From Spiked Online:



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Doctors used to worry about fat pregnant women and advised them to stay so skinny that their babies' health was endangered from lack of fetal weight gain. I hope they don't go back to something like that again.

They are going back to that. In fact, it is the vogue now to advise women to actually lose weight while pregnant.

unfortunately, this is the boat i'm in. i was told that my doctor is a stickler on weight, and while i agree that i don't want to gain any MORE weight (having what i'd previously lost come screaming back for no reason is bad enough), i also don't want to be nagged over every half pound. my body has a very bad habit of doing whatever it wants regardless of what i eat. so far i've managed to keep things steady and not gained anything... yet. if that trend continues, then fine. if not, i don't want to have to worry about losing it while trying to compensate for a developing parasitic human who's happily doing its own thing.

Holy crap, they're ENCOURAGING women to lose weight while pregnant? Every time you think the medical geniuses can't get any more blind and backward...

I thought that they were only encouraging overweight/obese women to lose weight while pregnant? There's no reason for a normal weight woman to lose weight while pregnant. They used to tell all women to gain weight while pregnant, but this is bad advice to a woman who has a disordered insulin metabolism....which is most overweight and obese women.

--Melissa

I'm a member of an online due date club and every Wednesday is "Wednesday Weight Check" day where we all post how far along we are and what we've gained so far... It's probably the most disgusting post I see all week! These women go on and on about how they've lost 15 pounds, 3 pounds, 5 pounds, etc. and are practically bragging about it! One finally made it back to her pre-pregnancy weight last week (at 19 weeks pregnant) and she was so upset! I was like WTF woman!!!!

Obviously not everyone is like that, most of us are on track with weight gain and just post our stats, but there are those few that just make you shudder. I get it if you've had morning sickness brutally bad and haven't been able to keep anything down for a month, but those women don't brag - they're miserable and cry because they think they're hurting their baby. The others are who I don't get...

Seems to me that it's not such a bad thing, if a woman loses weight because for the first time in forever she is trying to eat healthy for her baby. Some overweight people will loose weight simply because they stop eating garbage.

Hopefully these women aren't told to eat a low-fat diet <shudder>

See now why it's a problem???

a lot of the websites i've seen are still advocating a low-fat diet, heavy on whole grains and fruit and limiting protein. it's nothing more than the SAD and just increasing caloric intake by 100 (first trimester) or 300 (second & third trimesters) calories a day.

i've been told that my doctor advocates a low-carb diet, which i'm ALL for. when i told the nurse practitioner that carbs seemed to be the only thing settling my stomach, she actually suggested heading for protein instead of fruit or crackers. i've tried it with mixed success. it's a lot easier to have a bag of gardettos in my drawer than a container of chicken.

You might also try some protein-rich combinations, like cheese + crackers (maybe four crackers with 2-ounces cheddar).....plain whole yogurt with berries.....a half-sandwich, heavy on the meat inside, thin slice bread....it's not a perfect option, but will also give the protein to sate appetite and keep blood sugars more stable than carbs alone!

Funnily enough, when my sister was pregnant with her first, back in 1987, her doctor gave her a "diet sheet" that recommended she eat eggs in butter every day for breakfast, steak several times a week, etc. It was actually quite a low carb diet, and contained lots of the stuff I now think of as "good" food.

Sadly, everyone else in the world shrieked at her that she would kill herself and her baby on such an "outdated" diet, and what she really needed were tons of whole grains and fruits and veggies. Sadly (I hang my head in shame) I was one of the loudest shriekers as I was on a very strict, ultra-low-fat diet in those days.

With all my children I lost weight when pregnant. My first two I started to gain it back in the last trimester after being diagnosed with gestational diabetes and placed on a "diabetic diet". My last two, I knew better. I low carbed the entire time, following the Schwarzbein principle and I lost weight the entire time. It freaked out my dieticians, but not my doctor. I was heavy enough that I could loose the weight and it did not effect the baby at all. Infact my 3rd was my most healthy of all my babies and non of them were big babies.

It is possible to loose weight if obese and pregnant. I personally believe it it better for the mom if she can control her insulin and sugar levels, because whether or not she is diagnosed with diabetes there is a high chance she is still insulin resistant.