Losing Baby Weight After Pregnancy -

As summer approaches and I’m looking forward to days spent lounging on the beach, I am trying to get my body ready for bikinis. This isn’t always easy after giving birth. My third child, Theo, was born six weeks ago and I’ve been working on losing baby weight. With all my children I gained between 40-50 lbs and then had to lose that after birth. I gain weight mostly in my butt and thighs. My normal pant size is a 4 and as of right now, I can’t fit in a size 8.

Losing baby weight is different for everyone; of course considerations like body type, metabolism, and age come into play when trying to lose weight. I am a young mother with a high metabolism which has probably helped me with losing baby weight more than any of these tips combined. But regardless, I figured I would share some tips and suggestions for how I go about losing baby weight healthfully and fast after pregnancy.

Breastfeed

I have to attribute the majority of my weight loss to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding does wonders for shrinking your stomach and losing weight since you often have to tap into your body’s fat reserves in order to provide for your baby. Women who breastfeed their babies usually have an easier time losing baby weight.

Portion Control

When I was in third trimester pregnancy, I could eat all day. I was always hungry and ate very large portions at each meal. After baby arrived, I found myself continuing to eat a LOT at each meal because it was what I was used to, not because I was hungry for all of it. So I started taking smaller portions on my plate at each meal and eliminating snacks at night. Obviously you need to still get enough to eat and have balanced nutrition–especially if you are breastfeeding–but you probably don’t need to eat like you did when you were 9 months pregnant.

To encourage smaller portion sizes, dish up your meal on a smaller plate.

Exercise

Good old fashioned exercise is an excellent tool for losing baby weight. I don’t work out, but I do work outside. After baby was born, I took the first opportunity I could to pitch in mowing the lawn, digging in my gardens, and preparing for our new shed. As you read when I wrote about postpartum healing, you do have to take it easy exercising during the first six weeks after giving birth. I basically tried to do as much as I could before getting fatigued.

The Mommy Pooch

Getting rid of that flabby mommy pooch is usually the last thing to lose. Mine still isn’t completely gone, but typically I engage in regular exercises like crunches and yoga to flatten my stomach after postpartum healing is over. BE CAREFUL that you are giving your body time to heal before trying to flatten your stomach. You could have a condition caused by pregnancy called diastasis recti which makes your mom pooch particularly difficult to get rid of and causes normal stomach exercises like crunches to actually make the pooch worse. Learn about diastasis recti in this helpful article.