Losing weight following the birth of your new baby will obviously be a concern for many new mums. But one of the most important things to keep in mind with regards to your post baby body is not to worry about the number on the scale, nor the size or shape of your body; instead, be thankful that your body helped you produce a beautiful new baby and enjoy the bonding time with your little one.

Magazines, television shows and adverts all show us celebrities that are back to being red carpet ready just a few weeks following the birth of their baby – and this ability to seemingly snap back into shape can make us normal new mums feel inadequate that we don’t have that same ability to shed the weight incredibly quickly.

It’s worth always remembering that celebrities can lose this weight much more easily than us – but that’s not because they are better or more accomplished, it’s because they have teams of people around them, such as nannies, personal trainers, dieticians and chefs to help them shift the weight. Most of us don’t have this type of help and so it’s no surprise that it takes us longer to shift the weight.

The best advice the Lose Baby Weight team can give to new mums is that you should not think about trying to shift the baby weight until you are absolutely emotionally ready and physically ready to do so. Your life with your new baby should have settled into a routine and your hormones should have settled down before you think about trying to lose weight. But this time frame will be completely different for every new mum – some mums will be ready to lose weight after a few months, whilst others will not be ready until their little one is a toddler.

Your weight loss is personal to you – no-one else, so don’t let yourself feel pressurised into losing weight too quickly. Piling the pressure on will only make you feel miserable – and if you are miserable, you are highly unlikely to reach your goals.

When you’re ready to lose weight, you should do it in the healthiest way possible – with a healthy diet and moderate exercise and by following a safe post baby weight loss plan. You should also be taking in plenty of vitamins and nutrients through your diet, especially if you are breastfeeding, and you should be consuming plenty of fruits, veggies, wholegrains, complex carbohydrates, lean protein, legumes and plenty of calcium.

If you are breastfeeding, you should definitely not be following a restricted calorie diet or taking weight loss accelerants when breastfeeding and instead by following a safe post pregnancy weight loss plan which is designed for mums. A safe weight loss is around 500g-1kg per week, and this is a sustainable amount of weight that will, over time, lead to a substantial and very maintainable weight loss.

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