Losing belly fat as a mother can be challenging and the reason it is hard to reduce the pregnancy belly fat is because of all the responsibility that comes with the role of being a mother.
However, I am here to tell you that you can reduce pregnancy belly fat, no matter how many days, months or years it has been and no matter how busy your child keeps you.
With that being said, it does require a few things from you, such as taking responsibility for yourself. Even though you have a child or children to take care of, it is important not to forget to take care of yourself.
By taking care of yourself and realizing you matter, you can lose belly and body fat by following the below methods.
I have trained plenty of mothers over the years and let me tell you this one thing, it is possible for you to lose body fat if you follow the below steps.
Check out how you can do just that below.
1. Eat-In a Caloric Deficit
The most important factor in losing weight and blasting away body fat is eating in a calorie deficit.
What is a calorie deficit?
Well, I wrote about in detail what exactly a calorie deficit is and you can check it out by clicking here.
However, let me just give you a summary of what it is.
Everyone burns a certain amount of calories a day. But, this is affected by a multitude of factors such as exercise, daily activity, the type of food you eat, your metabolic rate and so on.
For example, let’s say you burn 2000 calories a day, every day. In order for you to lose weight, you would have to eat less than that for a prolonged period. Less then that could be 1600 calories and if you eat 400 fewer calories then you burn every day you have created what they call a negative energy balance aka a calorie deficit. You are now burning more calories then you have coming in.
This is THE reason people lose body fat and weight. Without being in a deficit you cannot lose weight.
Therefore, it is vital that you put yourself in a calorie deficit.
Furthermore, some people do like to use tools like my fitness pal to see how many calories they eat because there was a study done that reported that 50 percent of people UNDERESTIMATE how much they actually eat.
This is why tracking your calories as a tool initially can be helpful for you.
When you know how much you truly eat, it is easier to either adjust your calories or keep it the same depending on how much you are eating.
All in all, to start shedding body fat, you have to eat in a calorie deficit.
2. Weight Train 2-4 x a week
Nothing will help you tone up and tighten your body like weight training will. You can do an endless amount of cardio but that is not going to get the job done like proper weight training will.
When you weight train you recruit muscle fiber, which helps you tighten your body up.
However, when beginning to learn how to train properly what matters a lot is your form, creating proper muscle tension and using the principle of progressive overload.
While getting a trainer can help you make sure your workouts are efficient and effective if you do not want to get a personal trainer and don’t know what the best course of action to take is in terms of exercises, I wrote about the 26 best exercises for fat loss and you can check them out by clicking here.
Additionally, figuring out what exercises you enjoy and finding consistency is going to help you get results.
This is why I wrote 2-4 days a week when it comes to training
Sometimes life happens and you won’t be able to weight train all 4 days and that is okay. Giving yourself a range of days allows you to stay consistent because regardless if you exercised 4 days or 2, you still did something and that is always better then nothing.
3. Increase Your Daily Activity
Do you know what goes down significantly as you get older? Your daily activity.
Think about when you were a kid, always running around.
Then as a teenager, you would walk to your friend’s house and be out and about.
However, soon as you turned 18-19, that all changed. Whether that was because of college and university, you now driving everywhere, got a job. Whatever it was, your daily activity went down.
This probably reduced the number of calories you burned by 400-600 calories a day. On top of that, you started eating out more and parties became more apparent.
Now, when you have a kid everything becomes about the kid so naturally, the kid runs around as you watch.
With daily activity going way down, body fat starts to creep up.
However, instead, this a great time for you to increase your daily activity.
How?
Take your kid outside in a stroller and go for a walk, or run after them. There are ways you can increase your activity and walking and moving more throughout your house is a great way to do so!
To discover more ways on how to increase your daily activity, check out my article by clicking here.
4. Eat More Protein
As the mother of a child, your diet can be all over the place. You eat when you can or you try to find the most convenient way to get food.
This leads to your caloric intake being all over the place.
With that being said, an important factor in losing pregnancy belly fat, body fat, and weight, in general, is upping your protein intake.
Why?
Well, protein plays a huge role in building muscle. The more muscle you have, the tighter your body will appear and more body fat you will lose.
However, it does not stop there with protein because consuming more protein helps with satiety so you feel full for prolonged periods, and it helps you burn more calories.
Yes, you heard that correct. Consuming protein helps burn calories.
How?
Well, protein is thermogenic. Meaning that when you consume protein, it takes a lot of energy for your body to break it down. Essentially you lose 25-35% of the calories through thermogenesis aka the breakdown of the protein.
I wrote in detail how protein helps with weight loss and you can check it out by clicking here.
5. Minimize Your Alcohol Intake
If you drink, then limiting the amount you have will certainly help you lose belly fat easier.
How?
Well, when you drink alcohol, your body responds to alcohol as a toxin. What does your body do when a toxin comes in?
It puts all other metabolic processes on hold.
Meaning that fat oxidation and muscle protein synthesis aka the building of muscle goes down so it can help get rid of the toxins from alcohol.
Furthermore, when you drink alcohol your body’s ability to burn fat goes down significantly. You can read in detail by clicking here why and how that is.
So how much can you drink?
1-3 glasses max.
Anything more than that is trouble for you in terms of fat storage and fat burning.
For this reason, keep your alcohol intake low and stick to low-calorie drinks like water!
By taking this approach, you will lose body fat much easier!
Last Words
All in all, reducing the pregnancy belly fat is definitely possible for you as a mother. By being consistent and following the above methods, you can see results fairly quickly.
How am I so sure?
Check out the before and after pics of my clients by clicking here.
The principles always remain the same but the key is to find a sustainable method that works best for you.
Only you know what that is.
Whether that is training twice a week and eating in a balanced manner or training 4x a week and eating 80 percent whole foods and 20 percent fun foods, you know what is best for you.
As long as you stay away from fad diets, you will reduce the pregnancy belly fat in no time!
Lastly, check out this video by Sohee Lee talking about how to set up your caloric deficit. Check it out by clicking here.
Personal Trainer
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