Post-pregnancy Weight Loss

How to lose weight Post-pregnancy

Hi friends! This is Neha Chandna Ranglani, a dietitian and nutrition educator practicing in Khar Mumbai since eight years. Today I am going to talk about post pregnancy weight loss and I am sure this is the most important thing for a new mother. Being a mother itself is an overwhelming feeling and there can be no more joyous feeling than giving birth to a new life on earth. But due to so much of physical emotional and mental changes that a mother goes through there is one question which always keeps popping in her mind and that is, 'how am I going to get back to my pre pregnancy body?'.  We need to keep one thing in mind that this is a very crucial period for you and your baby, you have not put on that weight overnight so you cannot lose it overnight. It’s a process and you have to follow a proper procedure to do that and you atleast need to give yourself a six week time to get used to the new routine before stepping into the whole new weight loss program or doing anything drastic that can help you to lose weight. The best way to lose weight is at the rate of half a kg per week. So let’s see how you can lose this weight slowly and gradually without affecting your health too much and here are the following ways with which you can do that.

1. Breast feeding- So it is very important to breastfeed your child, not only to lose weight but also to form a very good emotional bonding with the new baby and breastfeeding is the best exercise to burn away calories and all the extra fat that you have put on so make sure you don't stop breastfeeding till at least one year and keep feeding your baby so that you lose and burn all the extra calories that you have accumulated during your pregnancy.

2. To eat eat eat- Yes it is very important for you to eat properly and not starve yourself. Now mothers kind of starve after pregnancy thinking that they will lose weight with starving because they are so scared of putting on more weight, but let me tell you that when you starve you actually lose your muscle mass and lots of muscle mass can reduce your metabolism which can again lead to weight gain, so please don’t starve. Starving can also make you more hungry towards your next meal and you tend to eat more in your next meal and all the excess food will then go and stored as fat so the best idea is to eat and not to yourself.

 So now what you are supposed to eat? You need to start your day with a good breakfast which is going to boost up your metabolism. Especially with fruits. Fruits are awesome, they are filled with natural sugars and they fill up your liver glycogen stores so you have the energy to take care of your baby and deal with all the new things that you have to do. So make sure you include a lot of fruits in your diet. Then the next thing you need to include is good fats which come from coconut oil, nuts, coconuts, and seeds. So these are the good fats which have a lot of Omega-3 Vitamin E in them and you find, which help you to deal with all the trauma that your body has gone through, recover your hormones back and aid in weight loss. Now Omega 3 is again very important for your child’s brain development so you need to make sure you include a lot of Omega 3 rich fruits in your diet so that your baby becomes smart and intelligent.

Then you need to include a lot of fiber rich foods in your diet which includes salads, green leafy vegetables and whole grains like oats, brown rice, ragi, jowar. All these things are so rich in fiber that they keep you full for a longer time and you actually don’t get your hands on all the crap lying around you, so you need to make sure that your fiber intake is high, fiber also helps you to clear your bowels well which is a very important thing especially post pregnancy when women are facing constipation, fiber is the key ingredient for you to clean your stomach and you get your system rolling well. And it also helps you to keep your sugar level in control, so you don't feel hungry at odd hours and there are lesser chances of diabetes, so you need to make sure you up your fiber intake.

Then you need to include good protein food sources in your diet like eggs, nut milks, nuts, seeds, and you can also add some steamed sprouts or pulses which you can digest easily like Moong Dal or Masoor Dal which are easy on the stomach and do not give you gas or bloating because protein is again very important for the wear and tear and all the trauma that your body has gone through to help you repair all of that, so make sure you add your protein sources in your diet. Next is add some galactagogue in your diet, which means foods which help you to increase your milk production, like Jeera, Saunf, Methi seeds, alfalfa seeds. Now as your milk production increases you also lose weight indirectly. So these foods will help you to feed your baby better and lose weight faster.

Make sure you do not have very high salty or sugary foods because they can cause a lot of water retention and fat accumulation in your body. Make sure you remove all the high salty or sugary foods from your diet because they can cause a lot of water retention and fat accumulation in your body. Keep your processed food intake minimal, that is food which come in packs, tins or cans, just avoid them or omit them completely because they have a lot of artificial preservatives which can get into the milk and to your baby which we don’t want. So keep all these things out and focus more on live and natural foods because they are easy to digest and they give you the maximum nourishment. Last but not the least, since you are feeding your baby there is a lot of dehydration that can happen so you need to keep drinking water continuously and make sure you are hydrating yourself well. So every half an hour drink 100 to 150 to 200 ml water depending on your thirst, keep sipping water regularly and don't miss out on drinking water to keep you hydrated and to keep your metabolism going on and help you in losing more fat.

3. You need to get active- So exercise and ideal diet go hand in hand to help you shed all the extra weight. So you can start exercising six weeks after normal delivery and eight weeks after cesarean delivery. 10 to 20 minutes of any activity that you like, like walking, jogging, swimming, body conditioning. And do something under a trainer's supervision and then slowly and gradually increase it to 30 to 45 minutes and then to an hour a day. Now this can really help you lose your post pregnancy depression and improve your blood circulation and metabolism which will definitely help you to lose that extra weight lying around you.

4. Make sure you keep your stress level under control-  Now this can be quite difficult because with all the new routine and all the new chores that you have to do with your baby it might be quite intimidating for you to get adjusted to the new surroundings and to the new life that you have to take care of. It could be quite stressful, depressing, sometimes it could be quite overwhelming, but you need to make sure you don’t let the stress get better and get over and above your mental state because when you are more stressful the body starts storing more fat than losing fat. So you need to find out ways where you can control your stress, that could be through breathing, so do 10 to 20 minutes of some yoga or breathing exercises every day. Think positive. Yeah, it is very important to control your thoughts. Negative thoughts are very easy to ponder on but it's very difficult to think positively and to maintain that. So make it as an exercise to keep thinking positive and to love yourself, because what a new mother does is only take care of her baby and forgets herself. You need to love yourself, take care of yourself as well so that the body really feels happy raises happy hormones and helps you to lose that weight.

For more information, you can contact me through Lybrate.com and I can answer all your questions and whatever queries you have you can drop in there in my profile. Thank you.

Updates From Lybrate: We hope this information was helpful to you. Moreover, you can also check out these products for weight loss from Lybrate to support your weight loss journey.