Diet After Childbirth

Many women become concerned with their weight after giving birth.  Many are concerned that they’ll never look the same as they did before being pregnant.

Whilst its good to have a healthy balanced diet you need to be careful as a drastic change in diet can have an affect on your hormones.

Your diet should also take into account factors like breastfeeding

Here are some tips on how to diet after childbirth:

1. Six Weeks After Childbirth

You should try to wait and begin your diet after 6 weeks of giving birth.  Why wait until 6 weeks?  This is the approximate time necessary for your body strength to recover after giving birth.

2. Healthy Foods

a. Colourful foods

Having colourful foods in your diet will be more healthy.  Lots of fruit and vegetables help towards eating a healthy diet.  You should also try to incorporate some nuts and seeds into your diet.  These will help if you’re breastfeeding too.  Vegetables such as spinach contain a lot of iron, tomatoes contains vitamin C, carrots and papaya leaf contain vitamin A.

b . Change of protein -based diet

Protein sources such as fish, meat, eggs and tofu should be consumed more compared to rice and pasta as carbohydrates. When selecting your protein try to select something that is low in fat and cholesterol.

Try to avoid using frying in oil as a method of cooking our protein as this will just add to the fat content.

c. Eat small portions frequently

Try to adapt your day when it comes to eating.  You should modify your diet of 3 meals a day to 4 or 5 smaller meals a day.  This method is assists your body in burning calories more often so that your metabolism speeds up gradually.

3 . Avoid Junkfood

You should try to avoid junk food at all costs.  So start by avoiding foods such as snacks (crackers, fried foods, chips) and fizzy drinks which are generally high in sugars

Try to replace these snacks with a variety of fruits and healthy nuts

4 . Drinking Water.

Drinking water is beneficial to help cleanse your body of toxins and optimize weight loss. If you are breastfeeding, drinking a lot of water is normal.  Again, try to avoid fizzy drink as they contain too much sugar. We also recommend reducing the amount of sugars you add to hot drinks.

5 . Sports and Working Out

Exercising on a regular basis alongside your diet will be an effective combination in losing weight

Even a small amount will benefit you.  For example, walk to school instead of driving or take the stairs instead of the lift.

6. Determine Reasonable Goal

Set yourself a realistic target.  Losing weight gradually will keep the weight off for longer.

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