Post Natal Weight Loss

A huge amount of women begin to diet following pregnancy. As carrying a child is traditionally associated with weight gain – and is utterly necessary to ensure a healthy pregnancy and child – the problem arises when the child is born. Suddenly, that weight gain that had once been so crucial is suddenly restrictive. Many new mothers make their new goal post-pregnancy to be to lose weight and return to their pre-pregnancy weight.

Most often, doctors and dietary specialists advocate the following principle; nine months on, nine months off. Essentially, as it takes the standard nine month pregnancy term to gain the weight, losing it will take roughly the same amount of time. You will not snap back into your pre-pregnancy body as soon as your child is born; if only nature was so kind!

Losing weight after pregnancy is a little more challenging than losing weight at any other time in a woman’s life. This is mainly due to the time consumed by having a new child, and the associated exhaustion which leaves many women feeling unable to exercise due to a complete lack of energy.

Most post natal nurses advise a target of 2lbs per week, which may sound frighteningly little if you have bloomed during your pregnancy, but is actually a full stone of loss in less than two months. To do this, follow a low fat and high fibre diet, as the fibre will hopefully help keep energy levels high enough to exercise.

The other step is to enjoy the time as a new mom, and enjoy the weight loss possibilities associated with babies. Walking gently while pushing a stroller burns 150 calories an hour, and allows baby bonding time as well as weight loss. This combined with the aforementioned eating plan should have you back to your pre-pregnancy weight before your child’s first birthday.

Is Your Weight Loss Program Safe?

Are you one who aims to achieve his/her weight loss goals by skipping meals? Are you already skipping your breakfasts and meals? Are you feeling weary as a result of fasting? Have you lost your appetite? You see, you might be highly motivated to reach your weight loss goal, but you are not losing weight safely. You need to understand that there is a big difference between weight loss and ’safe’ weight loss. In this article I will tell you what I mean by safe weight loss.

With safe weight loss, you do everything. You follow a regular diet and exercise plan. You do some aerobics such as swimming, jogging, cycling, etc. You regularly sweat it out in the gym. You do all these but without giving up eating! If your weight loss program recommends crash dieting and meal-skipping then I am afraid that it is not a safe weight loss program!

As a matter of fact, your physique is built based on your eating habits. If you tend to eat fatty foods then you will get fat. If you eat foods that have low fat and calorie content, then you will remain slim. If you don’t eat at all then you will suffer from weakness, loss of energy and a host of other problems. How good or bad your physique will be depends on how much calories you consume and how much you burn off by doing exercises.

Do you think that sportspersons skip their breakfasts and meals? Do you think that people who indulge in high intensity sports such as weight lifting don’t eat? It is really stupid of you if you think so! These high intensity sports require a lot of energy and if the sportspersons don’t eat properly, they will never be able to win those medals! However, eating is as much important as eating the right kind of foods.

There are certain fad diets which advise you to remove fats and carbs from your diet. This is insane! By all means, stop eating all the fatty and calorie-rich foods but don’t remove fats and carbohydrates altogether from your meals, as your body needs them! Also, try not to consume more calories than what you burn; otherwise a calorie imbalance will occur and you will never be able to reach your weight loss goal.

I sincerely hope that this article has clarified to you the difference between weight loss and SAFE weight loss, and that all weight loss programs are not necessarily ’safe’.

How To Lose Inches From Your Body

A cursory glance at the Internet and the media in general will tell you that almost everyone is obsessed with the way they look, or in other words, many people want to become leaner. This is because people have learned the dangers of possessing a BMI or body mass index that is higher than recommended by doctors and nutritionists. To learn what your BMI is, ask your doctor whenever you pay him or her a visit and she will be most glad to inform you or simply go to the food pyramid website that is run by the USFDA.

Losing inches from one’s body has become paramount for most people. This is because close to 400,000 people die every year in the United States because of complications arising from being overweight. This is because being overweight poses a variety of problems one of them being the high risk of stroke and heart attacks that come from major arteries being blocked by trans fat deposits. Another problem is low self-esteem and others include poor breathing, sleep disorders, low immunity to diseases and chronic fatigue which comes from the body struggling to supply the entire body mass with blood and oxygen.

One of the best ways to lose inches from your body is to exercise regularly. Obesity especially in the US comes from living a lifestyle which is devoid of any form of exercise. Enrolling at the gym is a sure start and if your budget does not allow you then you can start by walking around your compound or neighborhood.

Another way to lose inches from your body is by watching one’s diet. Deliberately choosing food that has low trans fats and low on carbohydrates definitely puts weight gain on a notice. You can also search the Internet for dietary plans and enroll in them if your budget permits. Some are costly but most are within the reach of the average person.

How Dieting Can Affect Weight Loss

Excess weight is often referred to by the term obesity. This is a condition where the body accumulates more fat than is being processed or burned by the normal metabolism. In many cases, this can be genetic but in most, there is obviously a diet problem that needs to be reconsidered. Obesity is measured in what is called body mass index or BMI according to the fitness and medical circles. BMI is arrived at by dividing weight by height and then squaring the result. A BMI of 25-29kg/m is considered overweight.

Obesity is dangerous. Medical research shows that the chances of a heart attack are exponentially increased the higher the BMI goes. People who are overweight also struggle with a myriad of other complications. For instance, obese people also have to deal with a low self-esteem because the general mass media pushes the image of the slim model as the ideal. Clothes are also had to find and one has to shop at special stores. More problems include sleep irregularities and the risk of a stroke.

How does diet help? Researchers and nutritionists report that there is a correlation between weight loss and dieting. Education is key. Reading the labels when shopping is recommended. There are some foods which have a higher calorie content than others and knowing this will put one in the right track. By education, we also mean that you should familiarize yourself with the food pyramid. You can easily access this at the food pyramid website which is supported by the Food and Drug Administration.

Dieting does not always mean starving yourself. It can mean that you are taking precautions as to what you eat. That means cooking with oils such as olive oil which has healthy fats and does not encourage fat accumulation. Animal fats should be avoided if possible.