It’s tough. Society places such a value on thin, attractive women that we criticize or stigmatize women who gain while pregnant and seem incapable or unwilling to slim down. If we had the right priorities, we would not subject women to this pressure.
Then again, I think it is natural for women to want to regain their figure because it signifies they are eligible for mating again.
In the parrot world, the females will pluck out all their feathers when they deem themselves to be unattractive and, thus, unsuitable to reproduce. I think some women do the same thing only with packing on weight instead of plucking feathers. It’s all subconscious.
As a male, I can only try to understand what that’s like but I see it all the time. So women like the one in this story are trying to a) fight the natural weight gain that happens in pregnancy and b) try to get a head start on looking suitable for mating again.
It is all so natural. You gain weight when you are pregnant because you are growing another human inside you, and it takes lots of protein. You lose about 25 pounds in childbirth, and if you nurse, you use from 500-1000 calories a DAY doing that.
It is a beautifully designed system, right from the git-go. I will say, however, it is unsettling to get on a scale and weigh 25 pounds more than you usually do. The obsession is where the problem lies.