Your Body After Baby: What You Should Really Expect
Everyone knows at least one new mom who was able to slip back into her pre-pregnancy jeans by the time her baby was one month old, but that’s not the norm. The reason is simple: Mother Nature intends for you to hold on to an extra five to seven pounds of fat reserves after the birth so that you’ll have some calories stockpiled for milk production purposes. (It would be bad for the long-term survival of the species if you were to automatically kiss all your baby weight goodbye the moment your baby was born!)
How quickly you lose your remaining pregnancy weight will be determined by how much you gained during pregnancy and such factors as your eating habits, how much you exercise, and your metabolism. Some new moms find that they lose weight at a steady rate while they are breastfeeding. Others find that their weight remains stable. A few find that they actually gain weight because they are quite hungry while they are breastfeeding.
While crash dieting is definitely out for new moms—you need your energy to make breast-milk and to care for your new baby—a combination of nutrition menus, regular exercise, and stress reduction is the “recipe” for getting your body back—or at least something resembling your old body back: most women find that their shape changes in some way. And why shouldn't it? Motherhood is a life-changing experience. Why shouldn't it be body-changing, too?
