How to lose weight after breastfeeding

Alice asked: "I'm just coming to the end of breastfeeding my seven month old and I'd like to lose the last bit of chub over the festive period; what's the quickest way?! "

Here's Anita's advice:

"Hi Holly,

As you know with breastfeeding, you will need an extra 550 extra calories per day minimum. So it's really important that you're upping the calories at the moment.

However, when you finish breastfeeding, you'll have to really make sure you’re not getting those extra calories into the diet.

When you're breastfeeding you should be losing about 1 and a half to two pounds a month. If you are losing much more than that, if you're losing a pound a week then that could be detrimental to the quality of the milk, detrimental to mother and baby so be very careful. Most important thing to do if you want to lose this weight is to cut the calories down.

Other important factors you must do are to increase your fibre intake. We need about 18 grams of fibre a day. Good sources of fibre are apples, pears and bananas. Apples are about 4 grams so you’re getting a really good amount.

Chopped up apples – keep them handy, eat them quite regularly throughout the day. It's a really good way of filling you up as well so you're not so hungry.

Other essential nutrients to take are essential fatty acids to really boost the body and keep it healthy.

Daily exercise is a must if you really want to lose that last little bit of weight. Involve the baby! It's so nice if the two of you can do it together, it's fun. You're both out in there fresh air. You can put the bay in a pushchair, in a sling and fast walking will definitely help the baby to get to sleep so you can both have some rest!

Good luck!"