How to lose weight after childbirth: 5 steps to a slim body

The fact that after giving birth you will immediately lose 6-8 kg of excess weight is quite obvious from physiological considerations. But what to do with the rest of the extra pounds, the fold of the abdomen, the fat accumulated on the hips, which clearly do not fit into your slender dress before pregnancy? How to quickly lose weight for a young mother, if radical methods are contraindicated, and are there effective harmless ones? How to lose weight and where to start? These questions torment every second woman who has given birth to a child, because during this period it is important not only to take care of the baby, but also to continue to please your spouse and yourself. We will talk about this further, based on the recommendations of experts.

Proper nutrition

Proper nutrition is the foundation of a healthy lifestyle. In principle, if you adhered to proper nutrition before and during pregnancy, gained weight within the acceptable range, it will not be difficult for you to return to your usual lifestyle and quickly lose weight.

Limiting themselves in the amount of food, young mothers who are breastfeeding should remember that fasting and strict diets (although you may want to try some of them after breastfeeding) are extremely dangerous, especially for the baby. Since it is from breast milk that a newborn receives useful and nutritious elements necessary for life and development. You need to eat regularly, but in order not to overeat and start losing weight from the first months after childbirth, follow these simple rules.

Start eating small

Instead of the usual three times – breakfast, lunch and dinner – add 2-3 smaller snacks throughout the day. In total, you get 5-6 meals with a calorie content of at least 1200 kcal per day. It is better to eat at the same time.

Reduce servings to about 250 grams at a time. It is important not to fill the stomach to capacity, and after eating, still experience a slight feeling of hunger. Reduce the time interval between meals to 4 hours. In the first half of the day, eat more carbohydrates – 250-300 kcal per serving, and after 15:00 give preference to protein foods – egg white, chicken fillet, turkey, sour-milk products.

Food should be prepared in one of the useful ways: in the oven , multicooker , double boiler , on the stove in a WOK pan or steam pan , on the grill – any of these appliances or kitchen utensils can be profitably bought on the Coupon with cashback and return part of the money to your personal account for further shopping.

Fractional nutrition contributes to rapid and gentle weight loss, without stress, breakdowns and impaired metabolism. According to reviews, people lose weight up to 5 kg in a week.

Review your diet

It is important for a young nursing mother to eat not only wholesome healthy food, but also to take into account the peculiarities of nutrition during breastfeeding, especially the first few months, so as not to provoke intestinal colic in the baby, which is accompanied by acute pain in the tummy.

Definitely exclude the following products:

• shop sauces (ketchup, sour cream, mayonnaise),
• packaged juices,
• carbonated drinks,
• yoghurts and curd desserts with flavors and sugar,
• chips,
• cakes,
• heavy cream,
• butter, margarine,
• smoked products, sausages,
• semi-finished products,
• salty,
• canned food,
• baked goods made from white flour,
• macaroni,
• semolina.

These are not only useless in terms of vitamins and trace elements, but also products that prevent weight loss.

If you are breastfeeding, in addition to the restrictions that we have already mentioned, in the first month after childbirth, it is important to consume low-fat dairy products and meat with a small amount of fat (lean pork, beef, rabbit, turkey, chicken), lean fish, seafood. It is better to drink homemade yogurts – they are very easy to make in a yogurt maker . Bananas and apples are allowed from fruits (they can be baked with cottage cheese).

For a while, give up dried fruits, nuts, legumes, grapes, white cabbage (causes gas and bloating), honey (a strong allergen). Bakery products from wholemeal flour, bran, dry biscuits are allowed. If it is difficult to find healthy bread in the store, you can cook it at home – just get a bread machine (with budget prices and a good cashback from the Poupon, this is even necessary) and run in a couple of cool fitness bread recipes for weight loss :).

Make a menu

It is easier to control the quality and quantity of what you eat without overeating – it is to plan what and when you will eat – for a week or a month. The menu, on which mothers have lost weight and are losing weight in pursuit of a slender body, will look something like this:

• For breakfast, low-fat milk porridge: oatmeal, muesli, buckwheat, pumpkin, rice (for a non-nursing mother, you can add 1 teaspoon of honey, dried fruits, berries). Once or twice a week, porridge can be replaced with 100 g of low-fat cottage cheese. A fruit is suitable as a dessert: banana, apple, grapefruit (for those who are breastfeeding – not earlier than the baby is 3 months old), 1 cup of leafy green or herbal tea. Good imported tea can be purchased at Pokupon with a profitable cashback savings.
• For a second breakfast (first snack), dietary experts recommend eating a rye bread sandwich (with mozzarella, low-fat hard cheese, boiled pork and lettuce), a boiled egg (preferably a quail, as chicken is considered allergenic) and one piece of fruit. A sandwich can be replaced with a glass of low-fat natural (made in a yogurt maker at home) yogurt or kefir (who can add fresh berries or dried fruits) or 100 g of low-fat cottage cheese.
• Dinner. As an appetizer, a vegetable salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, you can add lettuce, mozzarella, feta, avocado, chicken fillet), lightly seasoned with vegetable oil and sprinkled with sesame seeds (when breastfeeding, you can introduce it, like other nuts, into the diet no earlier than than 3 months postpartum). For the first – vegetable soup or chicken or turkey broth, or borscht to choose from. On the second – fish baked in foil or on the grill (the diet allows such types of fish as herring, mackerel, pollock, hake, pike, flounder, cod), or brown rice with boiled quail egg, or whole grain toast with low-fat kefir. Tea or compote without sugar.
• The second snack of your choice: a handful of nuts with dried fruits, a glass of vegetable juice, smoothies (vegetables or fruits whipped on a blender ), compote or low-fat yogurt with berries, one fruit – a banana, an apple or a pear.
• Dinner for a mom who wants to lose weight quickly, to choose from: vegetable stew or casserole (zucchini, potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, asparagus), or baked fish with a slice of whole grain bread, or 150 g low-fat cottage cheese, unsweetened green or herbal tea.

Having trouble counting portions, calories, and choosing a diet? Contact a nutritionist. Moreover, with the Pokupon discounts, developing an individual nutrition plan taking into account the characteristics of the body will cost mere trifles, and this can be done even without leaving home online in combination with home workout programs.

To accurately find out the cause of excess weight and choose the right weight loss program, it is worth checking your health. In the Synevo laboratory network , you can take a comprehensive blood test, the results of which will tell you how to achieve your goal and lose weight.

Getting rid of life: physiology

What confuses almost all women after childbirth? That’s right, a sagging, jelly belly. During the first month, this is a normal physiological phenomenon. After the baby comes out, the uterus shrinks to its normal size, but not immediately. After giving birth, she weighs about 1 kg, about the same as at the 16th week of pregnancy, and makes her belly visible. During the first three weeks, the uterus loses 500-750 grams and only 5-6 weeks after birth returns to its normal state and weighs about 50 grams.

What should be done to speed up the process of losing weight in the abdomen? Just do not pump the press and do not lift weights (a young mother is not recommended to do this for at least 1-3 months after childbirth), so as not to create excess intrauterine pressure and not prevent the rectus abdominis muscles from contracting and recovering to their previous position.

Here are the main recommendations of the experts:

• If you have breast milk, breastfeed your baby on demand. During feeding, oxytocin is produced – a hormone that helps reduce the uterus.
• Lie on your stomach more often.
• Apply ice to your stomach for 7-10 minutes daily.
• The course of electrophoresis effectively helps (check with your family doctor about this possibility).
• With diastasis (stretching of the rectus muscles along the white line of the abdomen), experts recommend doing breathing exercises.
• Wear a postpartum bandage, especially after a caesarean.
• If you had a caesarean section (and in this case, the regeneration of the connective tissue takes longer), then physical exercises, in particular the press, are allowed to be done only after passing the ultrasound. It is important to make sure that the suture on the uterus is completely tightened. A gynecological examination will be cheaper if you take advantage of comprehensive offers from leading medical centers at Pokupon with discounts of up to 85%.
• If the abdomen does not go away and the distance between the rectus abdominis muscles is too large, only surgery can correct the situation. And then in the event that you are no longer going to give birth even after the end of the lactation period.

Sports for losing weight mom

Going in for sports is always useful, especially for young mothers who are losing weight and want to get in shape. This is the 20% success formula that should not be neglected. But there are some limitations. You need to load yourself carefully and gradually. Where to begin?

After 1-3 months (after a cesarean, you need to take care of yourself longer), experts recommend starting with light and slow types of exercise: yoga , stretching , pilates , breathing exercises .Any of these types of fitness helps to strengthen the muscles of the back, press, cardiovascular system, stretching and allows you to prepare for more intense cardio workouts that effectively affect weight loss. After 2-3 weeks of Pilates or yoga, you can add cardio activities such as swimming , aqua aerobics , cycling or cycling to your weight loss program., walking or jogging, and after another 2 weeks – weight training.

You can work in several formats:

• Independently at home – according to online video lessons , as well as using our guides on how to start running , swimming , doing yoga or breathing in order to lose weight . To do this, you may need some sports equipment ( jump ropes , expanders , dumbbells , weights , rugs , fitballs , hoops ), which you can buy profitably on Pokupon and return part of the money in the form of cashback to your account for further purchases.
• With a coach in group classes . If there is someone to leave the child with, it is useful for mom to leave the house for an hour or two to get distracted and unwind. Classes in a fitness club or later a gym (where there is access to treadmills and steppers) are inexpensive if you take advantage of coupon discounts up to 80%.

For those who decide to start exercising at home, we recommend several options for mandatory basic exercises: for the press, back, legs. By alternating the execution technique, you avoid getting used to and adapting the muscles to the loads and accelerate the result.

Exercises for the abs

Crunches and vacuums are a woman’s best friend in terms of reducing volume in the waist and abdomen and pumping the rectus abdominis muscles. If the press makes the stomach elastic and strong, then the vacuum helps to quickly and effectively remove fat, this protruding “roll” below the navel, narrow the waist, make the stomach flat, tighten the skin.

Where to begin? At first, a complex of 3-4 exercises for 20 repetitions, 2-3 times a week, is enough. Any combination of exercises from our belly slimming program will do . Twisting must be performed after warming up, at a slow pace, without jerks and breath holdings, breathe calmly, evenly, exhaling with effort. It is better to do it 1-1.5 hours before and after feeding the baby.

Also practice the exercise “vacuum” for effective pumping of the transverse muscle. This is one of the few exercises that can be done immediately after a natural birth or 5-6 months after a caesarean section (but only with the permission of a doctor). After a few weeks of regular training, you can see the first results: the stomach will tighten and, as a result, the waist will decrease.

“Vacuum” of the abdomen has contraindications:

• exacerbation of chronic diseases of the abdominal and pelvic region;
• diseases of the digestive tract;
• caesarean or other operations on the anterior abdominal wall or pelvic region;
• period of menstruation;
• glaucoma and increased intracranial pressure;
• cardiac ischemia;
• arterial hypertension;
• heart failure;
• the presence of any benign formations in the abdominal cavity and small pelvis (including a cyst).

How to make a “vacuum”:

• On an empty stomach in the morning.
• Starting position: put your feet hip-width apart, bend your knees and rest your hands on them, slightly tilt your body forward.
• Take a powerful breath in with your stomach, lowering your body lower – exhale and, returning to the starting position, hold the sip for 5-10 seconds. Straighten up.
• Repeat 5-10 sets.

Leg exercises

To lose weight in the legs, the training program must necessarily include squats, lunges, lifts in different interpretations. The main task is to decrease in the hips and pump the buttocks. Read about an effective weight loss complex in the legs in our special review .

Familiar and familiar to all exercises with a fitball, due to instability and resistance, are felt and affect the body in a completely different way. Watch and perform at home an effective complex that involves the most problematic areas

Tabata

Circuit training is considered the most effective system to quickly lose weight and burn fat. 4-20 minutes of Tabata replace an hour-long cardio workout at the gym.

The essence of the functional method is to alternate anaerobic high-intensity exercise (20-30 seconds) with a short rest (10 seconds) for 8 cycles or repetitions (1 Tabata round). You can start with one round, gradually reaching 4, also taking breaks from 40 to 120 seconds between each. Exercising 3-4 times a week, you lose 4-10 kg per month.

A Tabata home program may include jump squats, push-ups, dynamic planks, crunches, abs, jump lunges, high leg swings, jump rope, running in place with knee raises, burpees (mini-complex of simple exercises, for example, jump, plank, push-up or arch in the lower back, return to the starting position).

Healthy sleep

Who sleeps well and enough, he quickly loses weight :). This is because sleep promotes weight loss. How? Keeps the hunger hormone ghrelin in check. With a disturbed night mode and chronic lack of sleep, it begins to be produced incorrectly, and the satiety signal enters the brain with a delay.

To lose weight, try to get enough sleep. No matter how hard it is to do, especially in the first few months after giving birth. Involve family and friends in household chores, accept help and support, every time take the opportunity to sleep with your child. On average, sleep should be 7-8 hours a day.

Cosmetic procedures

After pregnancy, the skin, especially in the abdomen, loses elasticity and becomes flabby. Stretch marks may appear in problem areas. In the complex , manual massages, corrective hardware techniques, body wraps enhance the effect of weight loss on PP and fitness. But not everything can be done while breastfeeding. Consult with your family doctor, if necessary, undergo additional examinations, and with the discounts of the Purchase, you can also save on body diagnostics.

When breastfeeding, in order to restore skin tone, it is allowed to do a contrast shower and cold lifting wraps based on natural neutral ingredients (blue clay, olive oil with the addition of a small amount of hypoallergenic essential oil).

After the lactation period, in order to lose weight faster (in the absence of absolute or specific contraindications), you can do any cosmetic procedures:

• general lymphatic drainage massage to improve metabolism;
• anti-cellulite massage in the presence of orange peel on the thighs;
• vacuum roller massage ;
• LPG massage (with a cesarean section – not earlier than after 6 months, excluding the abdominal area);