Pregnancy comes with its share of ups and downs, with weight gain being one of them. The key during pregnancy is to exercise moderately and eat healthy throughout the nine months so weight gain is kept to a minimum. Sometimes though, no matter how hard a pregnant woman tries to not gain a great deal of weight, it seems like the pounds just keep coming.
The following will help with post pregnancy weight loss.
Losing Weight from Breastfeeding
Along with being the healthiest choice for baby, breastfeeding will also help a mother lose unwanted weight. It is thought that breastfeeding burns an average of an extra 500 calories a day for the breastfeeding mother. That's about 20 calories per ounce of milk!
Breastmilk is also digested faster than formula, so a breastfeeding mother will be up and about feeding her baby more often than a non-breastfeeding mother.
Eat Healthy Foods to Lose Weight
Even though the foods a woman is eating are no longer being passed to her baby (unless she is breastfeeding, that is), she should still continue the healthy eating habits that were hopefully established during pregnancy. The fruits and vegetables are healthy calories to eat and provide a woman with essential vitamins and minerals. These are calories that the body will use, not ones that will be stored as fat.
Exercise to Lose Weight
At about six weeks post partum, the doctor will give a new mother the go-ahead for returning to her previous routine of exercise. Although it may take her a while to build back up to where she used to be, exercise is the number one way to burn the fat that was stored for nine months.
Exercising with baby can be fun. Purchasing a stroller will let baby partake in your exercising, and she may just pick up on some good habits!
Keep Busy to Lose Weight
Having a new baby keeps a mother busy at all times, but she needs to remember to schedule some fun time into her schedule.
Establish play dates with other mothers, even if the babies are too young to understand what is happening. By keeping busy and scheduling things to do, a new mother will have less time to sit around snacking on junk food, and more time to get up and be active.
Although losing pregnancy weight can seem like an impossible feat, it can be done! By staying active, exercising, and choosing healthy foods, a new mother can be back in her old jeans in no time.
Shannon Hinman - Shannon Hinman is an avid writer and reader. She has contributed material for autism DVDs, as well as written for a pregnancy website. ...
Join the Conversation