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March 21 2019

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Sonia Mata

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If You're Looking to Lose Postpartum Belly Fat, These 4 Experts Have an Important Message For You

Written By Sonia Mata - March 21 2019

 All Credits Go To:  Samantha Brodsky

Bottom Line: Be Patient; You'll Get There

I spoke to four professionals who tend to postpartum women, and the consensus was clear: pregnancy and childbirth are part of a delicate, beautiful process, and there's too much societal pressure around "getting your body back." Pregnant women will, and should, gain weight — it's important for both the baby's and the mother's health. National Academy of Medicine (NAM) recommendations for healthy weight gain are based on a woman's prepregnancy BMI. For example, if you are underweight and expecting one baby, NAM recommends gaining between 28 and 40 pounds. (You can view these recommendations here.) Pregnancy "should not be a gold card to consume anything and everything," Adeeti Gupta, a board-certified ob-gyn and the founder of Walk In GYN Care, advised. But make sure you're eating enough (after all, you're eating for two) and, with your doctor's approval, staying active.

Know that once you give birth, you will shed most of that excess weight naturally, pre- and postpartum nutritionist Lizzy Swick, MS, RDN, told POPSUGAR. And physical therapist Stephanie Prendergast, MPT, the cofounder of Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center, bluntly stated, "If anyone is promoting how to lose belly fat, specifically after birth, I don't trust that provider." Yes, there are ultimately ways to get rid of that weight after you give birth — and we'll get to how to do that safely — but there are some very crucial things women need to focus on first. Ahead, we've broken down what postnatal women should know about correcting any complications postpregnancy, going back to their fitness routines, and loving their bodies how they are.

Before You Work Out After Having a Baby, Get Approval From Your Ob-Gyn

Before You Work Out After Having a Baby, Get Approval From Your Ob-Gyn

If a woman has a normal pregnancy without any complications, whether that's natural birth or C-section, she usually gets clearance to work out six weeks after delivery, Dr. Gupta said. If infection or high blood pressure occur, "then we decide by case-by-case basis, depending on how they're doing at six weeks."

This clearance also goes for any pelvic floor physical therapy a woman may be referred for by her ob-gyn, said Prendergast, whose facility offers postpartum rehab focused on bladder and bowel dysfunction, pelvic pain, and diastasis recti, the natural separation of the abdominals during pregnancy. This occurs in up to two-thirds of pregnant women and is more common if you're carrying multiple babies or have given birth before.

Your gut essentially "falls out," as Dr. Gupta put it, or starts to protrude through the muscle mass. And according to Prendergast, "There's still controversy over what is considered a diastasis in terms of the width of it and the depth." Typically, that means anything wider than a finger above and below the umbilicus, Prendergast explained, and depth-wise, it's "basically to the first or second knuckle." You can, according to Prendergast, incorporate physical therapy into your workout routine, but if you have a severe case of diastasis recti, for example, you should seek physical therapy first.

Step 2: Going to Physical Therapy Postpartum

Step 2: Going to Physical Therapy Postpartum

Women who have had more traumatic deliveries can suffer from severe cases of diastasis recti and should seek treatment prior to working out. "From my perspective as a clinician, we want to see, again, the overall function on the women: Do they have incontinence? Do they have pain? What is the integrity of their abdominal wall? And how meaningful do we think the impairments we see are for their particular function?" Prendergast said. "Then, we address it from there. We want to try to help that woman do the proper exercises to close it and also keep her abdominal wall working with the pelvic floor."

Dr. Gupta noted that safely working out before and during pregnancy to strengthen the abdominal wall may help make this separation less severe, but the key to correcting diastasis recti is to go to an experienced physical therapist who specializes in postpartum rehab and can guide you through muscle-strengthening exercises (and, again, it's normal to see separation of the abdominals after childbirth). If women don't respond to these exercises, they may need surgery, Dr. Gupta said.

Working Out Postpartum: Slow and Steady, With Deep Core Work

Working Out Postpartum: Slow and Steady, With Deep Core Work

"A lot of women don't tell you, but exercise just doesn't feel the same after they've delivered, especially some of the core and ab work, and especially if there's a diastasis," Prendergast said. "They just don't have the integrity they need to do those exercises properly." To help, she gives her patients (excluding those who require PT before they start working out) pelvic floor exercises to integrate into their fitness routines. It's more than just diastasis correction and Kegels, she said.

When you do start working out, go slow (every professional POPSUGAR spoke to emphasized this). Founder of PROnatal Fitness Brittany Citron, an NASM- and ACE-certified personal trainer with postnatal specializations in corrective exercise, pelvic floor rehabilitation, and diastasis, said that their postpartum classes focus on establishing deep core strength first, "so we basically are rebuilding their core from the inside out." This starts with the breath, she explained. "Most of us breathe through our neck and chest because our deep core muscles are so weak, and we don't actually breathe through our diaphragm and utilize the core correctly." Just mastering proper breathing is the "most beneficial core exercise" you can do, she said. (She sent over this example.)

Certified postnatal trainers also teach pelvic floor activation exercises (like this one), and once the deep core is strengthened, they build up intensity from there with circuits and cardio. But, "you want to avoid any sort of sit-ups, crunches, full planks, and V-sits" until your deep core strength is rebuilt, Citron advised. Once you build that strength, you can even find safe ways to exercise with your baby (we recommend this workout from trainer Andrea Orbeck).

Postpartum Nutrition: Eat Important Nutrients and Avoid Dieting

Postpartum Nutrition: Eat Important Nutrients and Avoid Dieting

The most important thing for postpartum women is to listen to their bodies and to maintain their energy, Swick said. "I try to create a plan that keeps Mom's blood sugar balanced throughout the day. Sometimes, that's three or four big meals a day. Other times, that's six smaller meals because I'm not really concerned with the weight." The only instance where Swick is very serious about postpartum weight loss is if a woman has had gestational diabetes (high blood glucose levels during pregnancy), because "we know that, within a year postpartum, her risk of forming type 2 diabetes is much higher."

In general, though, it's not a time for "fad dieting," Swick said, especially if you're breastfeeding, which Citron pointed out burns an extra 500 calories a day. (A pediatrician at NYU Langone told POPSUGAR in a previous interview that nursing women should be eating between 300 and 500 more calories per day). Cutting too many carbs could lead to the decline of milk production, and you could develop thyroid issues, Swick explained. For example, if a woman has the Hashimoto's thyroiditis gene, doesn't take care of her body's needs postpartum, and goes into a caloric deficit, her Hashimoto's could be triggered. Not to mention, Swick pointed out, low thyroid and stress can increase your cortisol levels, which is "where you get that belly fat," so it could be counterintuitive if they want to lose that weight.

Here's what she does suggest eating: more healthy fats like avocados, olive oil, seeds, and nuts, bone broths and soups, well-cooked meats, egg yolks, cooked cereals, and things that are easily digested, because "if all the energy is going toward digesting," then it takes away critical energy her body needs to repair itself and heal. Dr. Gupta further suggested a balanced diet with lots of protein, greens, vitamin D, calcium, and plenty of water.

Bottom Line: Be Patient; You'll Get There

Bottom Line: Be Patient; You'll Get There

Overall, losing postpartum belly fat should not be a woman's first priority. Instead, she should listen to what her body needs, follow up with her ob-gyn, and practice self-care. Because, as Swick said, "If Mom doesn't put her oxygen mask on first, then no one wins." If you are looking to shed postpartum belly fat, know that it will naturally start to happen and will take time with a slow and steady fitness routine and eating enough nutrient-rich foods. It's also a common misconception that your body will never be like it was prepregnancy, Citron said. "There may be some things that are different. Maybe your feet will change a little bit. Maybe your skin will look a little different. But it doesn't mean you can't end up even stronger than you were before," she stated. "The weight loss and all of those things will come, but with time. We just want women to be patient with themselves."

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