It’s that classic cliché – you get pregnant, you put on weight. Of course – you have a growing baby in your body! Putting on weight is what should happen, as well as the weight of the actual baby, you have the placenta, increased blood count to supply to your baby, growing boobs and it’s important to put on a small amount of fat to provide you and your baby with stores.
How MUCH weight you put on is a contentious issue! This depends on your weight and size prior to becoming pregnant but as a rule, a healthy-weight woman should put on anything between 1 ½ stone to 2 ½.
The problems are that many people use pregnancy as an excuse to pig out – not strictly necessary as you don’t need that many more calories per day for your baby, even in the last 3 months you only need 100-200 more per day (that’s not many calories!).
Another thing I have found with many friends I have chatted to is that most of them instantly STOPPED exercising the minute they found out they are pregnant. Again, not necessary! Exercise is so important to keep you fit, healthy (and sane!) during the time your baby is growing. The type you do is important, not whether you do it or not! If you have never exercised in your life, pregnancy is not the time to start a rigorous training programme. If you have exercised regularly, however, there’s no reason to stop.
Having a baby is a hell of a shock and the first few months are HARD! I really struggled the first two months… having 3-4 stone of extra body weight to have to shift will a) certainly not be a priority, b) make you feel extra knackered and run down and c) will probably make you feel self conscious and negative about your body. You’ve got more important things to think about… your baby will know if you’re miserable… they will probably be miserable too! Babies feed of the mothers’ emotions so much.
My advice – if you are a gym member, chat to a trainer. They should give you advice on what is best or best not to do. If you have exercised regularly before – listen to your body. It will tell you what you can and cannot do. I had to stop running at 16 weeks pregnant, it simply wasn’t right for me. Whilst I was gutted at the time, it was the only sensible thing to do.
So, keep going, nice and steady and you won’t have that doom filled feeling of extra weight to shift on top of being a full time Mum!
My next blog – exercising once your baby is born….and I know all the tricks!
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