Losing the Extra Weight After Pregnancy

Losing the extra weight you have gained during your pregnancy is one of the hardest things for any new mother to deal with. It is very common for a woman to gain twenty, thirty or more pounds during pregnancy, and in many cases, that weight can be a real pain to get rid of. Most women see initial weight loss of under twenty pounds as their bodies get rid of the excess liquid and other material left over in the body from the pregnancy, but following that initial loss, it is normal for them to hit a plateau.

If you have hit such a plateau, do not let it affect your motivation. It can be too easy to start feeling down when you do not see the needle on the scale going lower. Just know that many women deal with this following a pregnancy, and that there are specific steps that you can take to get yourself back on track.

One of the reasons that it is hard to lose baby weight is because your body is still recovering from the trauma of the pregnancy and labour. Labour is not only extremely painful, it also takes a harsh toll on the body. Recovering from childbirth can take up to a month itself, which can make it very hard for most women to start losing weight right away.

During this recovery time, you may not be comfortable enough to exercise, but you should be able to start eating the right foods. It is hard to eat right all the time during pregnancy, due to the constant cravings, but once the baby is out of your body, it is time to crack down on the diet and start eating in as healthy a manner as possible.

If you are breastfeeding, nutrition is even more critical, as your baby will consume at least 500 calories a day worth of breast milk. Since your child is essentially feeding off of your nutrients, it is important that you are eating healthy food.

Once you are physically able to work out, you are ready to ease into an exercise program. Ideally, you will be exercising for one hour a day, five times a week. While an hour can seem like a long time, you do not have to do it all at once. You can simply spread that time out through the day - fifteen minutes here, twenty minutes there.  Either way, you will start to notice that you are feeling and looking better within a few weeks, and the results will only improve from there.