How to lose weight after delivery

How to lose weight after delivery?

During delivery, our body goes through a lot of pain and suffering due to so much pressure and pushing. Our body stretch out and expands due to the force of pushing which we apply, in order for the baby to come out. There are so many facts that we must know about what happens during the pregnancy before even thinking about delivery and how to lose weight afterwards. Without knowing these facts we will not be able to know what exactly is going on with our body?

Below, I would like to share with you:

What happens to our body during pregnancy?

Muscles and Organs:

Muscles and joints shift and jostle. The heart’s pounding rhythm speeds up. Blood roars through arteries and veins. Over the course of a pregnancy, every organ in the body changes. Ignited by a range of hormones, these changes begin as soon as pregnancy begins.

Immune System:

Just days after fertilization, the embryo implants in the lining of the uterus. Because its DNA doesn’t exactly match the mother’s, the immune system should theoretically recognize it as an invader, attack, and destroy it, like it would bacteria or other harmful microbes. That’s the challenge: the mother’s immune system needs to protect both her and the fetus, but can’t act as it usually does. What happens is not as simple as decreasing the immune response. Instead, it’s a complex interaction we’re just beginning to understand, involving many different types of immune cells some of which seem to protect the fetus from attack by other immune cells.

Progesterone and HCG Hormones:

The body also creates an antibacterial plug made of mucus on the cervix, which keeps germs away and stays sealed until labor. As a pregnancy progresses, the uterus expands upward and outward with the growing fetus. To make room, hormones called progesterone and relax in signal muscles to loosen. The muscles that propel food and waste through the digestive tract also loosen, which makes them sluggish, causing constipation as passage through the tract slows down. Loosened muscles at the top of the stomach might allow acid to escape into the esophagus and throat, causing heart burn and re flux. These changes can worsen morning sickness, which is caused in part by hormone HCG and can also happen at other times of day.

Uterus Growth:

As the uterus grows, it pushes on the diaphragm, the muscle that expands and contracts the chest with each breath. This limits the diaphragm’s range. To compensate, the hormone progesterone acts as a respiratory stimulant, making the pregnant woman breathe faster so both she and the baby can get enough oxygen with less lung capacity. This all may leave the pregnant woman feeling short of breath. Meanwhile, the kidneys make more Erythropoietin, a hormone that increases red blood cell production. The kidneys also keep extra water and salt rather than filtering it out into urine to build up the volume of the blood.

Blood volume and decrease in Iron:

A pregnant woman’s blood volume increases by 50% or more but it’s also a bit diluted because it only has 25% more red blood cells. Usually, the body makes blood cells using iron from our food but during pregnancy, the fetus is also building its own blood supply from nutrients in the mother’s food leaving less iron and other nutrients for the mother.

Heart Function and Blood Pressure:

The heart has to work extra hard to pump all this blood through the body and placenta. A pregnant woman’s heart rate increases but we don’t fully understand how blood pressure changes in a healthy pregnancy an important area of research, because some serious complications are related to the heart and blood pressure.

Expansion of Uterus, Drop down of Fetus and Causes:

The expanding uterus may press on veins causing fluid build up in the legs and feet. If it presses on a large vein called the inferior Vena Cava, it might interfere with blood returning to the heart, causing a dizzying drop in blood pressure after standing for too long. Some of these changes start to reverse even before birth. Shortly before delivery, the fetus drops down, decreasing the pressure on the diaphragm and allowing the pregnant woman to take deeper breaths. During labor and birth, much of the extra fluid in the body is lost when the water breaks. The uterus shrinks back down in the weeks after birth.

Pregnancy and its Effects on the Brain:

Like the rest of the body, pregnancy affects the brain but its effects here are some least understood. Recent studies show differences in brain scans after pregnancy and early parenting and suggest that these changes are adaptive. That means they could help with parenting skills, such as an increased ability to read facial cues since babies can’t talk. The lack of information about pregnancy’s effects on the brain highlights a general truth: historically, almost all the research around pregnancy has focused on the fetus, rather than pregnant women.

Pregnancies Vary due to health factors:

Experiences of pregnancy vary widely, both within the range of healthy pregnancies and due to complicating health conditions new research will help us understand why, and develop effective treatments where necessary. In the meantime, every pregnancy is different and it’s important to consult a doctor with any specific questions. Today, we’re turning an exciting corner, as more research is devoted to the astounding biology of pregnancy.

Here were some brief facts about what our bodies go through during the pregnancy. Now considering those facts I would like to share with you all:

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How to lose weight after the delivery?

Here are some frequently asked questions which I would like to consider answering within my content. If ever I miss one, kindly leave me in the comment section below and I will do my best to help you with that.

1. How long should I wait to lose weight after delivery?

If the baby is born normal, you would have to at least give yourselves 9-10 months before trying to lose baby weight. All women are different so as all body types and pregnancies. It depends on your body type whether you would be able to try for the weight loss or not because some skin type due to sufficient Vitamin E, heals faster than those women who are lacking Vitamin E. As Vitamin E plays a very important role in the healing of the wounds and skin surface. The faster we heal, the better, easier and less painful it would be for the body during the exercise.

Even though your baby will be born normal, that doesn’t mean you will not receive some stitches. This hugely depends on the size of your baby. With small babies there are no stitches normally but in case of bringing a big baby in the world, you will receive some cuts before the baby comes out and you will also receive some stitches after.

During the first 5 months after the delivery, the concentration should be more towards taking care of the wounds and scars or stitches to keep them clean and always disinfect; to be able to prevent them from any dangerous infections and put some lotions or cream as per the prescription of your doctor. In some cases where no infections are involved, you could put Vitamin E and also Polyisoprene. Once your body will be ready, you will also be mentally prepared for your weight loss goals and its different ways.

2. How much weight do you lose after delivery?

• The amount of weight to lose depends very much on your current weight. If your doctor had advised you to gain at least 10 KG during your pregnancy until your baby reaches 9th months, then you must lose the exact amount which you had gained back then.
• Doctor’s suggestion as to how much weight we gain during pregnancy, depends on our weight before the pregnancy.

• Doctors suggest the ideal weight in which you and your baby would both be healthy. It also depends on with how much weight to lose, we remain happy. In some cases, if you are very thin before pregnancy and let’s say you wear XX Small size, now you might want to reach Small size, which in most cases we love to.

3. How to lose weight after delivery? How to lose weight after pregnancy?

Most of us wonder how to lose weight after the delivery. In order to find the answer to this question, it is essential to know what happens during the pregnancy to our body. That’s why I started up this article by emphasizing on the importance to know what happens to our body during pregnancy. So that before rushing towards weight loss, you consider all those factors which caused you gaining weight. If you are well aware of the right factors, you will make a decision based on considering those facts during your weight loss.

• During pregnancy your muscles and joints shift and jostle by each and every single passing week due to the growth of both your baby and the Uterus.

• Once you are ready to go for your weight loss plans, this is factor number 1 to consider. How we consider this? We must remain patient and allow sufficient time to those muscles to readjust themselves in to their normal positions once they were before. This is the natural way however, there are some other ways as well which fastens the process of re positioning of your muscles and joints. We will see them step by step as we see answers to below questions.

4. The best ways to lose weight after having a baby?

Beside being patient and allowing your body more time, considering nutritional factors during pregnancy is also one of the best ways to lose weight. Knowing what kind of food was suggested by the doctor in order for you to gain weight during your pregnancy. What kind of food you decrease and what you increase after delivery?

• When we are pregnant, we consider having more protein rich foods which are found in red meats and are the highest sources of iron.
• Doctors recommend having iron rich foods because during the pregnancy the fetus is building its own blood supply from the nutrients leaving less iron for us (mothers).

• Proteins cause gaining more weight during pregnancy. After allowing enough time for your iron level to get back to normal after delivery, slowly you would want to consider decreasing Proteins and increasing more and more Fiber rich foods. In order to do so safely, you should consider referring your doctor for blood test to see if your iron level has gotten back to normal.
• We are encouraged by the doctors to have small portions of food, healthy snacks, fruits and vegetables more frequently during our pregnancy. Now that the baby is born, we do not necessarily need to do that anymore, which means we must allow at least 4-6 hours for the food to digest before having more. In the beginning it is really hard to do so because during that 9 months our habit has changed by now but by drinking more water instead of having more food and snacks and by practicing it we can change this habit. I know that it is not very easy to be patient against the feeling and tendency to eat more but trust me you will get used to within a short period if you remain consistent.

• One of the most important things and yet best way to lose weight is to have sufficient sleep. It is normal to remain awake with the baby during nights but you could always use the time to have some sleep when your baby is sleeping at day times. I know it might be hard to do so if you are living alone because you would have to take care of other house hold chores but if you have someone around to help, you could use that time to sleep.

• Even though we are sleeping, our organs are still awake and working very hard. That’s why our sleep plays a very important role in the weight loss as well as in the state of mental health because pregnancy affects the brain as much as it affects the body.

5. How to lose weight after delivery while breastfeeding a baby?

• Breast feeding is known one of the natural ways to lose weight but if you confuse thirst with hunger and over eat, you will gain more weight despite you breastfeed. As I mentioned earlier that changing our habit of eating more frequently is hard but yet not impossible. Even though we feel like we are hungry, we should not eat as frequently as we used to during the pregnancy. Instead, we should focus on drinking more liquids and water because we tended to lose more water during the delivery due to the water break and because of the exhaustion of the body due to pushing and the delivery pains and suffering.
• The foods which we should consider are the ones which are high in Calcium, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, B12 (Omegas), Vitamin A, Iron rich foods in case of iron deficiency, Vitamin D, Fiber rich foods for better digestion and weight loss, good Proteins, Thiamine, Niacin and Riboflavin.

• Calcium and Vitamin D are as much important for the baby’s bone growth and strength as Omegas and Vitamin A for their brain and eye development. Therefore, during breastfeeding we should absolutely consider above mentioned Vitamins in our foods.

• By having above mentioned Vitamins we feel energetic and less likely to over eat which helps widely in weight loss.

6. How to lose weight after delivery at home? 7. How to lose weight after delivery without exercise?

 

We often think about weight loss and then get discouraged due to the fact that we might not have people around to take care of the baby so that we go to gym. Each case is different and every family situations are different too.

By staying as much active as we can, by taking the right actions in terms of below mentioned points we can lose weight even at the comfort of our home.

• Healthy eating habits
• Allowing sufficient time (4-6 hours) for the food to digest and the fats to burn in the stomach
• No alcohol or ice creams and chocolates – only having chocolates which are the darkest possible for instance 80% up to 90%
• Getting enough sleep
• Remaining very active by doing things we love to do on a daily basis
• Taking our baby for a walk on a daily basis if possible
• Keeping our brain fresh and healthy by preforming some hobbies we love
• Knowing our own body type best

8. How to lose weight after delivery C-section?

• If the baby is born through C-Section, we must give our body at least 2 years to heal. It is ideal to allow good amount of time for healing your wounds before experiencing any complications in terms of the damage of stitches by doing some exercise. Remaining patient for doing exercise in order to lose weight is extremely necessary.

• Healing process could vary from one woman to the other due to skin type and skin healing facility. Normally a healthy woman with healthy skin (with sufficient Vitamin E) heals faster than those who are suffering from Diabetes or Sugar diseases.
• We must avoid false movements during taking care of house hold chores to better protect the stitches of the wounds.

• It is normal after two years to start doing some exercises on a daily basis. There won’t be any risk by doing a normal exercise until you lift up something over weight or do some heavy lifting.

• After two years, we could consider doing all the things I mentioned on above questions in order to be able to lose weight.

9. How to lose weight after delivery after Depo Provera injection?

• Women who use Depo Provera injection to prevent or control birth, normally are worried about their weight gain. Most women experience weight gain while using Depo Provera as their normal contraception method.

• After delivery, it could be even harder because if you were tended to gain weight using Depo injection on the normal times before pregnancy or delivery, chances are that you gain even more weight after delivery.

• However, if you would like to stick with it for sometime and try to see how your body adjusts with it and how your hormones respond to it, you could do so. If you have a good feeling about it, you could continue but if you feel like it is making you feel worse about your body and experience even more weight gain, you could seek the advice of your doctor to change it for something else for example Marina.

• Here I have linked you to a website where you could read more about all the side effects of Depo injection and if you experience any of those, you must seek the advice of a doctor. Weight gain is one of those side effects.

10. How to lose weight after delivery by doing an exercise?

There are many exercises that we could do after delivery. I have imbedded an example of a video above if you would like to go through it. Walking in slow pace for a duration of 1 hour daily, is one of the most effective and yet very safe way to lose weight after delivery specially if your baby was born by C-Section.

Studies have shown that there are more fat burn possibility in walking on a slow pace rather than running. Walking is also good for your mental health same as physical because it helps to increase blood circulation throughout your body.

 

If you have a good blood circulation, your blood carries oxygen into your brain which results in good mental health, productivity, happiness, higher self-esteem, social engagements, improves concentration and makes you more active in your daily routines.

It helps the stitches to heal faster and without any false skin elasticity due to bad setting posture. It is also recommended by the doctors and nurses to walk on a slow pace so that your stitches heal straight or in the correct position.

They emphasize on not remaining seated for long hours during the day because chances are that your stitches heal in a bad position. In this case you will experience discomfort at your stitches while standing and you may not stand straight.

Sometimes even if you feel uncomfortable to stand straight, it is okay and normal as long as you do not remain like that and force yourself to stand normal without bended back.

11. How long should I wait to run after eating? Or How long should you wait to run after eating?

If you consider doctor’s answer to this question, they often suggest to wait 15 – 30 minutes before going for a walk. So if you are running, you should wait at least 30 min – 1 hour before you run. Running results in shaking of the food and liquids which are stored in the stomach along with the acid. It will then cause heart burn because of rising of the acid in stomach and may result in nausea or vomiting.

12. What to wear after delivery?

If we see from the medical cultural aspect of it, we should wear something with good fitting and thick tighter elastic so that it holds the body and skin tight to help muscles and joints to re position themselves gradually like before pregnancy. It might be true. We could try that and there is no problem with trying it and experiencing it by ourselves.

Some women who have given birth through C- Section, they could for sure go with something loose and comfortable to make sure the wounds will remain untouched and absolutely no pressure on them. So that their stitches heal properly and in the way they should.

13. What to expect after delivery?

There are many things which will come our way that we might not have expected.

• If it is going to be your first delivery, do know that you will experience so much pain and discomfort.
• For the first 2 – 3 months you will be taking pain relieve medications. You will be prescribed some by your doctor.
• You will have difficulty to set properly because of pain and you will feel really uncomfortable while moving around and approaching for things you need.
• You will need company while using the bathroom in the first 7 days.
• Breastfeeding could become very challenging in the first 5 days until the milk flows properly.
• For a good milk flow, you would have to keep your body warm. Sometimes a hot shower could help a lot.
• You feel like eating all the time even if you are full. It is because we lose a good amount of blood, we become exhausted due to pushing out the baby. It requires so much energy to be able to push the baby out.
• Doctors will also encourage you to eat better so that you regain all the Vitamins that you lost during the delivery.
• You might have family and friends to visit you during the first 3 days in the hospital. If you are feeling exhausted, do not be shy to request them to postpone their visit or make it when you will be returned to home.
• The first 3 days will be the most difficult and critically important for focusing on the breastfeeding and taking care of your own health as well as your baby’s.

 

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