am hyper. The fact that we medically define pretty much everyone as "fat" and then load all these negative attributes onto that little word is extremely damaging.<br><br>
And, let me tell you, in every single way I am FAR healthier at "obese" than I ever was at "normal."

 

[Talula Fairie]

Oh! I didn't realize you were speaking sarcastically <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/redface.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Embarrassment"><br><br>
I agree, fat is a physical description.<br><br>
I'm a lot healthier as an obese person than I was at normal too. My diet is better, though my exercise is lacking becuase I blew out my knees during my excessive exercise and borderline anorexia years (that's the only way I can be a small size, with hours of exercise and serious restricting of food).

 

[pumpkin]

I was classified as obese by BMI. Two days after the baby was born I was 22 pounds lighter than the day of her birth. So baby plus placenta and fluid weighed at least 22 pounds. A week after she was born I was down 35 pounds so I'm pretty sure that was all pregnancy related and absolutely required for her proper growth. Otherwise why would it have come off so quickly.<br><br>
Now I only gained about 5 pounds while I was pregnant because I had severe morning sickness. But that is because my body was eating itself to survive the pregnancy. That wasn't healthy for me and it certainly wasn't healthy for DD. I had ketones in my urine pretty much all the time even when I managed to stay hydrated because I simply could not force myself to eat more than I was. Sometimes I was even in the hospital on an IV.

 

[jtrt]

When someone says, "The new guidelines suggest you only gain 15 pounds during pregnancy," am I the only person who mentally answers, "Or what will happen?" Who am I trying to please here? And how could "they" possibly know what arbitrary number is healthy for me and my baby. Rubbish!~<br><br>
Amy

 

[Talula Fairie]

Oddly I never lose that much right after having the baby <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/shrug.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="shrug"> It makes no sense to me either, other than the fact that my boobs torpedo? Maybe all the weight just goes into my boobs for the enormous amount of milk I make in the beginning <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/lol.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="lol"><br><br>
For example, to start off in my second pregnancy I weighed 165. I believe I was 190 when I gave birth, my net gain (after losing 10 lbs in early pregnancy, then gaining 35) was 25 lbs. I had an 8 lb, 10 ounce baby and was about 179 after giving birth. How does THAT work!?!? I was back to 165 by 5 months post partum, and even hit 147 at one point while I was still exclusively breastfeeding.

 

[Brisen]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Quickbeam</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13908827"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Oh goody. Just what we all need- more numbers instead of practical nutrition information. Oy.</div>
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<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/yeahthat.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="yeah that">:<br><br>
Reminds me of the time when doctors would advise women to smoke during pregnancy so they wouldn't gain more than the weight of the baby (or was it twice the weight of the baby?), because gaining more than that was unhealthy. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/irked.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="irked">:<br><br><div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Norasmomma</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13908144"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">The BMI is a bunch of BS, I was just talking to my younger sister who is graduating as a nutritionist right now. The whole BMI thing is a sham, it fits a very small part of the population. Currently there are changes happening in how to measure a persons true weight.</div>
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I agree about BMI, but I can't help but wonder if a new system is the answer. It seems to be systems that are the problem. Fiddling with them just seems to give us a system that is flawed in another way.

 

[tayndrewsmama]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Quickbeam</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13908827"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Oh goody. Just what we all need- more numbers instead of <b>practical nutrition information</b>. Oy.<br><br>
I have weighed myself exactly once during this pregnancy. My midwife has never weighed me. She measures fundal height and that's always been right on.<br><br>
It's possible to gain the "right" amount of weight eating cheeseburgers. Will that grow the healthiest baby?</div>
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Exactly. There seems to be very little in the way of that anywhere anymore. I read ingredients, not nutritional panels.

 

[Norasmomma]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Brisen</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13909142"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;"><br>
I agree about BMI, but I can't help but wonder if a new system is the answer. It seems to be systems that are the problem. Fiddling with them just seems to give us a system that is flawed in another way.</div>
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Well this is more about a person's muscle mass and bone mass vs. just the BMI, which just is weight vs. height. For example my sister was telling me of her friend who is a Marine and he was almost not allowed because his BMI was too high, yet his fat percentages were a mere 3%, he is healthy, fit, very muscular young man(seems like what they'd want for the Marines) but his BMI due to his weight/height ratios were totally skewed because of his extremely dense muscle and bones masses.<br><br>
My sister was saying that due to the major flaws in BMI and how it is calculated there are new guidelines being created that are based more on bone mass and muscle density-taking into consideration the differences in frame sizes. Do I agree with any of it? Not really.<br><br>
I also find this so funny, I mean 600 years ago this would all seem so stupid because you'd want a woman who had some fat masses on her body so that she could grow a healthy baby-that's what was considered healthful and beautiful. Think of all those painting from the Renaissance of very curvy(gasp fat even)women-that's what was considered healthy.<br><br>
Too many numbers and too much BS is what the whole *obesity* panic is about.

 

[texaspeach]

yeah but the difference is 600 years ago fat (and I don't consider fat a four letter word!) was considered the ideal because it was more difficult to attain. Women and men did hard work for the majority of their short lifespans and usually didn't GET fat. They were living hard lives that required them to work very hard for just a little food. That and 600 years ago there weren't really big macs and frosties - I feel that fast food and lack of movement is the biggest problem we have related to weight.<br><br>
FWIW, in my nutrition class we were taught that all methods of examining weight/body mass/body fat had their flaws. There is no best method.<br><br>
As someone said upthread, it isn't just about weight gain, it's about the kind/quality of food you gain it on.

 

[sunflwrmoonbeam]

Texaspeach, have you met many Amish people (or other cultures that live more similarly to how they did way back when)? I can tell you that the Amish are by no means smaller than the non-Amish in my area. In fact, it's rare to see a thin one.

 

[Talula Fairie]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>texaspeach</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13909808"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">yeah but the difference is 600 years ago fat (and I don't consider fat a four letter word!) was considered the ideal because it was more difficult to attain. Women and men did hard work for the majority of their short lifespans and usually didn't GET fat. They were living hard lives that required them to work very hard for just a little food. That and 600 years ago there weren't really big macs and frosties - I feel that fast food and lack of movement is the biggest problem we have related to weight.<br><br>
FWIW, in my nutrition class we were taught that all methods of examining weight/body mass/body fat had their flaws. There is no best method.<br><br>
As someone said upthread, it isn't just about weight gain, it's about the kind/quality of food you gain it on.</div>
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This is true.<br><br>
The average lifespan back then was about 35-40, too.

 

[GoldmanBaby09]

"I also find this so funny, I mean 600 years ago this would all seem so stupid because you'd want a woman who had some fat masses on her body so that she could grow a healthy baby-that's what was considered healthful and beautiful. Think of all those painting from the Renaissance of very curvy(gasp fat even)women-that's what was considered healthy."<br><br><br><br>
"Rubenesque" is the term you are describing about the Renaissance women <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile"><br><br>
I feel the same way about our societies attitude towards gestational diabetes. The research done on this was very shaky and there is a <a href="http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/gdhgoer.html" target="_blank">Henci Goer article</a> on gentlebirth.org that really breaks down why it is so ridiculous to deal with this the way we do. Put down the glucola and pick up some veggies, ladies!

 

[Turquesa]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>GoldmanBaby09</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13908005"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">I was reading another post not too long ago in another forum, and a couple of mamas from the UK were saying that they don't even really weigh you during pregnancy there! God forbid you miss a weigh in at an appt here.</div>
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My MWs don’t make me do weigh-ins. For women who want to, there’s a private bathroom scale because, they explained to me, “You’re perfectly capable of weighing yourself.” How cool is that?<br><br>
I would be interested in a comparison of maternal and neonatal outcomes in weigh-in v. non-weigh-in prenatal care.<br><br><div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Norasmomma</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13908144"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">The BMI is a bunch of BS</div>
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<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/nod.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="nod">: <a href="http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/how-accurate-body-mass-index-bmi" target="_blank">http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/h...mass-index-bmi</a><br><br><div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Quickbeam</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13908827"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Oh goody. Just what we all need- more numbers instead of practical nutrition information.</div>
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Yep. That’s my beef (forgive the pun) with the whole System. <a href="http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/83/4/941S" target="_blank">Docs no longer receive adequate formal training in nutrition.</a> What does this mean for us?<br><br>
It means that we’ll get admonished for weight gain during pregnancy without anything but an eat-right-and-exercise cliché (if any advice at all). It means that we’ll be pushed and pushed to take prenatal vitamins as if to substitute for a sensible diet. It means that people with high cholesterol will be pumped full of meds instead of prescribed a whole-foods, high-fiber diet. It means that we’ll be sold on bariatric surgery without any consideration of a formal weight loss program. It means that your doc's continuing ed units comes from pharma reps and never from qualified dietitians. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/rant.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="rant">:<br><br>
Nutrition is so integral to good health that, IMHO, doctors should receive more training in it to avoid these myopic treatment approaches.

 

[Talula Fairie]

So very well said, Turquesa. I couldn't agree with you more.

 

[Serenyd]

I usually gain about 45 lbs. I may gain a little more w/ this one b/c I've been eating like a pig, but I'm trying to slow down. Going on vacation didn't help. I started out at 128 and I'm now 153 (@ 21 weeks). I've been exercising more (swimming and walking) and eating more fruits and veg. Now if I can just stay away from the chocolate! I do retain some fluid and I feel that part of the weight gain is water weight ... I'm usually in the 140's range after the birth and then I just have to lose that 10-15 extra lbs of fat, which usually hangs around for a while but starts to come off easier after that 1st 6 months of breastfeeding. Hoping it will work the same way w/ this little one! And I don't want anymore stretch marks .. another good reason to slow down and eat healthier/exercise more.

 

[dahlialia]

Before I became pregnant with my dd, I weighed 298 pounds - i.e. I was quite obese. I don't remember how much I gained, somewhere in the range of 25 pounds. But by the time I came home from the hospital, 3 days after having her, I had lost 35 pounds!!! I gain a LOT of water weight while pg, apparently.<br><br>
This time I started out still obese, but less (198 pounds), and have gained at least 25 pounds at 32 weeks. I try to eat healthy (lots of protein, fruits, veggies), and let my body do what it needs. If my care provider insisted I limit my gain to 15 pounds, I would be livid.<br><br>
I honestly think that any focus should be on what we eat, not what we weigh.

 

[simplykate]

I'm a personal trainer so I've had lot's of opportunity to observe all this stuff and I definitely agree that the BMI is CRAP.<br>
I gained 15 lbs from power lifting in six months and that put me up into the higher end of the " healthy" BMI. All this while staying in size 3 jeans. Hmm.<br><br>
I also don't believe that thin people are healthier than "overweight" people.<br>
I've had plenty (most) of clients who take great care of themselves and are naturally heavier. Of course they could probably be thinner if they would start obsessing about their weight (which is how a lot of people stay thin, believe me) but how healthy would that be?<br><br>
Also, I've gained a whopping 55 lbs ( on a 5'3 frame) over this pregnancy eating nutrient dense foods to satisfaction, and I honestly believe I need most of this weight because of my background of anorexia, dieting and over exercising. I need the extra nutrient stores. Thank God I don't have an OB telling me to only gain a certain amount or I would probably be Pregorexic!

 

[Norasmomma]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>texaspeach</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/13909808"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">yeah but the difference is 600 years ago fat (and I don't consider fat a four letter word!) was considered the ideal because it was more difficult to attain. Women and men did hard work for the majority of their short lifespans and usually didn't GET fat. They were living hard lives that required them to work very hard for just a little food. That and 600 years ago there weren't really big macs and frosties - I feel that fast food and lack of movement is the biggest problem we have related to weight.<br><br>
FWIW, in my nutrition class we were taught that all methods of examining weight/body mass/body fat had their flaws. There is no best method.<br><br>
As someone said upthread, it isn't just about weight gain, it's about the kind/quality of food you gain it on.</div>
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I was just stating it's funny that that's what used to be considered beautiful and healthy.<br><br>
I also am on a rampage right now about BMI because I was told my DD who is almost 3 is now overweight because her weight is in the 90th percentile and her ehight is in the 75th. It is assumed that I just am some slack jawed mom who's feeding her crap, because she is one of the biggest kids I know-not just big, but tall too. I think there is so much emphasis on weight "issues" in this country that we make them become issues.<br><br>
FWIW-I rarely eat fast food, yet I am considered by BMI standards overweight. Whatever-I guess I'll stay "rubenesque".