Saturday 25 October 2008

Weight Loss after Childbirth

Childbirth is quite possibly the most beautiful moment a parent can experience. For a mother, the pregnancy has been an arduous labor of love. The expectant mother endures a host a changes to her body during gestation, including a significant amount of weight gain that serves as both protection and nourishment for the growing child. However, after the birth of the child, the mother is left with a large amount of pregnancy weight, which is often times extremely difficult for a very busy new mother to shed.

Tips to pregnancy weight loss can help the busy new mother to lose weight faster, while still maintaining healthy techniques. Many natural methods also exist that can assist in dropping pounds after childbirth. For example, a mother that breastfeeds is much more likely to lose weight rapidly after birthing than a mother that doesn't.

Breast milk, full of the mother's antibodies and bursting with essential nutrients, is extremely beneficial to the growing infant, which obviously should be the primary consideration when decided whether or not to breast feed. However, as an added benefit to the mother, breast milk production raises the mother's metabolic rate and thereby burns an enormous amount of calories, a natural way the human body attempts to shed pounds after giving birth.

Another natural method to losing weight after birth is exercise. Although this suggestion may seem rather obvious, new mothers often find that beginning or getting back into and exercise regiment with a new baby can be an almost insurmountable task. The best method to re-enter an active lifestyle is with small steps.

Do not attempt to exercise by starting with 2 hour long gym sessions, begin slowly. Start by taking the baby out in the stroller for a walk around the block or down the street. First a 10 minute walk, then a 15 minute walk, then 20 or 30 minutes. Build up endurance gradually; the new mother's body has just gone through an incredibly traumatic experience for the human body to endure. However, this slow progression of exercise, in addition to the extremely active lifestyle of new parents, will only increase the amount of calories burned daily.

A final pointer for the new mother to shed pregnancy pounds is to avoid the pitfall of snacking. Because the new baby is such an extremely demanding addition, mothers often forgo eating proper meals and snack throughout the day around the baby's schedule. Obviously, the baby's needs are the utmost priority.

However, a mother cannot completely forget her nutritional needs in this busy time. While the baby is napping or playing, take a little time to prepare a quick, balanced nutritional meal. By eating several small and balanced full meals rather than continually snacking, calorie intake can be monitored more closely, and eating becomes more of a conscious behavior rather than an unconscious habit.

In summary, a new mother has an extremely busy lifestyle that does not easily accommodate taking time out to make tremendous efforts to lose weight. However, natural and easy methods do exist to assist the new mother in her journey to lose pregnancy weight, such as breast feeding (if possible), easy exercise, and avoiding snacking.


Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

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