Diets are a difficult thing to do. If followed properly, any diet can make sure you lose a lot of weight and stay healthy at the same time. But if you don’t follow it properly, it can affect your health as well as your baby’s health. Before you go on a diet, you need to understand the logic behind a diet, the value of the diet, and the benefits or harm that it may cause. If you’re thinking about dieting to lose weight after pregnancy, there are several aspects that you’ll need to consider. The best diet you can get is by a dietician for pregnancy experts who have experience and can guide you for better and quick results.

How Soon You Can Start Dieting After Child’s Delivery?

One of the most important things to consider before starting a diet after delivery to lose weight is if your body has had the right time to recover from the delivery itself. Before starting a diet of any kind, you should always consider the requirements of your body. You must ensure that your body has enough nutrition to support both you and your child.

Understand, at this point, you are responsible for the nutrition of two people. Starting a diet too soon and relinquishing the nutritional requirements of either of these can affect your health and the health of your baby. A new mother should not even consider starting a diet until her first postpartum check-up, which is around 6 weeks later. Most people say that new mothers should wait at least 2 months after delivery before starting a diet. You also need to consult your doctor and dietician to better understand what your body needs.

Must Follow These Rules to Start Postpartum Diet Plan:

Losing weight after pregnancy should be done carefully. Here are a few points that you should keep in mind when starting a diet after delivery.

• Have realistic goals in mind when it comes to losing weight, tremendous loss in weight can affect you and your baby.
• Give yourself appropriate time to meet your goals, do not stress about your weight gain.
• Don’t give up as failure is a part of the weight loss journey. It’s okay to have a cheat day if you deserve it.
• Don’t overcompensate or overthink your failed attempt to stay healthy, it is important to let go of the failure and move towards the next day to start over.
• Nutrition is the single most important part of a diet after pregnancy, consult a specialist to ensure that you get enough nutrition and vitamins that are essential for you and your baby.
• You can follow a diet plan to lose weight after pregnancy. However, diet alone will not help you, too. Exercise, during a weight loss journey, is as important as a diet.
• Don’t starve yourself to lose weight, eat moderately into small portions but frequently, this will help you to stay full through the day.
• Take it slowly, look for a safer goal would be 300-500 grams a week and work frequently.

Guidelines for Achieving & Maintaining Healthy Post Pregnancy Weight:

It is important to have guidelines that help you to understand how healthy weight loss is, especially when a woman tries to lose weight after delivery. Here are some guidelines which help you to throw away that extra pounds while ensuring you are safe and healthy:

• Avoid aerated drinks during a diet – They are full of sugar and have empty calories. They provide no nutrition, so they are best avoided.
• Take plenty of fibre in your food – Try eating meals that are rich in fibre to ensure digestive health, this makes it harder for you to put on weight and still keeps your nutritional balance intact.
• Do not avoid healthy carbs – Eat healthy carbs which are known as complex carbs. This is because carbohydrates are what gives you energy throughout the day, complex carbs break down slower in the day ensuring you have a steady amount of energy.
• Water is key to weight loss -. Drink around 2-3 litres of water in a day. Water will help purify your system, and will also prevent you from snacking at odd hours of the day.s
• Not every fat is bad for your health – Incorporate foods that are rich in unsaturated or polyunsaturated fats, as they can keep your body healthy. Almonds are rich in healthy fats and play an important role in cardiac health. So, do not ditch the fats completely.
• Control your portion size – Keep your meals small, frequent, and packed with nutrition.
• Snack on nuts – Snacking is important in any diet, but as long as your snack is healthy, it is fine. Munch on almonds, carrots, or fruit. Avoid oily snacks like chips or snacks rich in sugar like candy.
• Always best to ask experts – Talk to your nearest dietician to understand your body’s needs and modify your diet accordingly. You need to keep a watch on your nutritional requirements and then work around them as often as possible.

What else can you do after delivery, for a healthy weight loss?

Diets alone do not help one person lose weight. Here are a few activities you should do to lose weight, along with following an expert’s design Indian weight loss diet.

• Exercise: Having a good fitness schedule that makes the most of your diet and encourages a healthy weight loss is very critical. Do not exercise with a mindset of weight loss, exercise with a mindset of getting fit, and stay healthy, whenever you exercise.
• Rest: Whatever the diet or routine of exercise, rest is what helps your body recover and adapt to the new regime. Ensure you get lots of rest post workouts and daytime workouts. Make sure you sit down and recover the lost energy levels when you’re tired.
• Sleep: Your body slows down when you sleep and that helps recover and keeps your energy levels up.

Also Read: 6 Things to Consider While Choosing The Right Dietician

Truth about Weight Loss after Pregnancy:

What you usually say when you think about losing weight is that you want to slim down. You may want to lose weight around your breasts, thighs, and belly after delivery. But the strange thing about slimming down is that it doesn’t necessarily mean taking the actual weight off the scale. You can get slim without even seeing a shift in weight.

However if you lose inches, while your weight could stay the same, is a sign that you are going in the right direction. Understanding the difference between weight loss and body fat loss will change how you view yourself and progress.

Inch loss is loosening inches across typical fat storage areas with or without weight loss. If your body loses excess fat, you lose inches around your belly in places like your waist, hips, and thighs. Inch loss is very important especially if you have extra fat around your belly in this situation, which means you have high fat in your belly.

It’s important to know that you don’t have to lose a lot of weight from the whole body; you just need to target your fat regions.

Lose Weight While Breastfeeding:

It is a known fact that women who breastfeed actually lose weight much quicker, this is because the lactation process burns a lot of calories. This should be kept in mind when making a weight loss diet while breastfeeding.

Women who breastfeed are recommended to consume at least 500 calories more than other women due to the energy required to breastfeed. It is best to approach any diet while breastfeeding with some level of leniency as the amount of energy spent during a feeding session depends on how much your baby consumes during the session. Eat during regular intervals and try to modify your diet based on your energy levels.

Also Read: 6 Easy Ways To Drop Those Extra Pounds

When Will You Get Back Your Pre-pregnancy Weight after Delivery?

The time it takes to get back to your pre-pregnancy weight after delivering your child largely depends on your eating habits before and during the pregnancy and your body’s metabolism. For some women, it may take as little as a few months to get back to their pre-pregnancy shape, while for others, it may take a year or two. Be patient and stay strong, stick to the routine and remember weight loss is a process.

Some factors that could impact your weight loss process negatively are mentioned below:

• Morning sickness
• Food aversions
• Delivery method (C-sections can complicate weight gain or loss)
• Talk to your doctors and trainers about any concerns you may have regarding the routine or diet you are following as well as for more information regarding other factors that slow down weight loss post-pregnancy.

Also Read: Dietary Changes to Reduce Weight

Post-pregnancy Weight Loss Diet Plan:

Remember to talk to a dietician near you regarding your diet after delivery to lose weight. Have regular checkups with doctors for both your baby and yourself. Here is a post-pregnancy weight loss diet plan that you can use as a guideline after consulting your nutritionist or doctor:

Early Morning Drinks Suggestion:

• 1 cup low- fat or skim milk/ fresh apple juice without added sugar
• 1 glass of dry fruits smoothie made with skim milk
• Fresh watermelon or musk melon juice
• 1 cup of skim milk
• Fresh lime juice
• 1 glass almond smoothie made with skim milk

Breakfast Suggestion:

• 2 ragi-onion dosas with coconut chutney
• 2 slices of whole wheat bread with avocado butter and a boiled egg
• Serving of oats, upma with vegetables served with tomato chutney
• 1 whole-wheat bread with an omelette
• 2 palak or methi parathas with plain yoghurt

Full Lunch Meal Suggestion:

• 1 glass of buttermilk with hing, cumin powder and a pinch of salt.
• 2-4 oatmeal crackers with slim cheese
• 1 glass of jal jeera water. 1 cup of sprouts salad or sprouts bhel
• 1 glass of ginger lemonade sweetened with a little honey
• 1 glass of lassi with 1 tsp sugar
• A few bajra and methi khakras

Full Lunch Meal Suggestion:

• 1 cup of rice with egg curry or 56 g grilled chicken
• 1 cup of rice with sambar and beetroot curry or 56 g grilled fish
• 1 cup rice with rasam and brinjal curry
• 1 cup vegetable/chicken/mutton pulao with cucumber, tomato, onion, and carrot raita
• 1 cup beetroot or carrot rice with soya or chicken curry

Healthy Tea Time Snack Suggestion:

• Light masala chai with skim milk and 1 tsp sugar with low-fat biscuits
• Black mint- lemon tea with khaman dhokla
• Masala chai with skim milk and 1 tsp sugar
• Masala chai. Paneer and corn sandwich made with brown bread
• Mint and lemon tea with besan chillas

Light Dinner Meal Suggestion:

• 2-3 phulkas with matar paneer
• 2-3 phulkas with baingan bharta
• 2-3 phulkas with chicken/egg/soya curry
• 2-3 phulkas with palak paneer
• 2-3 phulkas with aloo gobi masala

Bedtime:

• Always drink 1 cup skim milk, it will give calcium that you need

Losing weight can be a challenge, especially after giving birth to a child. Losing weight is not easy. It is a tiring process. Remember to stay strong and follow the diet religiously. If you veer away from your diet for a day or two don’t be too hard on yourself, don’t overcompensate – just get back to your schedule.

Working on a diet with other mothers or your spouse or partner may help to reduce grind in the process. See if there are others around you to work with you on weight loss, and remember, the work you do will see results over time. So give yourself the time to sink the results in. And if you really can’t cope with the burden of a balanced diet and you can’t find a diet that suits you, then contact us. We’re going to help you get to your goals with fast results.