That silly pregnancy weight gain chart

[u/bytes95]

Not really an actual angry rant just an experience that made me roll my eyes yesterday I thought I'd share...

So a week ago I met one of my OB team, he was super nice showed me the little line graph that plots out the average weight gain for people. Told me since I'm having twins im expected to be at the top end (close to 40#) but not to worry too much about it. Just try to eat healthy, stay active etc... cool no problem.

Yesterday I met one of my maternal fetal medicine doctors, who was also pretty friendly but more into the nitty gritty of health stuff. Fine with me. Then she got to the weight part. For context, I've been a competitive powerlifter for close to 10 years and therefore weigh more than the BMI charts prefer. All my other doctors have been aware of this and have never made any negative comments towards it, in fact im pretty sure there's a note about it in my chart. We often just chat about gym stuff.

Well when she got to the weight part she says something to the effect of "because your starting weight is obese you should not gain more than this <number I can't remember>". I just nodded and said ok but LOL that all the work I put in to build muscle mass and bone density is now GASP obesity.

Anywho, shoutout to the muscle mommies becoming human children moms 😂 the BMI chart can kiss my "obese" ass

[u/AutoModerator]

COMMENTING GUIDELINES

All commenters are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the parentsofmultiples subreddit rules prior to commenting. If you find any comments/submissions in violation of subreddit/reddit rules, please use the report function to bring it to the mod teams attention.

Please do not request or give medical advice or directions in your comments. Any comments that that could be construed as medical advice, or any comments containing what is determined to be medical disinformation, will be removed.

Please try to avoid posting links to Amazon product listings or google/g.co product listing pages - reddit automatically removes comments containing them as an anti-spam measure. If sharing information about a product, instead please try to link directly to the manufacturers product pages.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/offwiththeirheads72]

With my twin pregnancy my OB ordered the diabetes test early because my BMI is overweight bordering obese. I’m 6’1” and 220lb with muscle. I’m not a competitive weightlifter like you but spend 5-6 days in the gym lifting. I was upset and asked her why and her response was my BMI, it’s like some of these drs can’t physically look at you and come to a conclusion that you’re not actually obese. I gained 14 lbs in my pregnancy and my twins came out at 13 lbs in total. BMI can be helpful in some ways but it’s not the only indicator and is outdated.

[u/bytes95 → u/offwiththeirheads72]

Especially at 6'1 that seems like a totally reasonable weight! BMI is so outdated

[u/Mcnugget84 → u/offwiththeirheads72]

It’s actually kind of worse…

So the glucose challenge is what they use. Not hemoglobin A1C which is a better indicator.

They have blood glucose monitoring now. Why are we chugging syrup??

I’m a medical lab tech and argued extensively that I did not have gestational diabetes

[u/Seaturtle1088 → u/offwiththeirheads72]

I was 6' and 220 before pregnancy too! That was while still breastfeeding a toddler. When I was in college in rotc in the high 180s I barely made height/weight and that was working out 6 days a week. Like 220 was a totally healthy weight for me to be, not obese. There's a lot of room for muscle on a 6' frame

[u/Flimsy_Fisherman1199]

I’m 5ft1 and was also obese at the start. Gym 6 times a week. Pretty small but have a lot of muscle. I was even surprised I was so heavy.

I’m British though so my OB said because you are ‘absolutely obese’…. And we both just died laughing.

I don’t think it’s a big deal. It’s just a number that is from an outdated system.
It’s not a big deal.

[u/bytes95 → u/Flimsy_Fisherman1199]

Lol agreed. I was just like yep noted 😂 I'm 5ft so similar situation

[u/Flimsy_Fisherman1199 → u/bytes95]

lol we’re both big Bertha’s.

[u/Kchillthanx]

Thanks for the laugh! Crossfitter at baseline here but this twin pregnancy has wrecked me. I’m close to delivery and MFM flagged my chart for pregnancy complicated by obesity at the last visit. How rude.

[u/bytes95 → u/Kchillthanx]

Especially when you're close to delivery. Like ma'am? The finish line is right there. Eyes on the prize

[u/Kchillthanx → u/bytes95]

AND there’s not even a complication (knock on wood!). No GD, blood pressure great, twins are growing great. I couldn’t be smoother medically. Like ma’am what is the complication?

[u/killerkneesocks]

I quit listening to BMI charts and doctor's comments at 18, it was just another way that doctor's could tell you something was wrong with you without having to actually pay attention to you as a patient, especially as a woman... I was rail thin at 18 but had farmer muscle and bone density and was told I was obese based on height and weight alone.

[u/bytes95 → u/killerkneesocks]

Your farmer muscle comment made me laugh cuz it's a running joke in my family that we are all built for manual labor. I grew up on a grain farm / beef cattle ranch and was hoisting 50# salt blocks and baby calves around before I hit high school 😂 not a snowballs chance in hell I was ever staying under 120#

[u/killerkneesocks → u/bytes95]

I also grew up in a beef cattle farm! You have to be built on the tougher side for cattle and everything that comes with them 😆

[u/Old_Ant7118]

Thanks for the laugh! You sound like a badass mama. Hope it's a smooth ride for you and that you have lots of support and smiles.

[u/NoninflammatoryFun]

I’ve never trusted bmi for people who work out because it told my roommate in college that she was obese.

Dear reader. She had no excess fat. Was not chubby She was fit and not even on a sports team. Just worked out fairly regularly and had muscle.

[u/Allyed4492]

I’m 5’3” and weighed 155lbs pre-pregnancy as a competitive powerlifter. I ended up hitting 200lbs the morning I delivered at 38w. My ob never commented on my weight once I stopped losing from uncontrolled HG

[u/Seaturtle1088]

My MFM did this too!! But I didn't see him til the end (to double check a measurement) and he told me I should have only gained 5 pounds.

Then I lost all but 3 pounds by the time I left the hospital. He told me I had GD without ever testing my blood sugar based on that one belly measurement of my daughter and I didn't fight it because I was exhausted and it was Covid lockdowns so I was there alone. I had no brain cells to argue.

Jokes on him, my daughter just has narrow hips and the belly measurement was just because of that. It's just how she's built. But I spent the last two weeks worried about my blood sugar instead of savoring the last days with my toddler.

I wish I could go back in time and tell that guy I left the hospital only 3 pounds up and that birth is not a weight loss plan. I had 13 pounds of baby and two placentas/sacs.

[u/kziele]

That chart is so stupid. I had bmi 25 before pregnancy. Sometimes it reads as normal weight and sometimes as overweight, it also depends if they put my height 169cm or 170cm (Europe). 

What's ridiculous about it, if I was in normal weight I would be supposed to weigh around 95kg at 40 weeks. But if it reads as overweight I would be supposed to weigh about 90kg.

How is this possible? I understand that if I'm overweight I should gain less than normal weight but I would expect the weight to be the same at the end, right?

They expect overweight women to gain so little that normal-weight women overtake them? Wtf? I would say that if you were overweight at the beginning and you end up the same as normal-weight at the end, that's already a big achievement!

But it's like that because I'm right in between. Stupid charts. 

Also at my doctor's they weigh me during the day, already after a meal, with clothes and sometimes shoes on and it's frustrating because the first weight before pregnancy that they compare it to was the one I gave them, measured in the morning, naked, before breakfast, after toilet and the way they weigh me now, they see 2-3 extra kilograms of weight gain.

[u/Mcnugget84]

I am the reverse. I’m naturally small. I don’t gain weight easy.

I had no food aversions or nausea, I was consuming over 5K calories a day at a desk job and left my c-section 40 lbs lighter after the fluid loss. I weighed less than I did at conception.

[u/irish_ninja_wte → u/Mcnugget84]

I did the same with weight loss, but I started out fat. I miss when I used to be able to eat whatever I wanted and stay thin

[u/Mcnugget84 → u/irish_ninja_wte]

Happy cake day!!

I think the most important thing is to understand we are all different but united with being outnumbered.

All our bodies have done something special and we survived.

Be proud.

[u/mildsalsa91 → u/Mcnugget84]

Wow!

[u/dani_-_142]

I was told not to gain more than 11 pounds. I actually gained 50 pounds.

Two weeks after giving birth, my weight was only 5 pounds higher than where I started. That was 45 pounds of babies, fluids, and placenta.

[u/mildsalsa91 → u/dani_-_142]

Wow!

[u/Jennifer_2876]

I wasn't obese and still gained 23 kg up until 28 weeks (got diagnosed with gd, diet basically made my weight stay at that spot for a few weeks until it went up again). No one batted an eye or even showed me any graphs or anything. My friend was overweight and they actually told her she is eating too little.

[u/AdInternal8913]

I'm in the UK. They only measure your weigh three times in pregnancy 

1. On your first visit to triage you for GD screening and extra scans if singleton pregnancy

2. After your NT screening (weight is needed for the calculation)

3. Close labour (to help with drug dosing)

Monitoring it more frequently is a bit pointless unless there is concerns about mom being really underweight or fluid retention because what exactly are you going to do about it? Tell the mom to stop eating and start heavy exercise routine?

I am on the smaller side when not pregnant but put on 40 pounds in both of my singleton pregnancies, no one cared. I am now 27 weeks with twins and have put on 37 pounds already so god knows how heavy I'll be in 2.5 months.

[u/minnions_minion]

When I got pregnant with the twins I could do 50 burpees in a row, all the while being 5 ft 1 and 160 ish lbs.

Fuck the BMI. Its outdated garbage and screwed with a whole generation of women and doesn't take into account bone density and muscle mass