How To Lose Weight After Pregnancy

Your body needs time to recover from labour and delivery. Try and give yourself at least 6-8 weeks before you start watching your calorie intake and actively trying to slim down. If you're breastfeeding, experts recommend that you wait until your baby is at least 2 months old before you try to lose weight.

Starting a diet too soon after giving birth can delay your recovery and make you feel more tired – and in addition, if you're nursing, dieting can affect your milk supply.

New mothers should give their body time to adjust to the various changes that occur during pregnancy and after delivery. A strict calorie-reduced diet is not recommended during breastfeeding, since breast milk production and quality can be affected by low calories. There is an increased need of about 300 to 500 calories while breastfeeding. With guidance from your doctor, moderate exercise may promote some weight and inch loss.

If you are breast feeding, you should not use any products, unless you are reviewed and cleared by your doctor.

How can I lose weight safely?

Eating healthily, and including plenty of fruit and vegetables in your meals and snacks, will speed your recovery from labour and birth. It will also give you the energy you need to keep up with the demands of being a new parent.

Whether you are breastfeeding or formula feeding, you should aim to eat a healthy diet. Eating well will help you to feel better and help you to keep up your energy levels.

These tips will help you to achieve and maintain a healthy weight:

• Make time for breakfast in the morning
• Eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day
• Include plenty of fibre-rich foods such as oats, beans, lentils, grains and seeds in your meals
• Include starchy foods such as bread, rice and pasta (preferably whole grain varieties for added fibre) in every meal
• Cut back on fatty and sugary foods, takeaways, fast food, sweets, cakes, biscuits, pastries and fizzy drinks
• Watch your portions at mealtimes, and the number and type of snacks you eat between meals
• Combining healthy eating with exercise will be the most effective, because it helps you to lose fat instead of lean tissue. You will also improve your fitness levels

What exercise can I do?

Finding the time to fit exercise into your daily life, now that you have a newborn, can be tricky. But it's not impossible, as long as you make it a priority.

You can start to do some gentle exercise such as walking, pelvic floor exercises and stretching, as soon as you feel up to it. However, you should wait six weeks or so, or until you feel that you've recovered from the birth, before taking up more strenuous exercise.

Or you could exercise with your baby. Take your baby for walks in her pushchair, or try a pram-based exercise class. Group classes are also a great way to meet other mums, and the fresh air may also help to lift your mood.

How many calories do I need?

How much you need to eat depends on your weight, how active you are, and whether or not you are breastfeeding.

It can be difficult to lose weight after having a baby, but try to lose the weight you gained during your pregnancy before you try for another baby. This is especially important if you were overweight to begin with, or if you gained a lot of weight during your pregnancy.

Even a small weight gain of one or two BMI units between pregnancies can increase the risk of complications in your next pregnancy. Complications include high blood pressure and gestational diabetes, as well as increasing your likelihood of giving birth to a big baby. You can check your BMI here
Losing the extra weight you've gained after you've had a baby may also help you to manage your weight in the longer term, and to keep the weight off.

Does breastfeeding affect weight loss?

If you're breastfeeding, you’ll need slightly more calories than if you are formula feeding your baby. You’ll need around an extra 300-500 calories a day to have the energy to produce milk. However, some of these additional energy needs will be met from your body’s existing fat stores. Find out more about calories here

This means that breastfeeding can help you lose weight if you combine it with eating healthily and regular exercise. There's also some research which suggests that breastfeeding may also help you to keep your weight off in the longer term.

It’s safe to lose weight when breastfeeding if you do it gradually. Losing between 0.5kg and 1kg (1lb to 2lbs) a week shouldn't affect the quality or supply of your milk, or your baby's growth. Losing weight gradually will also make it more likely to stay off.

How long will it take for my tummy to shrink back to normal?

We've all heard stories of new mums who regain their pre-pregnancy bodies within weeks of giving birth. Although this is possible, it doesn't happen that way for most mums. Bear in mind that your body may change shape after pregnancy. You may find it difficult to return to your exact pre-pregnancy weight or shape. Patience is the key. It took nine months for your tummy muscles to stretch to accommodate a full-term baby. So it makes sense that it can take that long, or longer, to tighten up again!
The speed and degree of this tightening up depends on a few factors, including:

• What shape and size you were before you conceived your baby
• How much weight you gained during pregnancy
• How active you are
• Something you can't do anything about: your genes!

You may find it easier to shed the weight if:

• You gained less than 13.6kg (2st 2lb) and exercised regularly during pregnancy
• You breastfeed
• This is your first baby

As a guide, you shouldn't aim to be back to your pre-pregnancy weight until about six months after your baby's birth.

My tummy muscles feel slack - is this normal?

If your tummy muscles feel very slack it could be because pregnancy has over-stretched them. This over-stretching is called diastases rectus abdominus. It is more likely to happen if you had a large baby or carried your baby "all at the front".

To find out if you have diastases rectus abdominus, and not just normal pregnancy stretching, your midwife should give you a rec check. A rec check is also something you can do yourself. If you do have diastases rectus abdominus your GP can refer you to a women's health physiotherapist who can give you specific exercises to help you.

Leaving diastases rectus abdominus untreated may increase your chances of developing back pain and will make it harder for you to regain a flat tummy

Find out more great health & wellness tips at:

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