Healthy weight loss after birth

Patience is key to losing baby weight. It’s normal to want to see quick results but losing weight after pregnancy (postpartum weight loss) can take time. You may even know mums who have such quick pregnancy weight loss that they seem to get back to their pre-baby weight within weeks. For most people though, losing weight after your baby doesn’t happen this way. Your body needs plenty of time to recover from having your baby.

How to lose weight after a baby

While you shouldn’t rush pregnancy weight loss, it makes sense to eat healthily, as it will give you the energy you need to look after your baby and feel your best (NHS 2018). You can also do gentle exercises like stretching and walking in the early weeks after your baby's birth (NICE 2010, NHS 2019a).

Your postnatal check will usually happen between six weeks and eight weeks after you've had your baby. It's a good time to talk to your GP or practice nurse about your weight if it's concerning you. If you feel you need help to lose weight, your GP can refer you to a dietitian (NICE 2010).

Most women take at least six months or more to lose the extra weight they gained during pregnancy, so don’t put yourself under too much pressure, especially in the early weeks and months (PubMed Health 2018, Amorim Adegboye et al 2013).

What is the safest method for pregnancy weight loss?

The safest and most effective way to lose weight after a baby and keep it off is a combination of being active, eating healthily and drinking lots of water.

The following habits will give you the energy you need now that you have a baby (NHS 2019a), while helping you to lose weight at a steady pace:

• Make time for breakfast in the morning.
• Eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
• Include plenty of fibre-rich foods such as oats, beans, lentils, grains and seeds in your meals.
• Include starchy foods such as bread, rice and pasta (preferably wholegrain varieties for added fibre) in every meal. These are carbohydrates, and should make up about a third of each meal.
• Go easy on fatty and sugary foods, takeaways, fast food, sweets, cakes, biscuits, pastries and fizzy drinks.
• Watch your portion sizes at mealtimes, and the number and type of snacks you eat between meals (NHS 2019a, NICE 2010).

Combining healthy eating with exercise works best (Amorim Adegboye et al 2013, NICE 2010), because it helps you to lose fat instead of lean tissue. Exercise will help you get fitter, which means you’ll have more energy to look after yourself and your baby (Amorim Adegboye et al 2013).

What exercise can I do to help with losing weight after pregnancy?

Finding the time to fit exercise into your daily life, now that you have a newborn, can be tricky but it’s possible. Try to build short periods of activity into your day, such as walking with the buggy rather than taking the car on short journeys. As soon as you feel up to it, you can start gentle exercise, including:

• pelvic floor exercises (Kegels)
• walking
• stretching
  (NICE 2010, NHS 2019a)

You may be tempted to throw yourself into a strenuous routine to try to shed your baby weight. But try to wait six weeks or so, or until you feel that you've recovered from the birth, before doing high impact exercise (NICE 2010, NHS 2019a). Pregnancy hormones and breastfeeding can affect your joints for several months after childbirth. So be careful not to do high-impact activity too soon, especially if you’re not used to it (POGP 2015).

As soon as you feel up to it, take your baby for longer walks in the pushchair, and step up the pace, or try a pram-based exercise class. You may have a Buggyfit class or a similar activity running in a park or community centre near you.

Group classes are a great way to meet other mums too. Making new friends, and getting some exercise can help to lift your mood (NHS 2019a, Poyatos-Leo et al 2017).

Your midwife or health visitor can give you information about any activities in your area to help you get exercising and lose weight (NICE 2010).

Why is postpartum weight loss important?

Losing the extra weight you've gained has lots of benefits. It will help you to stay healthy as your child grows (Rueda-Clausen et al 2015) and reduce the risk of developing health conditions in the future, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease (NICE 2010).

It's especially important if you know you want more children (NICE 2010).

Even a small weight gain of one or two BMI units between pregnancies can put you into the overweight range. This increases the risks to you and your baby in your next pregnancy and birth (NHS 2020).

Complications as a result of being overweight or obese could include:

• developing high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia
• developing gestational diabetes (NHS 2020)
• having a longer, harder labour
• having an emergency caesarean section
• giving birth to a big baby
  (NICE 2010, RCOG 2018, Villamor and Cnattingius 2015)

Does breastfeeding help you lose weight?

Breastfeeding can burn hundreds of calories every day, especially if you’re exclusively breastfeeding. But it’s not a guarantee that you’ll lose weight (NICE 2010, Neville et al 2014).

As a rough guide, an average woman needs about 2,000 calories a day to maintain a healthy weight, but this can vary from woman to woman, depending on lifestyle and activity levels (NHS 2016b). If you take in more calories than your body needs, you will gain weight, whether or not you’re breastfeeding (NICE 2010, Amorim Adegboye et al 2013).

You may be able to get the extra calories you need for breast milk from your own fat stores, because your body lays down fat during pregnancy to give you extra energy to make milk (NICE 2010).

Your body will still be able to make plenty of milk for your baby if you’re successfully losing weight. But it’s important not to crash diet. A safe loss is between about 0.5kg and 1kg (1lb to 2lb) a week (NICE 2010, RCOG 2018).

We do know that breastfeeding for at least six months can help to keep weight off in the longer term (Bobrow et al 2013). And it encourages your womb to shrink down after the birth, helping you to lose your post-baby belly.

How long does it take to lose weight after a baby?

Your body may not be exactly the same as your pre-baby body, even after you've lost weight. You have grown a baby, after all!

There’s no ideal time frame for losing baby weight. It varies a lot, and much depends on how much weight you gained during pregnancy, and your diet and lifestyle after you’ve given birth.

Give yourself plenty of time to lose your target amount of weight. It's fine if it takes between six months and nine months (Amorim Adegboye et al 2013).

If you're finding it takes longer than this, don't give yourself a hard time. Just set yourself a realistic target of getting to the weight you want, perhaps by your baby’s first birthday.

While it’s important to focus on your health, it’s also important to be realistic and set achievable goals. If you put on a lot of weight during your pregnancy, it will take longer to come off.

If you'd like help with losing weight, talk to your GP or health visitor about exercise or weight-management classes in your area (NHS 2017). Joining a class can help to motivate you, and you'll meet other people in the same situation as you.

• Read our parents' tips on managing your weight after having a baby.
• See our gallery of BabyCentre mums' post-baby bellies.