Looking forward to losing weight after pregnancy is a common happy thought of expectant mothers. There is much that can be done during pregnancy to make the postpartum weight loss process easier. Following a diet chart in pregnancy and avoiding a poor diet during pregnancy ensures healthy weight gain.
Many new mothers find that losing weight after pregnancy is not the simple task they thought it was going to be. Mothers who opt to breastfeed might be especially frustrated as the body tends to hold onto its fat stores to support breastfeeding.
Known Frustrations of Dieting during Pregnancy
Of course, dieting during pregnancy is a widely condemned practice, but dieting too soon after the baby’s birth is just as bad of a notion. The body needs extra nutrition to heal and feed a newborn baby. Limiting food intake to speed up losing weight after pregnancy can actually be counterproductive to fat loss goals.
Pigging out on all the junk foods denied during pregnancy is likewise not the answer. All this will serve to do is add more poundage to the body’s fat stores.
Following a healthy diet designed to support postpartum health will increase the body’s ability to relinquish its claim on surplus fat stores. It might seem illogical but eating more actually leads to weight loss.
Of course, this is based on the premise that “more” is pulled from healthy food choices. When selecting foods, remember like attracts like. In simpler terms, good or healthy food options tend to attract good and healthy results in the body.
While unhealthy junk foods like chips, chocolate and pastries tend to attract likewise unhealthy results of more fat, less energy and a general dip in healthy feelings for the body.
A Hidden Frustration Factor for New Mothers
The counsel for new mothers to sleep while the new infant sleeps is superficially viewed as good advice to ward off sleep deprivation. There is more to this particular doctor’s order than getting those needed 8 hours of sleep.
The body heals, replenishes and resets itself during sleep. Inadequate sleep creates a great difficulty in losing weight after pregnancy. When the body is unable to reset hormone levels, unhealthy levels of stress hormones linger in the body.
Stress hormones prompt the body to protect fat stores. This added protection makes fat loss nearly impossible. Adding insult to injury stress hormones also rally the body’s fat storage efforts. This adds up to more fat going into long term storage with strict orders to stay put.
New mothers can be successful in losing weight after pregnancy. The best and fastest way back to those size7s is to continue to eat well and get enough rest.