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How Long Does it Take to Get Your Body Back After Baby?

Marcie Jones Leave a Comment

Plz tell me the truth: how long will it take for your body to get back right after the baby!?! i was exercising before and during my pregnancy”

There’s good and bad news about your post-pregnancy body. The bad news is that in some ways, your body may never be exactly the same. While stretch marks and c-section scars do fade over time, they will never vanish completely (the general rule about stretch marks or scarring is that whatever is still there a year after pregnancy is yours to keep). But the good news is that with a quality diet and consistent exercise you can lose pregnancy-related weight, and get as fit – or even fitter – than you were before.

If you were in good shape and exercising before and during pregnancy, then getting back to your pre-pregnancy level of fitness may only take a matter of months. You can start back as soon as your health care provider gives the okay, usually at about six weeks or sooner if any stitches you had have healed. When you get back to it you may find that aerobically you’re fitter than ever- pregnancy hormones expand your veins and lung capacity, and you’ll still have this benefit for a few months postpartum. Plus after carrying the weight of the pregnancy for nine months and then having it gone, you may experience a noticeable endurance burst for a while, feeling like you could run forever.

Another way to help your body bounce back more completely is breastfeeding. A recent study has found that on average for every six months a mom breastfeeds she’ll lose — and keep off for life- one percent of her Body Mass Index. Not a huge amount of pounds, but every little bit helps, right?

The biggest difficulty for most new parents is finding the time for exercise and the motivation to pay attention to only eating when you’re hungry and keeping empty calories out of your diet. But if you can conquer those obstacles, they payoff in terms of your health and quality of life is huge!

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Filed Under: Fitness and Exercise, Featured Tagged With: exercise, postpartum body

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