If you gain a bunch of weight up front does it count towards the 25 lbs?

[skookie]

I don't know how to word this so hope someone understands. I've gone to my pregnancy appointments but my OBGYN hasn't discussed weight gain with me yet. I only know from what I've read online I'm supposed to gain 25-35 lbs if I'm a "normal weight" to start. Right? So I'm 18 weeks 2 days and in the last probably 6 weeks I've gained 13 lbs already (I actually lost some weight up front due to MS but gained it all back and then some). And the baby weighs like half a pound right now so I can't blame him!! My boobs and waist have gotten a lot bigger plus I'm flabbier in general so I can kind of tell where the weight has gone but it's mostly from eating too much crap and not exercising. But now I'm worried because if I'm supposed to gain all this weight later in pregnancy am I still due to gain almost the full amount? Or can I take control of my eating and exercising and now only really gain the extra baby/uterine weight? Or will I be endangering the baby? I'm not wanting to "diet" of course! Just wondering if I screwed myself over by gaining so much up front and will still need to gain another 25 lbs which will get me to almost 40. Which isn't terrible but I wanted to keep control of my weight during pregnancy and I have gotten off to a horrible start. My appetite has been insane. Any thoughts?? Sorry for rambling. *edit* also!! Does anyone have any experience with gaining a bunch up front but somehow being able to "reign it in" later and become more reasonable about it?

 

[skookie]

Oh and British people! I know you use different weight measurements so I'm basically asking if I already gained half the weight recommended in the entire pregnancy do I still only need to gain the other half in the next 22 weeks? Or do I need to gain more than half... I really hope I'm making sense.

 

[jessmke]

The recommended weight gain of 25-35 lbs is the total you should gain during your entire pregnancy, regardless of when you put the weight on. So if you have already gained 13 lbs then you should only gain an additional 12-22 lbs over the remainder of your pregnancy to stay within the 25-35 lb range. But just because you gained a fair amount of weight recently you won't necessarily continue to gain at the same rate. A lot of pregnant women gain weight in spurts, they'll gain 10 lbs or so over a few weeks, then won't gain anything for a few weeks. Or some women gain a lot in the second tri and barely anything in the third tri (or vice versa). You can definitely try to take control to manage your weight gain by eating healthy and exercising moderately (don't start any crazy exercise routines now!). I'm coming up to 27 weeks and I have gained 20 lbs already, even though I have been eating well and exercising. I'm all belly and boobs, so I really hope the weight gain slows down in the third tri!

 

[LilianA]

No don't worry it does count towards the total but just keep in mind that towards the end it becomes more out of your control because the baby gains so fast and the body retains fluids and stuff so don't be surprised if you gain more that the 25.
normal range is 25-35 if ur BMI was normal before pregnancy.

 

[marie-louise]

Hiya, when I was pregnant with my son I had gained around 12 pounds by 18 weeks, I ended up gaining around 18 in total! I was overweight to begin with though! I didn't do anything to control it. So it doesn't have to mean you'll gain more than you should!

 

[skookie]

Thanks ladies! Very helpful!!!

 

[jlw617]

You can totally take control! Start walking if you're not already, maybe 2x day for 15 minutes or so and watch your carb/calorie intake, you shouldn't be dieting but you can cut back on your carbs/sugars and make sure you're only getting the extra 300 calories a day that's reccomended, I would keep a journal for a while, a lot of women get way more calories than they actually need/know. One last piece of advice, every woman's body is different, pregnancy always puts my metabolism into high gear so here I am at nearly 30 weeks and I've lost 20lbs and have yet to gain anything, but I was the same way with my other pregnancies, on the other hand I have a very slim friend who gained 80lbs with her first and 60 with her second, you would have never guessed she put on that much weight!