Pre pregnancy body

I've just discovered this website half way through my pregnancy and what a great site, just a shame I didn't know about this earlier.
My question is that I am now pregnant, and very happy after a couple of miscarriages, but am concerned about the weight gain and loosing the weight at the end of pregnancy. Prior to pregnancy I was a slim size 8 57 kg and very very active ie running etc. However I am now 64kg and 21 weeks pregnant. I am doing a little fitness, took the first part of pregnancy slow due to previous miscarriages, but now given a clean bill of health. My big concern is post pregnancy, I know this is very vain as I want this baby, but I want to know what happens after the baby is born to your body. How soon does your tummy go down, boobs go down, hips etc I seem to have put weight on all of those places! How much weight did you put on and how long to loose it? When did you fit your prepregnancy clothes? Sorry for all the questions and yes I am greatfull to being pregnant, but lots of questions yet unanswered. Many thanks

Hi Faye

I was much like you although a little bigger, a size 10 and 64kgs. I'm almost 6ft tall too.
I had a partner who I felt put quite a bit of pressure on me to stay stunningly slim despite my growing belly.

There are pregnancy weight gain calculators that you can check out (just google them, I'm sure one will pop up) how much weight you should gain for your pregnancy. For me it was 11-16 kgs, so my goal is to stay under 80kgs.

If you are breastfeeding, this usually helps the weight melt off, so if you can breastfeed...do it!
Straight after pregnancy, for the first few weeks anyway, I would say exercise won't be top of your agenda, but eating healthily should be because again if you are breastfeeding, you need to put the right nutrients into your body so baby can get them out of your milk.

There are stories of women who have baby and walk out of the hospital in their size 8 jeans, but I think they are few and far between.

The biggest thing to remember is that the old adage of "eating for two" is incorrect. You should only eat for one and one tenth, so effectively, you don't actually change your diet at all except to avoid the foods that could make you sick.

However, everyone is different, you could eat like a saint and still gain excess weight cause your body may be inclined to do so.
I am almost 19 weeks preggy, I can still fit my size 10 jeans (although bub tends to kick at them at the moment, think they put too much pressure on my belly) and I have gained a grand total of 2.5kgs. I don't exercise, never have even pre-preggy, but my diet consists of porridge, fruit, sandwiches and...oh yeah any amount of chocolate I can get my hands on!

I know a girl who gained a bit of excess weight during her pregnancy. Baby is now 4-5 months old and she is back in her pre-preggy clothes.

So I haven't really answered your questions in relation to the time frame it takes to loose the weight, I think essentially that will differ for each individual. But perhaps you can take heart in knowing that BFing will help and not eating excessively during pregnancy goes a long way to helping as well. Don't starve yourself by the way, just eat healthy and filling foods.

I thought I'd just add something after reading amstaff's response... BF for me and for one of my friends did not help with loosing weight. Yeah it burns more calories but you also need to eat a bit more to produce the milk in the first place in many cases and sometimes exercise can affect your milk supply. I know whenever I exercised when I was BF my milk supply got all messed up so I simply couldn't do it. My weight dropped off after I gave up BF (its not the reason I gave up, we had feeding issues from the beginning)

Sorry but BFing actually kept my weight stable and extra activity made the quality of it worse for me too.

I was almost all belly for my first pregnancy until my milk came in which was when my hips started storing the reserves.

I ended up putting on 15kg first pregnancy and lost 5 before my second (but I was breast feeding even when I was pregnant with #2)

So far this pregnancy I have gained about 6kg which is better than the last one but of course I was already carrying the reserves to start with.

I never got back into the majority of my pre-pregnancy clothes - mainly because my chest went up 5 sizes and only went down 3 post pregnancy.

After BFing this one I'll probably be able to shift off the weight but I'm not expecting it to happen while BFing.

I got to 32 weeks with only putting on 6kgs. I thought I was doing GREAT! But between 32weeks and today....I have got to 15kgs!!!

Careful with the preg calculators....for me it said I should only put on 6kgs....my baby is approx 4kgs and then there is all the other stuff...so I don't see how they can always be accurate.

Good luck!

First time around I started at about 53 Kgs (I'm 5"6) and was very active. Stopped weighing myself at 10Kgs on which was around 22 weeks as my body was just doing what it needed to even though I was eating healthily.   2 weeks post birth I was back to my pre-preg weight AND shape. I did not diet or exercise during that time. I just ate like md and breaastfed. As I kept breastfeeding I dropped down even more and didn't get back up to 53Kgs until Elle was 16 months old. My shape was unchanged.

Not sure what it'll be like this time around!

I personally find my body piles on the weight in the first 16 to 24 weeks and after that it is just my bump that grows.

You lose a lot of the weight immediately in the first few weeks, because the baby, placenta, amniotic fluid etc are all gone and you've probably been holding extra fluid all over. You feel as slim as anything immediately afterwards and then you feel like all your internal organs and flopping around and that is gross. I wore belly bands and bound my tummy and i think that helped. Then what you're left with is what you have to lose.

I'm a keen runner but with bf and being tired etc i didn't really get back into it until DS was about 8 months old. Then the weight just dropped of and i got to smaller than my pre-preg weight. Your body shape will probably be different, get used to that idea now, but in saying that i've got some hardcore athlete friends (ironman distance) who are as trim as anything, it depends how much it matters to you.
I personally don't mind my little tummy as it's worth it to have my beautiful boy. If it bothered me i'd chuck an extra couple of kms onto the runs and ease back on the junkfood a bit. I love food (and wine - boohoo no more) too much so don't choose to be too restrictive.

I was totally paranoid about weight gain at the beginning, and I panicked, but the only thing that stopped me feeling sick was eating carbs. Started at 64kg and 5'8"
Put on about 8-9kg in first trimester.

Then my dad died at 16weeks, and I lost 2kg from all the stress, its gone back on again.

In total I have already put on 15kg, and I think I am heading for 20kg, even though I am now eating pretty healthily and have exercised regularly the whole way through. MW said I have alot of fluid at the moment.

I no longer care as much as I did at the beginning- I have put on more than that weight calculator said I should (just) but I think 20kg is OK- I know I can get into some sort of shape again afterwards, (with a bit of hard work) and the main thing now is having a healthy baby, and thats what the weight gain is all for after all.

Hi Faye

I put on about 10-12kgs, a lot of it in the last few weeks and a lot of it was fluid as well. I just made sure I ate healthy and tried to exercise although it was hard as bub was engaged from about 28 weeks so it made walking etc harder.

My belly went down within a few days, and I was back in my pre preggy jeans within 2 weeks. I swelled up big time after the birth, prob because of the epidural, and it took a good week for all the swelling to go down. I actually find it harder now that I am BF as the weight is most certainly not coming off, and I am hungry all the time so have to really watch what I eat while making sure I eat enough to keep up my milk supply.

with my first i was 65kgs pre pregnancy - i hadnt been able to shift that weight for years. Got to 20wks pregnant still 65kgs and then gained 10kgs in the last 20wks. I was all baby though. The day after giving birth to my son i was 65kgs again - i think my body had actually lost weight during pregnancy and i still had extra fluid a week after birth and yet was lighter than id ever been. 4months later on my wedding day i weighed 59kgs and had done nothing to lose that weight (plus there was xmas in that time too lol) I stayed hit 56kgs just before getting pregnant and am now 19wks pregnant and weigh 53kgs. I am still breastfeeding my first son and am eating every hour just to keep my calories up. The problem i have during pregnancy is gaining enough weight at the start.
You sound wayyyy more fit that i am. My only exercise is that i walk everywhere and chase after an 11month old. My advice is - dont worry about your weight gain or lack of gain - eat healthy, excersice how you feel comfortable and let your body do what it needs to. Same after baby is born too - if you are breastfeeding give your body a few months to get used to that demand before trying to lose weight.