Hello there- I just gave birth to my beautiful (8pound 14 ounce)3rd baby and first daughter via c-section 5 weeks ago and I was a little worse off than you- starting weight 215 at 5’6 but have a similar muscular build and feel like my arms bulk up. I definitely had the same worries starting a pregnancy at such a weight and I decided to swim with my kids until weather wouldn’t allow and switched to my elliptical almost every day for 30 minutes Swimming is such sweet relief on a heavy pregnancy body. If you don’t have an elliptical machine in your home- get one if you can! its the second best cardio thing for a pregnant woman, swimming being the first. I am lucky enough to have an elliptical and a pool right now and it makes it much easier if you don’t have to go to a gym. I haven’t weighed myself yet nor have I started working out again, but I feel great just not being pregnant anymore. I look forward to getting the ok next week to start exercise again. Cheers to your pregnancy and my main advice to you is just try to be as healthy as you can and try to keep your total weight gain between 20- 35 pounds. That’s the usual advice that’s given regardless of your starting weight, but I felt it was super important for me to do since I was already so heavy. I succeeded in this (barely) final weight before birth exactly 250, yay! I used a calorie tracker (my fitness pal) for a while as well to keep my daily calories around 2100. Swimming allowed me to eat up to 2800! I set the tracker to give me a calorie goal based on a sedentary lifestyle with a weight loss goal of 1 lb per week, figuring I’d still safely gain weight from being pregnant and it worked out. Follow your own body cues and dr’s advice as far as this goes. My dr. told me I could “maintain” my weight and be ok- this was my interpretation of that advice. His nurse said I shouldn’t worry about calories and just make sure to eat healthy, focusing on good macros. I opted to use the calorie counter to aid with my macro tracking and self control- lol. I can’t say for sure what I did as far as calorie restriction would work for everyone, but it seemed reasonable to me and my baby is very healthy. Best of luck to you, mama!
Hello there- I just gave birth to my beautiful (8pound 14 ounce)3rd baby and first daughter via c-section 5 weeks ago and I was a little worse off than you- starting weight 215 at 5’6 but have a similar muscular build and feel like my arms bulk up. I definitely had the same worries starting a pregnancy at such a weight and I decided to swim with my kids until weather wouldn’t allow and switched to my elliptical almost every day for 30 minutes Swimming is such sweet relief on a heavy pregnancy body. If you don’t have an elliptical machine in your home- get one if you can! its the second best cardio thing for a pregnant woman, swimming being the first. I am lucky enough to have an elliptical and a pool right now and it makes it much easier if you don’t have to go to a gym. I haven’t weighed myself yet nor have I started working out again, but I feel great just not being pregnant anymore. I look forward to getting the ok next week to start exercise again. Cheers to your pregnancy and my main advice to you is just try to be as healthy as you can and try to keep your total weight gain between 20- 35 pounds. That’s the usual advice that’s given regardless of your starting weight, but I felt it was super important for me to do since I was already so heavy. I succeeded in this (barely) final weight before birth exactly 250, yay! I used a calorie tracker (my fitness pal) for a while as well to keep my daily calories around 2100. Swimming allowed me to eat up to 2800! I set the tracker to give me a calorie goal based on a sedentary lifestyle with a weight loss goal of 1 lb per week, figuring I’d still safely gain weight from being pregnant and it worked out. Follow your own body cues and dr’s advice as far as this goes. My dr. told me I could “maintain” my weight and be ok- this was my interpretation of that advice. His nurse said I shouldn’t worry about calories and just make sure to eat healthy, focusing on good macros. I opted to use the calorie counter to aid with my macro tracking and self control- lol. I can’t say for sure what I did as far as calorie restriction would work for everyone, but it seemed reasonable to me and my baby is very healthy. Best of luck to you, mama!