Breastfeeding Helps You Lose Weight
One of the easiest ways to lose weight after you have a baby is just by breastfeeding. Even Hollywood stars like Christina Aguilera and Naomi Watts claim breastfeeding helped them to trim down.
I certainly lost weight while breastfeeding. I was about 120 when my little Hannah was born, which for someone who is under 5 feet tall is a little chubby, if you ask me. But thanks to nursing, the weight is slowly - very slowly - peeling off. Here I am, at 108 today (during my lightest time of the day - weight fluctuates as you eat and drink by up to 5 pounds) and I am very happy about it. I just hope my pants will get a little looser as I drop down to around 100-105, cause then I can go shopping for new stuff! Yup, that is my current goal. I will let you know how it goes over time.
There are other little postpartum tricks you can use to drop the weight.
1. Do not over exercise. Instead, do weight bearing exercises just a few times a week. But don’t start exercising right after birth. Give your body time to recover, and if you have medical concerns, talk to your doctor before starting an exercise routine.
2. Do not overeat. Eat a small meal packed with juicy, yummy fat and plenty of protein plus delicious carbohydrates that won’t spike your blood sugar. If your blood sugar spikes, you will probably store fat instead of burn it. Stop eating when you’re satisfied and eat as soon as you get hungry again.
3. Eat nutritious food. If you eat stuff that isn’t loaded with nutrients, you will either become deficient and sick, or your body will wisely force you to eat more food to satisfy your nutrient needs. If you eat junk, you won’t end up healthy, satisfied, and trim, you’ll be hungry and sick, and might gain more instead of losing. Make sure that your meal or snack isn’t some sugary junk with no nutrient value. Go for a nibble of cheese, a peanut butter sandwich, an egg, a protein-fruit smoothie, some nuts and dried fruit together, a steak with some steamed veggies, a small bowl of yogurt with fruit, etc. Choose what you think tastes yummy. Don’t go around hungry.
4. Eat just a little, but eat up to 6 to 8 times a day. Just don’t let yourself eat very much at any time. And remember, you need to eat plenty of calories. If you are starving, you’ve either cut back on calories too much, or you haven’t gotten enough good nutrition into what you are eating.
So that’s it! Let breastfeeding do the rest!
April 21st, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Well, here I am, over one month later, and I weighed in at 100 pounds! I weighed myself both yesterday and today with the same results. I did not deprive myself in any way (i.e. diet) to get to this weight. I did do everything I recommended in the above posts, however.
Edited to update: Sadly, it turned out that my scale was broken. I’ll get back when I have better information from more accurate scales. I don’t really know now how much I actually lost at this point, but I am not 100 pounds after all.