How I Avoided Excessive Weight Gain During Pregnancy

      Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. The below content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this Beauty News site.

Although many women safely gain 25-40 pounds during pregnancy, I only gained 3 pounds. I didn’t start off trying to lose weight or maintain, but instead I thought to myself, “I’m going to be as healthy as possible for my baby. I’m going to listen to my body and stay in tune with what it needs.” I’ve been wanting to share my story of why and how I did it, but have been afraid of backlash – I can just see the upcoming comments of stuff like, “It’s harmful for your baby if you don’t gain weight,” etc.

Hear me out — please know that I had full doctor approval on not gaining. In fact, my doctor was the one who brought it up! When I was in my final checkup, she checked my weight and said, “I’m so impressed that you haven’t gained. You’re my only patient this year who took my advice!”

My starting BMI was high – in the OBESE range – so my doctor recommended not gaining because it would help prevent an overly high birth weight of my baby, and gestational diabetes. “Eating for two,” according to my doctor, was not the best strategy for me.

Not only that, but I was what the medical fields call a “geriatric mother,” meaning I became pregnant after age 35. That also made me want to be extra-careful with my health, because I had an at-risk pregnancy. Plus when you’re pregnant, your body produces HCG, which also protects your baby. YOU lose nutrients, but your baby does not.

Don’t get me wrong, I was not perfect — I did have binges where I would eat half a box of Cap’n Crunch for dinner. In fact, kids cereals were my biggest craving, although I also wanted Filipino and Chinese foods. In my first trimester, I actually had food aversion, so I lost 10 pounds. My second trimester, I gained back those 10 pounds. My third trimester, I gained the 3 pounds that put me over my starting weight, so overall my final total weight gain was just the 3 pounds.

Since my doctor was concerned about weight gain, here are several things I did to maintain my weight:

1. The biggest thing that I think helped me maintain was that I went to spin classes 3X a week, and did strength training 1-2X a week. The advice for exercise is that you can do what you have already been doing before you got pregnant. I had been spinning and strength training for several months before my pregnancy, so this was just maintenance. I did add in a bit of gentle lap swimming my first trimester, for variety.
2. I drank a green smoothie every day. Click here to watch my YouTube video of how I make my green smoothies. I also drank Jamba Juice on a regular basis, especially when I was out and about and needed some quick nutrition. I made sure to get the green smoothies at Jamba Juice, and add in some form of protein like whey protein powder or Greek yogurt.
3. In my first trimester, when I had the food aversion, I would start my day with approximately 12 ounces of fresh-squeezed fruit and veggie juice. I busted out my ancient juicer, which still got the job done.
4. I supplemented religiously with prenatal vitamins, liquid iron and more. My supplement list was robust, I tell you! I had to add magnesium and potassium towards the end of my pregnancy, because I started getting leg cramps.
5. I don’t think this helped with weight maintenance, but I do want to add in that for my overall health, I got regular prenatal massages. In my final trimester, I also started seeing a chiropractor 1-2X a week.

Now that I’ve had my baby – who is perfectly healthy, and is gaining weight rapidly himself, which is a wonderful thing – I can look back and be glad that I was extra-motivated to stay healthy during my pregnancy. I think it’s helped me bounce back more quickly! Although I’m taking a break from exercise since I had a C-section delivery, I look forward to getting back in the swing of things after a few more weeks.

Thanks for reading!

XO,

~Angela~