Came an email from a reader who shall remain anonymous:
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Enjoying your writing & your zero f#%ks given attitude
But thin and pregnant sounds like an unsustainable scenario? I say this as the husband of a wife who’s attractive and thin (but is currently pregnant so the thin bit is on hold for now).
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Behold my response:
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Jess is thin because she has worked very hard to be thin (like me she was grossly obese).
Now she is pregnant, she is just maintaining her usual routine, although she is no longer pushing to add weight to the bar, reps to sets, cut time off her runs, and so on.
Diet-wise is much the same. She’s actually eating a little less as the baby is pushing on her stomach which was making her uncomfortably bloated after meals. (Neither of us track calories or macros so I couldn’t tell you how much less, but it’s not impacting her energy levels or ability to exercise in any way as she’s scaled back the intensity).
Hence, she has gained very little weight thus-far (only what she is supposed to gain, according to the evidence).
On excessive weight gain in pregnancy, there’s a great deal of research showing that most women gain too much, and this is associated with some gnarly risks to mother and baby.
Behold some info from the Nash and some studies to support what I am saying:
* The NHS website, “Weight gain in pregnancy”
* Garay et al, “Risk factors for excessive gestational weight gain in a UK population: a biopsychosocial model approach”
* Langley-Evans et al, “Overweight, obesity and excessive weight gain in pregnancy as risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes: A narrative review”
* Rinninella, “Maternal Obesity and Patterns in Postnatal Diet, Physical Activity and Weight among a Highly Deprived Population in the UK: The GLOWING Pilot Trial”
Apologies for throwing PubMed links at you, but two of the three are full text.
None of this should be read as “advice” as the only people qualified to support your wife are registered medical professionals (midwives, doctors, nurses, etc.).
It’s certainly an interesting topic to think about and discuss, however. Not talked about enough, in my opinion.
Hope you find this interesting.
PJT
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If you care to read the studies, Google is your friend.
There isn’t really a point to this email other than to show you that I know my stuff.
If you want to work with me, here are the details:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/programme/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman