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Effective Methods of Loosing Those Unwanted Pregnancy Pounds
By Rochelle Caviness
By the time your baby is six months old, you are probably getting tired of waiting for your body to lose those last few 'pregnancy pounds'. A well-balanced diet, plenty of exercise, and patience are the keys to regaining your shape.
Having a baby takes a tremendous toll on a woman's body. Even with proper exercise, and watching what you eat, it is not unusual if it takes you a year or longer to regain all your strength, vigor, and your pre-pregnancy shape. To maintain you stamina and health during this rebuilding process it is essential that you eat a well-balanced diet. Embarking on a quick weight loss program can do more harm than good, by robbing you of the nutrients and calories you need to rebuild your body.
Nonetheless, many women want to speed up the process by embarking upon a weight loss diet. The first year, after having a child, you should keep any dieting to a minimum. If you do decide to follow a weight loss regiment, be sure to check with your doctor, or a nutritionist, and discuss the options and pitfalls that such a diet entails. In the meantime, here is some "food" for thought.
Breastfeeding and Dieting
Breastfeeding, in and of itself, will help you shed pounds. This is because the process of breastfeeding burns upwards to 800 calories a day.
When breastfeeding, you are still eating for two and you should follow the same diet you consumed while pregnant. Don't diet to lose weight while breastfeeding. Rather, change what you eat, but still maintain the same caloric intake. For example, eliminate sugar, which has no nutritional value, from your diet. Follow a low-fat, well-balanced diet, and your body will burn calories more effectively, and consequently you will lose weight - naturally.
Natural ways to lose a few pounds:
- Eliminate sugar from the diet.
- Limit the intake of fats.
- Eat foods high in fiber.
- Drink at least 12 glasses of water. It will help you feel full, and for the nursing mother, it will help with milk flow.
- Stay away from processed foods; they often contain a lot of salt, additives and unnecessary calories.
- Keep moving. Physical activity will help speed up your metabolism. In turn, this will help you burn more calories, without resorting to dieting.
For the Non-Breastfeeding Mother
Although you are only eating for one, you should still eat the same healthy diet as a breastfeeding mother. The only difference is that you don't need to eat as much.
While you do not have to consider your baby when dieting, remember that you are not yet 'fully' yourself. Don't exercise to exhaustion and don't starve yourself. According to the FDA, cutting back on your caloric intake by 300-500 calories should translate into a one to two pound weight loss a week.
Beneficial Diet Plans
- The best diet plan you can follow is simply a sensible, well-balanced one. The key to losing weight is to burn more calories than you consume. This can be done by decreasing the amount you eat, or by exercising, or a combination of the two.
- Vegetarian diet - While simply switching to a vegetarian diet will not make you lose weight, it will help you maintain a healthy diet. As such, it will increase your chances of losing weight. This is mainly because such diets are low in fat and high in fiber. A word of caution, vegetarian diets often do not provide an adequate source of Vitamin B-12. Be sure to ask you doctor if you should take a supplement.
- Any high-fiber plan that includes a balanced diet. Begin slowly. A rapid increase in fiber intake can result in stomach upset.
STAY AWAY FROM:
- Fad diets
- Diet pills
- Starvation diets
- One food source diets, such as the grapefruit diet.
- Stay away from diets that eliminate an entire food group such as diets that exclude all carbohydrates.
If you insist on dieting be sensible. Start slowly. If you must cut back, be sure to eat a little bit from a lot of different foods in order to meet your nutritional needs. If you cut back too much, you can make yourself physically ill and prevent your body from properly recovering from the effects of the pregnancy, and if you are nursing, it could harm the child.
The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only.
Always consult your doctor for medical advice.
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