Post pregnancy belly fat can be really annoying and embarrassing. Also, losing it can be a bit tricky too. Here is a quick guide on how to lose that stubborn belly fat after delivery.
Its been 6 months after your delivery and you are wondering how you will lose all that baby fat around your tummy? Getting rid of that post pregnancy stomach fat can be tricky as it is too stubborn to shift and is gained quiet easily. New moms tend to get really concerned about how to reduce post pregnancy belly, and are ready to try anything and everything they can to decrease the inches around their belly.
Reasons for gaining weight around your tummy during pregnancy can and it is one of the toughest weight loss battles that a woman has to fight. So, before we get down to the business of suggesting exercises for your post baby belly, let us make you aware of some of the crucial belly fat facts.
Why Do We Gain Belly Fat?
There can be a number of reasons behind your belly fat gain and trust us, many of them have nothing to do with your eating or exercising habits. Here a few reasons that will help you understand the reasons behind belly fat.
Hormones: Your hormones play a vital role when it comes to gaining fat around your stomach. Estrogen is a female hormone that makes women gain weight around belly during pregnancy. During pregnancy, estrogen levels reduce significantly, thus increasing the storage of fat around belly and thighs, which is often referred as preparation for breastfeeding.
Pregnancy: During pregnancy, a woman’s skin is stretched enough to accommodate a baby or two so that the baby remains cushioned and protected. This is reason enough for women to gain weight around belly during pregnancy.
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Genetic Makeup: Every single person is born with a different genetic makeup, which determines their fat storage patterns. Some gain fat easily around tummy, while some find extra flab deposit around their thighs all because of their genetics.
Related Article: Did you inherit fat genes?
Stress: Stress is a major cause of weight gain for many, because when you are chronically stressed, your body starts producing a large amount of cortisol so that it can combat stress. High levels of cortisol leads to fat storage around your stomach. So, the amount of stress you take is directly proportional to your belly size.
Eating Wrong Food: Including wrong food in your diet can also make you gain tummy fat. Here, wrong foods refers to processed and junk food items along with sugary drinks and sweets that lead to tummy fat. Excess of wrong food only makes you crave for them even more, which can be a potential reason for your excess weight.
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Fastest Ways to a Flat Stomach After Pregnancy
There are a number of ways in which you can tone your tummy after pregnancy:
Breastfeeding: For new mums, breastfeeding is one magical way in which they can lose their post pregnancy weight quite easily. The logic behind this is simple. As you breastfeed, your uterus starts getting back to normal size, thus making your tummy appear small and well toned.
Eating Right: Eating right kind of food post pregnancy will definitely help in losing that baby fat around stomach. Avoid all processed and junk foods as they will only add to your tummy fat problem. Even if they are falling under your daily caloric intake, avoid them at any cost as they are bad for you and your baby. Eat right kind food like fruits, veggies, lean protein and complex carbs to lose weight.
Avoid Alcohol: you must have refrained from alcohol during your pregnancy, but it is suggested to maintain safe distance from it even post pregnancy along with sugary, carbonated, fizzy drinks to keep your tummy fat in control. Excess of these can make it really difficult for you to shift stomach fat and they can also play havoc with your liver.
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Complete Body Workout: Post pregnancy you will get to hear a lot about exercises that will help you reduce fat from a certain part of your body, which makes most of the news mums follow a certain set of exercises only. But, what we suggest here is to exercise your whole body to maintain a fat loss balance as this will help you in depleting your stomach fat stores along with other problem areas.
Weight & Strength Training: Cardiovascular exercises come with a host of benefits that can solve most of your weight loss problems. But for their prolonged effects, weight training is needed to work in the direction of building lean muscle mass. Once you start exercising your muscles, they start taking energy from the fat stores for endurance during exercise. Thus, the more you exercise, the more your body will use fat stores for energy. Also, the more lean muscle mass you have the more calories you will burn, even if you are not exercising that hard. This is also important for losing post-pregnancy belly fat, as women during their post-natal period are not allowed to get in strenuous workout routines. Thus, they should stick to basic weight and strength training.
Stay Motivated: Motivation remains the key to all sorts of weight loss, all you need is to stay motivated towards your goal of shifting that stubborn belly from your stomach. If you keep yourself motivated it will be easier for you to carry on with your weight loss exercise and diet regimen, especially if you are a new mom who thinks putting energy in exercising is to hard for herself.
A great way to keep yourself motivated is to track your weight loss journey inch by inch and gram to kilogram. As you will see the numbers going down you will feel motivated to stick on track.
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