Post-baby weight loss

[babyboy520]

Since having my baby I’ve found losing weight so much harder than before. Everyone says “just eat less and move more” but honestly life doesn’t work like that. Between the lack of sleep, work stress and trying to look after a little one, half the time I’m just grabbing whatever food I can. Some weeks I do everything “right” and the scales don’t budge, other weeks I don’t try as hard and somehow lose a pound. Feels like hormones and stress play a bigger role than people admit. Anyone else struggling with this?

How old is baby? Don’t be too hard on yourself - it takes time to lose the weight. If you’re breastfeeding the body often hangs on to a bit of a cushion anyway.

It depends how old baby is, but my biggest tips from my own experience losing weight post-baby would be:

1. Don’t underestimate walking/running, put baby in a pram and get outside for an hour a day. This was the only exercise I did for really 6-8 weeks postpartum,
2. PREP!! As you say when you’re busy, stressed, juggling a baby you are just grabbing whatever food you can do the best thing you can do is prepare for that in advance to make sure you have “good” options to grab. You can’t grab what you don’t have so buy fruit/veg/crackers rather than crisps/biscuits, spend an hour on a Sunday prepping lunches and breakfasts for the week so they’re in the fridge ready to go. If you can have a healthy balanced meal ready to eat in 30 seconds you’re far less likely to reach for other foods.

I’m now nearly 8 months pregnant with my second so will see how that works this time!

I'm breast feeding and my periods haven't restarted, but I see my weight has a monthly sawtooth so probably hormone related

I managed to lose weight for a while, but have piled it back on. I lost weight, as someone suggested, by walking an hour and a half a day and also by increasing my water intake to 3L while breastfeeding. It worked a treat (lost a stone and a half).

However, this fell apart when my little one wouldn’t sleep and I was stressed (Extended b/f and cosleeping wasn’t working for me). This meant that I had late nights and had to have a snack at midnight or I would get hunger headaches. Having little sleep definitely messed up any idea of dieting, and an hour-long walk was the last thing I wanted to do while the baby was napping when I was exhausted - I usually fell asleep on the sofa clutching the baby monitor.

I also have to mention that having separated stomach muscles (diastasis recti) after giving birth means that my stomach is so much bigger than before, and it wont go down without physio. I have come to terms with this and have even bought my ‘big jeans’ with grudging acceptance, while filling in my physio referral request.

Anyway, hope this helps. I can see why they say it can take 2 years for your body to recover.

I can totally relate to this. After having my baby I kept waiting for my body to “bounce back” but it just hasn’t, and honestly I don’t think it ever will be quite the same. Lack of sleep, stress, and just trying to get through the day makes it so hard to focus on things like long walks or meal plans. I’ve also had to buy bigger clothes and at first it felt like giving up, but actually it’s just being realistic and kinder to myself. It really does take time, and sometimes I think we put way too much pressure on ourselves to look like we did before.