Friday, May 13, 2016

Postpartum Weight

What can you do postpartum to lose the weight you gained during pregnancy or should you lose the weight?

It is important to not push yourself to lose weight especially if you are breast feeding, but losing weight gradually is normal and to be expected. That’s why they say that breastfeeding is a great way to lose weight. Plus it’s a safe way to not damage your milk supply.  But let’s face it - we are still women and there is an element of vanity in our souls and we do read magazines that talk about models and actresses that get their bodies back in 1 month and we want an easy solution.  In our lives, we may work full time (and our job’s usually aren’t to look beautiful as a profession) or we already have children to care for leaving us with little time to have perfectly cooked dinners for weight loss plus we don’t have time for exercising hours a day to lose our love handles.  So what’s a hard working mom’s to do to lose weight? The following are healthy recommendations:

Mega-Former workout Coremocean
(start after 6 weeks only and maybe longer based on ab tearing called diastis recti).
Lower your carbohydrate consumption and eat more protein.
Regular meal consumption- the worst thing is skipping meals.
Sleeping when the baby sleeps - lack of sleep will cause your body to hold on to weight.
Protein shakes are a great way to always have an easy meal.
Walk with the kids in the stroller daily to burn off calories.
Weight lifting – you can do kid lifting if you do not have weights at home.
Squats and lunges are a great way to activate large muscle groups to help lose weight.

During my post-partum with both Zara and Allegra, I have done running and mega-former and lower carbohydrate consumption.  With Zara, I was able to lose the weight faster than with Allegra and this is a common phenomenon.  Second pregnancies are usually harder to lose the weight. It is also important to make sure that your thyroid function hasn’t been compromised which in my case was an issue making my metabolism slower.  With the help of herbal supplements, I was able to correct the problem.