Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell--After Pregnancy: Every Woman's Guide to Shaping Up, Slimming Down, and Staying Sane After the Baby

by Debra Waterhouse

Book Overview

Every woman who's had a baby knows how difficult it is to take off the extra weight, despite those unrealistic articles promising that you'll be back into your pre-pregnancy clothes within six weeks.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786884568
• ISBN13: 9780786884568
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Hyperion Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 17 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 12 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Awesome Book!

This book is perfect for the mother that wants to lose weight the HEALTHY way. No gimicky diets. Debra Waterhouse really helps you accept your post-pregnancy body and love it for the healthy baby it produced. She doesn't just focus on losing the weight, but regaining a new appreciation for your body and your self. The author doesn't make you feel guilty or build up unrealistic goals. I just had my son 3 months ago and picked up this book for a healthy way to lose the baby fat. After reading it and starting on Debra's PEACE plan, I have a new love of my body and am beginning to have a healthy relationship with food.

The most useful book I read about pregnancy weight loss

I lost 40 lbs of pregnancy weight in 3 months after my baby was born. I was nervous about my weight gain for this pregnancy (why is everyone else just gaining 25 or 30?) and was ready to accept that "you add 10 lbs for each baby" mentality. I'm the type of person that gains weight easily if I don't watch what I eat, and had never lost the extra weight I gained thru dieting alone. I was very thankful for this book. First and foremost it gave me confidence about myself. It's OK to be fat after giving birth!!! It's such a simple common sense but when you're flying high on hormone and busy with a newborn, it's hard to see yourself in the mirror and still look 6 months pregnant. The 2nd most helpful part is DON'T even think about dieting or exercising in the first 6 weeks post partum. Some women rush into things but the book emphasizes recovering well from childbirth. I completely agree with it. And I patiently waited 7 weeks before I started to exercise, even after that I didn't overdo it. About 20 min a day, 3 days a week. I didn't go on any special diet. I followed normal portions for myself and eat healthy (again, this is just common sense but I would've be desperately try all sorts of crazy dieting fads to lose these 40 lbs if i hadn't read this book). I wont' lie, I still hated to see my body in the mirror for the first 2 months, but with the explanation from this book about fat cells, and the self esteem I gained, I had a very good recovery, no post partum depression or baby blues even though I was up 20 hours a day. I want every pregnant woman to read it before childbirth (after childbirth you'll have no time, trust me). It gets rid of a lot of myth, and will get you on the right path to losing weight in a healthy way.

worked for me!

After the birth of my 3rd child, I was concerned about losing the extra 25 pounds I had gained. This book really changed my life in that it gave great tips and information that I didn't find anywhere else - about food journals, duration of exercise, and when to start trying to lose the weight. All her information was right on, and when I followed her suggestions, the pounds melted off so quickly that everyone around me was amazed. Don't get me wrong, it took a lot of hard work, but after reading this book, I realized that if I worked hard for 2 or 3 months, starting at 3 months postpartum, that I would see the results I wanted. After 2 months of hard work, the 25 pounds were long gone, and I felt really great about my accomplishments.

Very encouraging

After the birth of my first child it seemed like my body completely changed. Old rules of dieting and excercise didn't seem to work anymore. It didn't seem to matter how little I ate or how hard I excercised, I was still overweight. I was never overweight my entire life before my pregnancy but now it seemed like I would have to accept the fact that I would be overweight forever. Purchasing this book really changed that. It doesn't matter if you had your baby 6 weeks ago or 6 years ago, you can up your metabolism again. Debra Waterhouse explains the biological reasons for these changes in your body after pregnancyand why our bodies do what they do during postpartum. Also, she gives tips on some "new rules" on excercise which (for me) have proven very effective. Knowing what was going on in my body and why I was keeping on the baby fat really helped me discard the out of control feelings I was having and helped back on the track to fitness. I have been seeing changes and I credit it to the info in this book.

Learning self-nurturing and self-acceptance.

What a book! I would highly recommend that every woman who is pregnant or has recently given birth own a copy of this informative and realistic guide to not only losing weight after having a baby, but learning to accept your body the way it is post-birth. Debra Waterhouse gives real reasons why it's nearly impossible to lose all your baby weight in the first 6 months, let alone 6 weeks, that new moms seem to think it's possible to do. It also busts the myth that breastfeeding moms will lose their weight faster than bottlefeeding counterparts - a total shock to me when I breastfed my first child for a year and still kept on 10 lbs. of pregnancy weight! There are logical physical reasons for all this which are presented here in an easy to understand format. Waterhouse advocates a commonsense approach to losing your pregnancy weight...in effect, don't try too hard the first few weeks...simply pamper yourself (as much as you can with a newborn), keep moving (not necessarily structured excercising), and eat sensibly. After the first few months, it's aerobic excercise and keeping a food journal that will assist in eradicating those stubborn pounds. This is the anti-diet approach to regaining your body, both physically and mentally. It's also a treasure of a book that will help you feel so much better about yourself when you fail to lose the 50 lbs. you gained after the first three months!