How to lose weight after you are pregnant
Being pregnant is one of the best times of your life. Besides the obvious, that you are bringing the miracle of life in this world, there are some less important but satisfying aspects of being pregnant. One is you are exempt from worrying about your shape. Or at least you should be, although many girls do worry about what will happen to their body. You must not worry about weight during pregnancy.
You have to stop obsessing about what your body looks like and what it will be. You must focus on the child and take vitamins and DHA have the protein required to grow a baby and a lot of quality calories as recommended by your doctor. Read about prenatal DHA, I think this helps with the child’s brain development, as does classical music.
Read about adequate iodine intake.
This is the one time when you have to not worry about your appearance. Once you have your child and are done with breastfeeding in a year or two. Then you can hit the gym or freeze the fat off. But focus on the baby and your husband will be happy.
I am a father and this is the real perspective. I do not care about weight during child bearing years.
During pregnancy you can eat largely on the instinct principle – That is eat what your body is craving for and not worry about your shape. Many a vegans start to eat red meat. It is like a get out of jail free card. You are free from judgement. You can do almost anything you want and people will smile and be charmed by you. The good news is men instinctively are at some level attracted to pregnant and breastfeeding women no matter what they look like. You can cut your hair short, or totally pork out be slightly erratic emotionally, yet men will be still smiling at you with starts in their eyes. Its nature. However, this post is for those one year after their pregnancy and want to shape up. If you have not had your baby yet, do not even consider your shape, look at the hots of my wife below, she bouced back with ease, she was huge and in her 30s. Do not worry until your baby is like a year old and healthy.
I myself a man even gained weight when my wife was pregnant. She was eating so why not me. Maybe it was out of subconscious sympathy. In fact, some men where these sympathy baby bumps, which I think is a little flake. I even have heard some men trying to get their breast to produce milk, again for me outside the realm of what I would do, but you get the point.
I think it has something to do with our evolutionary programming, that is us guys all have a soft spot for pregnant women, as they are the ones that keep the human race going. It is deeply encoded in our genes to be enchanted by pregnant women and breast-feeding women. So for 9 months and about a year or more after giving birth, women are exempt from all the worries about body image and being anything other than the best mother possible for the little miracle of God that is dependent 100% on them.
When to shape up after Pregnancy
However, after the child is born and breast-feeding is over I would recommend you focus on shaping up. Some girls start right after the child is born but remember they are depending on you for their food supply. You want to make sure it is nutrient dense with essential fatty acids and all of what they need so my wife and I set the goal after breastfeeding. Your shape will start coming back before that of course. In fact, a common fear for girls during pregnancy is looking at their body and are wondering what is going on here.
Will my body ever be the same? My answer is maybe better because your body has been bathed in hormones that have healthy and protective properties. Everyone knows pregnancy decreases the risks of a score of major diseases.
It is a crazy think to be human. And one of the usual things about being human is, despite the fact we are so advanced intellectually, we are still mammals, we have hair on our body, have emotional swings and we carry our developing child inside of us for quite a long time then we feed the child with human milk. For the female of our species to do this it is a radical experience.
I know I write a lot of crazy things on this website but that is about dating. However, I have an infinite respect for women. I sincerely do and I am grateful to every one of you.
The purpose of this post is to give women who want to lose weight after pregnancy some ideas on how to make this less of a challenge.
What all diet and fitness books say
I recommend people self educate themselves on nutrition by reading everything they can. However, the problem with weight loss information is there is so much general guidelines out there. I used to work in a bookstore for many years and all those late nights at the information desk I read them all. They all said basically the same thing, move more and eat less. There was a diet for everyone, ranging from the chocolate diet to the Neanderthal diet. The question remains is how do you really lose weight after pregnancy and feeding are over?
First rule is relax. Most of the weight will naturally somehow come off. The female body is designed this way, to rebound after pregnancy. Most of the weight you put on is fluid and the child and protective corpulent. It will come off. You should not think about weight loss during pregnancy at all. Get it out of your mind. It will come off. Take it easy while you are pregnant. Many women have to lay down for six months. Be a hero and put your child first.
The problem is a lot of women simply continue their eating habit a year after giving birth. They pack themselves and lay around like when they are pregnant. If they started to do their normal routine, the weight will come off real fast. All the women in my family experienced this and my friends also. My wife had this experience also.
A body in motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest. – Physical law.
A multi prong attack to lose weight after pregnancy:
- Yoga for weightless after pregnancy – The reason I am a fan of yoga for weightless is shedding pounds is not only a calorie in calorie out equation. It is a hormonal issue. Hormones are chemical messengers. Yoga stimulates hormones and glands and orchestrates your body back into balance. It can range from easy peasy Hatha yoga or Ashtanga variations of yoga that the biggest muscle heads in the gym would find challenging. There is also a great emphasis on balance. When you learn balance on the mat, your life often becomes more balanced including eating. Fat is not the enemy, nor is food. What is the problems is when something is out of harmony in your life and yoga teaches you to gently bring it back in.
- Eat what your baby eats diet– sure once you re off breastfeeding if you eat similar to your baby, a little portion of rice and baby carrots and non-fried ladyen or fresh fish, bananas and bread rolls. Plan and read about what is healthy for a small child nutrient wise and how it should be non greasy as their little livers can not take too much , yet also containing the corpulent they need. Educate yourself on child’s nutrient and you will lose weight. What your baby eats you eat, maybe more of course but the general idea. You do not have to cook twice, just twice as much. It is a way of showing solidarity with your baby. Simple, non greasy plain food in smaller portions. You will lose weight one this.
- Chicken soup diet – ‘One good meal a day is all you need’ – this is what an old surgeon told me. Basically a multi vitamin and a one good meal a day. The ladyen soup diet is similar to the idea of eat what your baby eats and based on the ideas that you need to increase liquids when dieting. Most people are living a life in front of the computer and eating three meals a day and snacks and drinks. They over-estimate what they need to live and do not drink enough water. The human body needs basic macro nutrients like protein and essential corpulentty acids but besides that not a lot. I see women packing 2,500 calories a day. I do not even do that and I am an active guy. As a disclaimer I am not giving advice and talk to your doctor or a nutritionist if you need to, but really research caloric intake needs in different countries. I know in Eastern Europe where I am from girls are thin and beautiful because they do not have a lot of extra money to chow down. Maybe hey buy a carrots and celery to make soup with and that is it and add some ladyen parts for broth. My wife makes ladyen soup almost everyday and this is the center of our diet. I do not know too many healthy problems associated with homemade ladyen soup. However, I see a lot of girls drinking soda and eating processed foods and wondering why they can not lose weight.
You can approach this anyway you want. It is your choice. The above methods are just ideas.
I have also written a few posts on weight loss:
- How to be attractive – beauty and shape are almost synonous
- Face or body – what is important for attractivness on a girl
- Skinny girls – Weight lose idea
- How to be thin – more just for motivation
They are worth looking at.
Yet more ideas on losing weight after your pregnancy
If you go to the gym and build muscles and metaphorically your engine is bigger and your body burns more gasoline.
You could walk one hour a day really fast. This is pretty easy to.
If you can not leave your home because of your child, try dancing at home for an hour. Turn on the music you like or start a YouTube play list and dance. It might feel silly but it is more efficient than going to the gym as you do not have commute time.
Walking, yoga, Pilates, cycling, stepper, jogging, weight training it’s all gold. I like natural exercises like yoga which use your own body and mind to elongate your muscles.
Starving yourself to be thin
Hold your horses I do not literally mean starving yourself. However, if you starve yourself a bit with rational calorie restriction (read up on life extension and calorie restriction, works by Dr. Walford M.D.
For a ripped body focus on body corpulent not endless abs. Even if you do nor work out your muscles come out and you will have washboard abs almost naturally. Abs is more a body corpulent percentage problem than a lack of definition problem. I have seem women who do not work their abs in Eastern Europe who are skinny and look like they go the gym because of their washboard abs. They just do not eat much. The problem with starving yourself you need to make sure your body does not cannibalism important organs like the brain for energy to run itself. So if you are really serious about going the calorie restriction rout talk to a nutritionist as an appointment is only like 30 dollars in most cases.
Eastern European girls look like models – By the way Eastern European girls do not starve themselves. Models often in my ind are crazy with how they deny themselves. I am not talking about this. The girls in Eastern Europe I know eat normal, but normal is relative. Look at the chat below of different countries average caloric intake.
I also think diet clubs work, if you want to go that way.
Depression after pregnancy
After you give birth often it is like you lose all your juice. You hormones deflate so radically you feel flat. Not all girls feel this way so do not psych yourself into believing this will happen so it becomes a self fulling prophecy.
However, giving birth is such a mountain top experience going down the mountain might make you feel blue. To counter this there is a lot you can do, including yoga positions like wheel. You can research this yourself. Just know that like a rainy day this will pass and do not spiral down into emotional eating.
Remember you can take the weight off, do not worry. If the weight is stubborn try visualization. Learn and read about how your mind can shape your body.
I’ve heard of girls eating more than 2500 calories in America. One time, a DOCTOR, a doctor of all people, told me I should be eating 3,000 calories a day. That is outrageous!!! Before I got pregnant, I would rarely exceed 1600 calories a day and it kept me at a good weight of about 130 pounds.
My husband told me the same thing you say in this article. He keeps telling me eat what you’re craving, you’re pregnant, don’t worry about your shape. I just feel guilty because all I’m craving is ice cream, popsicles, and way too many cheeseburgers. Last Saturday at 10 PM my husband and I were making a late night and staying up to watch movies, and out of nowhere, I got a craving for Taco Bell. I never eat fast food. But my husband got dressed and went right out and got everything I wanted.
I like all your ideas for bouncing back after pregnancy. I also found this DVD on Amazon for using your baby as weight resistance to firm up after pregnancy. (i.e., lifting the baby above your head to build muscle, of course this will have to wait until he can hold his head up on his own). It was a fun DVD and can’t wait to try it. 🙂
There is a strong correlation between longevity and health and caloric intake. Dr. Roy Walford did extensive research on caloric restriction and health. But the rule does not apply for pregnancy in fact almost the converse applies. So for your doctor to recommend 3,000 calories a day before pregnancy is ridiculous.
I found doing weight resistant exercises with my daughter is one of the easiest and fun ways to exercise. I am glad you brought it up. Even now she is over three years old and I lay on my back and play airplane and lift her in the air and spin her around. Basically you can play hide a go seek and do any number of energy burning activities when they start to walk. That is an interesting book and a creative idea. Now at three she can already do downward facing dog and when I do it she loves to crawl under me so I have to hold the position for several minutes.
All the wild games we play together burns more calories I ever did in aerobics class.
Of course you will only get girls commenting on this one. Nevertheless it is a good post. Funny things in here. I also like the idea of excercising with your baby. Great graph of caloric intake above.