Postpartum Weight Loss

Want to safely and effectively lose weight after giving birth? Our comprehensive guide on postpartum weight loss has you covered. From healthy diet and exercise tips to navigating common challenges, we provide the information you need to reach your weight loss goals. Trust us as your go-to source for all things postpartum weight loss.

Postpartum Weight Loss

Hello to everyone! Were you excited when you saw the title?

Now I’m going to ask you to put aside all your worries about how to lose my postpartum weight and sit back.

Postpartum weight loss rate is closely related to the weight gained during pregnancy. You can read our 1st month pregnancy nutrition article to find out how much weight you gained during pregnancy and what range you are in. Click the link below.

1. Nutrition in the first month of pregnancy

After birth, you can devote most of your energy to caring for your baby. However, taking care of your own health is very important during this period when your body is recovering after pregnancy and you are providing your baby with the most valuable nourishment .

To summarize briefly;

Importance of Nutrition During Breastfeeding

• To meet maternal physiological needs
• Balancing energy and nutrient stores for milk production
• Increasing breast milk efficiency
• Ensuring optimum growth and development of the newborn with breast milk

The Effect of Maternal Nutrition on Breast Milk

• Maternal nutrition does not affect the amount of energy and macronutrients in breast milk.
• The fatty acid composition reflects the mother’s food intake.
• Breast milk vitamin level decreases in case of maternal deficiency and increases with supplementation (additional support).

Important! We never recommend shock diets or calorie restricted diets in the postpartum period.

The most curious subject in the postpartum period; Can I do this diet? How much weight will I lose if I do this diet?

Maybe I use this sentence in every article of mine, but I want it to be engraved in your minds. Diet is personal. You are valuable, you are special, your diet should be special for you. My advice to you, stay away from trendy diets with any name you hear on social media, and consult a nutritionist to create a special nutrition program for you . Your body spends a lot of energy for milk production and if you follow a non-calorie-restricted diet during this period, you may lose your health and your milk production will decrease.

Now I will share an information that will put you at ease.

Information! During lactation, the mother secretes about 700 ml of milk every day and spends 500-700 calories per day for this.

This means; When you have an adequate and balanced diet and meet the fluid requirement for your body, you do not need to make an extra diet.

In the postpartum period , weight loss of more than 2 kg per month is not recommended. I know you want to lose your weight as soon as possible, but the faster you lose weight, the higher your risk of regaining it. For this reason, it is very important that we take our steps firmly.

When to Start Postpartum Weight Loss?

Every postpartum mother needs support. Breastfeeding is a very prone to misdirection. In this process, mothers take much more calories than they should take daily to have plenty of milk, and most of these calories come from unhealthy foods.

For this reason, I argue that it is very healthy to progress in the company of a Nutrition and Diet Specialist after the birth. Because the Nutrition Specialist creates personalized lists and includes foods, recipes and foods that increase breast milk in the list, so there is no decrease in breast milk. On the contrary, its quality and efficiency increase. In this way, you can turn the breastfeeding period into an advantageous period and get rid of your birth weight.

In this process, you should never follow the calorie-restricting diets, which are named in social media. If you start a diet after giving birth with a Nutrition and Diet Specialist, it doesn’t matter when you start the diet.

Tips for Postpartum Weight Loss

No wind can not help the ship that does not have an aim

• First, set a goal for yourself. Take a piece of paper, a pen and write down the mistakes you make in your daily diet, then try to correct the mistake and cross it out when you do.
• Another important point in the postpartum weight loss process is to keep a food diary . Sometimes we are not aware of what food we consume and how much we consume during the day, and unconscious consumption can both push us to gain weight and make it difficult to lose weight. 
• Another major component of our postpartum period is order. You should create a diet for yourself during the day and take care to eat at the same time every day. You should have 3 main meals and 2-3 snacks a day. Most people are not aware of the miracle of snacks and they think that I am not hungry, what is needed. Actually very wrong.

Snacks are our last exit before the bridge!

So what does this mean? Snacks stabilize our blood sugar and ensure that we do not overload our main meals. Especially, the time interval between lunch and dinner can reach 5-6 hours and snacks are even more important here.

If you are breastfeeding in the postpartum period, your body spends a lot of energy and it is very important to replace the lost stores here. If this situation is reversed, the body becomes sluggish and this may reflect negatively on your baby. Beware of!

• Studies suggest that calorie consumption alone is not enough , and the content of the energy taken is also very important. This means that during the postpartum weight loss process, the mother has to add nutrients from each food group to her diet in adequate and balanced amounts.
• During the postpartum weight loss process, the mother’s daily diet should be planned in such a way that 12-15% comes from proteins , 55-60% from carbohydrates , and 25-30% from fats .
• In the postpartum weight loss process, you should prefer whole grain products instead of products made from white flour, and blood-forming foods such as molasses instead of foods containing simple sugar.
• When protein intake is low, the quality of milk decreases. The quality of milk means the content of the milk. The closest protein to breast milk, the highest quality protein is egg. A nursing mother should have the egg in her diet every day. You can pamper yourself with a vegetable omelet two days a week. In addition, I recommend that you do not neglect the consumption of fish and red meat.
• Vitamins and minerals enable our body to work and enzymes to be more functional . Make sure to regularly consume seasonal fruits and vegetables.

• It is not at all correct to reduce the fat rate completely in the postpartum period. A kilo of vegetable food can be made with 2-3 tablespoons of oil. 
• Avoid deep frying and prefer cooking methods such as oven, grill, boiled.
• The most important thing to increase breast milk, especially during breastfeeding, is fluid support. You should take care to drink 2.5-3 liters of water a day. This will also indirectly help you lose weight. Apart from water, you can choose probiotic source kefir and buttermilk to support your liquid consumption. Herbal teas such as fennel and linden will also relax you and help with fluid support.
• Try to extend your eating time as much as possible.  When you eat fast, digestion slows down and you want to eat more, which causes weight gain. For this reason, try to digest food slowly so that your digestive enzymes can be secreted.

Studies have found that people who sleep less than 7 hours a day are more likely to gain weight.

Cute Info! Growth hormone secreted during sleep supports fat burning.

• Try to take a brisk walk for 40-45 minutes three days a week . Outdoor walks release endorphins, the hormone of happiness, and research also says that regular exercise is a much better treatment method than antidepressants. With regular exercise, you can both lose weight and reduce the stress factor.
• Another important point in the postpartum weight loss process is peace and happiness. Leave all your worries aside and do not neglect to eat life as well as healthy nutrition.

Postpartum Weight Loss Exercises

70% of the weight loss process is nutrition and 30% is exercise. However, there is something to be careful about at this time. When breastfeeding mothers exercise intensely, lactic acid accumulation occurs in breast milk, and this accumulation of lactic acid can change the taste of breast milk and cause breast rejection in the baby. For this reason, we recommend brisk walks 3 days a week in this process.

We recommend not doing heavy exercise.

Postpartum Weight Loss Diet List

Morning:

• 1 boiled egg
• Two-inch cheese
• 5-6 olives
• 2 thin slices of whole wheat/rye/bran bread
• 2 slices of pineapple

Snack:

• Fennel tea
• 10 nuts
• 1 fruit

Lunch:

• baked vegetables
• 1 bowl of yogurt
• 1 thin slice of whole wheat/rye/bran bread

Snack:

• 1 fruit
• 1 glass of water Milk
• Cinnamon

Dinner:

• 1 bowl of soup
• Meat / Chicken / Fish
• 1 bowl of yogurt / 1.5 cups of buttermilk / 1 bowl of tzatziki
• Lots of green salad
• 2 thin slices of whole wheat/rye/bran bread or 4-5 tablespoons of bulgur pilaf

Night:

• 1 serving of fruit
• 2 walnuts
• Cinnamon

Note: This list is general. Diet is personal, it can be reduced or increased according to personal differences. You, too, should consult a nutritionist to create your own plan.

Now it’s your turn – Write a Comment or Share on Social Media

How was your diet in postpartum? What advice would you give to other mothers to lose weight in postpartum? We look forward to hearing from you and if you like this article please share with others.