For every woman who has given birth to a child, the issue of restoring her figure is very important. Is it possible to regain your previous slimness, or do you need to come to terms with the gaining kilograms? How to improve the breastfeeding process so as not to gain even more weight after childbirth, and what are the most common mistakes young mothers make in the race for slimness standards? Experts provide answers to these and other questions.

Reason for weight gain

As you know, the process of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding is determined by nature itself. No one can interfere with that order of actions and disrupt the natural course of events. During pregnancy, a woman's body begins to produce large amounts of estrogen - the hormone of beauty and female attractiveness. An increase in this hormone is responsible for the growth of the uterus.

However, in large quantities, the hormone estrogen promotes the growth of not only the uterus, but also the fat layer in a woman’s body. The situation is aggravated by the increased production of another hormone - progesterone. The combination of these hormones causes sudden weight gain in pregnant women. After giving birth, the question of why am I getting fat should ideally not arise, the amount of hormone production will normalize, and there should be no weight gain.

Norm of weight gain

To determine the increase in the number of kilograms in the body, every pregnant woman undergoes regular weighing. The gynecologist leading the pregnancy determines the rate of weight gain and gives appropriate recommendations to expectant mothers. It is important to strictly follow these recommendations to avoid obesity.

The normal weight gain for the entire period of pregnancy is considered to be 10-12 kg. If weight gain occurs after childbirth, the mother needs to reconsider her eating schedule and change her diet. If you are obese during breastfeeding, the quality of milk suffers.

Milk ceases to contain the necessary valuable substances and cannot be a complete nutritional product for a newborn.

How to lose weight after having a baby

Experts advise such mothers to move more. It is not at all necessary to exhaust yourself with physical exercises and classes in the gym. It is enough to take regular walks with your baby. Walking means walking, not sitting on a bench in the park. Grab your stroller and go for your daily walk. A young mother needs to walk at least 3 hours a day.

Morning exercises are also a must for losing weight and increasing muscle tone. 15 minutes of exercise will not only give you a good mood, but will also put your body in order.

How to eat right

Most women simply do not know what a balanced diet is. In their opinion, you need to eat vegetables and they lean on potatoes. They choose rice from cereals, and homemade sour cream and full-fat cottage cheese from dairy products. In order for the weight to really go away, you need to reduce the amount of high-calorie foods. Replace potatoes with cauliflower, rice with rolled oats, and sour cream with kefir and at your next weigh-in you will be very surprised to see how much your weight has decreased.

If you yourself are not able to determine which foods are high in calories and which are not, consult a nutritionist. The doctor will create an optimal diet for you that will not harm your baby and will help you lose weight.

Simple exercises for nursing mothers

In order to lose weight naturally, you can follow the example of our mothers and grandmothers, who never even thought about going on a diet after giving birth. The simplest and most useful exercise that will help get rid of a saggy tummy is picking up trash from the floor. Every woman is forced to maintain order in the house. So, throughout the day, if you notice debris on your carpet, bend down and pick it up. If you bend over 20 times during the day, you will get your body in order much faster. Previously, in the time of our mothers, women deliberately scattered boxes of matches around the house and collected them throughout the day.

What exercises will be most effective after childbirth for losing weight?

Taking the stairs is also helpful. If your house has a second floor, you should not chase your spouse up the stairs to get certain things. Get up and take the necessary thing yourself. Climbing the stairs extra will burn extra calories and help you lose weight.

How to avoid weight gain

In order not to face the question of how to lose weight after childbirth and why am I getting fat, you need to follow three simple rules even during pregnancy.

There is a legend that all women recover after childbirth. This is a deeply erroneous opinion. Look at the animals: have you ever seen a dog with flabby sides? Only the one that the owners feed incorrectly. This is impossible to see in nature. The same goes for monkeys, with whom we are extremely similar. Why do young mothers get fat?

During pregnancy, relatives stuff the expectant mother, saying: “Now you need to eat for two!” Thus, they hint that the woman now bears responsibility for the life and health of the future person. There is, of course, some truth in this: the calorie content of a pregnant woman’s diet should correspond to that of a miner. But it’s not “for two”!

Indulging in all women’s whims without exception, many “stuff” a woman with cakes, chips, sausage and other foods harmful to a pregnant woman. Sometimes such care has a disastrous result: the woman is so “scarred” before giving birth that the baby sometimes cannot even be born on its own. So what about the time when the baby is born? The “snowball” of accumulation of fatty deposits after childbirth will not only not resolve on its own, but will also begin to grow further at a rapid rate. Therefore, you need to start thinking about your figure after childbirth even during pregnancy.

  • Nutrition

But many women during pregnancy follow all the nutritional rules prescribed by doctors. However, one should take into account the fact that a pregnant woman’s diet is higher in calories than a woman’s normal diet. After giving birth, her diet must change radically. But this is where an already established habit can play a role. The woman still eats “from the heart,” although her body has already been freed from the load placed on it.

As difficult as it may be, after giving birth you should radically change your attitude towards food. The situation is more complicated with nursing mothers. Now they have another concern: to make sure that healthy milk is always ready in the breast for the baby. And here again, many make the mistake of eating too much high-calorie food.

You don't need to eat a lot to produce milk. In the diet of a nursing mother, preference should be given to dairy products, soups, lean meats and vegetables that do not cause intestinal relaxation in the baby. Also, to normalize milk production, proper rest, good sleep and daily walks in the fresh air play a huge and perhaps the most important role. Nervous breakdowns, and especially stress, have a negative impact on both the quantity and quality of milk and on the woman herself. It’s no secret that ladies often, in order to calm their nervous system, open the refrigerator in search of something tasty...

Exercises to avoid gaining weight after childbirth

In addition to nutrition, every woman, especially those who have just given birth, simply need daily exercise. After childbirth, this is especially true because the abdominal muscles are extremely weakened, which is why the stomach does not keep its shape and even sags. Therefore, the main exercises during exercise should be those that form the abdominal press.

For example, lying on your back and raising your legs bent at the knees, “pedal” them, imitating riding a bicycle. Or, clinging your hands to the headboard of the bed and holding your shoulders, turn your torso to the right side, fixing the position with the inside of your left knee, touching the bed with it. Then do the same to the left side. This exercise should be done at least 10 times a day. These are the most gentle “physical training tasks.”

Later you can move on to heavier loads. Lying on your back and fixing your arms along your body, lift both legs at once. Then lower them smoothly, but not all the way. That is, without letting your legs touch the bed, lift them up again. You should start performing this exercise 4 times, increasing the number of lifts by one every day.

Of course, massage will also have a positive effect on the body and will help not only restore stretched and weakened muscles, but will also break down already deposited fat masses, improve blood circulation in the body, and help bring the skin to the state it was in before pregnancy. And there’s no need to talk about the effect that massage will have on mommy’s nervous system and vitality!

Not all women manage to recover quickly after pregnancy. The gained kilograms make you remember your former slimness with bitterness. And this unpleasant fact makes women think about why they get fat after childbirth and how to deal with it.

Hormones and excess weight

Pregnancy is a wonderful period of birth of a new life. But at the same time, this is a complex process, which often leaves a mark in the form of a general weakening of the body and, of course, excess weight. In order to understand why women get fat after childbirth, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of the body of the fair sex.

Female hormones such as progesterone and estrogens are characterized by properties that promote the accumulation of fat mass. During pregnancy, their produced quantity increases sharply, and their liposynthetic effect becomes more pronounced. In addition, hormonal changes, which are important for the maintenance and development of pregnancy, can affect appetite. A woman wants to eat more and more often, which undoubtedly becomes another reason why weight increases not only during pregnancy, but also after childbirth.

Why you shouldn't follow stereotypes

As we have already found out earlier, women during pregnancy and after the birth process get fat for natural reasons of hormonal changes and due to the increasing weight of the fetus. But in many cases, there are two more factors that contribute to the storage of extra pounds:

  • Incorrect excess nutrition. Pregnant women are often told that they need to eat for two and not deny themselves any food, since the baby needs it. Women hear the same thing after childbirth, but the arguments already boil down to the fact that without high-calorie plentiful nutrition, breast milk will become thin and insatiable. In fact, to maintain a healthy state of both your body and your baby, it is enough to eat foods rich in proteins, vitamins and useful minerals. Excessively fatty and heavy food will not give anything useful to the child, but it will quickly add extra pounds in the form of stored fat on the woman’s sides;
  • Passive lifestyle. Another myth says that during pregnancy you need to take care of yourself so that you should spend most of your time lying down. If a woman is not prescribed bed rest by a doctor and there are no direct indications for it, then she should abandon it in favor of her usual lifestyle. An excessively passive state will cause the body to retain excess weight after childbirth, which will be difficult to get rid of and will require a long process of losing weight.

Despite the abundance of various advice that comes daily from family and friends, a pregnant woman or a woman who has already given birth should adhere to common sense and not follow dubious stereotypes. If the pregnancy is proceeding well, and the birth was without complications, it is worth preserving it as much as possible. This will allow you to lose weight and regain your former shape after childbirth in the shortest possible time, without resorting to aggressive weight loss methods.

Additional causes of excess weight after childbirth

In addition to the main reasons why women gain weight after childbirth, there are other explanations for this phenomenon.

One of them is the psychological state of the postpartum woman. It is known that the vast majority of women fall into the so-called. Sleepless nights, colic, and persistent pain make a woman feel powerless and unable to control the situation. All this is complemented by unrestored hormonal levels. Often in such cases, young mothers try to satisfy their unstable condition with large amounts of food. To improve mood, the emphasis is often on sweet foods high in sugar. All this is immediately reflected in a woman’s figure and excess weight.

The second reason for a sharp increase in weight may be the method of delivery. The way a child is born does not in itself determine the appearance of extra pounds. But if a woman has had one, then she should understand that after it there is a greater likelihood of edema formation than during natural childbirth. Sometimes swelling can be so significant that the total weight increases by several kilograms. But in this case, it is recommended not to self-medicate and not to strive for rapid weight loss, but to consult your doctor to establish an accurate diagnosis.

How to lose weight after childbirth

The most important rule for losing weight in the postpartum period is that you should not attribute excess weight to the cause of the pregnancy state, and expect that after the baby is born, everything will return to normal. Only a small percentage of women can boast of the genetic ability of the body to spontaneously recover and return to pre-pregnancy weight. In other cases, losing weight will require certain measures in the form of exercise and a healthy diet.

After giving birth, women gain weight quite quickly, but they won’t be able to lose weight right away. The following tips will be useful for this:

  • Diet. Food restrictions should never be strict. Especially if the new mother is breastfeeding. Nutrition should be balanced, rich in protein, fiber and important microelements. It is worth limiting the consumption of fatty heavy foods. Fried, sweet, and too salty foods can be significantly minimized in your diet without compromising your health. On the contrary, giving up such products will not only allow a woman to lose weight, but also reduce the risk of edema;
  • Daily walks in the fresh air. By devoting two to three hours a day to walking, you can quickly see results in the form of several kilograms lost. Walking will be especially effective if you maintain an increased walking pace and perform breathing exercises;
  • Moderate loads. It is a mistaken belief that exercise is harmful to the health of a woman who has recently given birth and can cause the milk in the breast to disappear. You can perform light exercise already after one month after giving birth, and return to full-fledged sports activities after six months. You can also consider swimming, yoga, gymnastics and other light sports;
  • Wearing a bandage. A safe and convenient way to lose weight and shape your figure. Modern models of corsets and postpartum bandages allow women to get rid of excess volume without harm to health.

You should not give up your efforts if the result is not immediately visible. In general, the rate of weight loss is determined by several criteria:

  • Woman's weight before childbirth;
  • The number of kilograms gained during pregnancy;
  • Genetic tendency to be overweight;
  • The presence or absence of various types of diseases
  • Whether the woman was involved in sports before pregnancy or not, and so on.

If the use of these measures does not produce results and the excess weight remains deposited on the sides, the woman is strongly recommended to visit a doctor to assess her health. Perhaps the cause is disruption of natural processes in the body.

Childbirth is a phenomenal and very joyful event in the life of any woman. After this grandiose phenomenon, a real hormonal storm breaks out in the lady’s body. The hormonal situation comes into balance, and the body aims to fully feed the baby.

After pregnancy, the leading position in the body of a beautiful female representative is occupied by the hormone prolactin, which is responsible for lactation and is synthesized by the pituitary gland. In addition, prolactin suppresses egg maturation. It is noteworthy that the level of progestins and estrogens during this period drops approximately 10 times.

An interesting fact is that after pregnancy, many girls suddenly lose weight or, on the contrary, gain weight. So should we believe these rumors and how else can body weight change after childbirth? Let's figure it out.

What is the reason for losing weight?

Why do you lose weight so quickly after childbirth? Most likely, this phenomenon is associated with hormonal changes in the body of a young mother. Weight loss is sometimes associated with decreased estrogen levels.

In addition, sudden weight loss includes gastrointestinal diseases and depression in girls. How to cope with all these problems? The answer is simple - visit your doctor and immediately report any changes in your body. Try to adjust your diet, search the Internet for diets designed specifically for gaining weight. Include protein-rich nuts, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, and meat in your diet.

But hormonal levels usually return to normal after two months after childbirth.

Excess weight after childbirth.

With hormonal imbalance, sometimes a woman gets a significant problem in the form of weight gain. This may be influenced by too high a level of prolactin, which was suffered during pregnancy, as well as thyroiditis in women in position, which entails a decrease in the functions of the thyroid gland.

Also, the deposition of fatty layers can occur as a result of hypothalamic syndrome, which develops due to insufficient blood supply to the brain during childbirth or against the background of stimulation of the labor process by oxytocin. If you notice an impressive weight gain after pregnancy, sound the alarm and immediately run to an endocrinologist.

Special diets can also change the situation, but do not go hungry under any circumstances, as this is fraught with harmful consequences not only for you, but also for the baby. Include vegetables, fruits, cereals, and light salads in your daily menu.

You might also like:


Hypertension in the postpartum period - treatment
Diet during the postpartum period
How to get rid of constipation after childbirth?
After childbirth, hemorrhoids appeared, how to treat them with folk remedies
After childbirth, burning sensation when urinating - what to do and treatment

In this article:

Many women still believe stereotypes about obesity caused by pregnancy. But they are simply poorly informed why after childbirth the likelihood of gaining weight becomes higher.

Hormones are to blame

After childbirth, especially when breastfeeding, some women notice weight gain. According to statistics, 4-5% of women who give birth face the problem of obesity. Body weight can sometimes increase by more than 5 kilograms. The main reason lies in the characteristics of the female body. Sadly, it is the hormone that makes a woman attractive that causes unwanted changes in her appearance.

Even during pregnancy, for the growth of the uterus and the preparation of the mammary glands for feeding, the body requires a large amount of estrogen - the same female hormone whose properties contribute to the accumulation of fat in women. The process of producing the hormone progesterone, necessary for the normal development of the fetus, starts. Thus, even during pregnancy, the ratio of hormones changes, which is why some people gain weight after childbirth.

Misconception

Often a combination of natural hormonal conditions, lifestyle and certain heredity leads to obesity. One of the unfavorable factors is nutrition.

There is an opinion that even while pregnant, you need to eat “for two”, and when breastfeeding, each time you wash down a sandwich with butter with tea with condensed milk for more milk, increasing its fat content. Considering this, it is not surprising that many people gained weight after giving birth while on such a “diet.” This diet can only maintain unwanted excess weight. With every kilogram gained, the situation only gets worse: adipose tissue has the ability to produce certain hormones that promote its further growth. Here the circle is closed.

If you lead a sedentary lifestyle and often overeat, a spoiled figure is guaranteed. It makes no sense to complain about a natural process - the birth of a child.

Down with excess weight

Scientists from all over the world call for a balanced diet. This will be the main task for a woman who has given birth and wants to lose weight. If you don’t go to extremes, you will be able to effectively reduce weight, forgetting the reasons why you gain weight after childbirth. Dieting does not mean constantly counting calories. It is enough to try to eliminate or at least minimize the consumption of harmful foods: flour, sweet, smoked and overly seasoned. By going on a hunger strike, the result will be the opposite - the weight will return twice as much.

In addition to adjusting your diet, you need to give your body physical activity. For the first six months, few can afford to go to the gym. But at the same time you can combine walking with training. A brisk half-hour walk will be a good workout, as long as it is done regularly.

Try to stick to proper separate nutrition, do not overeat and try to give your body a good daily workout. By following these tips and the advice of experts, a woman who has given birth will not become another confirmation of the stereotype “they gain weight after childbirth.”