January 16, 2012 • 24 mins
How much weight do women gain during pregnancy? What exactly is pregnorexia? Is it true that men can gain pregnancy weight, too? Join Caroline and Cristen as they take a closer look at pregnancy and weight gain.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom never told you?
From House stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Caroline and I'm Kristen. I feel like
(00:21):
Kristen when um, when women get pregnant. Uh, there are
a lot of women who kind of treat it as
a free for all, not necessarily in a bad way.
And I'm talking in terms of eating, not just like
behavior and running naked in the streets. It's it's drinking smoking.
We're focusing on pregnancy weight gain today, and I have
(00:42):
known several people who kind of used pregnancy as an
excuse to eat whatever they want. Yeah. I remember my
mom telling me that when she was pregnant with her
my oldest sibling, she was so excited because she went
to the doctor and he told her that she could
gain some way, and she was like, and then she
kind of way overshot and had some work to do
(01:04):
after the baby was born. It's interesting how different people
have different um amounts of weight that they can gain
during pregnancy and that they are able to gain during pregnancy,
not not everybody gains a lot of weight. I actually
have a girlfriend who initially lost weight when she first
started that she was pregnant, just because it immediately cut
(01:26):
out drinking just calories from alcohol, that's true, but you know,
I mean beers. Yeah. One thing to think about in
terms of people who lose weight right when they get
pregnant is that, you know, you you get in the
mindset of, Okay, well, I really need to take care
of myself because I really need to take care of
this baby. So if you're starting to eat ideally, if
(01:47):
you're starting to eat more healthy foods, you know you
have ideally cut out alcohol. Um. You know, it is
possible that some people might lose weight right when they
get pregnant, but the whole thing of eating for two
not necessarily the right mindset for pregnancy, right. I was
(02:09):
really surprised by how few calorie, how a few extra
calories you have to eat you're pregnant. Well, before we
break down individually, the recommended calories per day in how
the weight that you gain during pregnancy is distributed. Let's
go over just on average, how much UM weight it's
recommended that pregnant women gain. Right The American Congress of
(02:33):
Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that underweight women should gain between
twenty eight and forty pounds if you're of a normal weight,
and this is calculated using pre pregnancy b m I
body mass index. By the way, normal weight women should
gain between twenty five and thirty five pounds. If you
are overweight, between fifteen and twenty five. If you are
considered obese, fifteen pounds is the recommendation, and if you're
(02:57):
carrying twins, it's normal to gain thirty five pounds. And
that range of recommended weights is relatively new, because in
the early twentieth century doctors were very strict with pregnant
women about sticking to fifteen to twenty pounds. We read
(03:17):
some stories of women who were terrified to go to
their gynecologists for their check up, you know, fearing that
they had gained too much weight and be chastised for it.
And then in the nineteen sixties, the average weight gain
among pregnant women was about twenty five pounds, and so
in the nineteen seventies, the recommended weight gain was then
raised to twenty five and in nineteen ninety to thirty
(03:39):
five pounds was just across the board. Their recommended range. Yeah,
and what has happened between nineteen ninety and now UH
is basically that there are many more obese women in society.
So the Institute of Medicine changed its guidelines and May
of two thousand nine, the previous recommendations have been released
(04:02):
in n and according to the io M, American women
are now more diverse group, more of them are having
twins and triplets, and they tend to be older when
they become pregnant. And as they point out, women today
are also heavier, so the guidelines for weight gain have
have been boosted up just a little bit. So in
two thousand three, the average weight gain among pregnant women
(04:24):
was thirty point five pounds according to the National Center
for Health Statistics, but according to the American Congress for
Obstetricians and Gyna Colleges, the weight gain has gone up
even since then UH, and they report that one in
five women gained more than forty pounds during pregnancy, which
is considered excessive for all women, regardless of their b
(04:46):
m I correct and in two thousand eight, approximately a
third of pregnant women had weight gains outside of the
recommended Institute of Medicine guidelines. Whether that's the one in
five who gain more than forty pounds or the eight
percent who gain fewer than eleven pounds, which is pretty
bad territory. And we're not so much concerned about exceeding
those recommended weight gains because of uh, you know, celebrity
(05:12):
induced need to get back to your pre baby body
right erase any sign that you ever had a child, exactly.
It's not concerned about that, but legitimate concerns for maternal
health and health of that developing baby. Right. The weight
breakdown that web MD gives its pretty interesting. I never
really thought about it in terms of all the stuff
(05:34):
that's going on in your body that's causing you to
gain weight. It's not just the baby you're carrying around,
because if the only weight was the baby, you would
only get like eight pounds heavier. So so their breakdown
shows that the baby itself is about eight pounds, give
or take. I was only six something. I was very tiny.
It was also jaundiced, so anyway, the placenta is about
(05:55):
two to three pounds, as is the amniotic fluid, and
the breast tissue blood supply is about four pounds. Uterus
increased two to five and the runner up to the
baby itself is fat stores for delivery and breastfeeding, which
is five to nine pounds, and that adds up to
a total to thirty five pounds and um. If we
(06:19):
chart that across the trimesters, you typically gain about two
to four pounds during your first three months and about
one pound per week for the remainder of the pregnancy.
And according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
across the pond, uh they say that really all that's
(06:40):
needed for in terms of that eating for two it's
only one hundred to three hundred additional calories per day,
equivalent to a couple of pieces of toast, which I'm
sorry that is let down. That is let down. I
know I would totally What about nass of ice cream?
This whole rotis arica? Yeah, entire pizzas man way to
(07:03):
burst our bubble briats. And speaking of gaining weight, according
to Maternal and Child Health Journal in two thousand nine,
excess pregnancy weight is associated with an increased risk of
the child being overweight, and the impact is greater among
high and obese B and I women than normal B
and I women, and the Royal back to the Royal
College of Obstetricians and kind of colleges, They say that
(07:24):
the risks to the baby of the mother being overweight
include miscarriage, neural tube defects, larger birth weights, still birth,
and obesity and diabetes for the child later in life,
not to mention that obese women have more difficult labors
and births and are more likely to need an emergency
c section. Right now, as you mentioned earlier, pregnancy weight
gain is more of a concern, and even uh not
(07:48):
so much pregnancy weight gain, but um pre conception weight
is more of a concern because now, according to the
Institutes of Medicine, nearly two thirds of US women who
of childbearing age are overweight or obese. So really, gynecologists
are starting to urge um potential mothers too, instead of
(08:10):
thinking so much about how much weight they might gain
while they're pregnant, but to think about whether or not
they need to lose weight before they begin trying to conceive. Absolutely,
and a two thousand seven studied by the in the
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that counseling women before
and during pregnancy does make somewhat of a difference UM.
The studies show that they canceled women on UM, adding
(08:33):
high fiber foods, increasing vegetable and fruit intake, and it
was it didn't prevent excessive gestational weight gain. But that group,
the one that was counseled, did not have any high
birth weight babies. The the eight mothers who did have
high birthway babies were all in the control group, the
ones who received no counseling, and they chalked that up
(08:53):
to the mothers on average who had the overweight babies
being taller. I'm sorry, not overweight babies, high birth weight babies.
I'm not trying to be me and I'm really not UM.
Those eight mothers were on average taller, had higher gestational
weight gain, so they gain more during pregnancy, and they
had longer gestation than the other women, neither the control
(09:14):
or the intervention group. But that kind of comprehensive UH
nutritional care and counseling will also depend on the kind
of healthcare that a mother UM has available to her.
For instance, there was another study finding that low income
women in particular are more at risk for that excessive
(09:36):
pregnancy weight game because they are the least likely to
receive that kind of prenatal care. Yeah, and you know,
just just reaffirming what we've said. The Royal College of
Obstetricians and Kinnecologists Relationship maybe start using their acronym, said
that it is best if overweight women lose weight before
they conceive, because dieting during pregnancy is just not recommended.
(09:58):
And I know we talked about how it is possible
to lose weight when you when you get pregnant, um,
when you first get pregnant, because maybe you're starting to
eat healthier, but going on some massive diet and starting
to exercise too much when you're pregnant, give yourself a break, right,
That is, that is the last thing that we want
to somehow accidentally get across is that you're supposed to
diet during pregnancy, because that is the opposite of what
(10:21):
you should do UM. Whereas moderate exercise like walking or swimming.
My mother, for instance, took ballet while she was pregnant.
Those kind of gentle exercises are okay, And of course
you want to eat healthy food, but any kind of
dietary restrictions or even exercise regiments that you might put
yourself on should be guided by your doctor. Correct. Another
(10:45):
two thousand study, this one published in the journal Obstetrics
and Gynecology, showed that overweight women who gained less than
the recommended fifteen pounds. Now this is overweight women who
gained less than fifteen pounds during pregnancy actually had better
pregnancy outcome, with a lower risk of pre eclampsia, c
section delivery, and abnormal sized babies. And abnormal sized babies
(11:06):
is not my quote, it's theirs. So I'm I'm really
trying not to be me. Now, on the other end
of the spectrum, we have to talk about something that
has come more into mainstream medical discussions in the past
few years, and that's something called pregarexia, which is when
when when pregnant women will intentionally uh starve themselves when
(11:29):
they're pregnant because there's this association in the mind between
being pregnant and just getting fat. Right, Yeah, a lot.
I mean, it's not uncommon to hear pregnant women uh
talk about just feeling so big. You don't have several
friends who've who've had babies and they just said, you know,
I feel like I'm as big as a house, and
you know, you're like, well, you're pregnant, like you're carrying
a child inside of you. It's okay, you know, to
(11:51):
gain a little weight. Obviously you're gonna get bigger than
you were pre pregnancy. According to web md, prexia is rare,
but it might be more common among women with a
history of eating disorders or those who have a weak
social support system. And just like UM, the relationship between
obesity and exceeding the recommended pregnancy weight can potentially cause
(12:17):
problems for that baby xia. Obviously you're not taking care
of your bodies. You should, and those can also cause
certain kinds of um birth problems as well. Right um
health officials. This is uh from a New York Times article.
Health officials estimate that about of pregnant women don't gain
enough weight, which can lead to things like premature delivery,
low birth weight, and long term health problems. And the
(12:39):
Daily Beast and the Double X blog over at Slate
and um other sources have pondered whether or not our
celebrity obsession with baby bumps and then tracking from the
baby bump to how fast is she gonna lose her
pregnancy weight and oh look she's back in her bikini
body of these incredible transformations that we now chart on
(13:00):
a in our tabloid culture are somehow simulating more pregrexia
among mothers, but statistically it's still more of the exception,
whereas more women are tend to exceed their weight gain. Right,
And not to sound like a bitter hag or anything,
but I mean celebrities. Your typical celebrity probably has a
(13:20):
nanny of some kind, somebody else helping, and they don't
have a daily job they have to go to unless
they're on a movie set or something, so I mean,
you know, they have time to exercise a lot right
after baby comes. And speaking of postpartum weight loss, I'll
be very interested to hear from UH listeners out there,
(13:42):
mother's out there who have had to go through this,
because obviously it takes a while to get that weight off,
and that's going to be different for everyone. Right the
Mayo Clinic, they have some general advice that says, if
you exercised, you know, gently, during your pregnancy and you
had an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, it's generally safe to start
(14:04):
exercising within a few days of delivery. I personally would
use that as an excuse to sit around in my pajamas,
but well, and fun fact, you lose about ten pounds
during childbirth. Yeah, but the rest of that fat that's
hanging on there needs a little help. And so the
Mayo Clinic recommendation, start slowly and be gentle with yourself.
(14:25):
Know that you're not some crazy celebrity who loses all
that way right away and is in a bikini two
weeks after or walking on the Victoria's Secret Runway. What
is up with those Victoria's Secret models. I feel like
they all give birth and then they're on the runway
the next day. Well, and the thing that we have
to take into account too, is, well, it might be
hard to go out for that five mile jog when
you have a new born body temperature exactly. Now. There's
(14:53):
also the theory that breastfeeding might stimulate postpartum weight loss.
For instance, there was a study a couple years ago
among thirty six thousand Danish women that found that the
more a woman breastfeeds, the less weight that she was
retaining six months after birth. And of course we have
to take into account whether she was overweight before, what
(15:14):
she gained during the pregnancy, and how long she was nursing.
And then a small study this is a separate study
by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center found something different, and
they found that non lactating women lost more body fat
than lactating women at six months and at a faster rate.
Conflicting study results. Oh my god, we do yeah and
(15:35):
that uh. In that conflicting result, they thought that maybe prolactin,
which is an appetite stimulate, could lead nursing mothers to
overeat and non lactating mothers might be able to exercise
more vigorously in the first six months, right, because you
are um expending a lot of calories when your breastfeeding
(15:56):
your baby six calories, but you also have to take
a lot in and to keep that up. And so
if you're not maybe, if you're not taking in enough calories,
you could be shedding weight faster than than the average.
I'm not sure, but one interesting point that u NC
Greensboro nutrition professor share A Lovelady pointed out is that
(16:16):
some of these rapidly shrinking breastfeeders which is the name
of my next band, were quote unquote restrained eaters before pregnancy,
which slowed their metabolism. Once they got pregnant, and they're
eating more and once their breastfeeding and maybe taking in
more calories. They're actually eating enough to keep their metabolisms
up and running, so eating more could help you lose more.
(16:38):
Uh And according to a two thousand three study from
the International Journal of Obesity, this was charting women's postpartum
or I guess, preconception weight and then their weight a
year later. Women were on average three to thirteen pounds
heavier than they were preconception. However, forty one seven percent
of the sample population had by any weights equal to
(17:01):
or less in their early pregnancy body weights, So you know,
obviously there during that first year, Um, it's probably not
going to be so easy to slip back to your
pre birth weight. You might never see that pre birth
weight again. But um, by and large, you can. You do,
You do lose a lot of it. Sounds like you know,
who else can't lose the pre baby or that, I'm sorry,
(17:23):
the post baby weight. Dad's, dad's dad's can't lose it either.
This was Yeah, here here's the thing. Women, as you're
listening to this and thinking, man, this is just another
another road to hoe for us, well, the pregnancy weight
gain also affects men. Uh In two thousand nine, British
(17:46):
research firm One Poll reported that dad's to be gained
an average of fourteen pounds during their partner's pregnancy. There
were five thousand men who answered this survey, and they
all said that they were eating more as their partner's
prey and sees progressed and they her. They break it down,
the top one is eating out more frequently the top reason,
(18:08):
So that's increased availability of snacks in the house, I guess,
like pickles and ice cream, food cravings, dude cravings. And
the one that I'm a little skeptical of, well a
lot skeptical of, said that they gained weight because they
had a desire to make their partner feel better about
her own weight. Game. That sounds like the convenient excuse
(18:32):
that snack cupboard. I'm just trying to make her feel
better and I'll just see more of these these chips
and yeah, and the last one they said being served
larger portions by the moms to be who were clearly
holding them down, tying them down and force feeding them.
I'm sure. But then after all of a sudden done,
only thirty said that they joined their partner in post
(18:54):
part of dieting. Yeah, so watch out, fellows, you are
not immune to this pregnant sea weight gain. Um. And
since we have mentioned the pickles and ice cream a
few times, uh, fun fact about pregnancy food cravings, scientists
still don't know why moms to be have strange cravings. Yeah,
(19:15):
there's there's a lot of possibilities. Um. It could be
your body just telling you it needs something. It could
be the way that your body fulfills its quota for
the day of things like sodium. Um. But Webb and
d talks about how possibly we could chalk up these
cravings two hormonal shifts. Hormones do intensify the sense of smell,
which can influence taste and frankly, if you're feeling bloated
(19:37):
and crabby, you just might seek out comfort food, which
is why. Um. Dietitian Alisa Zad and Webbin do you
recommend dividing your meals during pregnancy into five or six
smaller meals during the day, right, Avoid drops in blood sugar,
avoid the craving. You can just constantly graze exactly, but
(19:58):
grays on like beans and pasteurized milk and broccoli, lean beef,
fortified orange juice. And you know what, I bet that
there are so many women listening right now who have
been pregnant and experience these kind of cravings. You're sitting
just laughing at us right now, like, oh, yeah, yeah,
I wanted I wanted beans. Gals, that sounds oh yogurt,
(20:22):
low fat yogurt. Yeah, hey, what's it over look? Whatever,
if you can stomach some sweet potatoes and whole grains,
more power to you, ladies. Uh so, what was our
initial question? Is there a normal pregnancy weight gained? There
are recommended guidelines now based on the b m I.
Doctors are now more concerned about women's weight in pregnancy. Um,
(20:44):
not so much because of how much we're gaining, but
how much we're weighing beforehand because of the obesity epidemic.
It sounds like before you get pregnant, or if you
if you know that you want to get pregnant, just
try to be as healthy as you can, and then
during your pregnancy obviously cut out the drinking and smoke game.
Like we said earlier, I need some healthy food. Right.
It sounds like the good mindset is to take is
(21:06):
to strike the balance you eat. Pregnancy is not a
time to lose weight, and it's also not the time
to open the floodgates, eat entire chocolate cake, right, because
not only will you probably exceed those recommended parameters, but
so will your partner. Right. It affects everyone. But I
want to know, I mean, how much weight have our
(21:26):
listeners game when they've been pregnant? Has anyone given them
gough for it? And also the pressure of getting off
that postpartum way. I think that's that's the thing that
that might be an issue for so many women. Is uh,
you feel so large by the end of your third trimester,
and then all of a sudden you're expected to be
back to your pre baby body, which is silly. It
(21:48):
is silly. Use a break, yeah right, right us though,
and let us let us know your thoughts on on
all of this mom's stuff at how stuff works dot
com is the email address, and we've got a couple
of letters to share here. First one comes from Krista,
and this is in response to our episode on psychopaths.
(22:09):
She writes, I just listened to do more men passive
psychopath tests and some of the terms who used to
describe mental disorders were slightly offensive. As someone who is
diagnosed as bipolar, people often associate me as being someone
who's violent or dangerous in some manner. Using words like
crazy to describe someone with any type of mental illness
(22:29):
or personality disorder increases those stereotypes, as does throwing around
words like asylum. Lightly I've been placed in a psych word,
and once a person comes out of a quote unquote asylum,
they lose credibility in society because people often assume that
to be an inmate, you must be dangerous, never mind
that most people who are institutionalized are there to protect
(22:50):
them from themselves, not for the safety of others. So
a good reminder from Krista. Yeah, alright, the female is
from Kristen. It's about our sex education and podcasts plural.
I told my daughters everything they needed to know as
early as seemed appropriate. Then, as they approached puberty, I
told them that I was fully aware I couldn't prevent
them from from having sex, and I wouldn't try. I
(23:12):
advised them to wait until they were sure they were ready,
then come to me and tell me, and I would
take them to the doctor for the birth control pill.
This method worked. Both girls came to me when they
were ready to start having sex. Each was in a
long term relationship, and in the latter teens and I
took them to get the pill. I also have pressed
upon them the importance of using condoms to prevent STDs.
Neither one of them has made me a grandma yet,
(23:34):
and the eldest is already older than I was when
I conceived her twenty one. I think the main problem
parents have is thinking they can prevent teens from having sex.
If you just admit they're going to do it when
they feel like doing it, you'll save yourself headache, heartache,
and accidental grandparenthood. So kudos to you, mom for at
home sex education. Well done. Uh and if you have
(23:55):
anything to send our way, you can email us at
Mom's Stuff at house fffworks dot com. You can go
to our Facebook page We're just Facebook dot com, slash
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head to the blog It's stuff Mom Never Told You
(24:15):
at how Stuff Works dot com. Be sure to check
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(24:40):
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom never told you?
From House stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Caroline and I'm Kristen. I feel like
(00:21):
Kristen when um, when women get pregnant. Uh, there are
a lot of women who kind of treat it as
a free for all, not necessarily in a bad way.
And I'm talking in terms of eating, not just like
behavior and running naked in the streets. It's it's drinking smoking.
We're focusing on pregnancy weight gain today, and I have
(00:42):
known several people who kind of used pregnancy as an
excuse to eat whatever they want. Yeah. I remember my
mom telling me that when she was pregnant with her
my oldest sibling, she was so excited because she went
to the doctor and he told her that she could
gain some way, and she was like, and then she
kind of way overshot and had some work to do
(01:04):
after the baby was born. It's interesting how different people
have different um amounts of weight that they can gain
during pregnancy and that they are able to gain during pregnancy,
not not everybody gains a lot of weight. I actually
have a girlfriend who initially lost weight when she first
started that she was pregnant, just because it immediately cut
(01:26):
out drinking just calories from alcohol, that's true, but you know,
I mean beers. Yeah. One thing to think about in
terms of people who lose weight right when they get
pregnant is that, you know, you you get in the
mindset of, Okay, well, I really need to take care
of myself because I really need to take care of
this baby. So if you're starting to eat ideally, if
(01:47):
you're starting to eat more healthy foods, you know you
have ideally cut out alcohol. Um. You know, it is
possible that some people might lose weight right when they
get pregnant, but the whole thing of eating for two
not necessarily the right mindset for pregnancy, right. I was
(02:09):
really surprised by how few calorie, how a few extra
calories you have to eat you're pregnant. Well, before we
break down individually, the recommended calories per day in how
the weight that you gain during pregnancy is distributed. Let's
go over just on average, how much UM weight it's
recommended that pregnant women gain. Right The American Congress of
(02:33):
Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that underweight women should gain between
twenty eight and forty pounds if you're of a normal weight,
and this is calculated using pre pregnancy b m I
body mass index. By the way, normal weight women should
gain between twenty five and thirty five pounds. If you
are overweight, between fifteen and twenty five. If you are
considered obese, fifteen pounds is the recommendation, and if you're
(02:57):
carrying twins, it's normal to gain thirty five pounds. And
that range of recommended weights is relatively new, because in
the early twentieth century doctors were very strict with pregnant
women about sticking to fifteen to twenty pounds. We read
(03:17):
some stories of women who were terrified to go to
their gynecologists for their check up, you know, fearing that
they had gained too much weight and be chastised for it.
And then in the nineteen sixties, the average weight gain
among pregnant women was about twenty five pounds, and so
in the nineteen seventies, the recommended weight gain was then
raised to twenty five and in nineteen ninety to thirty
(03:39):
five pounds was just across the board. Their recommended range. Yeah,
and what has happened between nineteen ninety and now UH
is basically that there are many more obese women in society.
So the Institute of Medicine changed its guidelines and May
of two thousand nine, the previous recommendations have been released
(04:02):
in n and according to the io M, American women
are now more diverse group, more of them are having
twins and triplets, and they tend to be older when
they become pregnant. And as they point out, women today
are also heavier, so the guidelines for weight gain have
have been boosted up just a little bit. So in
two thousand three, the average weight gain among pregnant women
(04:24):
was thirty point five pounds according to the National Center
for Health Statistics, but according to the American Congress for
Obstetricians and Gyna Colleges, the weight gain has gone up
even since then UH, and they report that one in
five women gained more than forty pounds during pregnancy, which
is considered excessive for all women, regardless of their b
(04:46):
m I correct and in two thousand eight, approximately a
third of pregnant women had weight gains outside of the
recommended Institute of Medicine guidelines. Whether that's the one in
five who gain more than forty pounds or the eight
percent who gain fewer than eleven pounds, which is pretty
bad territory. And we're not so much concerned about exceeding
those recommended weight gains because of uh, you know, celebrity
(05:12):
induced need to get back to your pre baby body
right erase any sign that you ever had a child, exactly.
It's not concerned about that, but legitimate concerns for maternal
health and health of that developing baby. Right. The weight
breakdown that web MD gives its pretty interesting. I never
really thought about it in terms of all the stuff
(05:34):
that's going on in your body that's causing you to
gain weight. It's not just the baby you're carrying around,
because if the only weight was the baby, you would
only get like eight pounds heavier. So so their breakdown
shows that the baby itself is about eight pounds, give
or take. I was only six something. I was very tiny.
It was also jaundiced, so anyway, the placenta is about
(05:55):
two to three pounds, as is the amniotic fluid, and
the breast tissue blood supply is about four pounds. Uterus
increased two to five and the runner up to the
baby itself is fat stores for delivery and breastfeeding, which
is five to nine pounds, and that adds up to
a total to thirty five pounds and um. If we
(06:19):
chart that across the trimesters, you typically gain about two
to four pounds during your first three months and about
one pound per week for the remainder of the pregnancy.
And according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
across the pond, uh they say that really all that's
(06:40):
needed for in terms of that eating for two it's
only one hundred to three hundred additional calories per day,
equivalent to a couple of pieces of toast, which I'm
sorry that is let down. That is let down. I
know I would totally What about nass of ice cream?
This whole rotis arica? Yeah, entire pizzas man way to
(07:03):
burst our bubble briats. And speaking of gaining weight, according
to Maternal and Child Health Journal in two thousand nine,
excess pregnancy weight is associated with an increased risk of
the child being overweight, and the impact is greater among
high and obese B and I women than normal B
and I women, and the Royal back to the Royal
College of Obstetricians and kind of colleges, They say that
(07:24):
the risks to the baby of the mother being overweight
include miscarriage, neural tube defects, larger birth weights, still birth,
and obesity and diabetes for the child later in life,
not to mention that obese women have more difficult labors
and births and are more likely to need an emergency
c section. Right now, as you mentioned earlier, pregnancy weight
gain is more of a concern, and even uh not
(07:48):
so much pregnancy weight gain, but um pre conception weight
is more of a concern because now, according to the
Institutes of Medicine, nearly two thirds of US women who
of childbearing age are overweight or obese. So really, gynecologists
are starting to urge um potential mothers too, instead of
(08:10):
thinking so much about how much weight they might gain
while they're pregnant, but to think about whether or not
they need to lose weight before they begin trying to conceive. Absolutely,
and a two thousand seven studied by the in the
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that counseling women before
and during pregnancy does make somewhat of a difference UM.
The studies show that they canceled women on UM, adding
(08:33):
high fiber foods, increasing vegetable and fruit intake, and it
was it didn't prevent excessive gestational weight gain. But that group,
the one that was counseled, did not have any high
birth weight babies. The the eight mothers who did have
high birthway babies were all in the control group, the
ones who received no counseling, and they chalked that up
(08:53):
to the mothers on average who had the overweight babies
being taller. I'm sorry, not overweight babies, high birth weight babies.
I'm not trying to be me and I'm really not UM.
Those eight mothers were on average taller, had higher gestational
weight gain, so they gain more during pregnancy, and they
had longer gestation than the other women, neither the control
(09:14):
or the intervention group. But that kind of comprehensive UH
nutritional care and counseling will also depend on the kind
of healthcare that a mother UM has available to her.
For instance, there was another study finding that low income
women in particular are more at risk for that excessive
(09:36):
pregnancy weight game because they are the least likely to
receive that kind of prenatal care. Yeah, and you know,
just just reaffirming what we've said. The Royal College of
Obstetricians and Kinnecologists Relationship maybe start using their acronym, said
that it is best if overweight women lose weight before
they conceive, because dieting during pregnancy is just not recommended.
(09:58):
And I know we talked about how it is possible
to lose weight when you when you get pregnant, um,
when you first get pregnant, because maybe you're starting to
eat healthier, but going on some massive diet and starting
to exercise too much when you're pregnant, give yourself a break, right,
That is, that is the last thing that we want
to somehow accidentally get across is that you're supposed to
diet during pregnancy, because that is the opposite of what
(10:21):
you should do UM. Whereas moderate exercise like walking or swimming.
My mother, for instance, took ballet while she was pregnant.
Those kind of gentle exercises are okay, And of course
you want to eat healthy food, but any kind of
dietary restrictions or even exercise regiments that you might put
yourself on should be guided by your doctor. Correct. Another
(10:45):
two thousand study, this one published in the journal Obstetrics
and Gynecology, showed that overweight women who gained less than
the recommended fifteen pounds. Now this is overweight women who
gained less than fifteen pounds during pregnancy actually had better
pregnancy outcome, with a lower risk of pre eclampsia, c
section delivery, and abnormal sized babies. And abnormal sized babies
(11:06):
is not my quote, it's theirs. So I'm I'm really
trying not to be me. Now, on the other end
of the spectrum, we have to talk about something that
has come more into mainstream medical discussions in the past
few years, and that's something called pregarexia, which is when
when when pregnant women will intentionally uh starve themselves when
(11:29):
they're pregnant because there's this association in the mind between
being pregnant and just getting fat. Right, Yeah, a lot.
I mean, it's not uncommon to hear pregnant women uh
talk about just feeling so big. You don't have several
friends who've who've had babies and they just said, you know,
I feel like I'm as big as a house, and
you know, you're like, well, you're pregnant, like you're carrying
a child inside of you. It's okay, you know, to
(11:51):
gain a little weight. Obviously you're gonna get bigger than
you were pre pregnancy. According to web md, prexia is rare,
but it might be more common among women with a
history of eating disorders or those who have a weak
social support system. And just like UM, the relationship between
obesity and exceeding the recommended pregnancy weight can potentially cause
(12:17):
problems for that baby xia. Obviously you're not taking care
of your bodies. You should, and those can also cause
certain kinds of um birth problems as well. Right um
health officials. This is uh from a New York Times article.
Health officials estimate that about of pregnant women don't gain
enough weight, which can lead to things like premature delivery,
low birth weight, and long term health problems. And the
(12:39):
Daily Beast and the Double X blog over at Slate
and um other sources have pondered whether or not our
celebrity obsession with baby bumps and then tracking from the
baby bump to how fast is she gonna lose her
pregnancy weight and oh look she's back in her bikini
body of these incredible transformations that we now chart on
(13:00):
a in our tabloid culture are somehow simulating more pregrexia
among mothers, but statistically it's still more of the exception,
whereas more women are tend to exceed their weight gain. Right,
And not to sound like a bitter hag or anything,
but I mean celebrities. Your typical celebrity probably has a
(13:20):
nanny of some kind, somebody else helping, and they don't
have a daily job they have to go to unless
they're on a movie set or something, so I mean,
you know, they have time to exercise a lot right
after baby comes. And speaking of postpartum weight loss, I'll
be very interested to hear from UH listeners out there,
(13:42):
mother's out there who have had to go through this,
because obviously it takes a while to get that weight off,
and that's going to be different for everyone. Right the
Mayo Clinic, they have some general advice that says, if
you exercised, you know, gently, during your pregnancy and you
had an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, it's generally safe to start
(14:04):
exercising within a few days of delivery. I personally would
use that as an excuse to sit around in my pajamas,
but well, and fun fact, you lose about ten pounds
during childbirth. Yeah, but the rest of that fat that's
hanging on there needs a little help. And so the
Mayo Clinic recommendation, start slowly and be gentle with yourself.
(14:25):
Know that you're not some crazy celebrity who loses all
that way right away and is in a bikini two
weeks after or walking on the Victoria's Secret Runway. What
is up with those Victoria's Secret models. I feel like
they all give birth and then they're on the runway
the next day. Well, and the thing that we have
to take into account too, is, well, it might be
hard to go out for that five mile jog when
you have a new born body temperature exactly. Now. There's
(14:53):
also the theory that breastfeeding might stimulate postpartum weight loss.
For instance, there was a study a couple years ago
among thirty six thousand Danish women that found that the
more a woman breastfeeds, the less weight that she was
retaining six months after birth. And of course we have
to take into account whether she was overweight before, what
(15:14):
she gained during the pregnancy, and how long she was nursing.
And then a small study this is a separate study
by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center found something different, and
they found that non lactating women lost more body fat
than lactating women at six months and at a faster rate.
Conflicting study results. Oh my god, we do yeah and
(15:35):
that uh. In that conflicting result, they thought that maybe prolactin,
which is an appetite stimulate, could lead nursing mothers to
overeat and non lactating mothers might be able to exercise
more vigorously in the first six months, right, because you
are um expending a lot of calories when your breastfeeding
(15:56):
your baby six calories, but you also have to take
a lot in and to keep that up. And so
if you're not maybe, if you're not taking in enough calories,
you could be shedding weight faster than than the average.
I'm not sure, but one interesting point that u NC
Greensboro nutrition professor share A Lovelady pointed out is that
(16:16):
some of these rapidly shrinking breastfeeders which is the name
of my next band, were quote unquote restrained eaters before pregnancy,
which slowed their metabolism. Once they got pregnant, and they're
eating more and once their breastfeeding and maybe taking in
more calories. They're actually eating enough to keep their metabolisms
up and running, so eating more could help you lose more.
(16:38):
Uh And according to a two thousand three study from
the International Journal of Obesity, this was charting women's postpartum
or I guess, preconception weight and then their weight a
year later. Women were on average three to thirteen pounds
heavier than they were preconception. However, forty one seven percent
of the sample population had by any weights equal to
(17:01):
or less in their early pregnancy body weights, So you know,
obviously there during that first year, Um, it's probably not
going to be so easy to slip back to your
pre birth weight. You might never see that pre birth
weight again. But um, by and large, you can. You do,
You do lose a lot of it. Sounds like you know,
who else can't lose the pre baby or that, I'm sorry,
(17:23):
the post baby weight. Dad's, dad's dad's can't lose it either.
This was Yeah, here here's the thing. Women, as you're
listening to this and thinking, man, this is just another
another road to hoe for us, well, the pregnancy weight
gain also affects men. Uh In two thousand nine, British
(17:46):
research firm One Poll reported that dad's to be gained
an average of fourteen pounds during their partner's pregnancy. There
were five thousand men who answered this survey, and they
all said that they were eating more as their partner's
prey and sees progressed and they her. They break it down,
the top one is eating out more frequently the top reason,
(18:08):
So that's increased availability of snacks in the house, I guess,
like pickles and ice cream, food cravings, dude cravings. And
the one that I'm a little skeptical of, well a
lot skeptical of, said that they gained weight because they
had a desire to make their partner feel better about
her own weight. Game. That sounds like the convenient excuse
(18:32):
that snack cupboard. I'm just trying to make her feel
better and I'll just see more of these these chips
and yeah, and the last one they said being served
larger portions by the moms to be who were clearly
holding them down, tying them down and force feeding them.
I'm sure. But then after all of a sudden done,
only thirty said that they joined their partner in post
(18:54):
part of dieting. Yeah, so watch out, fellows, you are
not immune to this pregnant sea weight gain. Um. And
since we have mentioned the pickles and ice cream a
few times, uh, fun fact about pregnancy food cravings, scientists
still don't know why moms to be have strange cravings. Yeah,
(19:15):
there's there's a lot of possibilities. Um. It could be
your body just telling you it needs something. It could
be the way that your body fulfills its quota for
the day of things like sodium. Um. But Webb and
d talks about how possibly we could chalk up these
cravings two hormonal shifts. Hormones do intensify the sense of smell,
which can influence taste and frankly, if you're feeling bloated
(19:37):
and crabby, you just might seek out comfort food, which
is why. Um. Dietitian Alisa Zad and Webbin do you
recommend dividing your meals during pregnancy into five or six
smaller meals during the day, right, Avoid drops in blood sugar,
avoid the craving. You can just constantly graze exactly, but
(19:58):
grays on like beans and pasteurized milk and broccoli, lean beef,
fortified orange juice. And you know what, I bet that
there are so many women listening right now who have
been pregnant and experience these kind of cravings. You're sitting
just laughing at us right now, like, oh, yeah, yeah,
I wanted I wanted beans. Gals, that sounds oh yogurt,
(20:22):
low fat yogurt. Yeah, hey, what's it over look? Whatever,
if you can stomach some sweet potatoes and whole grains,
more power to you, ladies. Uh so, what was our
initial question? Is there a normal pregnancy weight gained? There
are recommended guidelines now based on the b m I.
Doctors are now more concerned about women's weight in pregnancy. Um,
(20:44):
not so much because of how much we're gaining, but
how much we're weighing beforehand because of the obesity epidemic.
It sounds like before you get pregnant, or if you
if you know that you want to get pregnant, just
try to be as healthy as you can, and then
during your pregnancy obviously cut out the drinking and smoke game.
Like we said earlier, I need some healthy food. Right.
It sounds like the good mindset is to take is
(21:06):
to strike the balance you eat. Pregnancy is not a
time to lose weight, and it's also not the time
to open the floodgates, eat entire chocolate cake, right, because
not only will you probably exceed those recommended parameters, but
so will your partner. Right. It affects everyone. But I
want to know, I mean, how much weight have our
(21:26):
listeners game when they've been pregnant? Has anyone given them
gough for it? And also the pressure of getting off
that postpartum way. I think that's that's the thing that
that might be an issue for so many women. Is uh,
you feel so large by the end of your third trimester,
and then all of a sudden you're expected to be
back to your pre baby body, which is silly. It
(21:48):
is silly. Use a break, yeah right, right us though,
and let us let us know your thoughts on on
all of this mom's stuff at how stuff works dot
com is the email address, and we've got a couple
of letters to share here. First one comes from Krista,
and this is in response to our episode on psychopaths.
(22:09):
She writes, I just listened to do more men passive
psychopath tests and some of the terms who used to
describe mental disorders were slightly offensive. As someone who is
diagnosed as bipolar, people often associate me as being someone
who's violent or dangerous in some manner. Using words like
crazy to describe someone with any type of mental illness
(22:29):
or personality disorder increases those stereotypes, as does throwing around
words like asylum. Lightly I've been placed in a psych word,
and once a person comes out of a quote unquote asylum,
they lose credibility in society because people often assume that
to be an inmate, you must be dangerous, never mind
that most people who are institutionalized are there to protect
(22:50):
them from themselves, not for the safety of others. So
a good reminder from Krista. Yeah, alright, the female is
from Kristen. It's about our sex education and podcasts plural.
I told my daughters everything they needed to know as
early as seemed appropriate. Then, as they approached puberty, I
told them that I was fully aware I couldn't prevent
them from from having sex, and I wouldn't try. I
(23:12):
advised them to wait until they were sure they were ready,
then come to me and tell me, and I would
take them to the doctor for the birth control pill.
This method worked. Both girls came to me when they
were ready to start having sex. Each was in a
long term relationship, and in the latter teens and I
took them to get the pill. I also have pressed
upon them the importance of using condoms to prevent STDs.
Neither one of them has made me a grandma yet,
(23:34):
and the eldest is already older than I was when
I conceived her twenty one. I think the main problem
parents have is thinking they can prevent teens from having sex.
If you just admit they're going to do it when
they feel like doing it, you'll save yourself headache, heartache,
and accidental grandparenthood. So kudos to you, mom for at
home sex education. Well done. Uh and if you have
(23:55):
anything to send our way, you can email us at
Mom's Stuff at house fffworks dot com. You can go
to our Facebook page We're just Facebook dot com, slash
stuff Mom Never Told You, or you can find us
on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. And then if you're
looking for something to read during the week, you can
head to the blog It's stuff Mom Never Told You
(24:15):
at how Stuff Works dot com. Be sure to check
out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join
how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising
and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The house Stuff Works iPhone
app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to
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