The main task given to a woman by nature is to bear and give birth to a healthy child. The female body is perfectly prepared for this. During pregnancy, organs begin to function for two. Along with the growing belly, the skin and muscles stretch, freeing up space for the baby. After the birth of a child, the body gradually recovers, regaining lost forms, but not always as quickly as we would like.
After giving birth, it's not easy to find time to exercise
General recommendations
It is impossible to get rid of belly fat in a short period of time. During the postpartum period, a woman needs to be especially careful about her health, since this is the time when hormonal levels, cardiovascular and nervous systems should return to normal. A month after giving birth, you should contact a gynecologist who will conduct an examination and check how the healing process is proceeding.
The postpartum period lasts 6-8 weeks if the birth took place naturally. When there was a caesarean section, it was longer - up to 10 weeks. If you begin to perform strenuous exercise at this time, the stitches placed during suturing of the perineum or after a cesarean section may come apart.
It is important that in the first three months the woman rests as much as possible. The more correctly she organizes her day, the faster her body can recover. You should wear a bandage, a diaper or a sling.
Breastfeeding is a fairly energy-intensive process. It helps you lose weight after pregnancy.
What type of training is allowed?
It is important to choose a complex that will not burden a tired body after childbirth. Exercises should be aimed at removing excess weight, strengthening abdominal muscles, and shaping your figure.
After classes you should not feel empty or weak, just slightly tired.
Yoga, Pilates, and swimming have a beneficial effect on a woman’s body after childbirth and during lactation. You can do joint exercises for the abdomen with your baby - a complex on a fitball or specially designed workouts.
Prohibited types of physical activity after childbirth:
- Athletics;
- fast run;
- strength sports;
- body-building;
- exercises with a load on the chest.
Intensive pumping of the press to remove the belly after the birth of the child is not recommended earlier than six months after childbirth. Avoid activities that may cause chest trauma. They will disrupt lactation and reduce milk production.
Nutrition
A strict diet for a nursing mother is contraindicated. Therefore, if a woman wants to lose weight, she just needs to exclude too high-calorie foods from her diet - baked goods, chocolate, cream, fatty and fried foods.
A nursing mother should never go hungry, as the baby will not receive the required amount of nutrients, which will negatively affect its development. The food must be varied. The diet includes:
- whole grain porridge;
- dairy products;
- lean varieties of meat and fish.
The last category of products should also have variety: rabbit, chicken, turkey, lean pork - all of this can be consumed while breastfeeding. You only need to avoid fatty and fried foods. Instead, you should cook meat soufflé in the oven, meatballs and steamed cutlets. Low-fat varieties of fish are also recommended, preferably pond fish (pike perch). Sea fish and shrimp can cause allergies.
The diet should contain enough protein, because it is what helps the child develop. Therefore, the menu should include not only meat and fish, but also cottage cheese, low-fat cheese and other dairy products.
Whole milk should not be consumed as it causes allergies in the child. It is recommended, especially in the summer, to eat fermented milk products only after heat treatment, for example, bake dietary cheesecakes in the oven.
The menu of a nursing mother should include at least 400 g of fresh or boiled vegetables every day. It is recommended to choose pumpkin, zucchini, carrots, and beets. Cabbage can cause bloating in a woman and colic in a child. You can eat up to 300 g of fruits per day, except for those that are allergens - citrus fruits, kiwi and various tropical exotics. As for fats, you can consume no more than 20 g of butter and about 15 g of vegetable oil.
Do not get carried away with folk remedies to increase lactation. They promote weight gain, but do not help in any way to get rid of it. Additionally, there is no evidence that they increase your milk supply. When preparing your diet, you must strictly follow your doctor’s recommendations.
Such a diet in itself will only help restart the metabolism. But in combination with wearing a bandage, exercises and cosmetic procedures, it will allow you to return your figure to normal and even lose 15 kg in a month.
Menu and calories
An approximate menu for the day, designed for 1600-1800 kilocalories, looks like this:
| Meal time | Diet, number of calories |
| Breakfast |
|
| Snack |
|
| Dinner |
|
| Afternoon snack |
|
| Dinner |
|
Sometimes in the medical literature the norm is 3200 kcal. But it is only suitable for those who did not gain weight during pregnancy.
Modern options
Today, there is a large arsenal of tools with which you can get rid of extra pounds and sagging skin after childbirth. Cosmetology products are very popular: creams, ointments. They help a woman get rid of cellulite and regain a toned waist and buttocks. Massage treatments also help improve skin condition.
Thalassotherapy is considered the most effective among them. This is a special cosmetic procedure that uses the healing properties of algae, water and mud. At home, all the necessary manipulations cannot be performed, so the effect is noticeable only after the procedure in the salon. The service corrects the side area and tightens the abs without physical exercise in just a few sessions.
Thalassotherapy is an effective way to get rid of belly fat after childbirth
At home, you can also use a special cream with a modeling effect. Its action will be rapid if combined with complex measures. Through physical activity, the accelerated release of fat will be stimulated. In this case, your feminine silhouette will return to you within a few months.
In order to restore skin tone, a special type of massage is used. It is called lymphatic drainage, or anti-cellulite. The procedures are absolutely harmless to the woman’s body and have only a positive effect on it. The skin of the thighs and abdomen will become tightened due to increased blood circulation. Fat cells will be broken down at high speed.
The most effective, but also dangerous, method is considered to be surgical intervention. Plastic surgery guarantees immediate results. Today, the procedure of ultrasonic liposuction, which is considered more loyal, is also actively used. You can resort to such weight loss methods no earlier than two months after giving birth.
It is possible to regain a great figure after childbirth. For this, a woman must only have desire. You should not starve, because in this case not only your body will suffer, but also the child’s health. Thanks to an integrated approach, you can get rid of extra pounds within two months. Doctors have determined the ideal period for returning to its former forms - 12 months, in which case no harm will be done to the body.
Postpartum bandage
A belly that sags after childbirth can be brought into shape with the help of a postpartum bandage. It can be worn only if there are no medical contraindications, that is, the birth took place without complications. The bandage helps improve the tone of the abdominal muscles and skin, and corrects the silhouette in the problem area.
The postpartum bandage is a fairly large elastic belt (there are models on sale with a width of 15-18 and even 25-30 cm). It covers the entire abdominal area, right down to the hips. This belt is most often fastened with Velcro and allows you to pull in not only the stomach, but also the sides. Despite all the benefits of a bandage, you need to learn how to wear it, as it can twist and ride up.
Postpartum bandage belt
Postpartum bandage panties are considered a more convenient option. This underwear with a special tightening insert is firmly held on the figure, it can be worn under any casual or dressy clothes. Some models of bandage panties even allow you to adjust the tightening force - for this, side fasteners are provided, usually with Velcro.
Postpartum bandage panties
Let's sum it up
From all of the above, you can derive a step-by-step plan on how to remove belly fat at home:
- Immediately after birth, we put on a bandage or tie it up.
- We begin to actively engage in sports after 1.5-2 months. Before that, we use light exercises, gradually increasing the intensity and complexity of the physical activity.
- Self-massage with hands, vacuum cans or special brushes and rollers. Regularly and for at least 10-15 days. More is better.
- Balanced diet. This is one of the main points, since poor nutrition will negate all your efforts.
Here you can add cosmetic procedures such as body wraps, scrubs, creams (anti-cellulite, modeling, stretch marks) and so on.
Remember that there is no miracle formula or diet for quick weight loss! Only systematic, regular and comprehensive work on yourself will give you the figure of your dreams.
Provided you regularly follow all recommendations, the first results will be noticeable within 2-3 weeks. The stomach will become stronger, decrease in size, strength and good mood will appear from the shapes that have returned to normal.
In addition, you can read about effective circuit training for weight loss.
Be healthy and beautiful!
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Folk remedies
If the body recovers slowly, despite diet and fitness, you can additionally help it with folk remedies - use compresses and wraps at home, which tighten the skin and accelerate the destruction of fat reserves.
A compress made from nettle decoction is effective:
- For 2 cups of boiling water take 2 tbsp. l. dry grass.
- Heat the mixture for 10 minutes over low heat.
- The broth is infused until it cools and filtered through several layers of gauze.
- Dip natural fabric in the resulting product and place it on the stomach for half an hour.
It is not necessary to wash off the composition; the broth is well absorbed.
A mask is made from aloe juice and olive oil, mixed in equal parts with the addition of vitamins A and E, which is applied to the skin of the abdomen in the morning and evening.
The wrap can be made with natural honey. How to use the product:
- Take a product of liquid consistency.
- They heat it up.
- Apply it to the skin with light massage movements.
- Pat lightly to speed up blood flow.
- The top of the skin is covered with plastic wrap and a terry towel.
- Keep this product on the skin for half an hour.
- Wash off with warm water.
It is recommended to carry out the procedure after a shower while the skin is steamed. Honey increases blood circulation and tightens the skin.
Herbal infusions that reduce appetite or remove fluid from the body are not recommended to drink during lactation. But if a woman is not breastfeeding, you can drink tea from lingonberry leaves to remove fluid and lose weight. You should take a decoction of marshmallow root or flaxseed to reduce appetite. All products are prepared in the same proportion - 1 tbsp. l. raw materials per glass of boiling water.
Folk remedies do not replace the need to use moisturizers. This will prevent skin dehydration, reduce stretch marks and sagging.
A contrast shower is effective. And if other means during lactation should be used with caution, then water procedures have no contraindications.
How to remove belly fat after second birth?
Recovery after a second birth has its own characteristics. If after the birth of the first child it was not possible to get rid of stretch marks, then later they will become even more noticeable, since scar tissue has formed and the mechanisms of collagen and elastin formation are disrupted. Fresh striae may appear.
In this case, you should give preference not only to physical activity, but also to vacuum or manual massage, which can be performed 6 weeks after birth. Mesotherapy or chemical peels are not allowed for a nursing mother, since their constituent substances also pass into breast milk.
The postpartum period after the birth of your second child lasts longer. The uterus was initially larger than during the first birth, and sometimes the baby’s weight was significantly greater.
Additional factors affect the rate of weight loss:
- hormonal background;
- mother's age;
- the appearance of gynecological pathologies after the first birth.
Recovery will take more than 6-8 weeks. Uterine contractions become more active and therefore painful. Therefore, you can move on to intense exercise only after examination by a doctor.
You need to return your figure to shape in the same way as after the first birth. You need to start with simple exercises, for example, training with a hula hoop, and, if possible, water aerobics, and then move on to more serious training.
Often problems with excess weight begin in the previous postpartum period. In this case, you need to reduce it gradually so that 250-400 g are consumed per week. This is considered a good result. Otherwise, the elastin fibers do not have time to contract, as a result the stomach becomes saggy and the skin becomes flabby.
A set of exercises for a stretched abdomen
Most women think about how to remove their belly and sides after childbirth at home. After all, not every mother has the opportunity to go to the gym and remove the sagging belly that remains after the birth of the baby. A quick way to tighten your tummy at home is to do fitness exercises that increase tension in the abdominal area and help get rid of fat deposits. By exercising, you stimulate the circulatory system and your well-being improves. And the mother’s good mood is always passed on to the baby.
Below is a table with a program of exercises aimed at restoring the abdominal muscles. By following a balanced diet and performing the complex at least 2-3 times a week , within a month you will notice how your flabby stomach tightens and your figure becomes slimmer.
| Exercises | Approaches | Repetitions |
| Hoop torsion | — | 10 minutes |
| Bike | 3 | 10-15 times |
| Straight crunches | 3 | 10-15 times |
| Reverse crunches | 2-3 | 10-15 times |
| Plank | 2 | up to 1 minute |
| Scissors | 3 | 10-15 times |
| Leg swings lying on your side | 3 | 15-20 times |
The presented program is exemplary. You can add your own exercises, increase or decrease the number of repetitions based on how you feel , use weights or dumbbells for additional weight.
Before starting the complex, perform a mandatory warm-up and prepare your body for the load. This could be jumping rope, walking or running in place for 5 to 10 minutes.
Hoop torsion
Hula hooping is the most effective way to eliminate a flabby belly.
You can spin the hoop only 4-5 months after natural childbirth. If you have a caesarean section, you should wait at least a year after giving birth and proceed only with your doctor’s permission.
Choose the simplest hoop, without massage rollers or weights. Spinning a lightweight hoop requires more energy to be put into each push, making it even more efficient. And twisting a light hoop will not cause injury to yourself.
Not everyone knows how to perform torsion correctly:
- Stand straight, place your feet exactly shoulder-width apart. To simplify the exercise, you can bring one leg forward.
- Place the hoop at your waist, your back straight. Give the hoop a push and maintain the rotation by moving your waist in a circular motion.
- Stretch your arms to the sides or put them behind your head. Do not involve the chest and pelvis in the movement, only the waist works.
Spin for at least 10 minutes every day. With the help of a hoop, you can remove your sides and reduce your waist size in the first months of training.
Important! Twisting the hoop in the hip area helps reduce thighs and get rid of cellulite.
Bike
- Lie with your back on the floor and raise your bent legs.
- Keep your hands behind your head.
- Lift your shoulders off the floor, resting on your lower back. Imitating riding a bicycle with your legs, bring your elbows to your knees in a cross manner.
Perform 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions. The exercise works the core and buttock muscles.
Straight crunches
- Lie on your back and bend your knees, stretch your arms up.
- Using your abdominal muscles, lift your body toward your knees. When lifting, round your back slightly to fully contract the muscles.
- Hold the position for a couple of seconds and slowly lower your body. Keep your muscles tense, don't relax completely.
Repeat 3 sets of 10-15 times. The upper and middle parts of the press are involved.
Important! If you have a fitball at home, use it when doing the exercise. When twisting on a ball, additional stress is removed from the spine.
Reverse crunches
- Lie on your back and raise your legs, bent at a 90-degree angle.
- Keep your thighs perpendicular to the floor. Stretch your arms along your body.
- Using your abdominal muscles, lift your pelvis and pull your knees towards your chest as much as possible. Hold the position and release your pelvis. Do not lower your feet to the floor, maintain tension in your abdominal muscles.
Perform 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps. The exercise mainly targets the lower abdomen.
Plank
- Place your elbows on the floor, stretch your legs and place your toes on the floor (as shown in the photo). The whole body is elongated in a straight line, the lower back is straight.
- The feet are together. Place your elbows at shoulder level so as not to create unnecessary stress on the shoulder joints. Don't lower your head down, keep it straight.
- While performing the exercise, tighten your buttocks and abs.
Hold the position for up to 60 seconds. Gradually increase the execution time, reaching 3 minutes. Repeat 2 sets. The abdominal, back and pectoral muscles are involved.
Advice! To make the exercise more difficult, change the position of your arms and legs. Then different muscle groups will be involved.
Scissors
- Lie with your back on the floor, stretch your arms along your body.
- Raise your legs off the floor and tighten your abdominal muscles as much as possible. Cross your legs at the ankles so that your right leg is on top.
- Spread your legs and cross them again so that your left leg is on top.
Repeat 3 sets of 10-15 times. Works the lower abdomen and leg muscles.
Leg swings lying on your side
- Lie on the floor on your side, place one hand under your head, and the other hand resting loosely on the floor.
- Slowly lift your straight leg and release it back. Repeat for each leg 3 sets of 15-20 times. The exercise works the oblique muscles of the abs and buttocks.
The video shows a few more exercises for the abs after childbirth:
If you have the opportunity to go to the gym, then below are a couple of exercises that will help you lose belly fat.
