Massive Weight gain after pregnancy

Hi I am trying to help my daughter work out why she has had a massive weight gain with her pregnancies and unable to lose it after.

She had the Bpd/ds in 2000; lost over 60kg down to her goal weight without trying. She maintained that weight loss for 16years with no gains at all then got pregnant with her first baby. Didn't gain at all during the pregnancy or after in the later stage she developed intraheptic cholestaasis of pregnancy.

Then 2 years after she was pregnant again, and had problems with the pregnancy, gestational diabetes and influenza A. This is when her gains started and just kept going, then she had baby 3 now she has gained it all back and we can?t see how she gained in the first place.

Her food and drink intake is the same as pre first pregnancy. No over eating, alcohol etc. As an aside she smoked weed until first pregnancy was found out then quit straight away.

Where do we go from here ?

Dr says just eat less and exercise more?

Any ideas?

My niece gained close to 100 pounds with her first pregnancy. She ate big meals and lots of desserts and did not exercise. She really enjoyed her pregnancy.

She joined crossfit after the baby was three months old, controlled her eating and exercise and lost all the added weight in about six months.

Two years later, she was pregnant with her second, developed gestational diabetes and was gaining rapidly.

Her doctor wanted to put her on insulin. My sister who is her mother and also a dietitian sat her down and told her that she needed to change her ways. Being pregnant was not about eating all the delicious food she wanted and taking life easy.

My niece stopped eating sugar, started eating healthy meals and walking every day. She controlled the diabetes without insulin, strictly with diet and exercise. She gained twenty pounds and had it back off six weeks after giving birth.

There used to be a Weigh****chers belief that it will take one month to lose weight for every year that you have carried it. Your daughter needs to follow a diet and exercise program.

She needs 10 calories a day for every pound that she maintains. That is with a reasonable amount of exercise. To lose, she has to reduce the calories and increase the exercise. She may not seem to be overeating, but she is eating too much for her body.

Smoking weed makes most people enjoy the taste of food more and eat more of it, so it is good if she is no longer doing that.

Weight loss surgery gets the weight off, but only diet and exercise will keep it off long term.

Thanks for replying, did your niece have a Bpd/ds? Was she a long term maintainer? I think that 16 years of staying at the same weight after the op means she wasn't over eating.

Her food intake didn't change. So hard to understand why her body did.

cheers

Lorri

My niece did not have weight loss surgery. I did and as I get older, I am able to eat less every year if I don't want to gain weight. I believe that the metabolism gets weaker so that the body can make up for not getting to absorb the calories that it takes in.

I eat much less than I did right after surgery and still gain weight.

Honestly regardless of what type of WLS one has it comes down to what one eats and how much. Does she live with you where you have seen everything she eats? Only asking because sometimes people hide or are not honest about what is being eaten.

Has she been back to her original surgeon to see if anything is going on internally or just her primary care physician?

The smoking weed before her first pregnancy in my opinion has nothing to do with the weight she gained during her other two pregnancies.

Is she tracking/weighing what she eats?

My first suggestion is to go to the doctor and get her thyroid tested. It is not unheard of to have thyroid changes during and after pregnancy. Next she needs to start tracking every bite of food she is eating in My Fitness Pal or something similar. Get a simple fitness tracker to record activity. After doing this for a couple weeks she should be able to analyze her results and see what she needs to improve.

She is a long term postop. Her body has adapted to her fat malabsorbtion as much as it is going to adapt. I am also a long term postop and I will be the first to admit it is easy to fool myself about what I am eating and my propensity towards being sedentary. The first step is always to verify you are doing what you are supposed to do and technology has made that pretty easy. And eliminate the possibility of thyroid issues.

Losing weight is possible. Her DS is still there. It is just harder than it was in the beginning.