37+weeks: The flipside of exercising during pregnancy

A quick post to note the following:

Increasing intensity of workouts at the gym during pregnancy or increasing the frequency of gym visits during pregnancy does very little to help with water retention.

Based on my last post of 29 Apr, I weighed in at 62kg. Unconciously/subconsciously, I decided to increase my intensity of gym workouts for that week, thinking that since I had already passed the 10kg threshold, I might as well work harder at the gym. & that was exactly what I did.

Lo and behold, when i weighed in on 3 May, I was up 63kg and finally, again on 6 May, I was recording 64kg! I was thinking to myself that this is absolutely crazy. With only approx. 3 more weeks before delivery, there was no way I was going to give up this fight with weight gain; not when I had made such a huge effort to be more cautious on more diet and gym routines. I was thinking: this is so not happening to me. Don't get me wrong: I'm not on a diet during pregnancy, I'm just very cautious about eating excessively or giving into cravings too easily and being lazy about exercise.

7 May was my regular checkup with the ObGyn. He told me that I should really stop going to the gym so much (I crinkled my brows and gave him a "you've-got-to-be-kidding-i-just-upped-2-kgs-in-1-week-and-you're-telling-me-I-should-stop-exercising?"). He went on further to explain that when standing on the elliptical trainer for more than 30mins and also during weight/strength training, it causes water to accumulate at all your other body parts/limbs except the kidneys, (which by the way is apparently where it is supposed to be). The kidneys will help dispel excess water out of our bodies. So he said, lie down more, and rest more and you'll see your weight come down.

Guess what: today is 9 May and I'm back down to 62kg from my 64kg on 7 May.

AMAZING! So technically, that fuss was all for nothing :) just water weight, not fat weight. ^_^