Working mum

MissHw87 wrote: »

Hi all
Pre baby I was fit, active and had a healthy weight. Through pregnancy, being lazy and suffering with PND I have gained 5stone (70lb).
I’m really struggling to find time to exercise as I work 50hrs+ a week, look after the home (which I am lucky that my husband does his share) as well as spending as much time as I can with my toddler.
I am currently very unfit, lacking in confidence and unsure how I can make time to exercise and lose the weight! I plan and shop to cook heathy meals but with exhaustion, I grab unhealthy snacks, and quick food.
Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

I have some good news for you. Weight loss almost entirely happens due to what you eat and doesn't require exercise.

Weight loss happens when you're in a calorie deficit. If you eat fewer calories than you use you'll lose weight and if you eat more calories than you use you'll gain. It's really as simple as that.

Now creating that calorie deficit is far easier to achieve by addressing the calories in. Reducing your calories by 500 cal per day (1lb per week) by making a very slight adjustment (100-200cals) to breakfast, lunch and dinner is infinitely easier than committing to what would be a pretty gruelling 500cal workout every day.

I and many others hear lost significant amount of weights with absolutely zero dedicated workouts just be accurately monitoring the number of calories that we ate and made sure that most of the time we maintained the required deficit.

Now don't get me wrong, exercise is important but it's benefits are primary in fitness rather than weight loss, but even then 'hitting the gym' and 'working out' isn't necessary to get exercise. Exercise can just as easily come from being more active overall and that can take many forms. Some people get plenty of exercise just from their jobs, their kids or their social life keep them active and on the go.

So my advice would be to start with what matters
1. Enter your details and get your calorie target based on your stats and a realistic weekly weight loss goal
2. Eat foods you like (no judgement, no moralising about 'good', 'bad', 'junk', 'clean', etc) in a way and in amounts that let you maintain your calorie target most of the time.

From there you'll start to learn and get better. You'll discover alternatives that will help you reduce your calorie intake. You'll notice some foods that you liked that start to really lose their appeal when you see how 'expensive' calorie wise they are. Then as you go along you'll build from there.

Note: Get a food scale and log everything by weight. That's the only way to accurately track your calorie intake. It's a bit of a pain and time consuming to begin with but very quickly becomes second nature and logging your food will take no more than 2 or 3 minutes out of your day.

G'luck