Postpartum weight gain - help & advice

[Giraffaelina]

Uggghh, one of those dreaded topics! I'm just looking for some encouragement, advice and help on loosing some of the baby (mostly postpartum) weight. How did you do it? What did you do? Anyone else gained weight AFTER pregnancy or am I the only one that screwed this up so massively??

Before having a child, I was a healthy size 12 (larger size 10 on a good day LOL!) but most importantly, I felt good in myself! I exercised fairly regularly and had a balanced diet of eating everything in moderation - no starving or indulging but just knowing the limits.

Fast forward to my pregnancy, I suffered with terrible back pain throughout and I couldn't stand / walk for an extended amount of time, let alone exercise. Still, I managed to not gain too much, just a normal amount that you'd expect, which I could have lived with. But after having my baby, oh my gosh the KGs just piled on and now 10 months on, I've grown two dress sizes - but that's not even the most important part and please, I'm not trying to body shame anyone, far from it!!!! - I just feel so miserable, weak, out of breath and shape. I know I need to make a change so just looking for some wise words & success stories!

I know what I need to do in theory, I'm quite clued up and willing and it may sound like I have all the excuses in the world but I have no family nearby to help with the baby and hubby works full time so it's hard to find time to look after myself. And although I've started a couple of times, when a sleepless night hits, I'm back at having two bagels and a bowl of cereal with a bucket load of coffee for breakfast so I can stay awake and to get a bit energy boost.

Thanks for reading and sorry for rambling on a bit....

I do feel for you and sorry not a lot to add. I stuffed my face with sugary crap for a whole 17 months after having my baby. Breastfeeding and no sleep made me reliant on it! My husband also would work a lot so just being stuck in with a baby didn’t help much!

Be kind to yourself but a big part of that is feeding yourself properly. Let yourself eat the treats but feed yourself 3 proper healthy meals a day - make yourself a packed lunch the night before if you have to! Get out and walk, it’s all you can do at the moment... my baby was a rubbish napper too so would spend hours pushing him around in his buggy!

There is light at the end of the tunnel though, my son is 19 months now and I’m back at pre-preg weight!

Same here - I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight a few weeks after giving birth, a combination of breastfeeding and not having time to eat much. When I went back to work I absolutely piled it on, though, and now I’m about as heavy as I was at nine months pregnant, it’s awful. I used to eat very healthily but didn’t realise how much time it took to shop and prep.

The way I’m trying to do it is get back to regular exercise (not easy when working from home) and changing my routine a bit to fit with DS who is nearly one. I can’t sneak an extra slice of toast in the morning whilst he plays because he notices and comes to beg for a piece, that helps. Cooking decent healthy food for him reminds me to eat better, too. I also find if I have a snack when he has his tea at 5pm, I don’t over-eat in the evenings.

Thanks for replying, guys! @Montysauras good advice on packed lunch, I could definitely do that so it would be a type of short term meal planning. Suppose just need to stick to it no matter what and push myself to go out as much as possible!

@DisgruntledPelican oh, I haven't even thought about work! I'm starting back in a few weeks, and was kind of hoping I'd be too distracted to eat haha!

I am currently trying to set a target of focusing during the week ie: low fat and low carb meals with lots of veg and not being so overly strict at the weekend. Swapping my evening glass of wine or two for herbal tea (yeah, right!!!) and asked my husband to pretend I don't exist for an hour a couple of times a week (we will see about that haha!!) so I can try and get some regular exercise in. See? It sounds so good in theory, just so wish I could stick it out.

Thanks again both of you :)

It obviously depends on your job as to whether you’d be distracted or not. I was quite a snacky person when office-based, but it was healthier snacks, and I also used to travel between sites for visits and meetings a lot, so that took up time. I would also exercise at lunchtime, not just walking but going for a run or to spin classes too. Working from home is more about an extra bagel at 10:30am, a cereal bar when bored, a piece of cheese at 3pm to stop me thinking about dinner, then all of a sudden that’s an extra 600 calories from nowhere, combined with less exercise. I know I’m doing it but still end up like this most days.

You sound like you have a good plan - low fat AND low carb might be a bit tricky though. When I was a healthy weight I ate low-ish carb but not low fat - plenty of oil, avocado, good quality meat. Not much variety as I meal-prepped. I want to get back to this sort of eating eventually, but it’s difficult with DS as I want us to eat all together as a family and I want him to eat a wide range of different foods.