How to Lose Pregnancy Weight Successfully
After your baby is born, everyone is excited and happy. Once this joy dwindles, the first thing mothers think is “how am I going to lose all this weight?” Unless you’re a celebrity or filthy rich, you don’t have the luxury of hiring a personal trainer and nutritionist to help you lose that pregnancy weight. Not to mention the fact that you have a new baby to take care of who needs to be fed every couple of hours.
When you embark on the mission to lose weight, whether or not you are breastfeeding, it’s vitally important to remember to focus on eating healthy and remaining active. These two simple principles alone will help catapult you to success. If you are breastfeeding and follow these 2 tips, you don’t have to worry about harming the quality and quantity of your milk supply. You should try and eat about 2000 calories a day with a combination of about 50% carbs, 30-40% protein, and 10-20% fat. Fiber is an important component to not overlook in your diet. You don’t need to be extremely strict to the point of insanity, but these are just rough guidelines.
Everyone, including new mothers (once your doctor clears you), need to be active. Being active has numerous health benefits, but is probably one of the most avoided things these days. Everyone wants to find the quickest way to lose weight without lifting a finger. Well I wish this was true, but unfortunately it’s not. These quick weight loss methods can be harmful and oftentimes are short-lived. Exercise, as a combination of strength/resistance training and cardio, is necessary to build that toned and sexy body that everyone wants.
You don’t have to exercise so hard that you can’t breathe, otherwise you will quit. A moderate intensity, where you can hold a conversation, is effective enough and gives you that feeling of “that wasn’t so bad”. You want to be consistent otherwise you won’t see results and will give up. Strength training either with bodyweight, weights, or resistance bands should ideally be done 3 times a week for 30 minutes. When you do cardio, also try to do a minimum of 30 minutes up to 60 minutes. The goal is a combination of strength training and cardio 3-5 times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes each day.
This sounds like a big undertaking, but keep it simple and manageable. Start off with exercise 3 times a week for 30 minutes each time. As you feel comfortable work out longer. Then when you are working out for 60 minutes a day, start working out 4 times a week for 30 minutes. Slowly increase the duration you work out. Also, if you are busy (which you probably are if your breastfeeding), you can split up the routines into 10-15 minute workouts a couple times a day. This makes you feel less overwhelmed and can even give a quick pick-me-up afterwards. The bottom line is make it fun. Make it something you look forward to everyday (if you can imagine that). You want to have a feeling of accomplishment afterwards. Don’t make it a chore otherwise you are just setting yourself up for failure.
Even though everyone has a number in their head about how many pounds they want to lose, try to make short-term goals on a weekly basis which can help you get on the right track. It’s hard work to lose weight which is why most people get discouraged. Sometimes you have to tweak either your diet or your exercise to get the weight loss ball rolling. Slow and steady is the key to safe weight loss which will stay off, unlike those rapid weight loss methods out there. Following this simple plan will help you lose those unwanted pounds as long as you stay consistent.
