How hard is it loosing the weight gained during pregnancy?

Question

I am 5'7" tall and 23 years old. This is my first child. Before I got pregnant I weighed a toned 140. Now I am eight months pregnant and I weigh about 210. In the begining, I did not experience morning sickness and I gained 20 during my third month! I really don't think the weight has gone to any one particular spot, though I am thicker throughout and my face is plumper! And my gosh, my breasts went from a 36C to a 40E! I am planning on breast feeding, and I hear that helps a lot. Are there any other tricks to help get into shape? How long should you wait post partum to do sit ups/ crunches? Or will carring the baby in a sling be beniificial? Thanks!

Is it even tougher to get a slim waistline if your belly is really big? Mine sure is!

Answer 1

It's so much harder to try and lose weight after a baby and you have gain quite a bit. As a nutritionist, I recommend that when your body has healed that you walk walk walk and do portion control when you are eating. Eat losts of veggies and fruits and drink 3-8 oz glasses of milk a day. If there is a park near by then that would be perfect. You don't want to try to lose the weight too fast only 2-3 pds a week is average and safe. Don't diet because the 1st three letters of diet are die and thats what you would be doing to your body with a fad diet. Drink plenty of water and breast feeding is great for the baby as well as getting rid of the extra milk that your body has stored up. The weight will come off but you have to be patient and persistant with your portion control. God bless you and congratulations.

Answer 2

I think it depends on the person. I'm 23 & 5'9", and my only child just turned 7 months old. Personally, I hate it when other people say how easy it is and that they lost it all inside of 6 weeks. Sooo not that case for me.

I gained 40 lbs during my pregnancy. I breastfed for 6 months (then I had to stop...dried up...complicated). Honestly, I expected the breastfeeding to take off all the weight--since that's what everyone had said would happen. 6 weeks post partum I lost 10lbs. 6 months post partum I'd lost an additional 7 lbs...a total of 17 lbs. After I stopped breastfeeding I decided I need to do something to lose all the weight. I started exercising 5 days a week for 5 weeks, and I didn't lose ANY weight. (I did lose 2 inches.) Needless to say, I'm still 23 lbs from where I'd like to be.

My suggestion? Talk to your doctor right now and figure out why you're gaining so much weight. I didn't exercise during my pregnancy (mainly because I was confused about what I could/n't do). Try to focus your diet on only healthy foods, and not empty calories. Talk to your doctor about exercising right now.

Answer 3

I think it is different for everyone. I had preeclampsia with my first child so I was very swolen and think most of my weight was water retention. I put on 30 pounds and a few weeks after giving birth I lost all the weight plus 5 extra pounds. I did not loose any additional weight breast feeding. I read in one of the pregnancy bibles that on average it takes 9 months to take the weight off. I think it is wise to wait till after your 6 week post partum visit to get the OK to start any kind of exercise program. Starting too soon can cause you to continue bleeding so you need to rest and not worry about the weight for a while. And since you said you will be breastfeeding you cant exactly diet either as you need to keep the calories up a bit to feed the baby.

Answer 4

The whole super hard answer is someone being ridiculous! If you lose weight easily, it'll be easy for you, if not, it may take you a minute. I ran a full marathon at 38 weeks pregnant, and I had gained 56 pounds while pregnant, 22 was lost right away, when I weighed myself right after pregnancy! Then I walked everyday, and after my 6 week appointment, my doctor said I could run, etc, again, so it took me about 2 months to get toned and as good as I was, haha. You will be having so much fun with your new baby, you won't care about losing weight. I breastfeed too, and that didn't help lose for me, breastfeeding burns about 500 calories a day, but the dr. will tell you that you will consume an extra 500 a day, cause you WILL be hungry!!!

Answer 5

Oh gosh don't feel bad I weighed about 100 to 105 when I first found out I was pregnant and I gained 60 pounds with my daughter. And I had her 3 months ago and I've gotten most of the weight off from exercising a whole lot but if you try real hard and are very determind then the weight will come off.And I'm 5'3" and 22 years old.

Answer 6

I can't really give you an exact answer because everyone is different. However I can explain my experience. I gained 35lbs in my pregnancy and freaked out. I couldn't believe i had gained so much especially since I'm only 5 foot tall. However within 7 days of delivering my baby by c-section. I was 35lbs lighter! So it was super easy for me to the lose the weight. However my body doesn't look like it did before thats for sure. I'm working out now and trying to tone my body but even with all the weight gone, you gotta retrain those muscles.

Good luck!

Answer 7

Um... I found it's easy to lose it at first since you lose your appetite but then it's more difficult if you're breastfeeding because you can't do hardcore dieting. I wiegh about 10 pounds more then i did before i was pregnant but i gained about 40 pounds while pregnant. I'd wait until your bleeding has slowed down a bit until you do crunches (get a pliates tape, they help alot with toning) Carring baby helps no matter what way you do it. Also going for walks. The sooner you get up after labor the better! Good luck and congrats on your baby

Answer 8

I am 5 3 something and got up to almost 200 with both of my babies. I lost all of it plus 10 with my first and as of right now I have lost all of the weight plus 5 with my second. She just turned 3 months. It just depends on your prepregnancy metablolism. When you are pregnant, it slows down, but it will speed back up after you have your baby. My best advice would be to eat healthy. I breastfed both of mine, so that may have had something to do with me losing it so quickly. I would wait on crunches until you feel you are ready. It took me about a month to feel up to doing anything. A little longer with my second. My belly got huge but it slimmed back down. It takes a while for things to tighten up, but it goes down in size pretty quickly. You will find yourself so busy once the baby is here that you eat a lot less and the weight will just fall right off.

Answer 9

Nursing helps! I didn't do anything special, just nursed, and I was down to my pre-preg weight when she was 7 months. If you sling baby (I did while she was little, then she hated it :() it's like using weights. Ask your OB or midwife about crunches. I think they recommend after your six week checkup but only if there are no complications. If there are, it should be longer.

Answer 10

I gained 55 pounds with my first pregnancy. I lost 60 afterwards. It took me six months to lose the weight. I did not really try; it just came off. I was nursing also.