Many women struggle with losing the “baby weight.” It’s just a simple fact. The truth is that having a baby changes your body in a number of ways, and not all of them are entirely good. (That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it, of course.) Only about 15 pounds of the weight you gain during pregnancy will be lost during delivery. That leaves anywhere from 10 to 20 more pounds to lose, assuming you gain the average of 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy.

Still, there are some relatively basic things you can do after baby to lose weight. In fact, there are three steps you can follow that, while they don’t guarantee weight loss, can put you on the fast track to getting your body back in shape after baby. Here they are:

• Walk. You don’t have to do an aerobics class or run marathons. Simply walk. Walk at least 30 minutes a day. This will keep your metabolism going, and burn away some excess calories.
• Limit TV. Research shows that people who watch two hours or more of TV a day tend to be bigger than people that don’t. Limit the amount of TV you view in a day, and you’ll be surprised how much more active you are.
• Avoid saturated fats and trans fats. You can’t (and shouldn’t) avoid fats altogether, however you should limit your intake of saturated fats. You can also eliminate trans fats from your diet altogether.

These steps don’t guarantee weight loss after baby. You can’t do these things but still take in 3,000 calories a day and expect to lose the baby weight. Over the long haul, if you’re going to lose all of that weight after baby, you’re going to need to make some other changes, both in terms of diet and exercise. However, if you start with these basic principles and refuse to compromise on them in any way, you’ll start out on the fast track to postpartum weight loss, and you’ll have your body in shape before you know it.

This entry was posted in After Pregnancy.