An average woman would normally gain more than 25 pounds during pregnancy. Your physician will most likely recommend that you avoid doing any major exercises until you reach your 3rd month after giving birth so that your body would be able to recover. This could mean that you would not be able to go on any diet or do heavy exercises until that time. But losing weight after pregnancy is possible if you keep these things in mind.
What you should always keep in mind is that you just delivered your baby, and a slow approach is the best since you may have to sacrifice a lot of valuable nutrients during the process, and it may also affect your baby in some way in the long run. Since it would be most likely that you breastfeed, you will have to take additional 500 calories so that you can properly produce milk for your child.
Check out these tips to help you lose weight after your pregnancy:
Eat Food That is Rich in Nutrients
Since you are breastfeeding, you would have to eat food that is rich in nutrients so that your baby can benefit from it and avoid eating foods that contain a lot of calories and fat. One type of food that is recommended for mothers who have just given birth would be seafood. Adding foods such as fish to your diet can help enhance the rate of your weight loss. Seafood contains enough protein that would help your body in recovering faster they are also packed with DHA which is an essential omega-3 fatty acid that helps in developing your baby’s nervous system and brain.
Continue Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding your child has been known to help mothers in losing weight after pregnancy. According to studies, breastfeeding actually helps in burning calories as well. So even if you are doubling your calorie intake to support both you and your child, you are actually burning over 600 calories each day if you are feeding your baby with pure breast milk.
Rest and Sleep More
With your baby’s demanding need for attention for almost 24 hours a day if you find time to rest and take a nap make sure to grab that opportunity. When your body feels exhausted and tired from all the things that you have done in a day, it will normally release stress hormones which contribute to weight gain. According to studies, women who just gave birth and sleeps less than 5 hours a day are more likely to have the same weight as what they have when they are pregnant than those women who sleep for 7 hours a day.
Do Some Minor Exercises
Getting up and tending to your baby’s needs is already a minor exercise. Try to take some brisk walks together with your baby and put him or her in a stroller for at least 15 to 30 minutes a day.
Food for Thought
One common misconception that mothers do is that they continue on eating the foods they eat when they were still pregnant. Yes, it is really hard for anyone to cut off everything that you have been used to doing the past 9 months, but if you are really looking into losing weight after pregnancy then you may want to stop eating high-calorie foods.
The average mom gains between 25-35 pounds during pregnancy. As a new mom, you shouldn’t be worried about losing weight after pregnancy until you are at least 3 months postpartum. This gives your body the chance to heal and recover and if you breastfeed, you have the chance to establish your milk supply.
This is great advice, thank you so much for sharing! I was amazed at how well breastfeeding helped me lose weight.
I’m not pregnant or planning to be anytime soon. But, that doesn’t mean it hurts to start getting prepared for AFTER pregnancy! Thanks so much for sharing! I’ll be holding onto this!
These seem to be realistic and sensible tips to losing weight that anyone could do 🙂
Those pounds can be hard to lose after having a baby. My frustration is my belly.
This was always a struggle for me. The weight falls off for some people but not for me. I had to really work on it and I STILL haven’t even lost it all, ha.
I wish I had read an article such as this several years ago! I think I had a lot of misinformation and didn’t understand the correct way to lose weight after pregnancy. This is a must read for new moms!
This was probably the worst struggle for me. I’ve finally lost all the baby weight….lol 21 years later.
These are all such great tips. I remember how hard it was to lose weight after a pregnancy.
Thank you for sharing this helpful article on losing weight after pregnancy. I appreciate the realistic approach and the encouragement for new moms to focus on self-care.
Great tips! It can be a struggle trying to lose that baby weight! I think it’s best to find a regiment that is best for your body. Don’t be hard on yourself as you stated: moms give your body time to heal and recover.
I lost weight after my babies were born but then hit a plateau. The rest came off after I was done breastfeeding.
It’s not easy to lose weight after having kids. I found it especially hard as I had a few close together.
I remember how hard is to lose weight after pregnancy. These advice will make it easier for sure!
What a really great and very helpful tips you have here! Thanks for sharing this with us
I gained so mucin weight with all of my pregnancies….. I was like 100 pounds soaking wet when I had my first neb and gained over 75 pounds. I do have to say I lost the weight in about a year…….each time…. because I was really active at work and also nursing helps 😉
definitely one of the tougher things to work on; my belly has stayed with me for years now 🙂 but 👍🏻, learning to cut down the foods we no longer need to goes a long way though we should remember to continue to eat healthy as long as we are feeding
Wow, that’s amazing! It’s one of the most interesting topics I’ve ever heard about! The information you provided is beneficial. Thanks for sharing it with me.
I was struggling with losing weight when my second son came, especially on the belly part lol. But I’m glad that you shared this post because this would be a big help for new moms out there if they want to lose weight after pregnancy.