"Pregnant, obese...and in danger"

[CTyankee]

46. In the early 60s when I was having my 3 kids, I was told to only gain 20 libs

in my pregnancies because it would be harder for me to shed more than that after giving birth. I remember crying at night from hunger pangs. Obviously my body was telling me something. But breast feeding took the weight off very quickly (and also I smoked back then because docs didn't look at smoking the way they do today).

Then the pendulum swung back and women were told to go ahead and gain more than 20 lbs. Women were gaining a lot more weight each pregnancy. And older moms found it harder than younger ones to shed the weight after.

I think we're now somewhere in between the two extremes and look upon both anorexia/bulemia and extreme overeating as eating disorders. And the stories were coming out in the media of people having those disorders. Frank Bruni of the NYT was one. He was obese as a kid and then became bulemic in college. He wrote about it and was on TV shows talking about his disorder and how he finally made his peace with food. I found it very moving.

Maybe because I am now in my 70s I am not being told by my doctors that I should lose weight, altho I am 30 lbs. heavier now. Maybe they "give up" once you get to a certain age...