Knocked Up
From the sciencey side of the world, something you may have already guessed: it’s safe for obese women to maintain their weight, or to lose weight, during pregnancy.
For this study, Dr. Artal and his colleagues examined two groups of pregnant women who were obese and had gestational diabetes, a condition common in about 7 percent of all pregnancies. Of the 96 women studied, 39 dieted and exercised to control their weight and 57 followed the diet routinely given to patients who have gestational diabetes.. Significantly more women who exercised and dieted either lost or maintained their weight than women in the group that followed the standard diabetic diet, the study found.
The rather obvious conclusion here is that women, whether obese or not, should follow good nutrition and exercise guidelines while pregnant.
Oh, and also, for the artsy types, here’s a visual essay called “Is Pregnant Fat?” It made me think about how pregnant women in movies always say “I’m so fat!” and burst into tears. It’s always seemed understandable, to me, because to a large extent you’re losing control over your body; then again, I’ve never been pregnant. What do the rest of you think?
Posted by mo pie
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My body is weird. The ONLY time I have been able to lose weight without almost killing myself is when I was pregnant. I lost 30 lbs while eating like a horse with my first and about 20 with my second. I never limited myself when pregnant. I ate nutritionally and gave into cravings figuring that if the baby wants it, the baby gets it.
Both my girls were born “undersized”, I had some health issues that were not weight related during my pregnancy, but otherwise they were happy and healthy babies.
When I was extremely sick while I was pregnant with my last (and for two months after I had her) I couldn’t keep hardly anything down. The Doctors were not concerned. My milk still flowed and they assured me that the baby (both in and out) gets nourishment first UNTIL it becomes dangerous for my health, the body takes care of itself in that way.
Regarding the first article: I don’t think the fact that “[s]ignificantly more women who exercised and dieted either lost or maintained their weight than women in the group that followed the standard diabetic diet” really answers the question that you’d hope they’d be asking. For one thing, the quoted portion does not say that any of the women were overweight, and you can have gestational diabetes without being overweight. And the fact that the mothers lost weight doesn’t say much about the health of the resulting babies — all the article says is that the women who didn’t lose or maintain their weight had bigger babies and more c-sections, but those aren’t the only (or even close to the worst) health issues that can affect mom and baby.
In regard to the second issue: I have not really felt “fat” during my pregnancy except when I have been bloated and retaining water. Which is pretty consistent with my standard body image issues — I am generally far more okay with any weight I’ve gained that is real actual fat than I am with bloat and water retention, probably because the latter comes on so quickly and makes you feel so crappy. I joke about my giant belly right now and it does get in the way, and I would say that I feel heavy — I can definitely feel that my joints and feet are bearing more weight. But I haven’t felt fat. If I were putting on a lot of weight all over I’d probably feel different, but that wouldn’t really be specific to pregnancy then, you know?
When I was pregnant the first time, eons ago, I gained more than 50 pounds. My doctor prescribed half a Tenuate daily to control my weight. Can you imagine any doctor doing that today? I joined Weight Watchers when I got pregnant the second time. Total gain for that baby was one-half of one pound. I will say delivering the second child at a nearly normal weight was much easier than delivering the first.
Pregnancy was probably the only time I didn’t “feel fat”. I felt like I was supposed to gain weight during my pregnancy and so I always just felt pregnant. The hormones are a bit overwhelming as well as some of the symptoms. It’s an emotional time for most women and so I can see where a pregnant woman would burst into tears and exclaim “I’m fat!”. Your body is not your own when you’re pregnant.
How about this topic…. weight and conception. Do skinny people have a harder time becoming pregnant?? I have always been 20 to 30 pounds overweight. Luckily I am tall and carry it well. Anyway, there was a time when I went through severe stress and lost 30 pounds in a short amount of time. Soon, the stress was gone, but I stayed thinner for around 6 months. During that six months I tried to get pregnant and couldn’t. My first child was conceived very quickly. Eventually I started gaining all the weight back and it wasn’t until I was at my usual weight (overweight) that I finally became pregnant. I never researched it, but wondered if there were any connections between weight and conception.
I had gestational diabetes in the last months of my pregnancy, but used diet and excersize throughout the pregnancy. I lost weight in the first half of my pregnacy and gained five pound in the last month (had a ‘normal’ sized baby) and proceeded to lose thirty pound in the months after labor.
Of course…I was exercisizing and eating healthier then I ever had before.
As for pregnancy?
I’ve never felt more beautiful then I did during my pregnancy. It was a wonderful experience that led to a lot of self acceptance and a more healthy outlook on my body and my appearance.
I’m loath to say that pregnancy is an emotional cure all…but in my case it was a very empowering experience
Me Again!
I was pregnant a couple years ago with my first (and only I might add lol) and from about 12 weeks I suffered badly with morning sickness, migraines and SPD(loosening on the pelvic muscles that makes moving from the tits down painful!).
I wasn’t fat to be begin with, at 11 stone, 5’7 and a size 14 I felt good about my body. At the end of my pregnancy I weight just under 10 stone and was a lovely size 12 and was amazed. I eat lik a pig despite my sickness, was addicted to strawberries and steak, not together mind you and I couldn’t do ANY exercise as by the time 5/6 months came around I was on crutches and couldn’t even get in the bath without aid :/
Lucky me – shame I have no social life now and quickly put the weight back on and more lol;)
I can answer April’s question: body weight can affect fertility, but it’s only one part of the equation. Nutritional infertility is caused by an imbalance of total calories in (including calories from burning fat) and total calories out. Until about 30 years ago, it was thought that there was a minimum BMI for maintaining fertility, but we now know that as long as you are maintaining an adequate balance of calories in and calories out, you can be fertile no matter how skinny you are. Conversely, you can develop nutritional infertility even if you are obese if you go on a crash diet or embark upon an extreme exercise regimen and are in a severe caloric deficit. Luckily, though, nutritional infertility is not permanent, and can be reversed by eating more or exercising less.
I gained lots of weight during my pregnancies. The first pregnancy was with twins (which I lost, sadly, at six months due to medical complications unrelated to weight, but they did explain a lot of the weight gain–the complications, I mean), and during that pregnancy was the first and only time I haven’t felt like I needed to apologize for the size of my body. I could just pat my belly and say, “Excuse me, the twins need some room” and everyone gave me plenty of space. It was lovely.
With my daughter (here, healthy, and awesome) I gained a reasonable amount of weight and lost it all right away. But the weight I gained from compulsive eating after I lost my boys still lingers. I don’t mind; I think that extra food kept me from killing myself during that dark time. Now, however…. sigh.
I gained 50 pounds through both my pregnancies, and pretty much lost it all. (I’m down to my pre-No2 pregnancy weight, and 5 pounds away from my pre-No1 pregnancy weight). During the pregnancies, though, it was the one time in my life where I didn’t worry about my weight. Cecily hit it on the head for me: it was the first time I didn’t feel like I had to apologize for my weight.
I had a bit of baby blues (I don’t think I had full blown post partum depression), but I sure did nurse it with food. It was the one drug I knew wouldn’t adversely affect my breastmilk!
I can’t remember how much I gained during my two pregnancies, but it was quite a lot. I make big babies. There was no mistaking that I was HUGE. But fat? Nope, never felt that way.
Now, my extra weight sits almost completely on the front of my belly. I’m about the same size as I was when 9 months pregnant, except lumpy and squishy. LOL So far, though, I’ve only had 1 person mistake me for being pregnant, and I found it quite hilarious. Never had gestational diabetes. Baby 1 was 9 lbs. Baby 2 was 9 lbs 6 oz
As for getting pregnant, while there are a lot of variables, both low and high fat percentages can effect fertility, but low percentages seem to have more of an effect than high – and it applies to both males and females. So can “healthy” diets. I first recall hearing about it in a story about a Toronto fertility clinic. When counseling people for fertility treatments, the first thing they looked as was lifestyle. For one couple, marathon runners, both the husband and wife needed to gain some body fat before they were able to get pregnant (with no fertility treatments). Another patient was so into eating healthy, the palms of her hands had taken on an orange caste from all the beta carotene rich foods she was eating. After cutting back, she was able to get pregnant without medical interventions.
I was overweight when I got pregnant with my twins, and the fertility doctor told me the same thing as La Wade noted above. Despite being on bed rest for 7 weeks and eating everything I wanted, including uncharacteristically frequent servings of red meat, I only gained 9 lbs. during my pregnancy. My twins were 6 weeks premature, but that was unrelated to any weight issues. They were/are healthy and well sized for their gestational age (4 lbs, 8 oz and 5 lbs, 6 oz.) Because I only gained 9 lbs, I weighed 25 lbs less after I delivered than I did before I got pregnant.
I lost another 15 lbs while nursing, despite eating more than I’d ever eaten in my life. (Nursing twins is supposed to burn about 1800 calories/day.)
My weight boomeranged back up when I stopped nursing. Since September, however, I have lost 56 lbs., and am currently a size 14 and hoping to get to a 10. I think having my kids is one of the things that finally gave me the motivation I personally needed to live a more healthy lifestyle.
I never felt fat when I was pregnant. I did feel “big” during the last week or two. I know that seems like a distinction without a difference, but having another human in you, moving around and whatnot, feels very different from fat.
Actually, yes. A few months ago I was briefly pregnant (lost it at seven weeks), and I have to admit, I did kind of freak out about the weight gain. I mean, I never got anywhere near the stage where one looks “fat” (if one does), where my pants wouldn’t zip, or any of that, but, maybe because I didn’t have morning sickness, I did gain about six pounds, which is more than is recommended for the first trimester. Okay, lots more.
Over the past five years, I’ve gradually (in spurts) lost about 40 pounds and kept it off; but even with healthy diet, exercise, and lots of pauses and plateaus, you don’t (or I don’t, anyway) lose 40 pounds without getting at least a little obsessive about it, focusing on food way more than you want to, and so on. So here I was, 40 pounds down, a size 10, perfectly “normal” (whatever that means), and making a conscious choice to do something that would take me back where I’d been….and it freaked me out. My mantra for so long has been, “I’m not going back,” that going back really upset me. Nor has that six pounds gone away, and that’s kind of upset me too. I feel really shallow for thinking about this at all, but I do. I feel as though one slip might determine my weight, and therefore all the associated identity issues, for ever and ever.
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