Losing the Baby Weight
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By Lyz Lenz
Despite my best efforts—walking regularly, yoga, drinking water, snacking only on fruit—I gained 50 pounds when I was pregnant. After the enormously powerful emotions that swept through me when I held my daughter and I realized I was a mother had past, I just felt tired and fat. Enormously fat.
Nothing fit. Even my fat pants felt too skinny. Add in the exhaustion and I was a wreck. Besides feeding and caring for my baby, losing the weight was job number one on my list. And it happened, but it wasn’t easy.
Here are some tips to help you get your body back, or regain as much of it as you can muster.
1. Don’t compare yourself
Being a runner and a size 6, I arrogantly thought I would bounce right back into my old clothes after my daughter was born. I didn’t. I looked six months pregnant even when my baby was four months old. A friend of mine, who had her baby shortly after me, was bragging on Facebook about how she was back in to her pre-pregnancy jeans a mere two weeks after her baby was born. I blocked her. All women are different. Just because you don’t snap back like a rubber band doesn’t mean you are deficient and expecting yourself to be like someone else is just setting you up for failure. And I don’t know about you, but failure makes me want to gorge on M&Ms, which doesn’t help the waistline.
2. Get rid of the junk food
In order to lose her pregnancy weight, mom and small business owner Kathy Steck, made a commitment to snacking healthy. “It’s nice to be able to eat more when you’re nursing, but I chose fruit with yogurt as my snack over junk food.”
Clear the junk food out of your house and replace it with dried fruit, nuts and granola. Put water in your fridge for easy access. And if you have a guilty pleasure like ice cream, don’t avoid it, just get the low-calorie version. You may not see changes right away, but healthy snacking will help you achieve sustainable weight loss.
3. Breastfeed
Jackie Zima-Evans, full-time working mom to a six month old boy, advises, “If I would give any tip to a new mom it would be to breastfeed your child. That’s what will help you lose all of those pounds and more.”
Breastfeeding isn’t some magic weight loss panacea, but it does help. Just make sure you aren’t using breastfeeding as a license to indulge. Breastfeeding combined with healthy eating and an active lifestyle can help you get started on dropping that baby weight.
4. Make time to be active
Even if it’s a quick jaunt around the block with the baby in tow, or a 30 minute yoga video in the morning, making activity a priority will not only make you feel better, but it can help you combat your lingering baby bulge. Loren Lorenzo, trainer and mom, encourages new moms to memorize a workout routine: “ Learn a 20-30 minute Pilates routine, lay the baby on a blanket or in a jumpy seat on the floor and perform your routine while the baby watches. It is best to learn this form a trainer rather than a video so you are able to get corrections on your form. Exercise is only effective if you are doing it correctly.”
5. You aren’t eating for two
It’s important not to deprive yourself of food while you are breastfeeding and caring for a newborn, but if you’ve grown accustomed to eating for two, watch out that you aren’t falling into those same nine-month old habits.
Helen Byrne, author and founder of BeFit-Mom advises all new moms to stay clear of over-eating. Byrne has three rules of 80%:
1. Make each serving size 80% of what you would normally have.
2. Eat until you feel just 80% full, then stop.
3. Choose highest quality foods for 80% of your daily calories, so you can fit in a small daily “fun” food.
How did you lose your baby weight?
About the Author:
Lyz Lenz is a writer, a mom and a midwesterner. Although, not in that order. She lives in Iowa and on the web at LyzLenz.com
Great backyard summer treat for the kids. Frozen fruit pops on a stick. 
Comment by Stephanie on Oct 17 2011 07:17:02:
Unfortunately I’ve done all these things and four months after leaving the hospital I’ve lost one entire pound. Evidently a third of nursing moms don’t lose anything till they stop nursing because their body believes “OMG there might bs a famine!!! We must have enough stores to feed the baby!!!” so I’ve just bought myself new clothes and removed the full length mirror.
Comment by Lyz on Oct 17 2011 08:29:15:
Four months is a little early to call it quits on losing baby weight from breastfeeding. I didn’t think breastfeeding was doing anything for me until the sixth month. Hang in there.
Comment by heidi on Oct 17 2011 09:32:03:
I have a problem with the junk food. I don’t eat alot of it but nuts fruit and granola aren’t the same when you get that snackie feeling. Any suggestions for a snack nut. I am in love with the nature valley sweet and salty bars. I get super hungry while /after I have nursed my baby. Anyone else experienced this?
Comment by Meg on Oct 18 2011 12:15:51:
I was incredibly lucky and gained less than 20 lbs my entire pregnancy. But I gained a whopping 30 after I delivered. I was never hungry when I was pregnant like I was the first 4 months breast feeding, and I’m definitely paying for it now. My daughter is 9 months old, and I’m just starting to slowly (and I mean VERY slowly) lose what I packed on. It involved LOTS of salads with no dressing and copious amounts of gym time added to an already extremely full schedule. And better suggestions?
Comment by Diane Joao on Oct 18 2011 05:56:54:
I’m 7 1/2 months pregnant, I’ve gained about 24 pounds so far. These reader comments are scary! Is it really that hard? I’m scared now.
Comment by Olivia Lopez on Oct 18 2011 09:44:19:
I never lost the weight after my first pregnancy but when I had my daughter all I gained with her was lost. I’m six months into breastfeeding and haven’t dropped any more weight. I am on a diet and workout three times a week; it feels like the 3 years of baby fat that never left isn’t going to come off. Any tips?
Comment by Robin on Oct 18 2011 02:22:47:
I have been eating right and exercising 3 times a week for about 8 months. My daughter is 13 months old and we just quit the breastfeeding. My body definetely held on while I was nursing. In the past 2 weeks I have lost about 5 pounds and I hope that continues.
Comment by Robin on Oct 18 2011 02:24:00:
Forgot to say, haven’t lost any weight in the prior 8 months while I was still nursing. Now that I quit nursing my body seems to be cooperating with the weight loss goals I have.
Comment by Lyz on Oct 18 2011 04:20:32:
I think it’s worth remembering that your body often needs an extra push to get those final pounds off. So if you aren’t losing weight, try cutting bread out of your diet or adding in a more intense workout on the weekends.
@Meg sounds like you’re on your way to sustainable weight loss. Have you tried a low carb diet? That usually helps me.
@Heidi granola bars can have a lot of extra calories. Try snacking on greek yogurt, fruit and nuts.
Comment by Cindy on Oct 20 2011 11:29:44:
DO NOT SACRIFICE THE HEALTH OF YOUR BABY BY WORRYING ABOUT HOW TO TAKE OFF THE BABY WEIGHT WHILE YOU ARE STILL PREGNANT. Your body needs to gain weight and in those European countries where they actually have the best rates of infant and maternal health, women gain 35-45 pounds.
@Meg, I do not consider you “lucky” for only gaining 20lbs. and I hope you and your baby were still healthy. Please don’t encourage other pregnant women to gain the bare minimum, it’s not good for our babies.
@Diane, there are so many more important things to be focused on right now then taking off the baby weight later. Your body is going through a beautiful process and I’m sure you look wonderful.
I didn’t lose much weight for a year and breastfeeding was no magic answer for me. But that’s one year of my life…big deal! I was taking care of my new baby and adjusting to motherhood. I focused on sleeping, not exercising.
But at some point, you do have to get serious and recommit to a healthy lifestyle, not a diet. Cut down on bread, cereal, pasta. Get 3 veggies and 3 fruits daily. Learn about food…protein and healthy fats make you feel full for a long time, not carbs. Exercise must include weight lifting and high intensity interval training, not 60 minutes on the elliptical. I workout 45-minutes 3 days/week and I’m in the best shape of my life. Check out Fits Moms For Life videotapes.
Comment by heidi on Oct 20 2011 05:49:38:
@Lyz. I know they have the extra calories. But when I am in that snacking mood nut, fruit and granola don’t do it for me. I could snack on the and still want something sweet. I lost all my baby weight 10 days after my son was born. I am breast feeding him and just want to keep the weight off.
Comment by Meg on Oct 24 2011 03:30:52:
@Cindy.
I was in no way trying to come off that I was dieting, or restricting anything (other than caffiene and alcohol) while I was pregnant. I lost 20 lbs the first trimester due to Hyperemesis gravidarum before we found a medication that let me keep anything at all down, and developed heart palpitations halfway through the second trimester due to the position she was in my belly. So I literally spent the first 26 weeks of my pregnancy sleeping and eating! I thought I was going to gain LOADS more then I did and my body decided that 18 lbs was just right. LO was perfectly happy and healthy at 8lbs 5oz, not to mention (much to my dismay) 1.5 weeks late. Anyways, to make a long story short I wasn’t trying to “brag” about my lack of weight loss or encourage anyone else to do anything other than make the right choices when it comes to food instead of chowing down on nothing but pizza and fast food. I didn’t even try to lose any weight, or worry about what I was eating until LO started eating more “solid” foods and only BF 3 times a day because I am still incredibly worried about my supply drying up(SN any suggestions on how to keep supply up without pumping when baby is only BF 3 times a day? I want to make it to the 1 yr mark but I am getting nervous since I no longer produce anything when I pump).
On another note, does anyone else find it discouraging to go to the gym and watch yourself work out? It makes me want to leave and eat an entire cake, not stay and work out. Idk, maybe i’m just odd…
Comment by alyssa on Nov 12 2011 04:30:52:
i gained 45 pounds with my pregnancy! breastfeeding knocked off 30 pounds the first month for me. 3 months later im 5 pounds away from my pre pregnancy weight, never worked out once. so there is hope! dont give up