During pregnancy, women need to put on weight to ensure that they have enough energy reserves for them and their growing baby. However, around half of women will put on more weight than they need to, which can lead to a small amount of excess fat after pregnancy.
Below are 7 simple tips for helping you to shift this weight. While it can be difficult, if you are willing to make the appropriate changes, then it should be relatively simple.
Set Realistic Goals
Setting yourself weight loss targets is a good technique for helping you to stay on track. As you meet the goals that you set yourself, you will find that your motivation increases and you find it easier to keep up with the changes that you are making. However, you will also find that the opposite is true, and if you aren’t able to meet your targets, then you might find yourself demotivated.
It is important that you set yourself realistic targets for weight loss and lifestyle changes – targets that you actually stand a chance of meeting. If you set yourself unrealistic targets, then you are also setting yourself up for failure.
Avoid Crash Diets
Crash diets are when you severely restrict the number of calories that you eat, and are often touted as an effective way of losing weight quickly. However, these diets can be terrible for your health. Even when you are losing weight, you need to take on a certain number of calories every day. If you aren’t eating enough, then your health will suffer.
After giving birth to a child, it is even more important that your body has access to the energy reserves that it needs. Severely restrictive diets will deprive your body of the vital nutrients that it needs at this important time.
Consider Body Contouring
There are numerous supposed weight loss treatments and procedures out there, and many of these are invasive or rather extreme in nature. However, body contouring is an exception to this rule, and is a non-invasive and non-surgical fat reduction procedure.
For example, the Hifu treatment at The New York Laser Clinic uses controlled heating and ultrasound technology to target fat cells and tighten the skin. The Hifu treatment has gained in popularity as a safe, simple, and fast fat-reducing treatment that involves little to no risk. If you are hesitant about undertaking procedures that are potentially dangerous, Hifu offers a safer alternative.
Count Your Calories
While you should stay away from diets that will severely restrict your calorie intake, paying attention to the number of calories that you are taking on is a basic but effective weight loss technique. Counting calories will give you an objective measure of just how much you are consuming, and will enable you to tell if the adjustments you make to your diet are effective or not.
There are plenty of apps out there that will make it easy to record your calorie intake for each meal, or you can invest in a little pocket guide if you prefer. Many people find it helpful to keep a food diary so they can accurately track the number of calories they are consuming.
Cut Down on Sugar
Whenever you are trying to lose weight, reducing sugar should be one of the first things that you do. Excessive amounts of sugar in the diet are one of the most common reasons that people find themselves putting on excess weight. Be careful about sugar-free and diet sodas; while they may technically be free of sugar, there is growing evidence that the substitutes that are used are just as liable to cause weight gain when consumed in equal amounts.
Instead of replacing your sugar intake with the equivalent amount of sugar substitutes, try to reduce the amount of sugar in your diet completely. There are a number of benefits to reducing sugar intake beyond weight loss, and you may well find your overall health and mood begin to improve when you cut down on sugar.
Avoid Drinking
It’s a good idea to avoid excessive drinking when you are breastfeeding, but many women will still drink a small amount of alcohol after giving birth. Drinking a bit of alcohol is fine, but even the smallest amount of alcohol represents an incredibly fatty drink option. People underestimate just how much of a difference alcohol can make to their weight, and in particular how much weight people can expect to put on when they drink regularly.
Cutting alcohol out of your diet completely is the best way to maximise your weight-loss.
Exercise
In addition to making changes to your diet, the other core component of weight loss is exercise. If you aren’t exercising enough to burn off calories, then you are simply never going to lose any weight. Finding the time to exercise when you have a newborn is not always easy, but even if you only have time for a brief stroll every day with your baby, this will be enough to make a difference.
If you are struggling to shift that last bit of baby weight, these tips should help. As long as you are able to stick to the changes that you make, losing that extra weight is just a matter of time.
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