The Struggles of Losing the Baby Weight and Keeping It Off
How easy did you find losing the weight after baby and getting back into shape/fitness?
I think the answer for most would be the first few pounds fell off or came off relatively quickly, after that, we had to work hard at it! For some, it has stayed with us, years beyond having our baby! This is very frustrating.
Something I hear a lot is “I was doing so well, one week I lost 3 pounds and another week nothing and then I ended up putting it all back on”!
I totally get this it is a never-ending battle of yo-yo dieting and exercise.
It doesn’t have to be like this! What you need to do is permanently change your mindset. Don’t go into a new exercise regime and diet looking at it like it’s going to be too hard or a burden to have to not eat the foods we crave or battle to get to the gym! Look at this as the new norm and make small changes to start with, like portion control, eat slower, drink more water and choose exercises that you enjoy, and that doesn’t mean you have to go to the gym, there are hundreds of exercises you can do at home or with a PT in a private space! After 21-28 days you start to form a habit and it becomes the norm.
Stop looking at the scales week in and week out! Weigh yourself once a month. Don’t forget the scales can fluctuate daily for us women, we carry more water than men, muscle is heavier than fat, so the scales may look like you have put weight on but in fact, you have built muscle.
Measure yourself instead of the scales, once a month. Focus on how you feel in your clothes, have they got looser?! That is a sure sign your body is changing.
Don’t get hung up on BMI, it’s rarely accurate!
Focus on healthy eating, stop calling it a diet, that word in itself causes frustration. Focus on how you feel. Exercise daily, even if its walks are broken down into 20 mins at a time. Do something that gets your heart rate up. Stay hydrated, try to get 8 hours sleep a night. If you think you feel hungry, drink some water first.
Don’t go for the tin of biscuits! I am not saying totally deprive yourself I’m just saying be mindful, everything in moderation. It is simple, calories in and calories out and calorie deficit to lose weight. If you are breastfeeding you will burn up to 600 calories per day and you need an extra 400 calories. Just being more active and eating healthily will make a huge difference.
Please do not starve yourself, your body is recovering from having a baby and it needs good nutrition and hydration to enable you to be fit and well and fully recover.
It takes 9 months to grow a baby and between 9 months to a year for our body to completely return to the pre-pregnancy state.
Lastly, don’t look at the magazines with the women who are saying after 6 weeks they are back in their skinny jeans! They most likely have a chef, a PT a cleaner, and a nanny! Also, they have been airbrushed in most cases!
Be kind to yourself, you will lose the weight if you do things slowly and gradually progress and be patient!
