While having a baby is a wonderfully fulfilling experience, it’s not so much fun trying to lost that post-baby belly. Depending on the woman, her pre-pregnancy health and a lot of other factors, she might have gained anywhere from 20 to nearly 100 pounds. And the most difficult weight to take off is that band of fat around the belly. While there’s no magic bullet to get rid of it, many women have had success using a combination of a Paleo Diet and HCG drops, along with a regular exercise regime.
First of all, consult your pediatrician if you had any health problems during your pregnancy. Issues like muscle separation and hernias won’t prevent you from following the Paleo diet, but it might require some changes in your workout plans.
I’m going to assume you are already familiar with the basics of a Paleo diet: basically, you just eat food that could be hunted or gathered back in the caveman days. That means meat, fish, nuts, seeds and naturally grown vegetables.
A Paleo diet works well for a new mom because one of the best ways to get back into shape after a pregnancy is to do a body cleanse. Cut out the junk food and give your body a chance to recover. That effort ties in nicely with a Paleo diet, which is all about natural foods and getting your body back to the diet it best responds to.
Many women have combined a Paleo Diet with the use of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) a hormone produced during pregnancy. It’s believed that using HCG drops as part of a weight loss regime helps curb hunger as well as slow the loss of muscle during weight loss. That’s especially important when trying to focus on getting rid of that post-pregnancy belly fat.
Some people recommend combining the drops with a strict 800 calorie-per-day diet, but recent studies have shown many women get as positive results combining the drops with a traditional Paleo diet.
As for exercise, while every woman is different, some things are useful no matter who you are. A daily cardio workout will lead to better overall fitness and it can help tighten the muscles that cut across both side of the belly.
There are also a number of exercises that focus on the stomach and the ones you select matter less than the fact you are doing them 3-4 times per week. As with any exercise regime, consistency provides the best results.
And now we circle back around to the Paleo diet. That mix of meats and fish along with unprocessed vegetables, nets, etc. turns out to also be the most effective fuel for your body when you are trying to lose that belly fat.
The lean meats provide the protein your body requires to recover from your workout and the wide variety of vegetables give you the nutrients you need to rebuild your body’s chemistry after a pregnancy.
You might already know that a Paleo diet is healthy and useful if you’re trying to get into shape. But you might not realize it can also be the perfect choice for women hoping to lose that post-pregnancy belly bump.
Really BAD advise.
After pregnancy, women’s bodies are already primed to use stored fat in the production of breast milk. Eating a healthy, well-rounded diet, including complex carbs which provide necessary B Vitamins, as well as glycogen, in the proper amount (i.e., slightly below metabolic balance if weight loss is desired) is ideal.
Very low carb diets create ketosis, which is stressful on the body. Being postpartum is stressful enough. Adding more stress is unhealthy.
Lastly, cleanses are NOT advisable during pregnancy or while breast feeding as either the fetus/infant will then get exposed to any accumulated toxins that get released into the blood stream.
BeFit-Mom