In shape after childbirth. How to quickly get back in shape after childbirth

Most girls, while waiting for a child, are very worried about their plump figure. A woman's weight immediately after childbirth usually exceeds her pre-pregnancy weight by several kilograms. In addition, the abdomen, which has grown so much during pregnancy, cannot quickly return to its original state.

Meanwhile, every woman, including the one who recently learned the joy of motherhood, wants to remain slim and beautiful. Caring for a child does not allow a young mother to regularly attend the gym, and doctors do not allow immediately starting physical activity. Mom also cannot go on a strict diet, because she is breastfeeding a newborn.

In this article, we will tell you how a nursing mother can quickly get in shape after giving birth at home without much effort.

How to get in shape after childbirth if you are breastfeeding?

Oddly enough, to get in shape after childbirth, if the baby is on HB, can be much faster than when he feeds exclusively on milk formula. A nursing mother spends about 500 calories more daily than one who does not have milk. In addition, when breastfeeding, about 40 grams of fat per day goes into milk, which means that the body gets rid of excess deposits on its own.

Getting in shape after giving birth while breastfeeding will help following tips such as:

However, most women look like this. Do not be surprised if you have to wear the same clothes in the first weeks after giving birth as during pregnancy. It takes your body time to shed body fat and restore muscle tone. It also takes time for your skin and hair to look like it did before pregnancy. Wait a month - and you will no longer look haggard!

Fatigue. In the first weeks of caring for a newborn, many women feel constant fatigue and a clear lack of energy. After a tiring childbirth, you have to take care of the baby around the clock. Feeding and carrying a baby in your arms requires energy, night sleep is interrupted every now and then, and all this is even more exhausting. You get even more tired if you have other babies, if the baby is premature or unwell, if you have twins or if you are a single mother.

Over time, when your body adapts to the requirements of motherhood, you will gain experience in handling the baby, and he will sleep at night, fatigue will no longer spoil your life so much.

Of course, you won't be able not to get tired at all, but here are some tips to make your life less exhausting:

Rest as soon as the opportunity arises, when the child sleeps during the day, you will sleep too.
Let your partner also take care of the child and the household. Accept help from others as well.
Don't try to do everything. Anything that can be postponed, postpone.
Reduce the number of guests and do not invite those who need to be entertained.
Exercise regularly to gain energy and fight fatigue. It is also important to eat well, but do not eat too much at night so that digestion does not interfere with sleep.
Go to bed early and relieve stress by listening to music or reading.
If tiredness persists over time, talk to your doctor.

Hair and skin. After the baby is born, you may notice some changes in the condition of your hair and skin.

Hair loss. For many women, the most noticeable change after childbirth is hair loss. During pregnancy, the increased hormone levels prevented hair loss in the usual amount, and this gave your hair more volume. After giving birth, this excess hair falls out. Don't worry, this is a temporary phenomenon, when your child is six months old, the hair will return to normal.

To keep your hair healthy, you need to eat well and take vitamin supplements. Get a hassle-free haircut. Maybe, until your hair is back to normal, you shouldn't dye it or curl it. Red spots on the face after childbirth appear from the fact that small blood vessels burst during attempts. They usually disappear after about a week.

Stretch marks. Stretch marks after childbirth do not disappear, but over time they turn pale, turning from reddish to white.

Darkening of the skin. The darkened skin during pregnancy - the vertical line on the abdomen and the pregnancy mask (darkening of the skin on the face) - will gradually lighten over several months, but most likely the darkening will not go away completely.

Weight loss. After giving birth, you may feel very lethargic and completely out of shape. You can look in the mirror and see that you have a figure like a pregnant woman. It's quite normal. Few women can fit into their tight jeans a week after giving birth. In reality, it will take 3-6 months or more for your figure to become the way you want.

During childbirth, you lost more than 5 kg, including the weight of the baby, placenta and amniotic fluid. In the first week after giving birth, you will still lose weight along with the fluid. In the future, the number of kilograms that you lose will depend on your diet and how physically active you are. Expect to lose about a pound a week if you eat right and exercise regularly.

To lose weight gained during pregnancy, it is important to eat well and exercise. Instead of drastically cutting back on meals, skipping meals, or going on a fancy diet, focus on a healthy diet that includes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean proteins. In general, you need to stick to the same healthy diet as during pregnancy, reducing calories.

Physical exercise. Regular exercise is very beneficial. They will help you recover from childbirth, gain strength and bring your figure back to normal. In addition, you will have more energy, you can overcome weakness, your blood circulation will improve and your back will not hurt. Physical activity is also beneficial from a psychological point of view. A good mood and well-being will help you cope with all the difficulties of parenting.

If you have exercised before and during pregnancy and the labor has gone without complications, you can resume activities 24 hours after birth if you so desire. About a day after giving birth, you can start doing Kegel exercises, gradually bringing the repetition of each up to 25 times a day. If you have had a difficult labor or C-section, talk to your doctor about when and how to start exercising.

Even if the labor was easy, you need to start slowly and carefully. Don't try to do too much at once, or go back to pre-pregnancy levels too quickly. Walking and swimming are great activities to help you get back in shape quickly. But if walking can be practiced almost immediately after childbirth, it is better to wait with swimming until the placenta mark in the uterus heals completely. You will understand this by the cessation of profuse lochia. Otherwise, there is a great danger of infection through the wound surface in the uterus.

Remember to start slowly and choose the distance and speed that you can handle. Some young mothers are engaged in training groups specifically for those who have recently given birth.

Here are some tips for postpartum exercise:

After childbirth, exercise is especially important to tone and strengthen the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles. They will help strengthen your abdominals, tighten your belly, and give you good posture. They will also help the episiotomy heal, prevent incontinence, and regain control of the anal muscles.
Start with a series of small, achievable goals. Moderate activity is preferable to too intense. Several short sessions a day are better than one long one.
Choose what you can do with your baby: walking or jogging with a stroller, dancing with your baby in your arms.
Wear a well-supportive bra and comfortable clothing.
If you are breastfeeding, it will probably be more convenient for you if you breastfeed shortly before class.
Avoid jumping and jerking in the first six weeks after giving birth. Also, do not do some exercises on the floor: strong stretches, deep squats, lifting both legs.
Don't overdo it. Finish the session before you feel tired and skip the session if you are tired. Stop immediately if you experience any pain, weakness, dizziness, blurred vision, shortness of breath, palpitations, nausea, imbalance, or sudden increased bleeding.
Drink plenty of fluids before, during, and after exercise.
Do not quit classes, even if you have already lost weight. Physical activity is very beneficial for your well-being and mood.

Depressed mood

Many women feel low mood after giving birth. A sharp drop in the level of hormones estrogen and progesterone after childbirth, accompanied by lack of sleep, adds discouragement and pushes into postpartum depression.

Causes. However, hormonal changes are not the only factor. You are overwhelmed with things to do, and depression is natural. Other reasons may include numerous physical changes in your body after childbirth, difficulties experienced during pregnancy and childbirth, loss of energy after childbirth, deterioration in the financial situation of the family, unfulfilled expectations associated with the birth of a child, lack of emotional support, restructuring of relationships with loved ones.

Some men also experience symptoms of depression after having a baby. Men whose women suffer from postpartum depression are very likely to get it themselves.

Signs and symptoms. Mild depression is common. Signs and symptoms include anxiety, sadness, tearfulness, headaches, and weakness. You are irritable, indecisive, and unhappy. After experiencing the joy that the difficulties are behind you, you begin to realize that the reality of motherhood is not so easy to deal with. Discouragement usually begins 3-5 days after childbirth and lasts from a week to 10 days.

You will recover faster if you get more rest, eat right, and stay physically active. Also try to express
your feelings by talking to your partner about them.

And what if it's not just a bad mood? If all the measures don't work, it could be a more serious form of depression. Check with your doctor if symptoms persist even after a few weeks.

Attachment to the child

As soon as a child is born, he needs you to carry him in your arms, caress, kiss, talk to him, sing to him. These daily expressions of love and affection help build contact. They also help the baby's brain develop. Just as a child's body requires food to grow, their brain needs positive experiences, emotional, physical and intellectual. The early connections with others are vital to a child's development.

Some parents immediately feel a connection with their child, while others take time to establish it. Do not feel guilty if the tremor of love did not immediately seize you. Not every parent can instantly bond with a child. Over time, your feelings will grow stronger.
Wait. In the beginning, most of your time will be spent feeding the new baby, changing his diapers, and putting him to bed. These daily activities provide an opportunity to connect. When the baby is warm and cared for, he will feel safe and secure. When you are feeding a baby or changing a diaper, look lovingly into the baby's eyes and talk to him.

Babies also have a time when they are quite alert and ready to listen and play. These may be short periods, but you will learn to recognize them. Take a moment to chat and play.

To connect with an infant:

Don't be afraid to spoil your baby. Respond to his signals. The signals sent by the infant are sounds, mostly crying in the first two weeks, movements, facial expressions, the way they look in the eyes or avoid it. Pay attention to your child not only when he is calm, but also when he needs something.
Speak, read, sing to the baby. Even babies love music and reading aloud. Such early "conversations" develop the child's speech abilities and contribute to the establishment of intimacy. Usually babies like soft, rhythmic sounds.
Touch the child, caress him. Newborns are very sensitive to changes in pressure and temperature. They really like it when they are taken in their arms, shaken, caressing, hugging, kissing, patting, stroking, massaging.
Give the baby the opportunity to follow your face. Soon after birth, your baby will get used to seeing you and will begin to focus on your face. Let your child explore your features and smile more often.
Play music and dance. Put on soft rhythmic music, hold your child so that his face is close to yours, sway and move to the beat.
Establish rituals. Repetition of pleasant experiences gives the child a sense of security.

Be patient these first weeks! Taking care of a newborn baby is tiring, confusing, frightening and annoying - and all at the same time! Over time, you will develop as a parent - and you will love this baby much more than you might expect.

How to deal with a depressed mood

If you're struggling with discouragement, try the following:

Shower and dress better every morning. If you look good and you are in a good mood.
Don't lie in bed. Physical activity increases levels of endorphins, mood-enhancing substances.
Eat well. You will feel better if you eat healthy foods rather than being stuffed with fatty and sugary foods.
Don't stay at home. Fresh air, changing surroundings, communicating with people will help to distract from gloomy thoughts.

It is not at all difficult to choose a sensible and suitable method that will ensure weight loss after childbirth. Modern dietetics has a wide variety of methods to satisfy the most demanding requirements. It is only necessary to take into account that in the postpartum period, weight gain is a natural process caused by the physiological restructuring of the body (hormonal, psycho-emotional state, physical activity), which is necessary for the normal course of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.

However, almost every young mother who has gained excess weight tries to ignore this factor, trying to return as soon as possible a slim and fit figure that has lost its attractiveness due to pregnancy. Although, no matter how much you would like it, you should not count on quick weight loss after childbirth, especially in the first 5-6 months - for the full recovery of the body, first of all, the normalization of the hormonal status (a stable menstrual cycle, cessation of breastfeeding) will be required.

But this does not mean that you can afford to relax and not monitor your weight during this period. On the contrary, according to domestic and foreign scientists, the earlier a safe and effective weight loss program is organized, the more chances there are to avoid the problem of excessive weight gain in the future. The same conclusion was reached by employees of Columbia University of Health, who calculated the degree of probability (equal to 400%) of weight gain after childbirth over the next 7 years in overweight women during pregnancy. Even women who had normal or moderately overweight before pregnancy were not an exception.

How to lose weight after giving birth to a nursing mother

So what do you do? The answer to the question "how to lose weight after giving birth to a nursing mother and prevent such serious consequences" can be found in the scientifically based concept of weight loss, which also guarantees correct weight loss after childbirth. And although there are no specific techniques for the postpartum period, in principle, there are some practical recommendations that should be adjusted to take into account certain circumstances.

First, one cannot ignore the individual characteristics that can provoke overweight in some women after childbirth:

- genetically determined probability;

- hormonal imbalance associated with diabetes mellitus or the forced intake of supporting hormonal drugs.

Pregnancy and childbirth bring a number of serious changes to the mother's body. During the entire pregnancy, a woman gains 10-20 kg, which is vital for the normal development of the baby, as well as for preparation for childbirth and breastfeeding. Of course, during childbirth, she manages to get rid of some of the weight gained, but the extra pounds by the time she is discharged from the hospital, as a rule, still remain.

If you are not going to put up with being overweight and plan to go on a diet or actively play sports, refrain from these measures until the postpartum period ends. These 6-8 weeks are necessary to restore the size of the uterus and establish lactation, since the rapid loss of body weight can negatively affect the formation of breast milk.

Before starting a diet, you should consult a doctor who will determine if you have possible contraindications to a particular diet. However, recently there has been an opinion that in order to lose weight and be able to subsequently maintain a constant weight for a long period, it is not diets that are most effective, but a change in diet.

Experience shows that by going on a diet and giving up certain foods for a while, women sooner or later lose weight. But then, having reached their ideal, they return to their usual diet and soon lost, it would seem, forever kilograms return with interest.

Changing the diet, which will need to be adhered to throughout your life, allows you, albeit not at such a pace, to get rid of the hated excess weight forever. Physicians have found that losing 500 grams per week is optimal for weight loss, which will not harm your health.

The choice is yours. But do not forget that a nursing mother spends about 500-600 calories per day on feeding her baby. Therefore, breastfeeding will help in the fight against the gained pounds. You should not go on radical "starvation" diets, as they will not leave the energy for caring for the child. Increase the number of meals, while decreasing the volume and calorie content at the same time. The main requirement here is perseverance and gradualness.

Use healthy eating principles and common sense in shaping your diet. Do not get carried away with fried, fatty and salty. It is better to leave the pastries to your husband. Never skip breakfast, because breakfast affects blood glucose levels, which will provide mom with a burst of energy. Do not eat 4 hours before bedtime.

Before you eat, drink a glass of water, this will help you to feel full faster and eat less at the same time. Try not to have a snack between meals, the same water you drink when you feel hungry will help you in this. By the way, water is also necessary for the breakdown of fat in the body.

Set only realistic goals for yourself, do not dream of losing 10 kg in a week. Move more when walking with a stroller. Start doing some simple exercises to speed up your weight loss.

The birth of a wonderful baby is the greatest happiness in the life of every conscious mother. The birth of a child is not only the original essence and purpose of any woman, but also the meaning of life for every loving parent. But there is also a downside to the medal of this wonderful event: in the process of preparing the body for childbirth and pregnancy, the body launches an internal complex mechanism for storing all kinds of nutrients and components to form a favorable environment for the baby in the mother's womb. As a result, this often leads to weight gain and swelling. How to get in shape after giving birth to a nursing mother? What kind of exercise and nutrition should be involved in her path to returning the body to its former form?

Proper nutrition and the right ingredients

One of the most important aspects in the recovery process after childbirth is the correct approach to the diet. Excessive appetite and desire to eat around the clock should be rebuffed in the minds of every mother who wants to lose weight. But how should you eat right? And how to get in shape after giving birth to a nursing mother, if she already has to have a special diet that excludes so many ingredients due to the lactation period and the direct effect of breast milk on the health of the baby?

The work of food, as opposed to the allergic reactions of the baby and in spite of the accumulation of fat deposits in the mother's body, is often reflected in the consumption of the same components of the meal:

drinking plenty of purified water every day - a woman's body dehydrated after childbirth must replenish its water balance: this is good for both the child and his mother;
refusal from coffee and other energy drinks - they increase the sensitivity and excitability of the body;
refusal from alcoholic and carbonated drinks - their harmful compositions are detrimental to both the health of the woman and her baby;
moderate consumption of boiled meat, poultry, fish without the use of hot spices and large amounts of salt;
the use of milk and sour milk drinks, cottage cheese, cheese in the diet - they replenish the calcium that the child so carefully sucks out of his mother's body;
Eating eggs, cereals, beans, vegetables and nuts: buckwheat and boiled eggs, along with peas and fresh (unsalted) cucumbers in moderation, can serve as the right and healthy tasty side dish for a nursing mother who wants to lose weight.

However, it is worth noting that with fruits and berries, which are so useful for an athlete, a woman during lactation should be quite careful: all red fruits provoke allergic reactions in a child, and overseas citruses can lead to gas and colic, transmitted to the baby through breast milk.

The Importance of Exercise

And yet, you need to understand that diet alone cannot restore elasticity to the skin, tighten it, make muscles stronger. This requires a whole range of exercises aimed at maintaining the tone of various groups of muscle tissue of the female body. But what are these exercises? How to get in shape after giving birth to a nursing mother using home sports? It is important to learn the fact that rushing headlong into the abyss of physical activity immediately after the process of childbirth is fundamentally wrong. In addition to the fact that some of them are dangerous for lactation and milk production, their implementation can also harm the not yet prolonged damage and the woman's reproductive organs that have not come back to their original shape. This is especially true in cases where there were ruptures of the first and second degree, as well as a cesarean section. And even easily and without pathologies, mothers who have given birth cannot overextend the body by instantly turning to physical work on their body - everything has its time.

When to start?

Today, the progressing process of the development of medicine and the introduction of the latest methods for restoring the body of a woman in the postpartum period presupposes a division of opinions into positive judgments about exercising immediately after childbirth and negative ones. In any case, a woman should consult with her pregnancy doctor. The most rational medical recommendation is to start physical exercises no earlier than two to three months after childbirth in the case of their healthy and rapid course, and then without weighting agents.

Stomach

The most important problem for women after childbirth is their belly. How to get stretched skin in shape and get rid of excess fat in the abdomen? There are several basic exercises that can help this process:

skipping rope - jumping helps break down fats in the abdominal cavity and, accordingly, reduce their amount, but it is important to remember that a nursing mother needs to watch her breasts, so jumps should be low, and the breasts should be fixed with a strong sports support bra;
retraction - this exercise can be performed not only in a complex of classes, but also on a bench for a walk with a child or in a store in a queue for vegetables; invisible to others, the alternating retraction of the abdomen inward makes it possible for the muscles to contract, and the skin to exercise its elasticity;
gymnastics - smooth exercises for the abdomen in the form of arching the back with an arc to the outside and the same slow twisting to the inside can tone the muscles of the abdominal region.

Press

Now about how to get in shape after giving birth at home, and what kind of exercises can you get rid of sagging skin on the abdomen: we restore the abs. Since the goal of a nursing mother is not to create luxurious sports cubes from inflated muscles in her abdominal region, she should not work with weights and weights. The standard twisting in the prone position with the legs bent at the knees and the body rising above the floor level to the area of the shoulder blades is sufficient. You don't need to come up with any hyper-complex systems or ultra-core exercises to work out the press. Banal push-ups: three to four sets of 30-40 times in a standard prone position are good for new mothers. It is important to remember about breathing: when lifting the body from the floor, inhale, when returning to the starting position, exhale.

Waist

If a woman does not know how to get her body in shape after childbirth and regain her former waist, two main exercises that form a thin waist will come to her aid:

firstly, this is the obligatory use of the hoop, it, like no other assistant, helps to break up the accumulated surpluses in the abdomen, sides, back and helps to simulate, with regular use, the desired texture of the female silhouette; you can replace the usual hoop with a hoop with round ball-shaped "thorns", which perfectly massage the skin of the abdomen and break up fats in its cavity;
secondly, it turns the body to the sides - ideal for a mother who rocking a sleeping baby; so two hares are "killed" at once: and the baby falls asleep, and the skin in the waist area is stretched due to alternate turns of the body to the right and then to the left, and the legs and pelvis must remain in their original position and be fixed unchanged in this position for the effectiveness of the exercise and achieving the required result.

Boca

During pregnancy, a woman not only collects subcutaneous fat in the abdomen, but also accumulates certain deposits in the sides. How to get rid of them for a nursing mother and how to get in shape after childbirth? Reviews of exercises with inclinations on the "mom" forums in this regard are very popular: it is believed that inclinations with standard or with weights are an unprecedented helper in the fight against "extra" sides.

Standing on feet shoulder-width apart is the most common and most famous method of bending. In a complex of three approaches, 15-20 times on each side, this lesson is capable, if carried out regularly, to reduce the level of fat deposits in the sides. It must be remembered that the body must be kept straight, and the body must be left motionless below the waist.
In the supine position - with arms spread out to the side as support. Legs bent at the knees alternately tilt to one side, then to the other. Two or three approaches of 20-30 inclinations in different directions will also significantly affect the figure of the mother of a newly born baby.

Arms

How can a nursing mother get in shape if the weight has noticeably increased and is also reflected in the area of the shoulders and triceps? Many women are very ashamed not only of the fat that can accumulate there during pregnancy from excessively consumed fatty foods, but also the sagging skin that forms there as a result of losing weight. For this, there are also simple techniques for performing certain exercises:

lock - alternately placing the hand behind the head with a cross clamping of the second hand placed behind the back and fixed by meeting the fingers in the lock serves as an excellent start for toning the muscles of the hands;
flexion at the elbow - half-liter bottles of water or sand will perfectly replace weights at home, with which you can start working out the biceps zone;
hammer lift - placing the hands over the head behind the back, with the same bottles as an alternative to dumbbells, is successfully performed in support while sitting with vertical extension of the arms to the starting position.

Breast

For a woman who has given birth who does not know how to get in shape at home after childbirth with an emphasis on the chest area, good old push-ups are perfect. There is no more functional and meaningful exercise for the breast and shoulder area than a bench press under your own weight. You can start with two approaches 5-7 times, because this task is not so easy for a beginner to perform. Gradually, the number of approaches and push-ups should be increased to obtain the desired result and return the chest to at least a partial former "stance". Also, in combination with push-ups, you can work with a palm press in the lotus position: alternating pressure of the hands against each other provokes good tension on the chest area.

Hips

Another problem area for women after pregnancy is the inner thighs. Due to swelling and weight gain, the skin in this area loses its elasticity and quickly becomes flabby. How to get in shape after childbirth and restore elasticity to your legs?

Breeding legs - lying on your back and raising your legs in front of you at a right angle perpendicular to the body at the expense of "times" the legs are spread as wide as possible, at the expense of "two" they are brought back together and return to their original position. Machine restraint of the legs by the muscles of the inner side of the thigh and works to pump this zone.
Legs to the sides - standing in support with a chair or a wall, the right leg alternately rises to the side at a right angle, then the left. Two or three approaches 15-20 times for each leg will give their own result, which will not have to wait long.

Buttocks

For women who have "suffered" the gluteal zone and who do not know how to get in shape after childbirth in this particular area, there are fairly well-known and effective exercises, namely:

squats - nothing adds roundness and muscle mass to the pope more than correct and high-quality squats; three sets of 25 times with a further increase in the number of deep squats will quickly affect the figure of the woman who has given birth and will give their result;
lunges - nothing better raises the ass that has dropped after childbirth, like walking with lunges in motion; in this case, you need to monitor the correctness of the exercise - the leg that "falls out" should be bent at the knee no more than at a right angle, and the emphasis should constantly fall on the heel.

Body and bar

To tighten all the most "affected" and requiring correction of the body parts, you need complex training. How to get in shape after childbirth with one exercise? The answer is simple - by means of the bar. You should start with one minute. Then, gradually increasing the duration of the lesson, the woman herself will begin to notice how her muscles are getting stronger. When performing the bar, not only the abdominal muscles are affected, but also the pectoral, femoral, dorsal, and gluteal muscles. Therefore, the exercise is considered complex - it helps to quickly get in shape after childbirth.

Cardio

And, of course, cardio. Every lady who has recently become a mother and who is wondering how to get in shape after giving birth should first turn to morning or evening jogging.

While the father or grandmother of the happy baby is looking after him, the mother, who is striving to regain her former muscle tone, wearing an elastic supportive bra, can safely go for a run, helping herself to get rid of extra pounds and resume muscle tone.