Unlock Your Postpartum Glow: Ultimate Workout & Diet Plan for New Moms

The postpartum period is a time of significant physical and emotional changes. This article provides guidance on postpartum workouts and nutrition, helping you make informed decisions for your well-being. Remember to consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new exercise routine.

Understanding Postpartum Body Changes

Pregnancy brings about numerous changes in your body. "Baby weight" includes the weight of the baby, placenta, amniotic fluid, increased blood and breast tissue, and fat stores. After childbirth, most women lose around 10-13 pounds immediately. It’s important to understand these changes before starting any exercises.

Exercise After Delivery: When and How to Start

Doctors usually recommend waiting about 6 weeks before beginning a structured exercise routine. However, this depends on your pregnancy and delivery. After a C-section, it might take longer-8 weeks or more-to heal.

Safety Considerations and Practical Tips

Before starting, get the green light from a healthcare professional. Experts recommend low-impact exercises that are gentle on your joints, gradually increasing the intensity. Listen to your body, resting when necessary, and stay hydrated. Focus on proper form and technique, reducing repetitions if needed.

Benefits of Postpartum Exercise

Postpartum exercise offers physical and mental benefits. It can boost self-confidence and improve your quality of life. Regular physical activity can improve mood, energy levels, and sleep quality while encouraging moderate weight management. Rebuilding core and pelvic floor strength is crucial for improving overall mobility and flexibility, which can also increase blood flow and reduce tightness. Exercise can also improve your posture, helping to prevent or alleviate pain and tension.

Postpartum Workout Plan

Here's a 30-day postpartum workout plan designed to help moms safely return to exercise. Ideal for anyone from 6 weeks to several months postpartum, this plan includes gentle core and pelvic floor exercises, strength training, and low-impact cardio workouts.

Gentle Exercises to Start With

Early on, safe movements like deep core breathing (diaphragmatic breathing), pelvic tilts, glute bridges, and heel slides help retrain your core and activate your transverse abdominis. These exercises help reconnect your muscles, improve posture, and support everyday activities like carrying your baby.

Sample Exercises

Here is a sequence of exercises you may use to ease back into fitness at a comfortable pace. Follow this sequence, starting with one or two exercises and adding more each week. Change and adjust the exercises to suit your needs.

Child’s Pose: Eases low back tension and promotes relaxation. Kneel on the floor, hinge forward at your hips, and rest your forehead on the floor. Stay in this pose for up to 5 minutes.
Heel Slides: Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat. Engage your abdominal muscles and slowly extend one leg. Return to the starting position. Do 8 to 10 repetitions on each side.
Cat-Cow Pose: Relieves tension and tightness. Begin in a tabletop position, inhale looking up (cow) and exhale tucking your chin and rounding your spine (cat). Continue for up to 1 minute.
Glute Bridges: Lie on your back with bent knees, pressing your feet into the floor. Slowly raise your hips, pause, and lower to the starting position. Do 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions. To challenge your pelvic floor muscles and encourage alignment, place a small ball, cushion, or yoga block between your knees.
Reverse Lunges: Strengthens glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps. Stand with feet under your hips, step one foot back, and lower your body until both knees are at 90 degrees. Push back to the starting position. Do 1 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions on each side.
Bird Dog: Improves stability and core strength. Start in tabletop position, extend one arm forward and the opposite leg backward. Pause and return to the starting position. Do 1 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions on each side. To add an extra challenge, you can use resistance bands.
Side Plank: Strengthens core and obliques. Begin in a high plank, transfer weight onto one hand, stack your ankles, and raise your hips. Hold for up to 30 seconds on each side. For extra stability, lower your left knee down to the floor.
Dead Bug: Improves stability and balance while targeting your core and hip flexors. Lie on your back, lift your legs, bending the knees 90 degrees, and extend your arms overhead. Lower one arm and the opposite leg toward the floor, pause, and return to the starting position. Do 1 to 3 sets of 5 to 12 repetitions. To reduce the intensity, bend your legs and avoid lowering your arms and legs all the way to the floor. As you progress, you can use a stability ball, dumbbells, and ankle weights to make it more challenging.

Integrating Exercise into Your Routine

Exercise in small chunks - Three 10-minute periods of activity spread throughout the day are just as good as one 30-minute period. Exercise with your baby - You’ve probably figured out that even the weight of a baby can tire out your muscles after a while. Exercise when your child is asleep - It’s recommended that you try to sleep whenever your baby does. Add exercises to routine activities - For example, do lunges while brushing your teeth or squats while the bottle warms up. Make it fun - Do activities you love or make them social by inviting other friends or parents to go for walks. You could also check out classes at a local gym if that works for you, and some even have day care included with membership.

Additional Tips for Your Workout Plan

Set Realistic Goals: The goal isn’t to “bounce back” - it’s to reconnect and rebuild.
Stay Consistent: Workouts vary from 10-35 minutes a day, 6 days per week. Show yourself some grace! The first workouts postpartum are humbling. Do your best and forget the rest.
Use Equipment: A Set of Dumbbells. Most of the daily strength workouts require a set of dumbbells. Each weight training workout will have a recommended dumbbell weight, usually between 8-20 pounds. You want a weight heavy enough that your last few reps are a struggle, but you are still able to complete the workout with good form. A pilates ball. A long loop resistance band and a mini loop resistance band.
Take Rest Days: This plan includes 1 rest day per week, but you can take more rest days as needed.
Listen to Your Body: If you experience symptoms such as vaginal bleeding, abdominal pain, and pelvic discomfort, avoid exercise.

Nutrition After Delivery: Fueling Your Body

Proper nutrition is vital for post-delivery recovery. While weight loss may seem like a priority, losing too much weight too soon can prolong the recovery period. The quality and quantity of food you consume will influence how you interact with your baby. Maintaining a healthy and balanced diet is essential for overall health, whether or not you choose to breastfeed.

Read also: Freezer Meals for New Moms

Key Principles of Postpartum Nutrition

Balanced Diet: The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers new moms advice on proper postpartum nutrition through ChooseMyPlate.gov. MyPlate includes five main food groups-dairy, fruit, grain, protein, and vegetables.
Grains: One-quarter of your plate should be a grain-cereals with iron and folic acid, barley, rice.
Hydration: Drink plenty of fluids. It’s recommended moms drink 8 or 9 cups of water a day. Water helps flush out fat. Drink fat-free or low-fat milk and water.
Avoid Strict Diets: Physical activity and smart eating decisions are a recipe for success. The USDA recommends a moderate weight loss plan-losing no more than 2 pounds per week.

The Balanced Plate Method

The balanced plate method is a template to follow when making meals. The emphasis is on protein, fat + veggies (fiber). By prioritizing these 3 components, you naturally add the most nourishing foods to your plate, balance your blood sugar, and decrease cravings. This template also ensures that your meals give you energy and satisfy you!

My balanced plate method:

½ plate non-starchy vegetables
¼ of your plate a protein (about the size of your palm)
¼ of your plate a fibrous complex carbohydrate/starch
100-200 calories of healthy fat

Weight Loss and Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding burns calories-about 300-500 extra per day. Many moms find they lose weight after birth naturally while nursing. But not everyone experiences rapid weight loss, and that’s okay. If you’re breastfeeding, avoid extreme calorie-cutting or intense workouts too early, as this can affect your milk supply.

Diet basics

These are consistent food habits that I practice daily, postpartum or not. If you’re just starting to make diet changes, I would start with these. They include:

Regular and consistent meal times This usually looks like 3 meals + 1 optional snack/day. This works for me right now - if you’re very active or you’re in the first few weeks postpartum, you may want to add in additional snacks.
My balanced plate method The balanced plate method is a template to follow when making meals. The emphasis is on protein, fat + veggies (fiber). By prioritizing these 3 components, you naturally add the most nourishing foods to your plate, balance your blood sugar, and decrease cravings. This template also ensures that your meals give you energy and satisfy you!

Weight Loss/Maintenance Tools

Early dinners A very effective tool to support weight loss, digestion and sleep is to finish eating 2-3 hours before bed and get at least a 12-hour overnight fast. I try to be asleep between 10-11pm so I will aim to be done eating by 7-8pm at night and then eat breakfast 12-14 hours later. Always listen to your body to see what works best for you and pay attention to hunger levels. While a 12-hour overnight fast can be a good starting place, if it makes you feel more anxious, tired, or hungry, discontinue. Regardless of any timing, always eat when hungry. I also would not recommend this for anyone currently pregnant or in the first few weeks postpartum.
Implement a habit of 0-2 starches per day Starches are a type of carbohydrate. What foods are starches? Pasta (even gluten-free or chickpea pasta), rice, grains, bread, chips, quinoa, potatoes, crackers, cereals Overeating starches can raise blood sugars, leading to weight gain, low energy, increased cravings, and other unwanted symptoms. It can also increase calories without satisfaction. The practice of 0-2 starches per day provides structure to support balanced blood sugar and low-glycemic meals made up of nutrient-dense and satisfying foods such as non-starchy carbs/veggies, healthy fats and protein. And remember, fruit, dairy, vegetables, legumes and nuts all contain carbohydrates but don’t count as the dedicated starch. This is NOT a ‘no carb’ diet.

Foods to Focus On

Healthy Protein: Adequate protein intake can help you stay full while breastfeeding and support your post-exercise recovery.
High-Fiber Foods: Whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are all sources of fiber, which helps with postpartum constipation.
Limit Sugar and Refined Carbs: Avoid or limit sweets and refined carbs. If you like breads and pasta, opt for whole grain over white.
Stay Hydrated: You’re going to need to drink more liquids while breastfeeding. Drink an extra five cups (1183 mL) to eight cups (1893 mL) of noncaffeinated liquids each day.

Lifestyle Adjustments

Lifestyle A number of things can fall under the lifestyle category. It can include sleep, stress management, movement, food journaling, daily habits, meal prep, etc. Think about what is most important for you in this category. For me:

Read also: Losing Weight After Baby

Define your goals For me, I want to lose the weight I gained during my pregnancy in a healthy way (0.5-1 lb/week) and also feel great at my wedding celebration. My goal right now is to lose about 7-10 lbs by the end of February. I am also still breastfeeding my son which requires extra calories and energy and will still be my priority.
Daily movement The most important lifestyle practice for me is daily movement. It’s one of my wellness non-negotiables - when I incorporate movement into my day, everything else is better I really try to be intuitive with movement and do whatever feels good. For me, that is walking, jogging, strength training and reformer Pilates.
Planning I work with a lot of very organized individuals. They plan things in advance and intentionally schedule their calendar to fit in priorities - work meetings, time with friends/family, workout classes. I always tell them to treat their health like they do everything else - plan out time to grocery shop and meal prep. Put it on your calendar. Write out a food plan for day and plan meals and snacks in advance. This can provide structure, hold you accountable and also help make sure you're optimally balancing your meals throughout the day.

Supplements

Pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding are very nutrient- and calorie-demanding processes. Adequate nourishment through food is essential, but supplements are also key in supporting health, energy, metabolism and weight. Research shows that most pregnant women do not consume the recommended amounts of key nutrients needed during pregnancy. [2] The recommendation is to begin a prenatal vitamin ideally 3 months prior to conceiving and remain on a prenatal vitamin throughout your pregnancy. I also recommend clients stay on their prenatal while breastfeeding and throughout their childbearing years.

Common Concerns and Questions

Can you still exercise if you’re nursing? Yes, you can still exercise if you’re nursing as long as you take some safety considerations into account. Avoid overexertion, stay hydrated, and eat more throughout the day.
What does it mean if you aren’t seeing results? Changes in hormone levels can impact weight loss and muscle growth. Give your body time to heal and adjust, and avoid comparing yourself with others.
Are there certain exercises you should avoid after delivery? Avoid high impact and strenuous exercises, and movements that stress your abdominal muscles and pelvic floor.

Addressing Diastasis Recti

If you’re like many women, you may experience diastasis recti, which is a separation of the abdominal muscles, resulting in a belly bulge. It’s common in women who’ve just given birth. Gentle transverse abdominis engagement, pelvic tilts, modified planks and core breathing exercises are effective for healing and prevention. Avoid traditional crunches or sit-ups early on, as they can worsen separation. If it’s available to you, I’d recommend seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist.

Postpartum Weight Loss Supplement

You might be tempted by quick fixes like a postpartum weight loss supplement, but be cautious. Getting a flat belly after pregnancy takes time. Remember: no pill can replace a healthy lifestyle.

Mindset and Self-Care

Postpartum recovery is more than just shedding pounds-it’s about feeling strong, confident, and energized. Don’t compare yourself to celebrities or social media influencers. The number on the scale doesn’t tell the whole story.

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