Losing weight after giving birth

[nousername123]

I'm 35 weeks pregnant and I'm worried about how I will look after giving birth. I was a size 24 before getting pregnant and I'm now a size 22. I lost weight at the beginning of pregnancy from nausea etc. To be honest, I've only recently started to look pregnant and I think that's due to my weight. My belly is a B shape as well. People don't really notice to be honest. I, however, have noticed. My stretch marks are loads worse since the past couple of weeks as well. Everyone says "don't worry you'll get your body back in no time" well I don't want my body back! I was to lose a lot of weight. I'm around 18.5 stone and I'm only 5 ft 5. I need to lose at least 8 stone. I've tried diets before and I've managed to lose a lot of weight in a short period of time but then I lose will power and it all goes back on. I've tried pretty much every diet going. Exercise is difficult as I have really bad sciatica which flares up regularly so keeping a regular exercise pattern isn't realistic. Any advice would be appreciated. I really want to feel sexy for my partner after having the baby. I know it won't happen straight away but we are also getting married in 2019 and I want to (for once in my life) feel and look like a princess. I have been overweight since I was about 13, now I'm obese. The lightest I've been in my adult life is like 16 stone and I honestly felt great at the time (I know that it's still really overweight) I just want to feel feminine. Anyone got any inspirational tales to cheer me on?

Hey. It's Christmas Eve, and you're due a baby. Take it easy on yourself for now.

Once the baby is born and you've had chance to settle down is the time to think about this.

There are baby and mother excercises classes (babies all in gym mats while mums exercise round the edge) there are outdoor classes where you jog with the buggy. But the main thing is eating sensibly. youll need your energy too.

Speak to your GP at your six week check and see if they can refer you to weight loss services. But until then try to give your baby the best start by eating right and knowing that you have a plan to tackle this.

It depends on the person but for me breastfeeding made the weight fall off. It also made me crave sugar like crazy so you do have to be careful to eat healthily and not give in to the craving.

I think you have to cut yourself some slack in first few weeks after baby is born because the sleep deprivation and breastfeeding (if you do it) means you will need extra calories just to survive.

After that, a relatively small lifestyle change that can make a big difference to very overweight people (I am doing this) is to a) do your best to cut out sweets, chocolates, biscuits - replace with fruit or high protein snacks, even some high fat eg nuts, cheese etc. And b) cut carbs at night. Carbs provide energy and you don't need them at night.

So it's sort of low carb but not obssssovely so. It also means that while you can have a bit more
Fat st night, it's not a true low carb diet so you shouldn't be throwing 100g of butter on everything! But, for example, I don't worry about frying food for dinner (not deep frying - just on frying) or will drizzle some cream or cheese into a sauce to make it more satisfying.

I promise that if you can massively cut back on treats and reduce carbs at night, you WILL see a difference. I don't know if it works for people who just want to lose a few pounds, but it definitely does for those of us who have a lot to lose. It's also quite slow, but I don't mind that because it feels sustainable.

In the meantime, enjoy your new baby!!

Be kind to yourself first and foremost.

Start by going for walks everyday with the pram. Getting out of the house makes a big difference on your mood I found. My fitbit mistakes me walking with the pram as a bike ride so it's good exercise.

Then yes as PP said start looking at the exercise classes you can take baby to.

Congratulations.