is it me or is the amount of weight these ladies gain pretty shocking?! i only gained 14lbs! and the most of it dropped when they baby was born!

I agree. There is no reason to gain 60 lbs, even with twins. It's gluttony.

my theory (could be TOTALLY off) is that so many of these women are already on the very thin side based on their careers, so its like "woo hoo I am pregnant, free pass to eat/be whatever weight I want". I agree with both of you though that it is pretty self indulgent, and I can only imagine not good for you to gain so much weight and then drop it SO quickly.

Mamasita, I don't think that's way off at all ! Imagine being watched like a hawk -- people saying you are fat when you gain 3-5 lbs... suddenly you are supposed to gain weight .. cart blanche to eat as much as you want !

How sad.

a very fair point mamasita. it's like two extremes, you have those who go over the top with eating and those who watch every calorie and work out more than necessary - i read an interview with a lady a few weeks back who worked out the whole nine months, and because her stomach muscles were so tight the baby couldn't be delivered naturally. is it really that difficult to focus on the child - why would you get pregnant otherwise?! sigh.

I think the theme of the day is moderation. You should not be gaining that much weight, unless it's water weight which some women do retain during pregnancy. Then to drop that much weight so very quickly has to be bad for your bones and muscles and the elasticity of your skin. I have to struggle to eat healthy and excercise because of my busy life, and I am not holding up these celebs as the banner for health and fitness.

I gained about 25lbs with both of my children and it was super hard to get off until I just hard core exercised and ate right. Breastfeeding alone didn't do squat for me. I get real sick abd tired of lots of celeb moms saying all they did was breastfeed and the weight just melted away. Ugh!
And even with exercise my stomach will never be the same as it was before getting pregnant, but that's ok.

Anyone who is being watched like a hawk will obviously be under a lot of scrutiny for eating too little (so people say) or eating too much (so people say) or gaining to little or too much. I'm sorry, but if and when I become pregnant, I don't give two sh*ts about what anyone has to say about how much weight I gain and my body. If it doesn't do harm to yourself or the baby what's the big deal? If you are 5'8 and you weighed 120 before pregnancy and 170 as your highest weight in your pregnancy -- wtf? That is perfectly fine for the mother, and perfectly fine for the baby. If you are not used to eating a lot, and then all of the sudden cravings kick in, or you lose the ability to do the exercises you once did -- what do you expect? Don't live in fear that you will kill your kid because you gained 50 lbs. Seriously, it's not that big of a deal. With me, my mom gained a minimal amount of weight, and was very sick throughout her pregnancy -- I was also born premature because of it. When she was pregnant with my brother she gained 60 lbs, and guess what? She was not grotesque or extremely unhealthy. She bounced back from it as well.

You shouldn't eat burgers all the time, but you do need to eat more than you did before...and everyone is different. Sometimes eating a healthy amount for you and baby will cause mom to gain a lot of weight. Some people won't.

I agree Chrstne. Totally. I have had 2 kids. First time I gained 50-55 pounds (I'm 5'8" and I got up to 170.) Second time I only gained 35. It was indeed because I gave myself carte blanche the first time around, but WHO CARES? I am 36 and have had no problem getting my body back from the weight gain. My 1st daughter was very healthy and she is SUPER smart. My second was only 6 pounds at birth and is still super skinny, but she is still very smart and she's healthy too. So, take from that what you will.

Gained just shy of 40 with my twins and it was the most I'd gained with any (mom of 5 here). YES I nursed and I ate superhealthy but it didn't just 'suck it all out of me'. I wish it was that easy and it's annoying to read this too, not because I'm jealous, but because I don't buy it.

I gained 40+ pounds with both my pregnancies. The weight gain varies and the weight loss varies too.

I hate stories like this; it makes it seem like a competition to lose weight.

I've had friends get depressed because they feel like they can't lose weight fast enough and they compare themselves to celebs or to women who just "snap back".

60 lbs for one person could be a completely normal amount of weight to gain, especially if they were super skinny before getting pregnant. It's probably better than they do that than being pregorexic and trying to gain only like, 8 lbs and try to lose it right away. My aunt has battled an eating disorder for most of her life and when she was pregnant with her first few kids, she tried like crazy to not gain ANY weight and her kids had low birth weights and their teeth were malformed due to lack of calcium in utero. So lets not knock the celebs that gain 60 lbs when they're pregnant...obviously, they know how to lose it again and they do it. It makes me sad that it has to be such a contest though...like, who can lose the most weight the fastest? It should be about being healthy and having plenty of time to spend with your new baby.

7 out of 8 correct...I should have gotten the Xtina question right (I knew that one). But this is pretty great!

Yikes. I didn't realize how harsh people can be when they find out some people gain more than 20-30 lbs over their pregnancy.
I gained 80 lbs during my pregnancy. Yes, everyone can go ahead call me a glutton now
My son was 10 lbs, hehe, he's pretty big.
The first week after giving birth, miraculously almost 20 lbs fell off (water weight, I guess). Then when I was breast feeding, around 30 lbs fell off although I wasn't exercising and I was eating normal/healthy food.
So far (it's been 3 1/2 years of birth), I've lost 70 lbs of my weight gain. I was never in a hurry to lose them all (to go back to pre-baby body).

Everyone I know kept a big lump of fat until they stopped breastfeeding, and then the lump of fat miraculously dropped off. My weight loss has never started until I've stopped lactating, and then it just goes, with no diet or exercise - as my friend says, you get your old body back, but you may not want it back. Whatever you had to do before to stay in shape, you have to do after. No doubt it can help you lose weight in some cases. But for other people, and there are lots of them, I think breastfeeding likes you to keep a nice 10-14 pound store of fat in case of necessity, and your metabolism adapts to keep it. This must be possible - I ate almost nothing in the second half of my pregnancy, but kept gaining 2 pounds a week, that weight had to come from somewhere. I eat more now and haven't been able to exercise since giving birth, but have lost the 35 pounds again in 6 months.

i gained 35lbs during pregnancy (from 105 to 140 and i am only 5ft. tall) and it was mostly composed of water retention. i had a very complicated pregnancy ( had bell's palsy on my 36th week of pregnancy and eclampsia). It was really hard because they have to do a cs op on my 37th week of pregnancy as my bp won't normalize.

anyway, i breastfed for 3 months and during that time i never lost any weight gain i had during pregnancy. i only manage to loose about 20lbs a year after giving birth due to my operation and i did follow a strict diet and a hell lot of exercise!

there are women who can have their body back without exercise or diet ( is it because of their genes?) but it will definitely take time and not just as easy as the others claimed they do.

I was actually pretty happy to see that some of these women gained 40+ pounds. They probably needed to! If you started out super-skinny, some people just need to gain weight to help them carry the baby! No big deal. It hardly means you're eating hamburgers everyday- unless you're anemic and craving them. Pregnancy is hard enough without criticism. I gained 45 with my first and lost 20 before I left the hospital and 20 over the next 2 months without exercising. The other 5 took much longer maybe because I was breastfeeding and maybe because it was my Halloween candy weight! Who knows.

You ladies are ridiculous. It doesn't matter how much weight you gain; as long as you are eating healthy for that child. So what if someone gains 100 pounds while being pregnant?! It is silly to say that you should only gain 10-20 pounds while pregnant. People who try to keep their weight off during pregnancy should be ashamed because when you are pregnant, it's not about you, its all about the baby. Stop with these Hollywood wanna-be attitudes and fictitious realties of how a pregnant woman should look.

And in case you want to know, I am a mother of two, and a professional athlete and my body is gorgeous. Not because I starved myself while I was pregnant, but because I have the willpower to overcome the strenuous physical demands of carrying two children.

Well put Mrs Track Star!

There are so many variables that the amount of weight is irrelevant. Yes, being too skinny pre-pregnancy can mean a higher weight gain but so does being tall! If you were both skinny and tall as I was than 100lbs is not inconceivable nor does it necessarily reflect an unhealthy pregnancy. I am 6' tall my pre-pregnancy weight was 140lb(way to skinny for 6' tall), I put on 100lbs during my pregnancy but all kinds of things happened to my body, like I had real boobs for the first time in my life! I still have them even post nursing and I nursed for two years. I have not returned to my pre-pregnancy weight nor do I want to! I love the curvy body I have now which I certainly never ever had before! So there are also women who have not had enough hormones to fully develop until pregnancy occurs which will also increase weight gain. Plus I had an amazingly healthy 10lb baby boy who still outshines his peers in his development nine years later. So for those of you knocking larger weight gains during pregnancy please stop and realize that every body is different and has different needs to meet the demands of pregnancy.

That is RIGHT, HS Mom and Ms. Track star! I've gained 20 lbs of just water weight! But a total of 80. I'm not worried about losing it, it happens all the time. My baby will be healthy, and so will I!