Getting a balloon shape loose tummy is the biggest fear that every newly pregnant woman has for their post-pregnancy or after delivery phase. This is really something that hurts your emotion as you lose your old outer identity or beautiful body shape of the pre-pregnancy phase of your life. Still, by following some effective tips for flattening stomach after pregnancy, you can tone your loosed muscles especially of your abdominal area which is your primary concern.
To be honest this is a quite natural phenomenon and there is nothing to be surprised. Your tummy took nine-month to develop proper accommodation for a full-term baby by allowing flexibility to every cell of your body. So it is quite obvious that it will take the same amount of time to return back its original shape and figure. Your body takes time to recover itself which must be allowed very patiently.
However, this long waiting time is not the case in every other pregnancy. Many women are blessed to get back their old physique only within 4 weeks of their post-pregnancy phase. This doesn’t mean that every other pregnant woman can expect the same. However, the good news is that with your active step and with some positive changes in your lifestyle you can flatten your stomach easily after pregnancy.
How long will it take for my tummy to shrink back normal after delivery?
The day your baby took birth, hormonal changes in your body start working on your tummy to shrink its size. It takes almost four weeks’ time for your womb or uterus to contract its pre-pregnancy size. Every cell of your body swells during these 9 months of whole pregnancy duration and starts releasing its fluid from the moment you give birth to your child, in the form of sweat, urine and vaginal secretions. All these slowly and steady effort by your body helps in naturally releasing the excess fat amount that you have gained in this period.
However, how much time your tummy will take to shrink and get back its original shape depends on different factors and it varies from person to person. There are cases where women regain their pre-pregnancy body and tummy just within a few weeks’ time. However, for the women who unable to get back their pre-pregnancy tummy shape naturally, it gets difficult for them to regain their old body shape.
It can take nine months or even longer to tightening your loosed and balloon-shaped post-pregnancy tummy which often resembles you like six months pregnant. The actions and body movement which can speedier this task include breastfeeding, exercising, etc.
Women who have exercised even during their pregnancy duration (9 months period) have a greater possibility to develop a lesser amount of loosed tummy or abdominal fat. Also even if they have an extra tummy to nourish the baby it can be easily toned back to flatten shape by maintaining consistency in the exercise routine. The factors which determine how long it will take for your tummy to shrink back its original shape includes-
- How much weight you have gained during your pregnancy phase.
- Your body shape and size before you conceived.
- How active you are in your day to day life.
- Your genes play an important role in this regard.
Under the following circumstances your chances of shredding fat especially from your tummy area at speedier rate increases-
- This is your first delivery.
- You breastfeed your baby.
- You have gained less than 6kg weight during pregnancy.
However, it is suggested by the healthcare specialists that before six months of completion from the day of your baby delivery you should not target to get back your pre-pregnancy body weight.
8 Tips for Flatten Stomach after Pregnancy
Get Adequate Amount of Sleep
Getting an adequate amount of sleep or more precisely a quality sleep during the night and even in the day time is the biggest challenge that a newborn baby’s mother faces in her life. We all know that sleep deprivation is one of the leading factors behind your body weight gain. So it’s quite obvious that you will face difficulty in shredding your excess abdominal fat to get a toned tummy like before.
So your first target should be to maintain a proper sleeping routine and for whatever duration you sleep, make sure it is quality sleep. In order to achieve this target fill the gap of sleep that you lacked during the night for giving nursing care to your newborn. Whenever your baby sleeps or allows you to sleep take advantage of that particular time by sleeping more peacefully.
You can take the help of your partner or any of your trustful family members by sharing the responsibility of your baby for some duration so that you can sleep easily. As per Mayo Clinic people who sleep at least 7 hours at night are less likely to be overweight or obese. Sleep deprivation affects your health in many ways by disrupting your hormonal balance which can affect your health in the long run.
Also without an adequate amount of sleep, you are likely to feel irritated while performing your motherhood responsibility with a more positive attitude. A 10-minute nap out of your daily day time schedule is not something that you cannot manage at all. This power nap will energize your body and reduce the inflammation level in the body which will help in shrinking your fat accumulated on the tummy area and to make it flatten.
So to flatten your tummy, target your sleeping quality and duration as it must be for the adequate duration on a regular basis in order to achieve this goal faster.
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is not only necessary for the nourishment and healthy growth of your newborn but with regard to your health perspective as well this is important and effective.
Breastfeeding especially in the initial few months after your baby birth can help you in losing extra calories from your body. Approx. 500 calories require to be burned in order to generate energy for making milk and feeding your baby in a day. In fact, you will manage to lose your tummy fat much faster than the mothers who bottle-feed their baby. This is really a great advantage of breastfeeding that you will surely don’t like to miss at any cost.
Another advantage of breastfeeding is that it triggers contractions that help in shrinking your womb size that expands during the pregnancy process. However in order to get full advantage of your breastfeeding for losing fat, make sure that your daily calorie intake is not much greater than your daily calorie-burning rate or amount otherwise you will put on some more weight.
Some study report suggests that a woman can lose up to 1 kg weight in a week by breastfeeding her baby without hampering the body’s ability to make milk. Also, it is no way harmful to lose weight while you are breastfeeding.
Move Your Body More
A workout is the key for a healthy body and mind and especially when you are aspirant to lose and tone your stomach muscles. Don’t lose any opportunity during a day in which your body movement is necessary. Even small-small day to day life activities is enough to reduce your stress burden and when your stress will be reduced it will be much easier to lose weight as well.
However, while choosing the exercise forms make sure that you choose only those workout forms that can boost your energy level, not those that drain your energy making you feel sick and incapable of taking care of your little one as even that is also your main priority.
In order to keep yourself fit and to lose excess fat from tummy, you can focus on some important points such as consider your body posture throughout the day, walk more and count your walks, segregate the exercise routine in 5 to 6 times giving 10 minutes to every small session, and find a buddy who can motivate you especially in days when you want to take a break from your fitness routine.
In order to get the flat tummy faster, you need to focus on re-strengthening your deep cores even before practicing abdominal exercises. For this, you can incorporate planks and its different variations which are especially known for strengthening the core area by effectively using your abs. Some healthy body movement you can practice at any point in time of the day even while engaging in some other works in order to flatten your tummy after pregnancy such as-
- Use your abs in everyday activities like while sitting, standing and moving with your core.
- While standing keep your head, neck and shoulder straight. This will also benefit in strengthening your cores.
- Practice some breathing exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles.
These small changes in your daily life will bring a drastic reduction in your tummy fat and will make your ultimate target fulfilled which is to flatten your postpartum tummy.
Anulom-Vilom
Anulom-Vilom is a popular yoga form that is especially done for improving the digestion function focusing your abdominal area through breathing exercise or Anulom-Vilom practice. Like any other yoga form initially, you will find it tough however as time passes you will get much comfortable and can easily increase its duration means the count of breathing practice including inhalation and exhalation.
In this breathing exercise of yoga, you need to draw air from your diaphragm and hold it in your abs for a certain time limit and then need to release it slowly. Feel the tightening during inhalation and relaxation during the exhalation in your abs.
This yoga practice will easily tone your upper and lower abdominal muscles which help in flattening your stomach faster. It also helps in boosting your digestive function by improving your gut movement which is again beneficial in terms of unnecessary fat loss from your tummy.
Wear Belly Wraps
Belly wraps or maternity belts are like body wraps which help in losing your body fat focusing on your abdominal area. These easily wearable belts tuck your abs and accelerate the uterus or womb shrinking process after your delivery.
These belts also provide relief from back pain and discomforts which are very common due to the painful delivery process by offering full support to the midsection of your body. It helps in toning your stomach in a very safe way and getting back to its original shape and size with its regular usage.
Also, belly wraps are one of the oldest tricks used by women for reducing fat from the stomach area. Apart from this, it will improve your body posture while sitting, standing and walking.
It is very simple to wear. You only need to wrap your whole midsection of the body with a soft cloth and tie it not too tightly or too loose. If you want to use a maternity belt then that is also good for strengthening your stomach.
However, before using a soft cloth or maternity belt consult with your doctor. If they recommend you then and only use it for toning your stomach fat.
Eat only Nutrient Dense and Healthy Foods
You have to avoid the consumption of diet intakes which are known for alleviating body fat or weight level. Sugary or starchy foods such as sweets, white bread, and grains are no way healthy for your stomach fat loss goal so limit their intake.
Sugar can cause inflammation in the body which is another factor for fat accumulation in the abdominal area. Gluten and dairy products for some people can cause bloating and slows down the fat reduction speed from your tummy area.
These inflammatory foods can affect the metabolism function and hormones in your body. So to avoid all these issues reduce the intake of these inflammatory foods to flatten your stomach faster.
Focus only on healthy and nutrient-dense foods that can fulfill your body’s daily necessity of nutrients without increasing the fat load. Also, healthy diet intakes can help in burning your abdominal fat and toning them easily.
Eat more variety of vegetables especially green leafy veggies in your every meal, consume fresh fruits and nuts and good quality of proteins such as chicken turkey, legumes, red meat, real butter, etc. Keep yourself hydrated by drinking 2 to 3 liters water every day. This will also help in your digestion which is beneficial for your abdominal fat loss journey.
Other foods that can improve your digestion include fiber-rich foods, probiotics, green and leafy vegetables, etc. These nutrients dense food will not only nourish your postpartum body which needs healing and recovery but will also reduce fat from your stomach area.
Take a Full Body Massage
A full body massage at least once in a week will not only help in releasing stress from your body but it is an easy and effective method to reduce your belly fat. A simple message on your stomach area helps in distributing its fat all around the body and also boosts the metabolism function which helps in burning extra calories of your body.
This will tone your abs and with consistency, you can easily get back your old toned and flatten the pre-pregnancy stomach. Especially for women who face difficulty in practicing the core strengthening exercises and spending time in the gym, for them, this is an easy technique to get back their toned abdomen.
Reduce Your Stress
Stress increases the cortisol level also known as a stress hormone in the body which is a major reason for inflammation-induced fat gain, especially in the abdominal area. So for flattening your stomach after pregnancy makes sure that you learn to manage your mental stress level and then only your desired target will be achieved.
Stress gets trigger by several factors like your nutrition intake, sleeping quality and duration, and hormonal balance, etc. So you need to manage all these triggering areas to keep your mind calm and stress-free. You can practice different physical as well as brain exercises which work as an instant stress buster and also reduces inflammation in the body.
By controlling your stress you can easily decrease post-pregnancy fat from your stomach as well as from other areas of the body and can easily get back your toned pre-pregnancy body or figure.
The above-mentioned tips for flattening stomach after pregnancy is a perfect combination of a healthy diet routine, exercise routine along with considering important lifestyle factors. So you can easily achieve your goal if you honestly follow these tips.
However, if your baby is too little that he or she needs your full support and care then don’t lose your weight too soon as it can even delay your recovery process and make you too weak to look after your child. Its better you wait until your postnatal checkup, before starting your abdominal fat loss journey.
[expand title=”View Article Sources“]
- https://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1052298/your-post-baby-belly-why-its-changed-and-how-to-tone-it
- https://www.livestrong.com/article/182655-fastest-way-to-a-flat-stomach-after-pregnancy/
- https://www.stylecraze.com/articles/simple-tips-to-reduce-belly-fat-after-pregnancy/
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