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I wasn't trying, but I started out my first pregnancy overweight and lost 11 pounds in the first half, and then gained back 20 (so, positive 9 pounds in the end). After I delivered, I was 20 pounds under my pre preg weight.

Just continue to eat healthy, but don't starve yourself. If you get queasy, eat what you can handle.

Yes, dieting while pregnant is a very bad idea. I went into pregnancy dieting, and I didn't really know what a more normal calorie level was, so I continued to eat below my hunger for the first trimester. Eventually that just wasn't possible, and I stopped. Then, at 41 weeks, my placenta failed, and I had to have a difficult induction due to low amniotic fluid. I later found a study linking dieting in the first trimester to low amniotic fluid post term.

Who knows if it was really linked, but I know that I won't be restricting next pregnancy.

I will preface this by saying I haven't experienced this situation BUT I am a bit of a health nut, so I would just suggest continuing to live the new, healthier lifestyle you've been living and stop weighing yourself. You may lose some weight in the beginning, but then again, you may not. As long as you are making good eating choices, hitting your minimum caloric intake for the day, and keeping up a form of physical activity, I think you will find yourself in much better shape and better prepared to continue your weight loss program post-baby. I think getting caught up on the numbers on the scale will just be setting yourself up for failure though, so I'd try to ignore the weigh ins at the doctor's office as much as you can and focus on how you're feeling instead.

Good luck and congratulations on your BFP!

ETA: just to clarify, when I said 'hitting your minimum caloric intake', I didn't mean that you shouldn't eat more than that if your body is telling you it needs more food. I meant to make sure that you hit AT LEAST that number of calories per day. Sorry if that was confusing.

Your cat

I got pregnant at about 190 lbs. It was highest at the time despite a lot of healthy eating. My OB mentioned doing a health program during pregnancy. I never followed up on it. I only gained about 25 lbs during my pregnancy. I also walk a ton in the city and did to appointments.

Right now, I'm a year pp and working off my extra weight from breastfeeding. I'm hoping to get down to 180 lbs by Christmas to consider conceiving again. My thought is that I can go up to 200 from that easier and safer. When I have my annual appointment, I'm going to ask my OB about being on WW during pregnancy since they have allowances for it. I've heard of physicians being okay with it as long as the baby's growing and has enough amniotic fluid.

I got pregnant after a 25lb loss, but still wanted to lose at least 25 more. I was fairly careful with what I ate (but did what I had to to beat morning sickness), and managed to keep my weight gain fairly minimal (20lbs).
That being said- while you can be conscious of your weight while pregnant, just don't let it stress you out at all. If you're careful, you'll gain what your body/baby needs you to!

@Mae: I don't know if that is from the very start for everyone, but I have been and I haven't gained any weight. My belly is still swollen to the size of a semi, but no weight gain.

I guess what I am more so trying to say is if you've been eating healthier, that's great. If you tend to reach for potato chips, soda, and all that when you have cravings try to reach for something better like almond (I like oven roasted chocolate myself), or frozen yogurt over ice cream to try and combat the cravings, but still stay within a reasonable amount of calories.

If you truly want to know how many calories you should be eating per day (with a goal of losing 1lb per week is since 1lb per week is healthy), you can take your total daily energy expenditure - 20%. Total daily energy expenditure can be calculated by a number of websites. I just Googled it and do 3 different calculators since some give you a really high calorie and some are really low. Then I take the middle number I find. So, for instance, if one website says I need 1600 and another says I need 2000, I would probably go with a happy medium of 1800.

Even if you don't do all of that, try not to sweat it. I know you said you might balloon up if you listen to your body, but I really think it won't so long as when your body says, "I'm hungry" you reach for some carrots or cucumbers rather than cookies and chocolate.