How To Lose Your Baby Weight Fast

How To Lose Your Baby Weight Fast

Most pregnant women will gain a lot of weight during their pregnancy. On average, you can expect to gain between 25 to 40 pounds, depending on a few factors, like if you were underweight or had a normal weight.

As you watch your weight increase, you will get the usual worries and with it the accompanying you’ll lose the weight as soon as you put to bed remarks from friends and families aimed at putting you at ease.

I know I got a lot of these consolatory remarks as I agonized over my distended belly and thick thighs that threatened to burst through my old clothes.

To a large extent, these comments are right, but only so much so. Every woman can lose her pregnancy weight, but only if she really wants to. Now, while it would be nice to just sit back and watch the weight gradually fall off each day, it doesn’t always happen this way.

For most of us, we have to put in the effort and give it time to shed this extra weight.

I have had two successful pregnancies and managed to shed the baby weight each time with some a lot of effort.

Here are the methods that work to help you shed that pregnancy weight each time:

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9 Ways to Lose Your Baby Weight Fast

1) Set a Realistic Goal

I know I wanted the weight gone yesterday! I wanted to snap back to my pre-pregnancy body and soon as possible. However, one thing I learned slowly and painfully is that these things take time.

It’s easy to look at celebrities snap back to their banging bodies a few weeks after birthing, but in reality, most of the methods adopted by these guys to achieve such lightening-speed weight loss are unhealthy and hardly come recommended by experts.

Your body has gone through some rigours and needs time and the utmost care to heal and recover.

It takes up to six weeks for most women to truly heal from the pregnancy and labour experience and your body doesn’t need any added stress at this time.

Read Also: 40 Baby Hacks That Will Help You Tons as a New Mom

2) Avoid Crash Dieting

Crash diets are bad. Period. They offer no real lasting benefits and all the disadvantages in the world.

Most diet programmes like Paleo, Atkins, Keto, and the 5:2 intermittent fasting, to mention a few, work on the principle of taking in very few calories to promote weight loss. This low caloric diet would invariably translate to taking in fewer nutrients and since your body needs good nutrients at this time, this could severely impact you and your baby.

3) Opt for Breastfeeding

Now, this is one weight loss method experts recommend hands down!

There are so many benefits to breastfeeding a baby and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months and mixed feeding afterward.

Besides providing the right nutrition and also supporting your baby’s immune system, breastfeeding also offers some amazing health benefits for you, the mom as it reduces your risk of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, and then goes that extra step to help you lose your pregnancy weight.

Breastfeeding can see you burning as much as 500 calories a day, and up to 3,500 in a week!

Related: 5 Reasons a Breast Pump is Worth the Money

4) Eat Smart

Some women just eat a double portion of their regular meals to meet the demands of breastfeeding and while you need a little more calories when breastfeeding, about 450 to 500 more, you can meet this need, not by eating a whole lot, but by eating right.

There are a few tricks to striking that balance between eating right for you and your baby and still staying on your goal to lose that pregnancy weight:

• Include more protein in your diet. Protein boosts metabolism, reduces appetite, increases the feeling of fullness, and keeps you feeling full for longer.
• Include other fibers like oats, nuts and seeds, potatoes, and wholegrain cereals. What’s more? Some of these foods like oats have also been known to boost breastmilk production.
• Keep track of the calories you take daily using a food journal, this way you know just how much you’re consuming and where you need to make adjustments if needed.

5) Keep Active

If you had normal childbirth with no complications, your doctor would give you the go-ahead to start exercising a few days to a week after. The waiting period is usually longer for moms with some slight complications or who underwent a cesarean section.

One thing you should know though is that in all of these cases, you want to start with some mild form of exercises like walking or swimming that will keep you on track without stressing your already delicate body.

As your body heals further, your doctor would typically give the go-ahead to progress to some other high-intensity exercises like running and other forms of aerobics.

6) Get Enough Sleep

Getting enough sleep is vital for moms looking to lose weight. And while it might be a little difficult to get the recommended 7 -8 hours with a new boss calling all the shots, you can get around this by sleeping when they do and taking as many naps as you can during the day.

You’ll likely get as many friends and family offering to help out, especially during the early stages and you should use this to get as much rest as you can.

7) Opt For Healthy Snacks

Opt for healthy snacks when you feel those hunger pangs between meals. I used to get some slight dizzy spells when my son nursed, as he had such a huge appetite, even at that age.

What I did to keep the calories on track was to snack as often as I could and seeing as I didn’t want to add any more weight than I needed, I opted for healthy snacks like nuts and dried fruits, Greek yogurt, and spiced nuts.

These came low in calories, but much higher in the nutrients we both needed at this time.

Read More: 9 Coping Mechanisms for a New Mom with a New Baby

8) Ditch Alcohol

There’s a lot of controversy surrounding the wisdom of taking alcohol while breastfeeding. Health experts discourage alcohol consumption during this time, although it has been proven that women who stick to just one glass a day and this 2 – 3 hour before nursing pass very little of this to their babies.

However, if your goal is to lose weight, you might want to give up this habit completely for the time being, as alcohol, while being quite high in calories, is very low in nutrients.

Consuming a lot of this would not just be bad for your baby’s health, but also your weight loss goal.

9) Drink Water

Lastly, taking a lot of water while breastfeeding is strongly encouraged as, not only does this keep you hydrated, it also improves your metabolism, boosts your breastmilk production, and increases your sense of fullness.

Experts recommend taking between 12 to 16 cups of water, daily and you can get these from the foods and drinks you take throughout the day.