Follow these steps to lose your baby weight
For most women, losing weight after the birth of a baby can be tough. It’s even harder if you already have a grown child. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
That is why Patricia was delighted when she lost the 11kg that she had put on in just three months.
How did she do it? Well, before I talk about diet, I’d like to tell you about Patricia’s day-to-day life. She was a stay at home mum, and occasionally helped out with her husband’s business.
She was generally fairly energetic and needed to be, to look after three young children.
One factor that made it difficult for her to cut the weight was that her youngest woke up five times a night. Most people don’t realise this, but poor quality sleep makes it very difficult to lose weight.
For most women, losing weight after the birth of a baby can be tough. It’s even harder if you already have a grown child already.
In the case of 34-year-old Patricia, it was even more difficult since she had a nine and five-year-old, in addition to her 11 months old son.
Patricia told me that she had actually lost the weight fairly easily after her first two children, but this time round, she just couldn’t shed it. I told her what I usually tell women in her situation, that she had taken nine months to put on the weight, so it would most likely take nine months to lose it.
That is why Patricia was delighted when she lost the 11kg that she had put on in just three months.
How did she do it? Well, before I talk about diet, I’d like to tell you about Patricia’s day-to-day life. She was a stay at home mum, and occasionally helped out with her husband’s business.
She was generally fairly energetic and needed to be, to look after three young children. One factor that made it difficult for her to cut the weight was that her youngest woke up five times a night. Most people don’t realise this, but poor quality sleep makes it very difficult to lose weight.
This is because we make poorer food choices during the day to try and fan our flagging energy levels. Patricia was doing exactly that.
She also kept a stash of her favourite chocolate bars and cookies in a secret box in her room. She told me that she found it hard to get through the day without them.
Junk food aside, there was another reason that Patricia had found it difficult to lose weight: she had a vitamin D deficiency: ideally your levels should be between 60 and 80 ng/mL. We began supplementation immediately.
So where did we start? Well, the biggest problem with Patricia’s diet was the lack of structure. Rather than eating proper meals, she’d snack on bits and pieces during the day, even finishing off her children’s leftovers.
Initially all I asked her to do was to eat a proper breakfast and lunch, and to make sure that it contained protein and some healthy fats. Eggs were the easiest for her to make, and she would normally prepare both meals using eggs and leftovers from the night before.
Patricia also needed to increase her water intake. Her constant mild headache and mid-afternoon energy slump pointed to dehydration. I asked her to drink eight glasses of water or herbal tea each day.
Patricia also had to kick her sugar habit. But this was not going to be easy, given her son’s sleep patterns. I asked her to bring in her son for a consultation, and we found that his poor sleeping patterns were due to allergies and digestive disturbances.
After changes in her diet, her son soon began to sleep soundly throughout the night, while his mother started to wake up feeling refreshed, not to mention more optimistic about the day ahead.
The last weapon in Patricia’s weight loss arsenal were supplements like chromium and HCA. While chromium helps to stabilise blood sugar and reduce cravings, HCA helps to inhibit fat production in the body.
