7 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight After Giving Birth

Your baby’s birth is usually a very happy time for the entire family and your close friends. Everyone looks forward to finally meeting your little bundle of joy as soon as you announce your pregnancy. In fact, once the baby is here, they are often greeted with plenty of gifts, clothing, and other special things.

Apart from the excitement that you, as a mother, share with everyone, you may have other things in mind, such as weight management. Many expectant moms worry about how they’re going to lose the additional pounds they’ll gain during pregnancy.

Before your joy of having a baby turns into full-blown anxiety over your weight gain, here’s why you may not lose the excess pounds quickly after giving birth. Knowing these factors could help you create an appropriate and healthy weight loss plan for yourself.

1. You’re Not Getting Enough Sleep

To lose weight, getting enough sleep at night is pivotal to dropping the pounds. According to many studies on dropping the pounds, you need at least 7 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep to assist you with the weight loss process. Since new babies rarely sleep through the night without requiring a bottle or a change in pampers, your need to sleep 7 to 9 hours may be overridden by your baby crying.

2. Stress

Stress is another factor that prevents weight loss. Lack of sleep, household management, and the additional mommy duties on your plate could be a bit too much for a new mom to handle on her own. To avoid stress and get enough sleep consider asking support from your husband, partner, family, or friends.

Remember, you don’t have to do things alone, especially during a time when you’re adjusting to your new role as a mom of a newborn.

3. Your Body is Still Healing

Carrying a baby for nine months is a huge undertaking for your body. In fact, even after the baby is born, your hormones are often still out of whack.

It will take time for your body to heal and get back into shape. Don’t rush.

4. Dehydration

One of the biggest problems with weight loss resistance after birth is not drinking enough water throughout the day. As the body begins to regulate itself, you may need to drink more water to compensate for the extra body weight, too.

5. Too Tired to Exercise

Some weight loss programs usually involve going to the gym or walking early in the morning to boost metabolism. Because your morning hours are often filled with taking care of the new baby, the gym and the morning walk may not be practical. You may even be too tired to exercise after staying up with the baby all night long.

6. Choosing a Diet that Doesn’t Suit You

An effective diet for weight loss typically works when you consume food at specific times during the day.

In some cases, new moms may have a difficult time following an eating schedule. This is especially true if they are breastfeeding their new baby, changing the baby’s diapers, or trying to keep the newborn from crying. So, they may be forced to eat at irregular intervals and times, including eating bad snack foods too late at night.

7. Setting Unrealistic Goals

If you are trying to drop the pounds too quickly, it’s easy to be tempted to set unrealistic goals. In a rush to get the weight off your post-pregnancy body, you may have set the bar too high.

If you really want to be successful in your post-pregnancy weight loss efforts, try to lose no more than 1 to 2 pounds a week. Simply put, consider all the changes that your body has recently experienced and is currently going through. Also, think about your current lifestyle and situation.

Losing weight can be a challenge for any new mother. But it’s possible. The key is not to rush your body into something it is not yet ready to do. Your body needs time to heal, and your hormones need time to get back to normal levels.

Motherhood is a journey. It shapes and molds you into many things that would surprise you. Enjoy the process. Be in the moment. Losing your pregnancy weight would eventually happen. But first, give yourself the time it needs to rest and recover.