Weight Loss Suggestions

Hi C.:

It might be worthwhile to have a full blood work-up. Your thyroid levels might be off, which might really slow your metabolism down. Definitely talk with your MD!

Hi C..
It's so hard to lose weight on your own just trying to watch what you eat. For me anyway it's near impossible. A friend of mine recommended this site to me...it's COMPLETELY free and there is a ton of support on there. Check it out.

www.sparkpeople.com
You can make your own profile and then start looking around. I just want to also say that your baby is only 4 months old and you already lost 30 LBS!!!!!! Don't be so hard on yourself. You're doing great.

C., I'm 2 months post-partum and am working at losing the weight that I gained during my pregnancy and beforehand. I lost lots of weight in the beginning but it has slowed down for me and I even gained a pound this past week, even though I'm breastfeeding and pumping enough milk to feed a daycare.

I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing - eat healthy food, watch my portions, increase my exercising - and hopefully it will go away albeit slowly. If that doesn't work, I'm signing up for Weight Watchers.

It's hard to be heavier than I'm use to being.

Hi C.,
I can relate to trying to lose the extra weight, I myself am working it off, I just started almost 2 weeks ago the Figure 8 line from Arbonne. Of course I can not tell you I have lost a ton of weight but everyone around has said I look like I have lost some weight and I feel great!! If you want more info on it just let me know and I can tell you more. And by the way I do not feel like I am starving myself just to lose it either lol.
J.

Hello C.,
I too have had to be on hospitalized bed rest.. I too had difficulty loseing the weight. I know have went from a size 22 pants to a size 10. I changed my eating habits totally. I went thru my doctor office and did aprotein diet for 12 weeks. I lost a total of 50 pounds.To get over the plateu you need to add in some body sculpting work. Along with some intense walking with a lot of stairs.This should give you the boost.But the slower you lose the weight the better it is for your health and for keeping it off.
D.

Hi C.,
I am a PT and exercise physiologist and my initial response is that your body has probably accomodated to what you have been doing for exercise. Basically, what that means is that it doesnt' fully recognize the extra effort any more and you need to vary the routine.
I glanced thru the other responses and there are a few interesting ideas to try, but mostly I will say that whatever you do, don't do it day in day out for the next 3 months without changing the routine. After a while your muscles need to be "tricked" and you have to change which fibers you are stimulating (different muscle groups) and how intensely you are exerciseing. So go ahead and try the weights, yoga, etc., but don't do just one of them. Do yoga a couple days one week, upper body weights the ogher days, take a day off here and there, swithch to lower body weights the next week and the next week do upper and lower body on alternate days...you get the picture.
I liked the suggestion that it took 9 months to put it on so it should take 9 to take it off. Take some breathing room!
Quick weight loss is usually temporary and leaves you flabbier.
Try to enjoy the process and don't stress over o few pounds up and down.
Muscle added by exercise adds weight while you can still look like you are geting thinner, so don't go by the scale alone.

Either way, try to enjoy the new you. You are a Mommy now, and I like my mommies to be soft and cuddly.
A.

C.;
I teach wieght loss classes, and my first response would be (if you are not breast feeding), is to do a detox. Your body has just gone through a major ordeal, first by developing a beautiful baby. Then giving birth is a major stress on the body followed by many loving hours of caring for your new born baby. With this in mind - follow a natural 2 week detox. If you want the full details of a detox I will gladly email it to you.
Best of luck and enjoy your new love!

C., Losing weight is never easy, however I was successful losing weight and doing it in a healthy, safe way that was easy to follow. If you'd like to hear more contact ____@____.com It works, you'll be very happy and feel better then you can imagine!!!

That is great. Keep up the good work. I too hit the plateau, but maintained, your body needs to adjust and get ready to lose more weight. Eat smaller meals more often and increase protein and dark greens into your diet. Remember muscle weighs more so you may be decreasing weight but gaining muscle. If you haven't joined a gym and if possible do it. The gym offeres many classes in for strengh, cardio, yoga and pilates, and much more. Noe that your body is at a plateau it needs the change to more to the next level. I've lost 50 lbs and still going toning and building muscle to be able to pick up my kids and run with them:). Good luck and keep it going.

Hang in there and keep doing what you're doing! It took 9 months to put on the baby weight, it will take at least that long to loose it! Other than walking, have you tried any other form of exercise? I find that I lost the weight faster while using weights in addition to the walking/cardio exercise. It helps build the muscle, which burns more calories.

Well, just so ya know, your body will never be the same as it was before having a baby...even if you do lose all the weight! I have the darndest time with weight loss too...here are some things that I try to do that have worked...they are not instant result methods, but gradually over time will make a difference.

1. I eat a huge Breakfast and Lunch, so that I have all day to burn off those calories. For dinner I go light...I'll drink a Slimfast shake and a glass of water OR I'll have a fruit smoothie and a glass of water. If I still feel hungry after that, I drink more water!

2. Thirst often disguises itself as hunger, so when you feel the urge to eat or snack, think WATER!!! I keep a water bottle on my countertop to remind myself to SNACK ON WATER!!!

3. Keep busy! I try not to watch ANY TV or do a lot of sedintary activity till the evening when my kids are all in bed! I keep busy doiing housework, outdoor work, etc.

4. WALK!!! I like to walk outside pushing the baby in the stroller. Walk briskly, walk hills...these will give you a workout that is manageable, but more than just a stroll.

5. Be Satisfied with who you are and how you look!!! This is more important than stepping on the scales everyday...I tell myself: "I want to FEEL good, I want to FEEL like I'm flexible, have energy, and FEEL happy about my body" I literally have to say this outloud to myself or else I'll get discouraged about only losing 2 lbs. in a month!!! The important thing is FEELING healthy, strong and happy...slowly, the weight will come off and will motivate you even more! :)

Keep it up!..don't give up!

Join a gym and do some weight lifting. It helps increase your metabolism and tone your body. Also, step up the cardio and eat a lot of protein. I didn't lose weight from just walking, but after I joined the gym, the weight started disappearing at a faster pace. Good Luck. I hope my advice works for me as well this time around since I'm due anyday now with my second child.

Have your thyroid checked. Mine went crazy and stopped working after my 2nd child and I gained weight inspite of all I was doind. I had been loosing right along until that. A.

Are you breastfeeding? That literally made the weight *melt* off of me. My baby is 7 months old and I am pre-pregnant weight with NO dieting at all, and I gained 60 lbs with my last TWO pregnancies!! (44 lbs with the first one ~ that's 164 lbs total pregnancy weight!!!) I've lost ALL the weight from ALL my pregnancies with absolutely no dieting whatsoever, just from nursing my babies. If you're not this time, I would recommend trying it next time. :-)

Hi C.! The one thing that has worked for me is Weight Watchers. I joined a few years ago and lost 80 pounds. I gained some back with my pregnancy but my daughter was born in Jan. and I have almost made it back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I like the program because it's not a diet. It teaches you how to change your habits and be more healthy. Plus there's not one food that you aren't allowed to eat! If you go to weightwatchers.com there's a place to click and it will tell you all the meetings that take place in your area. Good Luck! I know it isn't easy!

I have had lots of luck with the L.A. Weightloss program. the company has gone out of business, but the plan is great and you eat all your own food. I have a copy of th plan that I would be more than willing to send you. Just let me know!! ____@____.com

Hi C.. I am a huge proponent of yoga, and also a yoga instructor myself. Not only will a vigorous yoga practice burn calories, the mental aspects of the practice will help you be more disciplined and healthful when you eat. Not to mention the relaxation and centering will help you cope with motherhood. There are some good resources on the web, and you can try to take a class locally, although I know it's hard to fit into your schedule. I would offer to do a few indivdiual sessions with you but I am 8 months pregnant and on a break from teaching =)! When you start to look around, you probably want to look for power or vinyasa classes to maximize the weight loss. As far as the web goes, you can look at www.eionfinnyoga.com, www.yogafit.com, www.yogatoday.com, to name a few. The first site offers videos and free downloads. The second site sells good videos (the company that trained me). The third site has free daily one-hour classes you can download. If you are looking to take a class locally, Om Baby Yoga and Dance www.ombabyyoga.com is a good studio. Good luck and feel free to contact me with any questions!

Hi C.,

Don't be too hard on yourself. Losing 30 pounds in 4 months is an accomplishment. The first thing I'd suggest is make the time to exercise. If you have an exerise bike or treadmill, find 20 minutes twice a day if you can. Are you breastfeeding? If so, it's important to keep your caloric intake up. If you are not breastfeeding, my suggestion for diet is what I call the quarter plan. Make your normal meals, snacks, drinks other than water - and then ditch 1/4 of everything. I know it's awful to waste food, but you're eliminating 25% of your calories and fats this way, and you can eat all of the foods you usually would. It's not an excuse to decide to go for ice cream everyday and eat 3/4 of it, but if you normally have 4 cookies with your tea, you can still have 3 of them. You can still have your Subway sandwich for lunch, but you're not eating 1/4 of it.
Good luck and don't beat yourself up over this. You had a pretty large weight gain, and it took 9 months to put the weight on, it may take some time for all of it to come off. Set small goals, and celebrate each pound. Think about it as losing a pound at a time, not 30 or 40 pounds.

Arbonne has a great line of products to help you with this. The line is called Figure 8. They have protein shakes, fiber drinks, even energy tabs that you drop into your water to give you that extra something that all mom's need. Products availabe at nicolemelucci.myarbonne.com.

Hi C.,
With low thyroid I also have a terrible time whenever I have to lose any weight. One huge lesson for me was not to reduce my caloric intake too much. If you do, your body goes into a "storage mode" and will store everything you each. The nutritionists and weight loss experts kept telling me this (I've never been a big eater), but I couldn't get myself to believe it. Once I went on a managed diet that kept my calories no lower than 1200 or 1100 per day, I began losing weight and building tone and muscle again. Of course the KIND of calories also made a big difference, which was also my problem. Since I also don't eat much beef, all the fruit I ate (thinking it was good and ok) prevented my weight loss. So I also learned about how to balance my protein, carbohydrate and sugar intake - and where they hide in unsuspecting foods. It was a real chore for me to get into the routine of staying on that balanced diet, but for me, going weekly to a nutritionist/weight loss specialist helped tremendously. It took 3-weeks for my body to "balance" itself, then my weight starting falling. For me, the proper amount of protein intake was crucial for optimum weight loss - again, a big change for me. But, now that I know all this, maintaining weight is much easier. Although I never went to Weight Watchers (I paid dearly for a private counselor!), but all my new mommy friends who have used Weight Watchers AND follow the program to lose baby weight saw tremendous results. For them (and me) it's a a new lifestyle.
Good luck!

Hi C.,
My OB told me " it took 9 months to put it on, it should take 9 months to take it off". She cautioned me against losing too much weight too early, as some wieght after pregnancy is healthy. If you are Breast feeding, the weight should come off by itself... infact if you BF for a year you may find yourself below your prepregnancy weight without dieting So don't worry too much about it yet, Give yourself time and eat right and stay active, eat small, unprocessed meals thoughout the day and by your daughters 1st birthday, most likeley you will have seen a huge improvement.

It's always a good idea to get checked out by your doctor...Let him/her know of the problem. He'll know what to test for to find out if everything is in balance..

Continue to eat healthly and cut your portions down a bit more. It's good that you are walking, but sometimes our bodies reach a point where it needs more exercises added.

I do Pilates twice a week with an instructor which helps in terms of my back condition but it doesn't do a thing for me in terms of weight loss. So I have taken to dancing at home by myself using either Doo-Woop or disco music ((((music I grew up on)))). I dance, I bend, I twist, I bounce, I wave my arms, I work up a sweat for 20 minutes a day and for me it works...
There are some great Dance Exercise DVD's and Tapes out, one can do the same with but for me it was hard to learn their routines therefore hard to keep up with them. So I do my own thing, I move the coffee table back, turn up the boom-box and for 20 minutes a day become a teenager again, dancing to the music I love.
Give it a try, maybe it will work for you....

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