Lose Weight After Childbirth

The baby is here and aside from dealing with the night feedings, changing diapers and the crying, it is time to start thinking about how you are going to lose weight after childbirth. Unless you were overweight before you got pregnant most women pick up an extra 20 to 30 pounds. It took 9 months to gain the extra weight so the safe bet is to take 9 months to lose the weight. You thought that getting rid of that back pack in the front would make you feel good but surprise hits you when you see the real damage after you step on that scale.

Okay, It looks like you picked up about 34 pounds. What do you do next? Do not start doing any diets or workouts until after your six weeks of healing and recovery. Get clearance from your doctor first. During the six week waiting to heal period start planing diet and workout. Before you do that let us talk about what you are going through. If you are a new mother there have to be some adjustments that you have to get use to. The late nights will turn into naps during the day. You will be overwhelmed with the feeding, the crying, the cleaning not to mention taking care of your significant other. You may or may not get help. While all of this is going on your hormones will be all over the place trying to adjust back to normal this will cause you to be emotional and moody.

I have goods news for you, It will get better with time. When you have a small amount of time you can sit down and think about your diet plan. First get a pen and paper then start writing down all of the foods you like to eat. Write down everything. Here is something to also think about, your significant other might have picked up some extra pounds to. The extra weight came when you did not want to eat alone so he ate with you and he ate what you ate so it stands to reason that he gain some weight to. What I am trying to tell you is this diet plan should involve both of you. This will make it easy when it is time to start the diet.

There are hundreds of diets on the market but the best one is the one you want for you. Start by doing your own diet and later take a look at other diets if you want. After you have all of you food items on paper now write down all of the beverages you like to drink. Everything juice, milk, pop, it does not matter. Everything that you eat and drink should be on paper. Take your time. Do not try to do this in one day. Do a little here and when you get time do some more until you get a complete list.

Get a food scale that shows values in grams. Get a food calories chart listing all of the foods on your list. The food calorie chart also has beverages. You can find the food calorie chart by going on Google. The reason for the food scale is to measure your food portions. The reason for a food calories chart is to find the calorie value for all of your food and beverages. This information is needed when you get into the nuts and bolts of your diet plan.

Get your list and line through all foods and drinks which contain sugar. In order for your diet to work you can not eat or drink anything that has sugar. Remember, your diet is only for 9 months. Once you get the food calories chart write down the calorie value of each food item on your list. An example is roasted chicken breast, 3 oz is 140 calories, rice, 1 cup (cooked) is 225 calories, beef steak sirloin broiled lean, 2.5 oz is 150 calories. Do this with all of your food items and beverages.

Get some blank paper and make a grid for 7 days label each slot for a day of the week. Do 4 sheets of paper the same way. Divide each day into three sections. Label each section breakfast, lunch and dinner. Take the food items on your list and start filling in the slots with your meals. Put down your breakfast, your lunch and your dinner. Now comes the fun part for each meal add up the total calorie amount. Example: Sunday breakfast 477 calories, Lunch 590 calories, Dinner 630 calories. Then add up breakfast lunch and dinner for a total daily calorie intake of 1697. Do this for each day for a total of 28 days. This is your diet plan.

A few things you should know about dealing with calories. Keep your meals between 400 and 630 calories per meal. Now if you are breast feeding do not eat meals below 600 calories per meal. For the next month switch meals around. Mix it up. Watch your salt intake. Do not eat a lot of salt. Salt is not good for your heart.

Now to burn calories you will need to workout. Start with a 20 minute light workout per day 4 days a week. After 2 months add 5 minutes to your daily workout and workout 5 days a week. After 6 months add 5 more minutes to your workout time per day and add another day to 6 days per week. After 8 months increase your workout time to 45 minutes per day 6 days per week. The key is to work your way up and top off to a regular workout that burns off the calories and help you to lose weight after childbirth.

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