Best Way to Tighten Your Stomach After Childbirth

Best Way to Tighten Your Stomach After Childbirth

Oct 5, 2020 mindpump

If you recently gave birth you may already be looking at options for tightening your stomach and getting back to your pre-pregnancy fitness level. With a quality plan and consistency, it is possible to tighten up your stomach and lose the weight you gained during pregnancy. As with reaching any fitness goal, your nutrition and exercise plan are the two elements that matter the most if you want to see results. The way you approach eating and working out will have a significant impact on how well and how quickly you are able to tighten your stomach after childbirth.

Find a nutrition plan that works for you

The way you eat has a big impact on how you look. If you want to tighten your stomach after having a baby, the entire process is going to start with how you eat. You can begin working on your nutrition before your doctor releases you to start exercising again. But before you dive in to a nutrition plan that will support your fitness goals, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind.

• If you are breastfeeding, do not cut calories so severely that it impacts your ability to continue. Breastfeeding requires around 450 – 500 calories per day. If you cut your calorie intake down drastically, to 1200 calories per day for example, you need to remember to calculate the 500 calories you burn breastfeeding to ensure that you do not go down too low.
• It will take time for all of your hormones to return to pre-pregnancy levels. This can impact factors such as how you feel, your emotional well-being, and what you want to eat. It may feel more difficult than usual to follow a nutrition plan. Before you get discouraged, remember that your body is still adjusting back to normal.

There is no one-size-fits-all eating plan that will help everyone reach their fitness goals. Nutrition is highly individualized because bodies respond differently to various types of food. A high protein diet may work perfectly for you but cause intestinal discomfort for another person. The way to approach nutrition is to follow a basic set of guidelines that apply to everyone (avoid processed foods, include fiber-rich vegetables, etc.) and then experiment to determine the method of eating that works best for you. This process is called intuitive nutrition. You can learn more about working through this process and develop a nutrition plan that will help you reach your goals in the Intuitive Nutrition Guide available from MAPS. Getting on a high-quality eating plan will help you shed extra pounds so you can start tightening your stomach after childbirth.

Focus on building strength

Once your doctor releases you to workout, focus your efforts on building strength. An overall strength training program will help you tighten your stomach after childbirth much more effectively than doing hundreds of crunches or hours of cardio. Through a full body strength training program, you will build muscle throughout your body – including your core. Building muscle will improve the look of your physique and help you burn off unwanted fat. Increasing the amount of muscle you have on your body will start to increase your metabolism. A higher metabolism means that you will naturally burn more calories, even at rest. Building muscle and increasing your metabolism will work together to help you tighten your stomach after childbirth. There are several strength training programs available through MAPS that can help you reach your postpartum fitness goals. Take a look at the Fit Mom Bundle or MAPS Starter to help you get started the right way.

As you start an eating and nutrition program designed to get your back to your pre-pregnancy fitness level, remember to be kind to yourself. It is possible to reach your fitness goals but it may take some time. Find a quality plan, commit to the process, and you will start to see results.