During your pregnancy, you will likely put on at least twenty-five pounds. Some women put on a lot more. After the baby is born, you might feel like you still look pregnant. It can appear this way for several weeks while your uterus shrinks back down to size.
Months after you have your baby, you might find that you are still carrying extra weight. Weight loss after childbirth can take time to happen. First of all, it took you up to nine months to gain all that weight; it won't drop off over night.
While you will have lost a fair amount of weight during the labor and delivery, it can take months before you lose the balance. If you gained excessive weight during your pregnancy, it can take time and effort to achieve weight loss after pregnancy. There are several reasons why it may be taking you time to lose weight.
If you are breastfeeding, weight loss after pregnancy will probably not start to happen until at least your baby is six months old. If you breastfeed your baby, your body will hold onto a certain amount of fat reserves due to the caloric requirements for making milk. It takes about five hundred calories per day to produce breast milk. Your body will go into a mode where it hoards fat stores to ensure that you have enough calories to feed your baby. Once your baby reaches six months old, you can suddenly see weight loss after pregnancy occurring. At the six-month mark, many babies are having less feedings, which triggers your body's reaction to begin shedding the fat stores.
Weight loss after pregnancy may require some diet and exercise from you. If you are now a stay at home mother, you also may be facing the reality of being less active than being a full time worker outside the home. The result is that fewer calories are burned on a daily basis and many women find that they eat more often when at home.
As a mother, you need strength so starvation diets are not the answer to achieve weight loss after pregnancy. After you have recuperated from your labor and delivery, your body needs time to heal.
Some women shed the weight fairly easily while others need to work a bit harder. It's important to not only be healthy for your self but also for your children so having an active lifestyle and eating well will go a long way towards your weight loss after pregnancy goals and your overall health and well-being.
Azzam Sheikh
Facilitator 'Strengthening families, strengthening communities' parent programme.
pregnancy resource center
