I recently gave birth to my first child. It's been almost 3 months and, in that time, my body has undergone so many changes—more than I could ever imagine. Now that I'm feeling more like my old self, I want to lose the baby weight ASAP.
While I was pregnant, I heard all sorts of stories from moms about postpartum weight loss (some good, some bad) so I really didn't know what to expect after I gave birth to my son. The past several weeks have been somewhat of a roller-coaster with regard to my weight loss. Here are 4 things that no one told me about losing the baby weight.
It’s easy at first
I lost 20 pounds in one week after I gave birth. Crazy, right? Between the weight of the actual baby, the placenta, fluids, and all of the other stuff that goes along with pregnancy, it seemed like slimming down was going to be a piece of cake.
Then it gets harder
In reality, losing the baby weight was harder than I thought. Over the next month, I only lost two pounds—quite the difference from my initial weight loss. Of course, two pounds is a healthy amount to lose (most professionals recommend between a half-pound and 1 pound per week), but knowing that I still have quite a bit more to lose makes it seem overwhelming at times. It took me 9 months to gain the weight, so I know it could take just as long to lose it, so I need to be patient.
RELATED: 6 Rules for a Healthy Postpartum Slim Down
It’s not as simple as “calories in, calories out”
Weight loss can sometimes as simple as calories in versus calories out. But when it comes to postpartum slim-downs, hormones, sleep deprivation, and breastfeeding make it a little more complicated. If you breastfeed, doctors recommend eating an additional 500 calories per day to produce a healthy milk supply. Yes, breastfeeding does burn calories, but it can range from 300 to 500 per day. So it's an balancing act and not as easy as reducing your calories to drop the pounds.
RELATED: 10 Myths and Facts About Breastfeeding
You may not want to jump back into your fitness routine
When I was 41 weeks pregnant, I was all about losing the baby weight as quickly as possible: I wanted to resume my old fitness routine as soon as I could. But when my son was born, it was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Late-night feedings totally exhausted me, so the last thing I wanted to do was exercise. However, I learned that some activity actually energized me, so I started to incorporate more of it into my daily life.
Read Tina’s daily food and fitness blog, Carrots ‘N’ Cake.