No More Sympathy Weight

Having a healthy pregnancy is the most important thing. Making sure you are eating enough and keeping yourself and your child healthy. According to WebMD:

A woman who was average weight before getting pregnant should gain 25 to 35 pounds after becoming pregnant. Underweight women should gain 28 to 40 pounds. And overweight women may need to gain only 15 to 25 pounds during pregnancy.

In general, you should gain about 2 to 4 pounds during the first three months you’re pregnant and 1 pound a week during the rest of your pregnancy. If you are expecting twins you should gain 35 to 45 pounds during your pregnancy. This would be an average of 1 ½ pounds per week after the usual weight gain in the first three months.

With that being said, as a husband I try my hardest to support my wife by getting her anything she is craving: ice cream, pickles, chips and queso or a family pack of Twix. But being a supportive husband doesn’t mean that you too need to gain weight. Sympathy weight is the hardest thing to not gain during pregnancy.

Our first pregnancy I gained probably the same, if not more, weight my wife gained. What sucks is that we don’t breastfeed after which helps with weight loss, we go back to the office and sit around all day while she is home caring for the children. We have to stay motivated and be strong when all these things are in front of us. It isn’t easy, but if we want to be healthy for the child that is on it’s way we need to be better.

I have found these simple ways to keep the sympathy weight off:

1. Have a routine. When you have a set routine for what you’ll be doing it makes everything easier. I like to go to the gym in the morning because my family is sleeping and I don’t miss out on time with them. Then every night before I go to bed I set out what I will wear to the gym the next day so that I don’t have to turn on any lights and wake up my wife.
2. Make meal plans. When you have a meal plan it’s easier to stick to it. You have everything prepared and when you get sudden urges to eat what your wife is eating you can just go to the plan.
3. Have a cheat day. Look, it’s hard. I get it. You wife is next to you eating anything and everything and you are trying your hardest to keep the weight off. Sometimes you just need to get a slice of pizza, have a donut or eat a Milky Way. Don’t make yourself go crazy. I give myself Thursday’s because it’s not the weekend where I would normally binge like crazy, but it’s not the beginning of the week making it easy to fall again. Find a day that works best for you and stick to it.
4. Set a goal. When you set goals you have something to work towards. I currently am working towards doing a triathlon in April. The last thing that I want to do is gain any extra weight. I keep training and getting my exercise in, but also eating healthy. Once I have achieved that goal I’ll set another one so that I don’t fall back into my crazy eating habits.

You can do it! You will be healthier, happier and it’ll be a lot easier to help your wife around then house when you’re not packing on the extra 45 lbs.