Losing weight after having a baby

Many a woman has had her bubble burst when, leaving the hospital with her new bundle of joy, she realizes she’s still wearing her maternity pants.

Nobody tells her that after childbirth she’ll still look like she’s six months pregnant.

Thus begins the campaign to lose the baby weight — or, rather, the weight the baby wasn’t.

Simply giving birth will drop some of those pounds, said Dr. Neelofer Durrani, an OB/GYN at Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital.

Your baby will weight six to 10 pounds, the placenta between half a pound and one pound. Amniotic fluid is pretty much negligible at about an ounce.

“Mom has swelling in her body, arms and legs,” Durrani said. “That fluid takes another few weeks to lose — and that accounts for eight to 10 pounds.”

Katy resident Lindsey Klingensmith said she lost about 20 pounds in the first couple of weeks after having her son Colt last March. Breastfeeding took care of several more, but then she was stuck with the last stubborn 10 pounds.

“I was just softer all over,” said Klingensmith, who gained 40 pounds during her pregnancy. “It was bothering me.”

Durrani said she has seen patients gain much more, using pregnancy as a free-for-all to eat whatever they want. In reality, women should eat what they normally eat, Durrani said.

“You don’t need to eat extra if baby is growing well,” she said.

More weight gain simply means there’s more to lose after childbirth.

A lot of women say they lost all their baby weight simply by breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding increases metabolism, Durrani said, so mom is burning calories just by nursing. But it’s also likely that breastfeeding moms are eating healthier and drinking more water, a combination that results in weight loss.

Kathy Veath, a medical nutrition therapist at Woodlands Nutrition in The Woodlands, said women shouldn’t think about dropping pounds those first six weeks.

Women need to remember to be realistic about how long it will take to get there: It took nine months to put the weight on and can take even longer to get it off.

Veath recommends following the United States Department of Agriculture food pyramid. The Web site, www.mypyramid.gov, has an online tracker. Women can enter their weight, height, exercise level, information pertaining to pregnancy or breastfeeding, and it will customize an easy-to-understand meal plan.

Veath said a reasonable weight loss goal is no more than two pounds a week.

Women who severely restrict calories end up losing lean muscle tissue, which leads to fatigue, Veath said. An already tired mother who is constantly fatigued is more likely to seek out a sugar rush.

Klingensmith knew it wouldn’t be easy to prepare healthy meals every day. She opted for My Fit Foods, which prepares meals for her

“What they need to do is focus on eating healthy,” Veath said. “While their body will forever be a little bit different, they can get back down to a healthy weight.”

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