Top 5 Reasons For Weight Gain Post Pregnancy

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Highlights

• Gaining weight post pregnancy is a lifestyle choice.
• Eating your child's leftover food can make you gain weight.
• Sleep deprivation can increase the chances of food craving, especially the fatty sweet ones.
• Lack of motivation can keep you away from staying physically active.

Weight gain during pregnancy is normal and essential. The mother needs to eat for two to ensure that the growing baby is getting all the required nutrients. After delivery, it's of course not just a day's work to make all that weight vanish.

Exercise is a must and so is a healthy diet, away from junk and processed food. But taking up the responsibilities of the baby hardly leaves any time or energy behind, and this is one of the major reasons why women start ignoring their health and putting on weight.

‘Aim for fitness instead of weight loss after pregnancy so that you will have energy to keep ticking all day and reduce the risk of gaining more weight.’

In a study of nearly 30,000 women who had given birth between one and four times, researchers found that most women never returned to their pre-pregnancy body weight after birth.

As much as you may convince yourself that all those kilos that you are still continuing to gain is because of "post-pregnancy" it is actually far from the truth. Here are some points that you can consider and adopt to kick off the gained weight.

1. Eating Your Child's Leftover
   
   New mothers keep the weight on by eating food off their child's plate, according to a new study done by University of Michigan in the US. Mothers are usually not very fond of throwing away the leftovers. But if you are going to keep cleaning your child's plate every time it isn't finished, it may not do you any good. Avoid eating all the leftovers and keep a watch on the portion size when you cook for your child.
   
   
2. Lack of sleep
   
   All new mothers know that it is a well known fact. Adequate sleep sounds like history for many while some do enjoy their dose of sleep with the baby at night. Sleep deprivation can leave you tired, hungry and may make you crave for junk food. Try changing the routine of your child in such a way that they sleep at night.
   
   
3. Food Craving
   
   Inadequate sleep can leave you craving for spicy, fried food or sweets. Eat a healthy dinner that doesn't make you feel hungry giving room for hunger pangs.
   
   
4. More of sitting, less of moving
   
   Till your baby is about 6 or 7 months, the child remains in a place and plays and the parent at times, accompany them. This sedentary behavior adds on to your body weight. Engage yourself in some exercise, household chores that enable you to look after the child as well as makes you move.
   
   
5. Time constraint
   
   Parents, especially mothers feel that after a baby is born, 24 hours is not sufficient for a day and that they need an extra 2 or 3 hours to groom themselves or atleast sleep for a while. Preparing food for the baby, all other family members, cleaning the house, taking care of the laundry leaves a mother exhausted. Exercise is no way in her routine. In such cases, try to share some chores and begin to allocate atleast 30 minutes for your workout.
   
   

Motivate yourself to stay fit even though you don't seem to just melt away all those extra pounds from your body within a couple of months. Aim for fitness instead of weight loss so that you will have energy to keep ticking all day and reduce the risk of gaining more weight. Losing weight after pregnancy is possible but it depends on your choice to stay healthy and active.

Source: Medindia

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