How to Lose Weight After Pregnancy?
You’ve got a baby, well done! This might be one of your most beautiful day ever! However, after this great giving, many women gain weight after their pregnancy.
If you read us, don’t worry you are not alone. That’s normal, it’s life. And we are not all Beyoncé after all. But, here we are to rescue you! Indeed, we have some ways for you to lose weight and get back in shape, and even beyond!
So, if you just got a baby, first of all, congrats!
After giving birth, you lose weight thanks to the delivery of your baby. However, you not regain exactly the same skin or lose all the weight you took for the past 9 months.
You have now a new routine, and a baby to care about. That’s why it could be difficult for you to achieve a healthy weight after pregnancy.
So, we give you some advices in this article to lose this extra weight and to make you maybe more in shape that you were before. After all, getting a new born, it’s like being a new you. Thus, let’s get the best for you.
Breastfeed without crash dieting
Breastfeeding has a lot of benefits for you and your baby.
Firstly, your baby need breast milk for all the nutrients it contains.
Moreover, breastfeeding will lower the risks of diseases of your baby and yours as well. It will also reduce the size of your uterus after giving birth.
Furthermore, breastfeeding support the mother’s weight loss like it was shown by studies.
Unfortunately, during the first three months, it will be a bit harder for you to lose weight but after you will see some positive effects which can last forever.
And we advise you to be relax and not being in the race of losing this weight. After all, it took you 9 months to make this great giving.
We also recommend to you to don’t crash dieting, especially if you’re breastfeeding. Your body will need more calories and good nutrition to recover and to give nutritious milk to your infant.
If you do the both at the same time, you will probably feel very tired.
You know that you sleep will be already perturbed by your joyous gift so don’t make your life harder! Get the right nutrients for your body.
TIP: Try breastfeeding and get enough food during the first months, and after 3 months of it you might change and reduce the portion of your diet to lose weight. But don’t change anything at the beginning, and especially during the three first months.
Try to eat foods high in fibres
Eating foods high in fibres will help you for losing weight and it was proved in this study.
By eating nutrients high in fibres, you will feel fuller all-day long without hunger or less feeling of it. Doing that, you will not eat snacks or something else between meals. If you have meals high in fibre it should last until your next one.
You can find here a short-list of foods which are high in fibres. And if you really need snacks, which can be also normal, go for healthy ones.
At the same time, if you really want to make sure you have enough what you need, you can count your calories. Fitness pal is a great app for doing that.
So, as this, you could reduce your portion sizes and find which food rich in fibres are the best for you.
TIP: Add some broccolis or lentils in your meals with some fish for instance to have fibres and proteins to feel yourself well fed all-day long.
Read –> 7 most nutritious foods
Avoid sugar and reduce carbs
As their names implied, sugar and carbs are high in calories. Eating them will increase your weight, and also some risks of diabetes and cancers.
So, to lose weight after pregnancy or in general, these types of food are ones of the most not-advised.
You can find sugar and carbs in sugary drinks, cakes, fruit juice and more others, so you can replace them by healthy snacks, smoothies or also fruits for instance.
Furthermore, if you want to figure out your calories, you can simply look at the label of the food you chose. Check the capacity in carbs of what you eat and pay attention. So that will help you to lose some weight.
You can read this article to find some healthy foods that enable you to lose weight as well to eat healthy and avoid sugar.
TIP: If you feel hungry during the mid-morning or afternoon, we recommend you to eat an apple or a healthy snack instead of chocolates or some unhealthy snacks which you can crave. The good habits will take over quickly.
Drink a lot of water
Anyone who wants to lose weight should know that water is vital. It’s proved by studies that women could lose weight just by drinking water.
Then, drinking water before a meal will enable you to lose weight, and even more if it’s cold water. When you drink water, have you ever feel your appetite reducing by himself? It’s normal because it’s one of its great advantage. Indeed, calories and weight will decrease because you aren’t eating something else.
So, more than being healthy, drinking water allows you to lose weight without doing anything.
TIP: Prefer water during your meals than other sugary drinks. Then, try to always have a bottle of water next to you to be sure to drink enough.
Read –> How much water should you drink a day
Avoid alcohol or reduce it
A glass of red wine can have some health benefits but in small quantity.
When you’re breastfeeding, it’s important for your body to be well hydrated. And you should know that alcohol don’t allow that because it makes the opposite of it.
In addition of dehydrating yourself, alcohol contains a lot of sugar and calories.
So, to lose weight after pregnancy or in general, it is not recommended to drink too much of it.
That’s why, for your health and the one of your baby, try to be careful about your consumption.
TIP: If you’d like to drink a bit of alcohol, you can, but pay attention to breastfeed your child before! The next day or just after, drink a lot of water to purge your body to remove the toxin of alcohol.
Read –> 3 less calorie cocktails
Start doing some exercises
Cardio activities like swimming, running, cycling or just walking will help you to burn calories and at the same time to lose weight after pregnancy.
Indeed, exercises increase heart health and reduce risks of diabetes and cancers.
There are plenty of benefits from practicing some sports and exercising yourself. Sport coupled with healthy goods meals and enough water, enable you to be healthier and to lose waist size.
It might be daunting to begin exercises after 9 months without doing any sports. However, with enough motivation, you will achieve your goals and get even better beyond the one you were before.
Moreover, lifting weights could help you to have muscle which will help you to consume more calories and re-feed these gained muscles. People with muscles, have higher metabolism, consume more calories, thus lose more weight.
Now you know how Beyoncé and J-Lo did it.
You can discover here other health benefits of practicing sports.
TIP: Try to walk as much as possible and to get out a station earlier if you use transports to walk more. We also recommend you to be followed by a health/sport expert at the beginning.
Be sure you sleep enough
A good and sufficiently sleep can affect positively your mood.
On the opposite, the lack of sleep is related to the weight-gain after pregnancy like it’s shown here. Moreover, sleeping enough will enable you to be less stressed and recharge your precious energy.
That is actually true for anyone in general. Nonetheless, we know for new mothers, that it can be challenging to sleep enough with the cries of your baby during the night. That’s the reason why it’s not easy for you to achieve this point.
So, daddy has to help for this one.
If you have difficulties to sleep well, find some advices in this article.
TIP: Even if it’s complicated, try to sleep between 7 to 9 hours each night. Additionally, try to make a nap when your baby is doing one as well.
Read –> How much sleep do you need
Ask some help
If you don’t feel the courage to do that all alone or if you want to be sure to do it well, we advise you to be followed by an expert. Also, some of you like to have some shortcuts to lose more weight after pregnancy. There are plenty of great benefits about having a Personal trainer
As you can have a lot of work and a lot to manage with the baby and the work. It could be complicated to sleep enough and to achieve your goals. That’s why there are some people who are here to help you. It can be a nutritionist, a physio, a psychologist, a coach, a yoga teacher. Any expert that you feel confident to work with.
So, don’t hesitate to go to see them, it’s their job to help you!
You can find a group-support as well. You can share all your experiences and some advices. Plus, it was shown that mothers engaged in these groups lose more weight than ones are alone.
TIP: If it becomes too difficult for you to lose weight, don’t hesitate to find some groups to help you. Also, if you would have some more advices about your diet or exercises, you can see a nutritionist or a Personal trainer.
CONCLUSION
One of the greatest thing in the world will make you gain some weight. However, as you have seen, you have many ways to get back at your top level!
All these ways that you have seen are here to help you to lose weight after the birth of your infant.
Be patient and stay motivated. Step by step, you will lose some waist size and recover your body in shape, even beyond. Sky isn’t the limit.
So, to resume, the best way for you to lose this weight after pregnancy is to breastfeed your baby. Reduce sugar, eat healthy high in fibres. Drink a lot a water. All of these combined with an enough sleep and exercises will practically reduce your weight-gain. Finally, if you find all of that too difficult for you to finalise it, experts are here to help you like nutritionists, Personal trainers, psychologists.
Anyway, now you’ve gained the power of knowledge. So, go girl!
