QuestionGreets!
My questions is somewhat complicated, sorry it's a bit long but I wanted to be sure I gave you all the information.
I just had my second child. Through the pregnancy I gained about 55 pounds. At my 6 week check up I was back down to 20 pounds above where I started. I am currently 225lbs.
Eight years ago when I had my first son I started at 120 and by the 7th month I was at 150. Then I got toxima and by the 9th month (even though my diet did NOT change)I was 220lbs. My doctor at the time told me it was because of the water and that I would lose it quickly after the birth. By my 6 week check up I had only lost 20 pounds.
I went on a strict 1600 calorie diet and walked 2-3 miles a day, lost about another 20 pounds, and then stopped losing weight. I got very discouraged and gave up.
Now that my son is born, I want to try again to get in better shape, and the fact that I already lost most of weight from THIS pregnancy has me hopeful.
However, no one was ever able to tell me why the weight of my first pregnancy caused me so much trouble. Is there a chance I somehow messed something up when I got the toxima that's going to make any weight loss below 200lbs very difficult.
I want to get in better shape for my boys, and I'm willing to put in the work, I just don't know how well I'll handle another failure like the first time I tried to get the weight off.
Thanks and sorry again it's such a long question.
Tara
AnswerPre-eclampsia does not cause fat accumulation but it can cause a lot of water weight gain. From you description, it sounds like most of the extra weight that you gained was from additional fat storage. Your MD was most likely trying to be optimistic.
Since you over-gained in both pregnancies this points to a calorie imbalance issue. Many OBGYN's now advise their overweight patients to either not gain weight or gain very little over the course of their pregnancies. This not only helps mom in the postpartum period, but also is much healthier for the baby.
But certainly, in must be totally depressing to feel stuck at 225 when you used to be 120. And I don't think you are stuck there!
I suggest that you get a full physical to see if there is something, like a thyroid problem, that might be effecting your metabolism. A consultation with a registered dietician might be able point out nutritional problems. In terms of the diet programs, I like the Volumetics. You get to eat lots of healthy foods, and not feel hungry or deprived as you lose weight. And it establishes healthy patterns so that there's no rebound weight gain afterwards.
I don't actually consider your ability to lose 20lbs through diet and fitness walking a failure. Especially when you consider that you most likely added on muscle mass from the exercise. So it's possible that you in fact are underestimating the amount of fat that you lost during that period by up to 25.
Health weight loss is agonizingly slow. Being significantly overweight is depressing, and when we get down on ourselves, it all to easy to slide into a downward spiral of poor nutritional and other lifestyle choices. But ya know, you can't fill emotional holes with food, if that were the case we'd all be very happy indeed! Try to stop whatever negative internal dialog that you have (we all do this, and get in our own ways.) Set up a mental "delete" button. Every time you catch your brain feeding you negative info, take a second to say "No, I reject that," and visualize your self mentally deleting that sentence.
Changing mental habits can go a long way to establishing healthier lifestyle choices.
You mentioned that you want to be healthier for you boys, and that's great motivation. As moms, we are the health role models, and health leaders of our families. Effective leadership can only be done through example. By making slow but steady progress in your own lifestyle, and through your choices in how you feed your kids, will provide both you and your family members with truly profound health benefits that can last a lifetime.
