Losing weight after pregnancy presents a special type of dilemma. At no other time in a woman’s life is she likely to gain as much weight in as short a period. And after having a child, specially your first child, life changes drastically. You might find it hard to make time to exercise. If you’re nursing, you can’t limit calories. It seems as though many of the standard avenues to losing weight have been cut off.
Although experts suggest that a woman gain no more than about 27 pounds during pregnancy, for some of us, that’s easier said than done. Some women report that they gained weight during pregnancy despite of how cautiously they controlled their eating, even if they made a point of exercising. Some pregnancies just seem to demand weight gain – interestingly, this seems to be especially true of women who are physically thinner than average to begin with. For a naturally ‘skinny’ woman to gain what might seem to be a huge amount of weight – sometimes up to sixty or even seventy pounds – during pregnancy seems to be a rather common phenomenon. Pregnancy seems to change the way that food is metabolized and fat is stored. The amount of weight you gain during pregnancy may even be genetic.
Certainly, pregnancy food cravings in addition have something to do with it! We’ve all heard of some of the weird cravings that pregnant women can get, but actually, most crave the nutrients they need the most. It’s not unusual for a woman who is normally a vegetarian to have strong cravings for meat while she is pregnant, for example. These are cravings you can and should give in to, because your body is telling you what it needs.
Some women additionally find that they need to eat during the first trimester, as it keeps morning sickness at bay. ‘Morning sickness’ is truly a bit of a misnomer, as it can happen at any time of day or night. It tends to happen the most when your stomach is empty and your blood sugar is low. A number of women pack on the pounds during these first few months of pregnancy just to keep from feeling sick all the time.
So, for one reason or another, lots of women find that it’s very difficult or not possible to manage their weight gain during pregnancy. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t try, of course, but if you know that you’re eating healthy foods and the weight is coming on regardless, let it. You’ll do more harm than good by trying to diet during pregnancy. As long as you aren’t binging or eating unhealthy foods, rest assured that your body has its own wisdom and you are gaining weight as you need to.
However only about ten or fifteen pounds are lost during delivery, there are a lot of opportunities to lose weight after the child is born. For one thing, if you give it a month or so, you might find that most of the weight disappears on its own during nursing. In actual fact, that’s one of the reasons why women are programmed to gain weight during pregnancy – after the baby’s born, you need that extra weight. It all gets transformed to milk to feed your baby. As a matter of fact, nursing full time burns about 500 calories a day – the same as a good workout. At that rate, you could lose a pound a week without even trying.
That having been said, there may come a time when you do have to put some attempt into losing those last few pounds. After your baby is weaned, that natural means of weight loss isn’t there anymore. It’s time to start adding some workouts to your day by day schedule. If you don’t have the opportunity to train without the baby, take him along – that’s why jogging strollers were invented. Or improve your calorie burning by carrying your baby in a front or back carrier while you go for a walk or hike. The babies love it, and for you, it’s like carrying a frequently increasing weight around with your for hours at a time – great for burning fat.
After you have a child, you may feel as though the baby has taken over your whole existence. It doesn’t have to be that way. Take the time to recover your body and your time, and you’ll have more energy to take on the wild schedule of a new mother.
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