Some mums don’t realize that good nutrition and consuming more calories during breastfeeding doesn’t only maintain their baby’s health better, it also helps them to lose weight as well. You heard right – if you’d like to safely shed some of those extra pounds you gained while you were pregnant, you can simply choose to eat right – and doing so starts by adding more calories to your diet than you might have thought.
Those Dreaded 500 Additional Calories
One thing that turns some new mums away from breastfeeding is the 500 or so extra calories mums are supposed to add to their daily diet. Research has shown however, these ‘extra’ calories are rapidly burned up as mums get through their day – as long as these calories are sourced from high quality sources of nutrition (for example, meats and vegetables as opposed to a bag of crisps).
What Is It Mums Should Eat?
Nearly all the current research agrees that the key source of nutrition to go for are the complex carbohydrates. This means mums need to eat more:
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Fruits: Plums, peaches, apples, oranges, melons and berries
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Vegetables: cauliflower, capsicum, kale, broccoli, beans and squash
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Calcium: Be sure you’re getting 1000mg each day through low fat dairy products or salmon, tofu, broccoli and sesame seeds and kale
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Whole grains: brown rice, whole wheat bread, rye bread, whole wheat pasta
A critical factor mums must keep in mind is that fat is actually an important element in a healthy diet. While you may be trying to shed your own fat, the consumption of healthy fat found in foods such as nuts or fruits like avocados will aid in your attempts to lose your excess weight and reduce your cravings for unhealthy sources of fat.
Losing That Belly Weight
The majority of mums fret unnecessarily about shedding their baby belly once their babies have been born. Although a few mums will ‘snap back’ into shape after their little ones have come into the world, most of us will require at least the time it took for baby to develop – if not longer – to lose that baby weight.
Top tips on shedding those tawdry kilos:
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When aiming to lose your extra baby weight, breastfeeding clothing that enables you to be comfortable at breastfeeding time while attractively concealing those excess pounds you may be carrying, is a good investment.
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Continue nourishing yourself with portioned, nutritious meals. Many mum discover that just a year after delivery, their weight is less then it was in their pre-baby years due to their newly established care for their nutrition and health.
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Slowly incorporate exercise. Regardless of how badly you might want to start tightening up your tummy by doing crunches, don’t start an exercise routine till you’ve been given the okay by your doctor (generally around 4 – 6 weeks after your baby’s birth).
Further Reading:
https://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/infantfeeding/essential_nutrition_actions.pdf