Pressure to lose the baby weight?
Who puts the pressure on to lose the baby weight and how long does it really take?
It’s hard not to get caught up in conversations about losing your baby weight once you’ve had your baby but what is the realistic time frame you can expect to lose it and who really piles on the pressure to lose it? We take a look.
With celebrities showing off their pre-baby bodies so quickly after giving birth, it’s no wonder new mums can feel the pressure the shift the weight quickly, but the reality is it just take time.
Who do mums feel put the pressure on to lose the weight?
In a survey of 1500 women, it’s perhaps not a surprise at all that 40 per cent of mums say it’s the celebs that make them feel pressure to lose the weight.
But with some celebrity mums showing off an enviable post-baby figure within weeks of giving birth, it’s no wonder that 1 in 4 of us say celebrities that most make them feel they need to shed the pounds.
For nearly 1 in 5 of us (18%) it’s their mother-in-law who also puts pressure on to lose baby weight. Almost half admitted that saying they were conscious of putting too much weight on during pregnancy and 54 per cent revealed they think it’s not possible to get your pre-baby body back.
So, when is it realistic to lose the weight?
A study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of 1,743 mothers from different countries found women lost an average of 10.4 pounds (4.7 kg) in the time between two weeks and two years post birth.
What weight you lose and when ultimately depends on how much weight you gained during pregnancy, if you put on the average 10.4 pounds it’s realistic in one to two years you can lose around 10 pounds (4.5 kg). If you gained more weight, you may find it can take a little longer.
The best way to approach the weight loss is with good diet and exercise and you should be able to achieve any level of weight loss that you desire.
Giving into media and celebrity suggestion that new mums should emerge soon after their pregnancy as though nothing as momentous as life (or body changing!) as giving birth has happened is unrealistic.
The ideal ‘window’ for losing baby weight is the nine month period between 3 and 12 months after giving birth. Around 80% of all women weigh more than before getting pregnant when their baby is around 3 months – yet 75% lose weight between 3-12 months.*
* ‘Cardiometabolic Implications of Postpartum weight changes in the First Year After Delivery’ American Diabetes Association. March 25, 2014 web April 3, 2014.