Postpartum Weight Loss: Effective Tips to Lose Weight after Pregnancy

There are numerous postpartum weight loss tips that will help you achieve a healthy weight goal along with stepping into your parenthood. These tips will help you lead a healthier lifestyle which will be effective for both the mother and baby.

Since postpartum life can be stressful by taking care of a newborn, recovering from a child birth, and adjusting to a new routine, it is important to take a simple route to lose weight.

Here are some of the most effective postpartum weight loss tips that will help you get back in shape.

Exercise will help to lose weight (Image via Pexels/Cottonbro studio)

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Postpartum Weight Loss Tips

1. Dieting postpartum

Monitoring your calorie intake can help you with postpartum weight loss. However, you need to ensure that after pregnancy you are getting proper nutrition and are cutting back on empty calories. It is recommended that for weight loss, you should opt for healthier foods and reduce your portion size.

Other changes that you can make to your diet include consuming healthy proteins, eating foods that are high in fiber, opting for healthy snacks such as spiced nuts, vegetables, hummus, air-popped popcorn, Greek yogurt, and more.

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2. Try to Breastfeed

According to WHO, new mothers are recommended to breastfeed for at least six months or longer if they can. Research shows that breastfeeding might support postpartum weight loss.

Other benefits of breastfeeding the baby will entail numerous benefits, including:

• Breastfeeding will provide your baby with all the nutrients that are required for them to grow in the first six months of their life.
• Breastfeeding will provide your body with important antibodies that will help in boosting their immune system by fighting viruses and bacteria.
• Breastfeeding also reduces the likelihood of children getting diseases such as obesity, gastrointestinal infections, asthma, type 1 diabetes, and more.
• Breastfeeding will also reduce the chances of mothers getting diseases such as ovarian cancer, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and breast cancer.

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3. Avoid Fad Diets

Fad diets are ones that help you achieve target weight loss in a short time by consuming a very low amount of calories.

This is because after delivering a baby, your body needs more nutrition to recover and if you are breastfeeding then you need to consume more calories than usual.

After pregnancy, a low-calorie diet without much nutrition will leave you stressed out and tired. Hence, a crash diet will not do you any good when you are taking care of the newborn baby after giving birth.

Good diet to lose weight (Image via Pexels/Cat Comings)

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4. Avoid Alcohol

To lose weight, it is important to restrict your alcohol consumption as it consists of extra calories without any decent nutrition. Although little wine is related to numerous health benefits, alcohol such as beer is also associated with fat being accumulated around your organs, which is also known as belly fat.

There is no known level of safe alcohol consumption, but for breastfeeding mothers it is recommended not to drink alcohol.

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5. Start Exercising

Exercise usually provides a multitude of benefits for the body, but it can significantly boost your weight loss. Trying cardio exercises such as cycling, swimming, walking, and running will help in burning a high number of calories along with providing several health benefits.

The benefits of exercising include improved cardiovascular health, reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and more. Though exercise alone cannot help with postpartum weight loss, you need to combine it with good nutrition.

Yoga to lose weight (Image via Pexels/Gustavo Fring)

Postpartum weight loss is important as it can cause several consequences including increased risk of gestational diabetes, higher risk of complications during the next pregnancy, greater risk of heart disease and diabetes, and a higher risk of being overweight.

This is because pregnancy weight gain includes amniotic fluid, extra fat stores, uterus enlargement, the baby, placenta, breast tissue, and blood.

The aforementioned postpartum weight loss tips will not only help you to get back in shape but also lead to a healthy lifestyle.