weight loss/gain - post baby?

Parentberries
1

So I’m kinda curious of the struggles or ease of trying to get your bodies back post baby?

What is your lifestyle (exercise/couch potatoe, healthy/sweets indulger ect), did you try to work it off to no result or sit & watch it magically melt away? [name_m]How[/name_m] long did it take? [name_m]How[/name_m] did it make you feel (regardless of the fact your still beautiful & you were able to make something so beautiful innocent & pure :slight_smile: )

I mean this all in the most friendly way possible.

For me, I gained 45lbs with baby (kinda chubby prior, gaing my stripes in the last 2 weeks as my surprise I gift), immediately lost about 25 within the first month (then a complete hault) leaving me with 20lbs to go now at 8 months postbaby & feeling frumpy. Now I’m excepting it, I tried the exercise, I tried better foods & staying active, hoping breastfeeding would help but now instead I indulge & just enjoy time around the house with my little mobile energizer bunny.

2

I am pretty short (around 5 ft). When I got pregnant with Azula I started off around 125 lbs, I think I was around 155 lbs by the time she was born. I didn’t make an effort to exercise (though I took her out for lots of walks) and my diet was a mixed bag - some days total health nut & other days total junk. I used a calorie tracker online sometimes to make sure I was eating enough because I was breastfeeding & wanted to keep my milk supply going. The weight just melted away. 8 months later, I was down to 112 lbs & that’s when I got pregnant with [name_f]Indira[/name_f]. I just had her a week ago & haven’t weighed myself yet, but my last weigh-in before she was born I was around 144 lbs.

Pretty sure my weight loss after my first pregnancy was basically just due to breastfeeding.

3

I’m not great with pounds, so please excuse my kilos. I’m 5ft nothing, and at the start of my first pregnancy I was 47kg. At the end I was 63kgs, and I didn’t weigh myself at all for about two months after the birth.
We’d always planned to have three children in quick succession so I was conscious from the start to try and maintain my level of fitness. I joined a gym about two weeks before we found out I was pregnant. And if I want to eat that cake or a kilo of chocolate or whatever, I do - but I don’t do it every day. I don’t count calories or any of that, I just stop eating when I’m full/don’t eat if I’m not hungry.

I found the breastfeeding did really help with dropping the weight. I do struggle to lose weight on the occasions that I care enough to try, and I didn’t get anywhere near my starting weight before I fell pregnant again - But I felt like I did decently for the effort I made. I think I was 53kg at the beginning of pregnancy this time, but I wasn’t looking too closely! At the end of this pregnancy I want to try “healthy mummy” smoothies. They are compatible with breastfeeding and I have a wedding to attend less than two months after the next birth so I want to feel healthy and not… stodgy.

Though I do go to the gym, I never really push myself, I guess because I’m lazy and don’t like feeling uncomfortable? :stuck_out_tongue: I find that having a baby means I get a lot of incidental exercise. Lifting, carrying, baby wearing, endless walking around the neighborhood… :rolleyes:

Over all I’m pretty happy with how my body bounced back. But I’d like to do better next time, especially in the abs department. I’d like to get more than half way through pregnancy before I can’t sit straight up unaided!

4

Well, I was fairly thin/average pre pregnancy, luckily didn’t gain too too much, about 40lbs so it wasn’t nothing. After baby I lost about 10 lbs and after that…nothing. As in, not a single pound. First I didn’t really try, next I start working out every day, next I started cutting calories. NOT ONE LB! I was very frustrated as I have been neurotic about weight my whole life. I’ve only been outside of my weight comfort zone (though not technically overweight) once before due to a medication & it really really bothered me. I started to embrace a clean eating lifestyle and at one point even tried straight up starving myself. Not 1 pound and I finally gave up & just started living healthfully but ignoring my weight. I figured, I felt healthy, energetic & fine. I was technically 10 lbs overweight, but really it was just something that bothered me esthetically so I decided I had to make peace with it.

I didn’t lose a single lb until I weaned my daughter down to only nursing at night. I lost 10 lbs with no other changes in record time! When I weaned entirely I quickly dropped 5 or so more. That was about 5 months ago and now I am amping up my efforts cause I think I’ve dropped all that I am going to drop naturally. I’m finally fitting into clothes I almost donated! I am 5 lbs away from my goal & just under 10 short of my pre baby weight.

I guess my body wanted to hold on to some fat stores while I nursed? I def was into the whole “the weight will fall off” thing when I started nursing, but not for everyone I guess!

5

I gained about 20 lbs with each and lost it all and sometimes more with BF. As soon as I stop BF it starts to creep back so I try to get eating healthily before I finish so I have it in control.

6

I’ve had four kids and it was fairly similar for each. My starting point was the same for each pregnancy but I gained different amounts with each. (45, 25, 35, 30 lbs.) I usually lost the most weight in the first two months but then hung onto the last 10-15 lbs until 6-9 months. It was harder to lose the last of the weight. Usually I had gotten back to it (within a pound or two) by the end of the year. This last pregnancy was harder. I finally reached my pre-pregnancy weight when my daughter turned 21 months. It was only the last 10-5 lbs that I was holding onto for these last several months, but I really had to work to lose the last of it. I was exercising, counting calories, etc. It wasn’t bothering me too much but I wasn’t sure I was ever going to lose it. I figured my age might have had something to do with it. I was 28 when I had my first daughter. I’m 35 now.

I’m breastfeeding (still) and very active. I run long distances (8-12 miles) on the weekends and do a few shorter runs during the week. I was active after my other pregnancies too but not as much as I am now. The exercise never seems to make a difference for my weight. I do like how it makes me feel though so that’s why I do it.

7

I got lucky with my son. I weight 130 lbs when I got pregnant with him but extreme morning sickness took me down to around 115 (not the lucky part but I’m sure it helped) however by the end of the pregnancy I weight around 155. However I was 135 just days after giving birth to him. And quickly lost even more weight getting down to 104 lbs. However when he started eating more solid food and breastfeeding less I went back up to 115 lbs. I did some simple exercises but didn’t really watch what I ate that much (I tried to be healthy but not super obsessive) and I ate a ton of food. I was constantly hungry and eating.
I was 115 lbs when I got pregnant with [name_f]Mary[/name_f]. I started medicine for the morning sickness right away with her so I didn’t really loose much weight. I was around 140 lbs when she was born. And I came home from the hospital at 135 lbs despite have an 8 lb baby (I seriously only lost 5 lbs despite her weighing more then that but I ate like crazy in the hospital). She’s now 18 months and I’m 120 lbs. I was down to 115 lbs at one point with her but started gaining weight now that she is only occasionally nursing. I haven’t been to great about exercise but I’m trying to do better. I try to eat healthy but it depends on the day. I eat a whole lot less then I did while breastfeeding my son.

8

Tarayaz I’m hoping my situation is like yours because my weight doesn’t move (which is better than gaining, so that’s fine).

But the rest of you ladies sound like yas didn’t have to hard of a time, & bf-Ing helped. I’m glad & thankful yas were willing to share. It’s nice to hear others experiences.

& [name_u]Tristan[/name_u] that’s great you still run like that. I’m almost 23 now & i wish i could start running without feeling like I’m coughing up a lung in five mins. :slight_smile:

9

I am glad someone posted this thread because I have been struggling with this since the day [name_u]Desi[/name_u] was born.

I really identify with tararyaz here. I was always fit, and I worked hard to keep my weight steady. I am 5’2", and I had never really been over 118lbs. [name_m]Prior[/name_m] to pregnancy, I ran, surfed, did yoga, swam, did boot camps, etc. Not only did I work out regularly, but I was very, very conscious of everything I put into my mouth. When I got pregnant, I tried to stay fit by walking 45-60 mins everyday and doing yoga regularly. The rest of my activities stopped. The biggest change, though, was diet. For the first time in my life, I didn’t punish myself for what I ate. I just let myself eat what I wanted. I don’t think I over ate, I just ate what my body asked for. By the end of my pregnancy, I gained between 40-45 lbs. I gave birth to a healthy 8 lb, 11 oz baby, and my doula told me that I had one of the biggest, healthiest placentas she had ever encapsulated (a HUGE source of pride for me!).

However, I really only lost about 10-11 lbs following [name_u]Desi[/name_u]'s birth. I was shocked! And, I didn’t lose anything else those first 8-10 weeks post partum when I was on restricted activity because of my Cesarean. Starting around week 10, I began to work out rather obsessively for about 12 weeks. I lost about 1 lb per week, which was great, but still has me about 17 lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight. The last time I weighed myself, I was 135 lbs, and this was before the holidays. I haven’t exercised since because I was really starting to feel depleted by the intense workouts 5-6x each week.

[name_m]Desmond[/name_m] is 6 months old exactly today. I have resolved myself to this body for awhile longer. I think I have one of those constitutions that holds onto weight while I am still lactating. I now eat very well again- whole foods, no junk, minimally processed foods, and we go on regular, daily walks. It’s the most I can do at the moment in my sleep-deprived, semi-comatose state.

I never thought I’d be one of those moms that was still overweight 6 months out, but I am. It’s uncomfortable, but thankfully I am so busy being a mom to a baby, I have hardly anytime to beat myself up too much. It helps to know other moms go through this, too, and I keep hoping that when I wean, the weight will finally fall away. Here’s hoping, anyway!

10

I’m back to my pre-pregnancy weight at 11 months with no excercise but walking and a dreadful diet (plus breastfeeding) but I am a totally different shape so my clothes don’t fit and I still look pregnant :frowning:

11

For the moms who relate to my story:

I went to a zoo a while back (before I weaned so I hadn’t lost any of the weight yet) and I was watching the monkeys and I saw one that looked pregnant and asked the zookeeper if she was having another baby (she had a baby near her) and he said, “No, she’s still nursing. They look pregnant until they stop nursing.”

I could relate hahaa. I think that we put so much pressure on ourselves to “get our bodies back” umm, these are our bodies right now. You will get to the place you need to be to feel comfortable with yourself, but don’t rush it. [name_m]Just[/name_m] make healthy choices & work hard, but this is all part of the natural process. It’s so hard to keep positive! I push myself not to get down about it cause I don’t want to send those toxic body messages to my daughter :slight_smile: