Pregnant and worried about weight

Jane Weaver Health editor • Profile • E-mail

Michelle Marti, 34, of Stamford, Conn., has always been weight-conscious. Now that she's pregnant with her first child, it's been a challenge for her to avoid becoming obsessed with her expanding body.

Just entering her second trimester, Marti walks about 40 minutes every day and lifts weights twice a week. She's careful about every bite she eats and avoids junk food.

At 12 weeks, she's gained just 3 pounds but worries that her clothes are already getting too tight.

"It's weird because I don't feel 'pregnant,' I just feel bloated and fat," says Marti, who struggled with an eating disorder in her teens and 20s. "I feel like I’ve gained a lot more than that."

Another mom-to-be, Alison Thoe, 28, of Brunswick, Maine, is determined not to gain the 40 pounds she put on during her first pregnancy — mostly the result of daily visits to Dairy Queen, she admits. Early in her third trimester, she's put on just 8.5 pounds, slightly below average, a feat accomplished by jogging three days a week and carefully monitoring her diet.

"With this pregnancy, I am very strict with my calorie intake and no Dairy Queen!" says Thoe, whose pre-pregnancy weight was 133 pounds.

Whether women are caught up in the social pressure to be glamour mamas even when expecting a child (thank you supermodel Heidi Klum), or afraid that packing on the pounds will lead to health risks for both baby and mom, more expectant mothers are struggling to control their weight.

"I ... feel like a giant fat blob'
According to these women, being pregnant is OK. Being fat isn't.

"You hear about women gaining 60 pounds while pregnant," says Marti. "I don't want to do that."

Internet message boards geared to pregnant moms are filled with posts from anxious women bemoaning their changing bodies.

"I KNOW I shouldn't feel this way but I do. I am 32 weeks and up 30 lbs and feel like a giant fat blob. It seems like a lot of weight to have gained!" writes a Chicago mom-to-be at Urbanbaby.com, a Web site for parents.

"Before I got pregnant I was under the false illusion that neurotic behavior about food, exercise and weight didn't exist in pregnant women. Unfortunately, I am still neurotic and it sounds like many others are as well," writes another Urbanbaby poster.

Heidi Murkoff, author of "What to Eat When You're Expecting," isn't surprised at the current angst over bulging bellies.

"With skinny women on magazine covers everywhere, the prospect of putting on that much weight is terrifying to pregnant women," she says. "But if you’re starving yourself, you’re starving your baby. Your baby is what you eat."

For Sara Muller, 33, of New York, controlling the pounds while pregnant involved regular visits to the gym and sticking to "healthier carbs" in her diet.

"I was very conscientious about my weight before I was pregnant, didn’t want to use pregnancy as a free pass to eat whatever I want," the first-time mom says. "There's a concern that despite your efforts to eat well and work out, you don’t know how high your weight is going to go."

In general, women who restrict their calories during pregnancy tend to be more affluent and educated, according to a study by the American Dietetic Association. They are also more anxious, stressed and "less uplifted about their pregnancies."

Obesity is biggest problem
Yet while some women pursue the "perfect bump" by restricting how much they eat, the reality is that many pregnant women are gaining way too much weight, a side effect of the nation's obesity problem, say doctors. More than half of American women between ages 25 and 55 are overweight or obese, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

An estimated 40 percent of pregnant women have "super-sized pregnancies," in which they're gaining more than the recommended amount of weight, says Dr. Christine Olson, professor of the department of nutritional science at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

"Women say they are concerned about weight during pregnancy, but when you look at the scales and you look at the proportion of women that gain too much, in some groups, it's the majority," she says.

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