How hard is it to lose two stone post baby?

[Lopiun]

For my whole life up until my baby I was a healthy weight - never had to diet or deprive myself. Just maintain without thinking.

I gained 45 pounds during pregnancy but have lost 16 pounds of that naturally.

I literally cannot shift this two stone, it’s been eight months and it’s really getting me down. The number seems huge and unachievable. Experiencing intense body hatred for the first time in my life.

If you have lost two stone, PLEASE share what you did. I struggle with eating meals which don’t feel satisfactory.

Typical day:

Breakfast - fried egg, avocado, salsa, feta maybe
Lunch -chicken, pesto and mozzarella panini with salad and fries or sweet potato
Dinner - chilli with all the trimmings
Snack - fruit, smoothies, cheese board, tortilla chips and guacamole, chocolate bar (one or two of the higher calorie options daily)
Alcohol - glass of wine every other night

Weekends have splurges - meals out, takeaways, bbqs

@Lopiun it sounds like it may be metabolism. I know I never had to think about what I ate before and now eh 😂. The only comfort E can give on a subsequent pregnancy I didn't put the weight on.

Do get back to the exercise, you know when you are back you will enjoy it. Beat of luck, don't forget to put in alternative treats to the chocolates etc. I used to throw the money saved in a jar and added to the gig fund.

That sounds like a huge amount of calories!

Sounds to me you are massively underestimating the calories you're consuming and hence not losing weight.

With my first baby, I lost the baby weight once I stopped breastfeeding and not my appetite back under control and did ALOT of buggy walking. With the second, it was much harder as I couldn't get the buggy miles in and my alcohol consumption stepped up slot.

Blimey, fat fingers. Apologies for the typos.

Logging calories and you’ll see that those things have quite a lot of calories in - eg avocado is healthier than eating chips but still quite high in calories. Same with alcohol and eating out.

Be kind to yourself OP - you had a baby eight months ago so not only are you recovering from that, you’re always looking after a baby! There are definitely things you can cut down on like weekend splurges and lunches out but maybe the lunches out is something that will just naturally go after maternity leave is finished, if you’re doing it as a social activity. Could you do coffees instead of lunches?

Cut out fries, sweet potato and the bread (panini). Cut out tortilla chips. Check how much suger is in the salsa. Go easy on the fruit- berries are fine but limit bananas, mangos etc.
Replace all milky coffees with just black.
The more protein in meals the better as it will keep you full.

Stop the take aways.

Intermittent fasting is great too..start with 16:8. So skip breakfest- eat between 11-19 for example.

If you do that you will lose weight quickly.

There’s no way I’d lose weight eating that amount - I have lost a stone in baby weight in last 10 weeks.

breakfast - yoghurt and an Orange juice
lunch - sandwich or a salad
dinner - normal dinners but less of the carb and smaller portions

no snacks apart From fruit - weekend treat a glass of wine

and lots of walking

it’s boring but works

20 min walk with dog once a day is really low amount of walking. To get Ds to nap at that age I would be walking 2-3 hrs every day. So I suggest upping the walking. It doesn’t need to be extreme exercise, just walking a lot.

Eating out, bbq, takeaway every weekend is also a lot. You can do them, but if you having that often then of course you need to be more watchful of what you eat at these events

I'd personally cut the snacks and keep the meals as usual.

Just breastfeed. The weight just fell off me and I would be shovelling in cakes while she was eating. I actually lost too much and had to stop at 1yr.

It takes up to 1yr for your body to fully recover from pregnancy. You've just grown and birthed a little human - that's amazing but hard work! Yes diet is important and weightloss needs to be from a calorie deficit but there are other aspects such as making sure you are getting enough sleep and also upping exercise if feeling able to do it.

There's so much pressure to loose weight after childbirth. Some will be back in pre pregnancy clothes before leaving hospital. We're all different. If it's really important for you to loose weight now, try reducing some of the snacks. It may take time and a healthy loss is about 1lb a week (I think!). Providing the scales move in the direction you want you're winning!

I do intermittent fasting at 20:4 which is 1 meal a day but only because that fits into my lifestyle and I fell into it as was too busy to eat before evening meal around full time work, 4 kids and house to run. You need to find sustainable changes for you that will make you feel good about yourself and not deprived or it won't last. Quick crash diets might just send you into a circle of weightloss and gain

You have a very very high fat diet and quite a substantial amount of it. Cheese all over the place.
i wonder if you could swap out breakfast for eg small porridge with nuts/ fruit
and one other meal for a huge salad with light vinaigrette and some beans for protein?
I lost two stone after childbirth using this approach.
alcohol is a killer - empty calories

I have just lost two stone after my 3rd baby.
You have to count all calories. Use an app like nutricheck. I pay 4.99 a month for it. It works out my daily allowance of calories and steps. Then you log EVERYTHING that goes into your mouth on it.. including cups of tea, chewing gum, bites of someone else's food.. anything. You also need to make sure you weigh food correctly if cooking yourself.
It sounds harder than it is.
Once you get used to it you barely think about it. And actually you'll find you have more than enough calories ti feel full.
The weight just falls off if you just stay within your calories.
Once you start tracking stuff you'll see that some things have a ridiculous amount of calories in and it can be unexpected.. there will be areas where you can substitute things and save loads of calories.
One that jumped out to me in your op was "panini"... that has loads of calories in compared to other types of bread. If you were to use a thin bagel or a pitta pocket, or even just ordinary sliced bread.. it would have half the calories in of panini bread. So it's just about making swaps like this. When you track everything you eat it will become clear where you are consuming too many calories and you can do something.
Just vaguely eating what you assume to be healthy will not help you lose weight.. altho it can be fine to just maintain weight as there is something to be said for eating intuitively.. but to lose weight you will actually have to look carefully at the calorie content of what you are eating.
Obviously health isn't just about calories but losing weight mostly is... altho looking at things like protien content can help you feel more full therefore help you stay within your calories easier. Obviously if you use all you calories for the day on just eating bags of crisps, that's not sustainable long term even if you stay within calories. So balance is important.. but ultimately the only real way to lose weight is to be on calorie deficit long term.

Very similar to you - put on 42 pounds over my pregnancy, lost 16 pounds by 2 weeks pp and back to pre pregnancy weight 6 months pp.

I breastfed so that makes a difference, but I also make sure I do two big walks a day with the pram/baby in carrier and I only eat 2 meals (mostly breakfast and dinner). I'll have a snack instead of lunch so I can keep eating a varied diet similar to yours but without restricting myself of treats too much.
I also never eat past 7pm and don't eat before 7:30/8am.

Good luck losing the weight :)

I'm 45 and peri so loosing weight is HARD!!! I've lost 2 stone since November.

Daily eating -
Breakfast - handful of berries or grapes
Lunch - salad with low fat salad cream. 2 slices wholemeal bread, 2 slices of chicken or ham
Dinner - regular meal with reduced cards and big salad or veg. Eg spaghetti bol with big bowl if salad. No cheese or garlic bread.
Snacks - fruit, yog, homemade oatbars or homemade muffin
No booze

I walk at least 15k steps a day and do pilates one day a week and karate an other. Need to add some weights now to help with bone density etc.

It's slow but steady. Have 1 stone to go.

Surely you’re aware it doesn’t work like that for everyone though? Or even for subsequent pregnancies for the same person?

I’ve been breastfeeding for 2.5 years, nearly. If anything, it’s hampered weight loss. I’m glad that hasn’t been the case for you but it’s truly not a reason to breastfeed and it’s far from guaranteed that it’ll cause any weight loss at all.

Sounds absolutely delicious, but a highly calorific days’ food- I would pack weight on eating that.
I’m around a bmi of 22, size 10-12, and am in my 40s. I maintain my weight by exercising consistently and eating two decent sized meals a day. I do have a couple of glasses of wine each night and a bit of chocolate.

Meals tend to be the usual stuff:
chicken tray bake with lots of veg and rice
jacket potato and toppings
roast dinner
spag bol
paella
toasties and soup
curries
stir fries
eggs and avocado on toast

I do the 18:6 each day and when I’ve needed to lose weight (after pregnancy- needed to lose 2.5 stone) I’ve calorie counted and had around 1500 cals a day and exercised 5 days a week. I’ve eaten the same stuff as above but smaller portions.