I just read a pointless little blurb about this on yahoo and couldn't participate in that discussion because I don't have a yahoo screen name, so I thought I'd bring the discussion here.

Did you lose the weight? Did you find it difficult to do so? Or did circumstances/particularly good genes/just plain dumb luck make it easy for you?

And when you answer the question, give the number of kids you've got, and their ages please.

My actual answer;

LOSING the weight proved to actually be quite easy - by three weeks in, I was 30 pounds lighter than I'd been when I found out I was pregnant.

Keeping it off proved to be another challenge all together. Those mysterious extra 30 pounds I'd lost came back, plus many, many of their friends. I've since lost most of the friends anyway, and might actually be back to my pre-baby weight (my scale is broken, I gotta weigh myself at the doctors office, so I haven't weighed myself in a few days...). Undecided on if I'm going for relosing that 30 again or not.

And no, my body is not the shape it was the last time I weighed this. Thanks to the wonder that is Jillian Michaels, I'm like half the size I was last time I weighed this, haha! Muscle tone does wonders! But, oddly, I'm also flabby in places I wasn't last time I weighed this either. So there's that, I guess.

--Mother of one, age five.

^ holy crap he's 5 already!

As I sit here eating my taco bell... nope I haven't lost the weight and have actually gained some additional weight...

I was so sick throughout my pregnancies I didn't gain a great deal of weight. Additionally, my babies were on the large size, so the day after I delivered I weighed about what I weighed before the babies.

HOWEVER....Breast feeding was my downfall. My kids were all criers and fed at least every two hours. Between not sleeping and being virtually nailed to the rocking chair, I developed the terrible habit of "hitting the cupboards" as soon as the babies fell asleep. Also, I didn't eat many foods while I was nursing like strawberries and onions, so I quickly substituted ice cream and cookies!

It took fully 15 years for me to get back to my "good" weight, but I honestly was never a slim again as I was before babies.

I have 7 kids, 15 years between the youngest and the oldest.

Keep On Dancing*

I don't know
I guess not, but my weight has fluctuated a bit over the last 10 years. I weigh now what I weighed 5 years ago. I lost some weight, then got pregnant. A year ago, I weighed 10 lbs less than I do now. Then I got lazy and started eating garbage again. I am not working on losing my extra 20 lbs, but I can't really call it baby weight even though I have a toddler, because it is not from the pregnancy. The real question is, will I ever get rid of my pooch?

Acording to my scale, I am two pounds from losing all the baby weight.

I went back to Irish Dance 6 weeks post partum and am back to dancing two days a week, though not doing all of the class I was pre-pregnancy.

I'm also nursing, and trying not to use the extra calories I'm supposed to eat as an excuse to eat junk, though I'm not denying myself anything.

I know I'm going to have to be careful when Alex stops nursing, so I don't have a bounce back.

I'm back in my clothes, and they fit, except for the bust line. I have no idea what that's going to be when we're done nursing.

Alex is 5 months old

The real question is, will I ever get rid of my pooch?

My pooch just seems to get more pronouced, the more weight I lose. It's actually getting weird, haha. Like, musing on the idea of getting it tucked kind of weird.

I'm about 3kg heavier now than when I fell pregnant with Elijah. I lost all the baby weight by the time he was about 3 months old. It was really easy to lose with breastfeeding and walking every day while babywearing. Those 3kg have slowly crept on due to my work becoming more sedentary and Elijah being more independent and not needing me to run after him.

Helen - mother of one, aged 5.

I gained just shy of sixty pounds when I was pregnant. It still kind of shocks me that I gained that much. But baby was super big, almost nine pounds, he was late, and I had stuffed myself silly in the first trimester because I was worried that maybe the reason I had miscarried so many times before was because I was so thin (turns out it had nothing to do with that but I didn't know that at the time). Well, I sure took care of it, lol.

Anyway, by the time he was six months old I had lost most of it and by the time he was a year it was all gone. I attribute a lot of it to nursing and having to have a limited diet because baby was allergic to so many things (he grew out of his allergies).

At one year old I was thinner than I was before I got pregnant and have stayed the same weight since. The most I've fluctuated is sometimes I'm five pounds up, sometimes five pounds down.

One boy, he'll be twenty in November.

Theresa wrote:

The real question is, will I ever get rid of my pooch?

My pooch just seems to get more pronouced, the more weight I lose. It's actually getting weird, haha. Like, musing on the idea of getting it tucked kind of weird.

Yeah, I am kinda afraid of that. I THINK mine is mostly just fat and flabby stomach muscles, but some is probably extra skin. I hope that is minimal. I am really only 10 lbs from my pre-preg weight, but 20 from my target. BTW, my previous post was sopposed to read "I am now working on losing the 20 lbs", not "I am not working on losing". Totally different meaning there

My son is 7, going on 8 soon. (Man, time flies!)

By the time I was 8 weeks postpartum I was about three pounds lighter than I was when I conceived him. Then I gained that back and gained even MORE weight. At my heaviest I got up to 25 more pounds than I was before I had him. I call it 'mom weight' because I gained it as the result of having a kid. Exhausted, eating snacks that kids eat and eating his leftover food, unhealthy habits like that that happen when you have a kid.

Well I put in some changes 3 years ago, lost half that weight and then in January cracked down on myself BIG TIME. I am now back to the '3 pounds under my conception weight' again. Woo!

The pouch eventually shrank, somewhat, but I see that if I really want it gone I'm going to have to lift weights and maybe get a tummy tuck, lol! I'm happy with the way I look now, but I know I need to lose another 25 pounds and I'm about to tackle that next.

I weighed more than I liked when I got pregnant with my first child; so I really watched my diet and gained only 3 pounds. Of course that means my own body really lost pounds. After I had the baby my own weight was way, WAY too low! With my second I was more sensible, gainingd about 20 pounds, all of which was baby, water, etc.; so I was my normal weight afterward. The pounds did creep up in middle age; however I got them off and kept them off with dancing, walking, etc. I think a lot of people's weight gain has to do with the lifestyle changes like others have mentioned. When you're dashing around between work and getting kids to activities you're grabbing whatever you can to eat, whenever you can. Plus there's no time for exercise And even if you have the kids eating healthy, they may need more calories than you should have; so meals aren't ideal for your own body.

Nope. Lucy is 4, I immediately dropped 30 lbs after she was born. I got down to 10 pounds OVER pre-pregnancy weight when she was a year old and stayed there until I got pregnant again when she was 19 months. After Caroline (now 19 months), I'm still at 10-15 lbs over pre-pregnancy with HER, which is 25 lbs over pre-pregnancy with Lucy!

I'm finally buckling down and have made it my goal to lose 50 lbs by my birthday, which is just under 5 months away. I'm swimming laps 3 times a week usually and starting this weekend, I'm completely revamping what I'm eating for breakfast and lunch and making sure nothing gets in the way of the swimming, plus I've started teaching a dance class so I'm trying to get into better shape for/with that. Breastfeeding has done nothing to help me lose weight at all, which sucks, but oh well.

I was so sick my entire pregnancy I only gained about 10 lbs. Now, post baby... I have gained. I am nursing... so I use that as an excuse. Hubby & I started working out and eating healthy about 7-8 weeks post delivery, but our schedules are so hectic that our time together is the time we were using to work out... so that ceased to exist. Sadie is only 5 months old, so once she is on a solid schedule & I graduate (I have about a year of undergrad left) I hope things will settle down. Until that happens, I still fit in most of my clothes and am happy with the way things are (until I am in front of all the mirrors when I teach!)

Anyways, 1 baby- 5 months old

Hell no! Baby # 1- I only gained 12 lbs since I had bad morning sickness! Baby # 2- Gained 20 lbs but lost that plus 10 more.

Today I weigh way too much. PCOS has screwed me up so much in the weight loss isle. I am losing but not fast enough!

Po

^ I have PCOS...Weight watchers really helped me lose the baby weight and than some.

I have a 2 year old who will be 3 in Dec. I am 10 pounds under what I was when I got pregnant with her. 35 pounds total lost and it took me a year. I think it would have taken less time If I hadn't fell off track a bit at the beginning of the year due to a crazy work schedule. The good news is that during that time I more or less maintained what I had already lost. Right after I had her I lost the weight gained pretty quickly because of nursing but slowly gained it back because food tasted good (too good! lol) again. I was constantly sick while pregnant and didn't gain a lot but I wanted to lose the extra 60 pounds I put on since leaving the Army.

Looking back it hasn't been too hard. Weight Watchers plan makes it very easy to me and I've been more active as well because of it. I'm currently training for the Army 10 miler next Oct and do Yoga 2-3 times a week as well as walking 3 miles every other day and swimming when I can.

I recommend to anyone who struggles with weight to give them a try!