A bloke I know said to me a few weeks ago “Oh my God – I saw Belinda the other day and wow – someone is still carrying their baby weight! If only she’d stop complaining and start exercising”.
I had to forcibly restrain myself from giving this man a very hard slap as not only was this comment totally inappropriate but it also just highlighted the judgment that men constantly cast over mums and how they really don’t know what they are talking about!
Have they carried around a growing baby for 9 months? Have they gone through the hormonal rollercoaster where a woman’s taste buds undergo a total transformation? Have they experienced the exhaustion that a woman feels in the final trimester where the only thing so can manage to do is eat, sleep and try and make plans for the imminent arrival? Have they experienced the utter sleep deprivation of a new born baby? Have they experienced the post pregnancy hormonal lottery where a new mum can be happy, sad or indifferent? Have they had a baby sucking all the energy and nutrients out of the mum whilst breast feeding?
The answer of course is no but it doesn’t stop them passing comments and in the process putting further pressure on women all over the world to lose their baby weight in record time – just like celebs they see who did it like Victoria Beckham, Gisele Bundchen and Kate Moss.
All mums would love to lose their baby weight in record time but the fact is that in most cases that just isn’t plausible. In the weeks after the birth – unless you have a huge amount of help from family and nannies – life is exhausting. The body is recovering from the birth, breast feeding is constant and the sleep deprivation is rife – and when anyone is undergoing that amount of physical, mental and emotional pressure the priority isn’t ‘getting thin’ – it is instead “just get through and hope for some sleep sometime”.
Of course all mums cite different reasons for having trouble losing their baby weight and they range from;
- Being too tired
- Not having the motivation
- Being hungry all the time from breastfeeding
- Not having time to focus on weight loss
- Having injuries from the birth
- Having a sluggish metabolism from not eating enough or from not eating the right foods
- Being depressed
Everyone is different and men and women need to understand that losing baby weight is totally different from losing normal excess weight as the mum’s circumstances of the weight loss are so much different and they are on a very different playing field to everyone else on the weight loss bandwagon – so do all the mums in the world a favour and don’t judge them and their weight as it really isn’t fair. And to all the mums wanting to lose their baby weight – help and understanding is at hand so don’t put undue pressure on yourself or try and do crazy short term weight loss quick fix schemes which will only make you feel worse – in the short and long term.
