Losing belly-fat while breastfeeding doesn't have to be impossible with the right fitness and diet steps. Belly fat is the area most new mommies want to lose weight, but sometimes it can feel like it will never go away. Here are some easy, yet very effective tips to lose the belly fat while breastfeeding:
Effective Steps for Losing Belly Fat While Breastfeeding:
- Be Patient: This is a step because if you aren't patient with yourself as you make healthy lifestyle changes, you will want to give up.
- Focus on nutrient-dense foods
- Add in more walking
- Don't jump into lots of crunches or ab work!
- Focus on small snacks and meals
- Try intermittent fasting
- Use milk supply boosters
Thinking about all these steps can be totally overwhelming, but let us take you through each one, so you can make your plan to lose the weight, as well as keep your milk supply. We will go over some tips and tricks to keep your milk supply while losing weight, then take you through each step to lose the belly weight. We also have an awesome 10-day sugar detox + weight loss plan, FREE you can use to get started!
How to keep your milk supply while losing weight:
Keeping your milk supply while losing weight is a challenging, but possible! You can start by using galactagogues and supply-boosters to encourage a healthy lactation. We have a lot of information on the specific supplements that work, and of course our protein powder has a unique blend that will help breast milk production. Here are some quick tips that help encourage your body to produce lots of milk as you transition your diet for weight loss:
Increase feedings:
Increasing feedings is going to increase production. By upping the demand, you can increase your supply before you really start making an impact with diet. This will boost your supply to help mitigate and decreases that might happen when your diet, calories and nutrients change.
Add more pumping sessions:
Pumping more is basically the same as feeding more, but adding more feedings doesn't always work with working and schedules. Sometimes baby's don't always want to eat more, so you can use the pump instead.
Wear baby more often:
Wearing baby can add more skin-to-skin contact. This is going to increase the pheromones that help product the oxytocin for lactation. By wearing baby more, or even co-sleeping, you can help increase these chemicals.
Use milk-supply boosters:
Using supply boosters like our protein powder or lactation bars, as well as some teas or supplements can help keep hormone levels stable and milk production going strong. Fenugreek is one supplement in particular that we use in our formula, and many moms have had success with to increase milk supply.
Now that you know how to keep your milk supply flowing strong as you start working on losing weight, let's get into how to lose the belly fat while you're still breastfeeding:
Be Patient + Make Small Changes In Your Breastfeeding Diet:
Changing your diet and habits is actually very difficult. People are habitual creatures by nature, so once we develop habits that make us feel good, like tasty food, it is really difficult to change these habits. Especially when the food switches are not as yummy. But, by switching to healthy food that tastes great (like our powder!), and is nourishing, you can get yourself to make changes! Start with small changes. Substitute breakfast for one of our lactation smoothies made with milk dust! Just substituting one meal is a small step with a big impact.
Focus on Nutrient-Dense Foods For Breastfeeding:
What are nutrient-dense foods? These are foods that have a lot of nutrients per calorie. Think of fruits and vegetables. They are low in calories, yet high in nutrients. Some amazing nutrient dense foods, which we also have in our powder include:
- Chia Seeds, Flax Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds
- Spinach + Kale
- Apples
- Berries
- Sweet Potatoes
- Oatmeal
- Avocados
If you want to solve your milk supply problems for good by correcting your nutrition and nutrient deficiencies. Nutrient deficiencies are a major cause for low milk supply, and you can fix it through the right diet program. You can also burn the belly fat by choosing nutrient-dense foods. Grab this diet program to help you fix your low milk supply, eat the right foods, and completely transform your milk supply.
Check it out now!
Walking is an amazing, free and easy way to help your body burn fat. If you raise your heart rate a bit, but not as much as running, you keep your body in a fat-burning zone. Luckily, walking with a newborn isn't too difficult, especially if you wear them and go for a walk. Most babies love to be worn and carried, so this makes both mama and baby happy. Some babies do really well in a stroller, depending on their age. By adding 45 minutes of walking to your daily routine, you will add in some fat burning activity to help burn off that belly fat.
Don't Start Doing A Bunch Of Crunches!
Ab exercises are not going to burn the belly fat. Eating healthy, walking and ultimately burning more calories than you are consuming is going to help get rid of the belly fat, and extra weight all over. You can do some ab-healing exercises to help your muscles repair after baby. By focusing on closing the gap between your ab muscles, this will help your abs return to normal after pregnancy.
The 5 Best Postpartum Abs Exercises To Correct Diastasis Recti
Try Intermittent Fasting While Breastfeeding:
Intermittent fasting can be awesome for burning fat because it helps your body use fat as fuel. By fasting for 14-16 hours, your body has to use stored fat once the glucose is used. By combining this with a nutrient-dense diet, you can lose weight, but still nourish your body for breastfeeding. Intermittent fasting can also help with appetite control and cravings, which are so common while breastfeeding.
Use Milk Supply Boosters:
Milk supply boosters, like our powder, take a lot of stress out of the weight loss process while breastfeeding. By offering your body a helper, you can get back to working out, eating healthy, and losing the belly fat without compromising your milk supply. Most women have a lot of success with out powder because it also offers important B vitamins for energy, lactation herbs, necessary protein and superfoods like Chlorella and Spirulina. Purely supply boosters usually comprise of herbs like fenugreek or milk thistle, which we have as well, but Milk Dust offers a full, nutritional philosophy. We believe in supporting mothers with nutrients and herbs, to allow a mother's body to thrive and function the best it can.
