Losing Weight After a Baby – 7 Reasons It May Not Be Coming Off

Of course, you love your new little bundle of joy…but maybe not so much the extra pounds that came with him/her? Losing weight after a baby can be stressful, especially when it doesn’t seem to be coming off, no matter what you’ve tried. Or maybe the weight was coming off in the beginning but it has slowed down or come to a complete halt?

Sleeping

Are you getting enough sleep? I know, it’s hard to get enough sleep when you have a baby who wakes you up at all hours of the night. Unfortunately though, it can affect your weight loss in a negative way. Getting enough sleep means 7 to 8 hours every night.

According to an article on MedicalNewsToday.com, studies have shown poor quality, and limited sleep may increase the risk of metabolic disorders, weight gain, and obesity. Lack of quality sleep has also been shown to increase the desire for high calorie and high carbohydrate-containing foods associated with weight gain.

Too Much or Too Little

Losing weight after a baby can depend largely on if you are eating the right amounts of food each day. If you are not eating enough, and/or skipping meals, your body will store fat and your metabolism will decrease. If you are eating too much, then you are of course going to gain weight with that as well.

A good rule of thumb is to eat when you’re hungry, but make sure it’s healthy food. The best choices are foods that are higher in fiber and protein as both of these will help to keep you feeling full longer and keep your energy levels up. Keeping your energy levels up when you’re a new mom is a great thing, right?

Strength

Are you exercising on a regular basis? Are you just doing cardio workouts? If so, adding strength-training is a good idea. Why, you ask? Well, strength-training is an excellent way to burn fat…even after your workout is done!

This can be as easy as buying an inexpensive set of hand weights, a strength-training workout DVD and doing it in your very own living room!

Note: Please make sure you have the “okay” from your doctor before beginning any type of exercise routine.

Is It Really Healthy?

Do you pay attention to the ingredients that are in the food that you buy? Losing weight after a baby may depend on what you are eating. Sometimes foods that seem to be healthy are actually not.

We’ve all seen the packages that say “low fat” or “low calorie”, etc. but when you look at their ingredients, you may be surprised to see higher contents of other unhealthy ingredients, such as sugar (this includes glucose, fructose, corn syrup, etc.) or sodium, among others. For example, processed foods, such as frozen dinners, many times contain high amounts of sodium, calories, etc. It is best to stick to whole grain foods, fruits, vegetables and lean proteins (beans, legumes, lean beef, chicken, etc.).

Consistency

Do you find that you are not consistent with your healthy eating and exercise plan? Being consistent is very important when trying to lose weight. If you are eating healthy and exercising regularly one week, and then not so much the next, that will definitely affect your weight loss in a negative way.

Weekends

I know firsthand that weekends can be tough for staying on track with your healthy eating and exercise. Many times, people tend to slack off on the weekends, or they have functions, eat at restaurants, birthday parties, etc. This will, of course, make losing weight after a baby very challenging if done on a regular basis. Try your hardest to choose healthier options, even if you have to plan ahead to do so.

Plateau

You may have simply hit a plateau, which means that you may just have to switch things up a bit. You may need to vary your workouts. When we become bored with our workouts, we may not be putting in as much effort with them anymore, or we may just stop doing them altogether. Either way, not a good thing, right?

Try something totally different, maybe something new? As we chatted about before with the strength-training, you may just need to do some of that if you are only doing cardio workouts. There are also many different types of exercise classes you can take, such as dance classes, yoga, aerobics, Zumba, etc. There are also tons of different exercise DVDs out there, if you prefer working out at home.