How do I lose my baby weight?
21/06/2010

A primary concern for a lot of women once they have given birth tends to be getting rid of the so called "baby weight", but reclaiming your body after nine months of pregnancy can be a mental and physical challenge. In this article we aim to give some tips or ideas that you can incorporate into your everyday life to help set you well on your way shedding a few pounds:

1. Plan your time - If you know you've no time in the evening for exercise, try and incorporate things into your everyday activities. Walk more places with your baby, and use different speeds. If you do the same walk a couple of times a week then try timing yourself and aim to beat it, either by doing the walk quicker or walking further in the same amount of time. If you are back at work then why not ditch the car and cycle.

2. Be creative - When you do get chance to go for an evening workout use your surroundings. Try hill sprints or off road running, use different methods of running like intervals and time trials. However it is important not just to focus on doing cardio, with all the lifting, feeding and carrying it becomes even more important to strength work too so incorporate squats, press ups, lunges and abdominal work into your routine. Use a park bench to do your press ups on or you may even step ups onto it, or if you are at a more advanced level you may want to place your back leg on it and do lunges from it! Use the time you're out of the house and think if it as YOU time.

3. Be progressive- Keep a training diary. It will really help you to keep your focus and push yourself realistically and accurately. Your fitness will improve at a much better rate and so will your motivation. But don't rush things. It's important that you ease yourself into any exercise, allowing adequate time to warm up properly and to cool down, also note you should only start to exercise postnatally once you have been given clearance from your doctor and you shouldn't perform any crunches or rotatory movements of your trunk if you have any separation of your abdominals, if you do there is a topic in the forum that talks about this if you want further advice.

4. Need some motivation? Why not attend one of our pramtastic classes or gym based classes to help push you that little bit further, alternatively you could always find a local mum's to meet and exercise with in our forum at the local mum's section?

5. Diet - It's important not to starve yourself in order to get to where you want to be especially if you are breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is known to be one of the best ways to help women lose weight after birth, you develop fat stores for a reason during pregnancy. If for some reason you can't breastfeed then don't worry, it doesn't mean that you won't be able to lose weight, you may just have to monitor your diet that bit more and try to gradually return your appetite to pre-pregnancy levels.

No matter what your goal may be in your postnatal period it is important not to berate yourself if you are too tired to exercise one day or don't feel up to it, no one can prepare you for what may lay ahead prior to giving birth. It's important to take one step at a time, don't rush things and persevere.

Back to all articles