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What really works to loose the extra weight gained during pregnancy?
I don’t think eating less makes much of a difference, because i never put on weight from eating. As a child I ate tons of everything – Junk food included and always Kept slim. What kind of exercises are advised?
Why the urgency? Is the birth gained weight unhealthy?
As one who knows what you are going through I think the best thing is to exercise and eat a balanced diet of whole grains and protein and fruit and vegetables. With my first I gained 30 lbs. that I never lost just because no one gave me advice as to how to do it. Now it is 20 yrs. later and with each pregnancy I never lost the weight and am really angry at myself. I am now pregnant and due a”h any time now and a told myself that I will get get back into shape after the baby so I could look thin whenI walk my ffirst child down the chupah which I hope will be this year.
Yes I feel it is urgent and agree with you.
Also remember after pregnancy your body is not the same as before birth and as we age your metabolism slows down so we cant eat as much and we have to watch what we eat.
I never gained weight eating junk either. Until I had babies. So I went to weight watchers and it really helped! I was trying to lose the weight for I while cuz I couldn’t believe my metabolism wasn’t the same. Its not! So really weight watchers really helped! I lost like 14 lbs. I sound like their publicist. Oh by the way my mother in law is a succesful nutritionist but I just couldn’t stick to her diets!
I don’t think dieting helps. I held big diets after my baby and my stomach didn’t budge. I believe its all stomach excersize. Push ups and professional excercise classes. I wanna start attending a class too.
Your body definitely changes after pregnancy. Don’t think about what you did before baby – it doesn’t apply now.
Best thing is to avoid the junk! Either don’t buy it or completely assur it for yourself. Stick to a healthy diet including whole grains and plenty of vegetables, fruits, proteins. Try to make yourself big, interesting, salads and fill up on that before you move on to the other food on the table.
As far as exercise is concerned, I don’t think exercise classes are necessary. Just keep active, go for power walks, buy an exercise DVD, whatever! Just fit it into your schedule as much as possible. I had a membership to a gym, but never went. It cost me $ and gave me no benefit. Haztlochoh rabbah!
Yes fill yourself up on salads; veggies; fat free popcorn…
But really weight watchers helped. Especially since you have to pay so you make sure to stick to the diet!and you don’t want to weigh in more than the previous week!
If you are nursing, that will help. The pounds melted off me last time (and I’m hoping this time).
Start simple – take walks with the baby while the weather is nice. Get very light weights (like 2-3 lbs) and start some SIMPLE weight lifting. Also, try getting an excersize ball. I read that even just sitting on those helps strengthen and tone your muscles.
The basic way to excersize is to alternate cardio and weight lifting every day. This gives your muscles a chance to rest/repair from one way of doing things.
My best advice is not to overdue it. Its easy to start off gung ho and then taper out.
Also, find something you like, so it doesn’t become a chore.
Now, after writing that list, I do have to say its so much easier said than done…good luck!
Probably sit ups for the tummy flab.
Don’t do sit ups! It could actually do more harm than good. What SJSinNYC says is on target. That in addition to cutting out the junk.
What harm can sit ups do? Don’t do them unless your doctor let’s you work out. But you can’t do anything until he gives you the okay anyway? That includes no aerobics;yoga;etc.
ames, I was just gonna mention that; sucking your stomach in. Especially while doing the excercise.
ames, what do you mean by you don’t sweat off the flab, you won’t get a flatter tummy, you’ll have muscle under the fat?
Drink plenty of water, nurse & dont fall for the junk foods. Eat well balanced, healthy meals & go walking everyday. You won’t loose weight over night but you’ll definetly get there. Hatzlacha!
Oh yeah! Sucking in the tummy is smart!!! And that’s easy!
Hey! WELCOME, mybat! Stick around and have a blast!
I’m not a woman, but I’d like to put in a good word for weight watchers. 45 years ago, when I was a real fat kid, I took my Aunt’s WW diet off her refrigerator door, copied it and stuck to it for a few months. I lost 70 pounds.
I grew up, and since my 20s, have been putting on a few pounds per year. Pretty soon, it adds up to real weight.
so, this past winter I joined weight watchers again. Lost 20 pounds, which I’ve kept off all summer. It wasn’t that hard. I will go back in October for another 20.
bests,
-rsr-
Also, most people don’t know how to do them properly, and you end up worse off than before.
Thats so intersting. So how DO you get the extra abs away?
ames and plonis – Thanks for explaining about the possible harm of sit-ups in my absence.
Thanks, ames!
Wow! That was a great quote with a clear explanation. I had just read different things here and there that sit-ups and crunches could hurt your back and that it doesn’t really flatten your tummy. Thanks for the clarification.
one misconception im seeing here
the postpartum bulge can be due to either excess fat deposit OR weakness of the abdominal muscles, to one degree or the other. often due almost entirely to weak, stretched muscles.
abdominal strengthening exercises (not necessarily sit-ups or crunches) WILL help this condition, although to lose the fat they will do almost nothing.
How long postpartum are you? Before starting any major type of exercise, you have to build your pelvic strength. Do pelvic tilts several times a day. Also, you don’t want to do any high impact exercises if you have just recently had a baby. Your body has to recover a bit before any heavy exercise. You can take walks. Do some light yoga. The moment you are in pain, you should stop. Every day you will build strength to your body, and you will soon be able to do aerobic activity, and heavier types of exercises. As for your diet, you don’t want to cut back on your calories too much, because your milk can become harmful to your baby. If your weight is staying the same as of right now, write down everything you eat, and at the end of the day, add up your total amount of calories. What ever number you come up with, minus about 500 calories from that and that’s around the amount of calories you should consume to lose weight. A great diet plan is the South Beach diet. It’s a little hard the first few days or so, but then it gets easier and the results make it all worth it.
Remember, you are not alone! I gained 50 pounds with my pregnancy, and I wasn’t even able to start eating normally until 5 months in to it because of the terrible “morning” sickness I had.
Thanx mepal! Oh and I didn’t know about the sit up- back issue!
BS”D
For those whose backs or builds do not permit weightlifting, a recommended alternative is shoplifting, where the emphasis is not on the weight but on the value of the merchandise lifted.
For instance, if one shoplifts a diamond, it will lead to the lifter being placed in a strict exercise facility where the diet is limited so that weight loss soon follows. Yet, even a 40 carat rare diamond lifted from 47th St or Ramat Gan weighs little and puts no strain on the back or other muscles.
Fencing, an Olympic team sport in which the merchandise is received from one or more lifters and then fenced, and is therefore akin to football in which a ball is received and then thrown or kicked to other players for relocation, is a similarly healthy yet low impact exercise. The EY Olympic fencing champion, a certain gentleman whom I met in his store on Allenby prior to his winning the title, gained said title for receiving jewelry from a lifter and passing it back to the party from whom the lifter had lifted it. Again, no damage done to the back or shoulders but much weight lost by both fence and lifter.
it has to do with what you put in your mouth, not with the baby. lets not blame them for our extra fat!
Any advice on how to rid excess fat from under the chin area?
yes!. what you should do is try to get some laundry pins and make them skin color with paint or something and then clip it where needed, paperclips may work but just for a short while. you can also stretch you neck and rub it and it helps! just keep on nodding yes to this post – by stretching your neck quite high to make like a giraffe neck- this should help temporarily . good luck. if any more info needed i am always here~!
mepal, best advice is to be born to parents who don’t have excess skin under THEIR necks.
mepal: do double chin exercises!
Sit upright, then tilt your head back as far as you can manage, now open and close your mouth several times feeling the muscle stretch each time. keep saying apple and you will feel your neck muscles being pulled while doing this! you can do this anytime when ya want during the day or night!
good luck!
ronsrs: Why haven’t you told me that before I was born?? Truthfully, naturally my parents dont have those kind of necks anyways so I cant really blame them 😉
Jax, thanks! I’ll try that sometime and see how it works!
Jax – that’s good advice! Doctors often say to use words to exercise facial muscles. In fact, I know of a story with an older German lady who had an excessively large mouth (probably from smiling too much </sarcasm>) and the doctor told her to say “prune” for an hour at a time, every day, to shink her mouth muscles. When she came back, the doctor noticed that her mouth had gotten bigger and not smaller so he asked her to practise in front of him so that he could see what was wrong. She sat down and started reciting, “Flaumen, flaumen, flaumen….”
I don’t think I’m a good comparison – I see that you said you are a size 6, I’m a 14. I left the hospital at my pre-pregnancy weight but with nursing, I lost an additional 15-20 lbs within 4-5 months.
Good luck!
As long as you are nursing, its burning extra calories. As the baby moves towards more and more solids, you are nursing less and less, so you use less calories making milk.
In addition, nursing is far superior healthwise for the baby and the mother!
Nursing should burn calories for as long as your baby is actually nursing.
I think that the number of excess calories needed for nursing is likely greater than the 200-500 estimate mentioned above. Human milk contains about 20 calories per ounce, on average. The rule of thumb for the amount of formula a young infant should drink is 2.5 ounces/ pound. So if a baby weighs 10 pounds, he should drink 25 ounces of formula per day. If a nursing baby drinks the same amount, he’s ingesting about 500 calories. Keep in mind that if an ounce of mother’s milk contains 20 calories, the mother will burn more than 20 calories producing that ounce of milk. And of course, most nursing babies weigh more than 10 pounds. So I think that 500 excess calories is the absolute minimum for most nursing babies who do not receive other food.
I lost all of the pregnancy weight by 3 months postpartum without exercising; I’d guess most of that was due to nursing (nursed exclusively for 6 months). I wear the same size as you.
The only problem is that when I’m nursing I get VERY hungry. So you do have to be careful to eat very healthy and no fatty foods.
Coffeefan Ill try that. Thanx!
Always drink when nursing. I would take a drink before, and then another right after. it is crucial to the milk supply.Don’t diet. Just don’t eat things that are bad for you.The weight will come off, but you want it to come off in a healthy way, don’t you?
Exercise is key to lose excess fat. Without it, even with proper eating, you may lose muscle, and lower your metabolism in the process. By exercising, you build muscle mass, which increases your metabolism. It is true muscles may weigh more than fat, but in comparison on the exterior of an individuals body, it looks slimmer, while having the same “weight” of fat will look bulkier, heavier. This doesn’t mean healthy eating isn’t important. Healthy eating in conjunction with exercise will give you very satisfying results.
Also, it’s not always true when they say that if you lose weight too fast, it will come right back on just as quick. As long as you continue a healthy lifestyle, you have nothing to worry about. I lost all the “baby” weight and some around 3-5 months postpartum. I’m even smaller now than I was before getting pregnant. It has been over 2 years and I have not gained any of the weight back.
coffeeroomfan, if you have to ask, you haven’t been around long 🙂 yoshi posts mainly in the “runners” thread, so if I had to guess I’d say her choice of exercise is… using a treadmill? But I could be off.
My favorite exercise is taking random walks. I find the brownian motion soothing and relaxing. I don’t recommend it for weight loss, though.
A.K.A. “Brisker” walking.
I went down from around a size 8 to a 4 after my baby was born just from nursing and walking alot every day. I think that it is a tendancy of a person to lose or gain weight fast or slow. for every person something else works so cofeeroomfan dont take all the advice and other peoples stories as a pressure. Youll get there at your own pace. Hatzlacha raba.
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