How Much Weight Should You Gain During Pregnancy?

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To Just a Mom.. I'm so happy you wrote what you wrote. I'm currently 34 weeks pregnant and I've put on close to 25 lbs in a month. It was shocking for me because I don't eat junk food, drink soda, or lay around doing nothing. I was searching and searching on the internet, frustrated that no matter how well I'm eating (1500 calories/day), I'm gaining. Finally, I found a person that wrote about water weight gain and a test is poking yourself for five seconds and seeing if there is a "pit" in your skin. I have pits in my ankles, calves, forearms, my eyes are puffy and my fingers are sausages. I do believe most of my weight gain is water. Even though I'm up 35 lbs total, my stomach is measuring three weeks behind and I'm still not in maternity clothes, my blood pressure and health is fine per doc's biweekly tests.
I'm continuing to eat low sodium, lots of fruits, veggies and lean meats, low carbs. If I gain, I can't control it. But there are people like me that retain water more so then others. Weight is such a touchy subject and everyone is different. People love to pass judgement on these boards, and normally I don't partake in responding... but as long as my baby is healthy, I don't care how much I gain. I'm doing what I can do to be healthy, and if the pounds keep coming on due to water.. I can't help that. You just have to ride it out until the finish line.

Noelle of MA 7:09PM January 26, 2010

Clearly you cannot base that upon your experience alone for that makes any other factor unacceptable in your terms. I guess women shouldn't get toxemia or have issues with water gain or have gestational diabetes. I gained 66lbs with my 1st pregnancy over half of that was water and came off in 10 days after giving birth. I cannot control the water gain at all. All I could control was the actual fat gain ( which I was underweight to start with ). This time I started off fine with the weight gain and now am experiencing an elevated gain despite my attempts at removing carbohydrates and crap from diet. What should I do now diet? Starve myself? I know it will come off after I give birth as it did the first time around. Some women just gain weight in pregnancy no matter WHAT they do how much exercise they do or what healthy foods they consume.
So before you leave asinine comments behind maybe you should do more research on the topic. Not all women sit there gorging themselves and sit around to gain the weight.

JustAMom 2:37PM January 11, 2010

FYI.....Plaxico Burress The NFL Footbal Player Begins Prison Sentence Today!
Not that I have anything against the guy but finally these athletes might start to get it....You CAN'T just do anything you want and get away with it. If I get caught with a gun, I would have to do time too.
Just my 2 cents.....

Bill Bartmann of AL 3:08PM September 22, 2009

Currently 29 weeks pregnant.Walk 45 minutes every day and eat fairly healthily.
I gained 10 pounds durring my 6th month and in the last 4 weeks have only gained 3 pounds...I guess everyone is different, we just have to excersize and eat right. Everything else will come together.

Britney of TX 12:30PM July 06, 2009

26 years ago I gained 16 pounds with my first child. One week later I was down to my pre-pregancy weight. 5 years later I gained about 28 pounds with my second and several months later still had about 10 pounds of extra weight. For both babies I was advised by my doctor to gain 20-25 pounds and absolutely no more. based on my experience, that seems exactly right. A 40 pound weight gain is unreasonable.

PKF of VA 9:05PM June 29, 2009

Dr. Hankins' advice is the most reasonable in this discussion. When I was pregnant about 40 yrs ago, I`d started at about 110 lbs and wore a size 7. Immediately after giving birth to a 7 lb. girl, I was able to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes, though they were a bit tight. I imagine I gained about ten pounds, though at the time I didn't have a scale. The child was very healthy and is now an artist and art teacher. My mother, who was a nurse, had 6 children, the last 4 of whom I remember as pregnancies and finally vigorous healthy babies. My mother, too, did not gain a great deal of weight and was able to fit into her clothes afterwards. The notion that women should gain 40 lbs in pregnancy is shocking. Where did this idea come from anywhy?

Josephine A. Matthews of MD 5:28PM May 31, 2009