When new moms start trying to lose their postpartum belly fat, they can quickly get lost in all the information that's available. A lot of that information flies in the face of common sense and the truth of the matter of weight loss. Learn the truths about fitness and fat loss after having a baby. Take the short quiz below to find out what it really takes to get your pre-baby figure back.
Read the questions below and answer "true" or "false." Then, read the answers listed below the questions to find out what you really knew!
1. Skipping Meals Is a Great Idea
2. You Can Spot Reduce Specific Parts of Your Body
3. If A Food Is Fat Free, You Can Eat As Much As You Want
4. Eating Fewer Than 1200 Calories Per Day Will Accelerate Your Weight Loss
5. You Can Lose Weight and Maintain Lower Weight Without Exercise
1. False. Many, many dieters fall into this trap. They think that by skipping meals, they'll eat fewer calories for the day. Most likely, they end up eating much more instead, and here's why. When you skip meals, your blood sugar level hits bottom. This leads you to make poor eating choices when you finally do eat: you reach for fatty, salty, high-calorie foods. Also, you'll probably eat very fast, taking in many more calories than you need.
To keep blood sugar levels constant and calories under control, eat four to six small, healthy meals throughout the day.
2. False. New moms want to focus in on their postpartum belly fat and just make it disappear as fast as possible. Unfortunately, human bodies don't work like that. When you exercise, you lose fat all over your body, not just in one place. In fact, overexercising one area of your body can make that area get bigger!
Work on overall fitness and great nutrition instead of obsessing on one body part.
3. False. You can't stuff yourself with fat-free muffins, light ice creams and "diet" cookies all day and expect to lose weight. Fat-free or not, there are plenty of calories packed into these foods. Your body processes every single calorie, and calories that aren't burned get stored as fat.
Remember that many fat-free processed foods are full of sugar and salt to give them some flavor, so be very wary. In addition, you do need some fat in your diet in order to feel satisfied and not keep eating.
4. False. In fact, it may do just the opposite. Inadequate intake of calories per day makes your body adapt to the smaller amount of food. This makes your metabolic rate slow down, so you require fewer calories. In addition, your body might go into starvation mode and hold onto every calorie, to ensure survival. Then, when you start to eat normally again, because your calorie needs are reduced you end up gaining more weight than when you started, even though you are eating less food.
5. True. You don't necessarily have to exercise to lose weight. Weight loss is about intake versus output, though; so if you increase the caloric output through exercise, you're improving your odds of conquering your postpartum belly fat much faster. Pick some new activities to try, to keep yourself interested in the weight-loss process. Nothing kills motivation like the same boring workout.
Try swimming some laps, doing aerobics classes, and have some fun samba dancing. Exercise has so many additional health benefits that it's a great idea to develop the habit of doing aerobic activity and weight training several times a week.
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