Lose Weight After Childbirth
Whats the best way to get fit following the birth of your baby
What a challenging question and sensitive topic. There are some many ways to approach this depending on your own personal situation. We'll work through this step by step and we'll assume that you want to breast feed your baby. Why? Well other articles will discuss the nutritional merits of breastfeeding but from a weight perspective, 500 calories a day will be burned breast feeding, but more on that later. This article will focus on your diet and exercise required.
So you've probably gained 20-30 pounds or 10 - 20 kilos. Maybe not surprisingly, but after giving birth you'll find you won't have lost much of the weight you had gained. But do not worry about that. Added to that, depending on your age, as you are getting older, your metabolism could be slowing down. After birth, you'll probably feel exhausted for a few weeks, and exercise and healthy eating may be far front the front of your mind.
As you are going to breastfeed your baby, you must eat and drink healthily - well you should anyway! This is your first natural step to losing weight, but you should expect it to take time, anything from 6 months to a year. After all, you have been putting weight on for the last 9 months. Whilst you are breastfeeding, you may find initially (or even for the first 6 months) you do not lose any, or very little weight as your body will naturally retain fat reserves.
Some ladies will lose some weight quickly but many will take what will seem like a long time. Stay away from diet tablets, they are just not needed, and also stay away from fad diets, they will not be healthy for your baby whilst breastfeeding. Your focus needs to be healthy eating for you and your baby so you both get the right levels of nutrition, and exercise.
Health service guidelines generally state that you should wait 6-10 weeks after giving birth (10 weeks if you had a caesarean) before starting exercises. However, always check with your doctor first.
Start light exercise as soon as you feel you are able to. The most recommended way is to take your baby for a walk. Start with a few minutes then build up slowly, and will give you both lots of fresh air. Then try and build up your exercise even more. One idea is to swap babysitting duties and go to the gym 2-3 times a week, but really try some exercise.
Drink lots of water and some fresh juice each day. No need for sugar laden fizzy drinks
Snacks - there are plenty of healthy snacks, including fruit, dried fruit, nuts (not the ones with salt and soaked in oil). No crisps or biscuits which have saturated fat and may result in you putting on even more weight.
Lean meat - take the fat off! I.e. remove the skin from chicken, and all the fat from bacon, pork, beef etc, no matter how tasty you may remember it to be.
No fast food - this may be difficult especially if you are tired and feeling lazy, but all that fat and salt will not be good for either of you
As mentioned, breastfeeding can burn 500 calories, BUT, you should expect to eat more than your normal calorie requirement to compensate for this, not just use as a tool for your improving your body weight.
Follow these simple rules and keep thinking of that dress or skinny jeans you will treat yourself on you are back to the weight and figure you desired. Let us know how you get on!
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