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Thursday, May 19, 2011

More Tips on Losing Baby Weight

I am now 10 weeks post-partum, and am 5 lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight. I have to admit, I'm pretty pleased. So, what's my secret?

Decreasing Portion Sizes
I've managed to get over the cravings slump that I was in a month ago. Having my cravings back in check, I can now eat less and be satisfied with less. I needed to give my stomach a bit more time to shrink, because when I was pregnant, I was eating significantly larger portions of food. So the attempt to reel in my portion sizes has paid off. Also, I chalk it up to an evening out of my hormones.

Increasing Activity
Since the weather has been miserable and rainy here in Toronto lately, I've taken my walks indoors. My local community centre has an indoor track, which I visit regularly. To increase calorie burning, I carry my son in his baby carrier and do a good, fast-paced walk for half an hour. With an extra 14lbs on me, it's a good workout!

Another thing I like to do is mall walking with my son in his stroller. But I'm not talking about trying to take in some window shopping--I go as fast as I can (it helps to time it when the stores are closing).

Once a week I go for a 5km run with my partner and my son in his stroller (I love jogging strollers!). I use the term "run" loosely. I combine bouts of walking with bursts of jogging. Each week I aim to increase the amount of time I run and decrease the amount of time I walk. It's a tough workout, which is why I only do it once a week.

Lifting Heavy Weights
I discovered something about myself a few years ago. I used to train for long-distance runs like marathons and half-marathons. It always surprised me that even though I did so much cardio (we're talking running 5-6 days per week for months at a time), I didn't ever lose any weight from it. However, when I began a more intense weight lifting program and decrased the amount of cardio I did, I ended up losing 5 extra lbs.

What had happened was that when I did high intensity cardio training, my metabolism shot up, I got hungrier more often, and I ate larger portions. When I lifted heavy weights, I increased my lean muscle mass and kept my appetite under control. Increasing muscle mass means that your body burns more calories overall, even when you're not exercising.

This brings me to the demystification of two popular notions about being a woman and lifting weights:

  1. True fat loss comes from increasing muscle mass, not from doing lots of cardio.
  2. Lifting heavy weights does not mean you'll get large, bulky muscles.

Women Tend to Do Too Much Aerobic Activity
Doing too much cardio training not only increases your appetite, but it puts your body into a catabolic state.  This means you are actually doing yourself a disservice because you are decreasing your muscle mass, not increasing it. Don't get me wrong: cardiovascular exercise is good for strengthening your heart and keeping your blood pressure at a normal level. So don't take it out of your life altogether--go for a walk every day, and take your baby with you.

Heavy Weights Will Give You a Lean, Sexy Body
It is hard for both men and women to put on tonnes of muscle.  Ask any bodybuilder how hard it was to get to the size he or she is, and how hard it is to maintain that. Women especially, by the virtue of their hormones, have an even harder time of getting big muscles.

Not only will you get those arms you always dreamed of by lifting heavy, but you'll be doing your bones a world of good by helping to increase their density, which will help prevent osteoporosis when you're older.