Anyone here have 5 or more pregnancies? How has that affected your weight loss journey?

I have 20 or so lbs to go but my mommy belly really gets me down. My hips seem to be forever widened and the stretch marks are everywhere! My goal is to get to 145 and I'm 5' 4" so it doesn't seem unreasonable but my body just doesn't want to snap back into shape.

How do you feel having to concentrate on meals three times a day for your children and staying away from test tasting? My children are stair-stepped and under the age of 11.

I guess no one here has 5 kids?! But I am working on that, I am PG with #5. I have 4 girls (8,6,4,2) and it would be nice to get a boy, but not counting on it! During my last maternity leave I managed to lose 70 lbs (in 1 year) and when I went back to work I stopped, even though I started going to exercise classes. I work in an office, so I think that sitting at my desk all day makes a big difference than being at home with the kids. Also, at home I had more time to cook satisfying low-carb meals. I have found that my kids tend to like the low-carb stuff, none of them will eat tuna sandwiches, they don't like the bread now! And anytime I had Wasa crackers, they begged for them, even though they could have had Ritz! My kids also learned that they shouldn't eat mommy's chocolate, it gives you diarrhea! I think having lots of kids is good for me though, I am naturally a lazy person and no matter how much I want to just sit around the house, there is always too much to be done.

Hi Colleen! Yep! I've had five kids - all C-sections, too! Plus I have a major sit-down job (medical transcription) which I've been doing for 25 yrs now! Fortunately for me, I didn't start having problems w/ my weight until after my last child (mostly due to the fact that the last two were only 16 months apart!). UNfortunately for me, I didn't decide to seriously do anything about my weight until my 40th birthday was approaching - and I saw myself in a few pics! Ack! THAT'S when I decided to get serious - along w/ the fact that there's a very strong family history (maternal) of adult-onset diabetes - grandmother diagnosed at 80 (diet-controlled), mother at age 60 (on insulin), me at age 40 - HELL NO! I've managed to dodge THAT bullet so far.

As for the "mommy belly", yep! It's still there, but thankfully getting smaller as I go along....so just hang in there - it DOES get better w/ time.

I've been LCing for two years now and the first 6 months were by far the easiest in terms of weight loss...then came along all the LC products, etc. I've gone "back to the basics" now and my "winter gain" is starting to come off...albeit sloooowly. And, of course....it went ALL to my mid-section!

I'm only an inch shorter than you, so yeah, 145 isn't an unreasonable goal. My youngest is 15, so "taste-testing" isn't an issue anymore - unless you count my granddaughter! However, having 2 pizza-lovin' teenage BOYS and a hubby who won't go near anything low carb IS a challenge.

If you would like a buddy to help, feel free to stop by my journal anytime, k? You CAN do this!

Donna - congrats on #5 - may you have a happy and healthy new baby - boy OR girl!

Hi Colleen. I also have 5 kids. The oldest is 9 and my youngest is 9.5 months. My weight problems began after my 4th child was born. Post-partum is always a really trying time for me and I always have many of the same distressing symptoms which each baby, but it wasn't till number 4 came that I had to add weight gain to the list of my symptoms. I had a huge gain within a couple of months after this last baby, and even though I figured out how to make the gaining stop, losing has been impossible. I'm weaning now in hopes that help the hormones go back to normal.

I did diet after the 4th which left me very unhealthy and unhappy and wasn't practical for family life. When I switched to balanced, healthful eating that the whole family could follow, I gained initially but then started losing very slowly. I thought things were going fine then I was pregnant with number five. I didn't gain much during pregnancy, but my postpartum angst has been so much worse this time. My weight is just another symtom of my hormonal problems, so for now I'm not worrying about the weight and I'm going to focus on balancing the hormones. I can't diet anyways because I have adrenal fatique and dieting is too stressful on the adrenals. I hope your weight loss comes along for you, everyone's physiology reacts in it's own way. I have several nice and svelt friends that have 6 kids.