Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(9)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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 pregnancy
and 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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I have followed this books guidelines after two pregnancies and it has helped me lose the 20 pounds of fat I have gained each time. I am currently losing weight the third time I have followed the recommendations of this book. I have breastfed for at least a year each time, which can make losing the weight difficult because I get so hungry! By eating enough while breastfeeding(not freaking my body out that there is a famine or something) and increasing my muscle mass I lose the weight. The scientific rationale concerning the female fat cell postpartum makes a ton of sense. I might not lose the weight as fast as my non-breastfeeding counterparts, but I think I lose more in the long run. It takes a year for my body to lose the weight safely, and yes, a few less oreos wouldn't hurt :0 But this book isn't about deprivation, it is about encouragement and manageable steps for a healthy lifestyle. I am the strongest I have been postpartum because I focused on building up my muscle mass for the first five months (which actually caused me to gain weight) and now my 22 lb seven month old is literally sucking the fat off my body for me. And my fat cells are saying adios happily! I will say that I have gone and gotten pants that fit, which one of the reviewers mentioned wasn't very financially feasible on a budget.....well, think of the money you are saving in formula costs or go to goodwill so that you can get dressed comfortably in the morning! I have three different sizes of postpartum pants that I have invested in over four postpartum recoveries and it was WORTH IT. Some of the remarks are a little cutesy in this book...but as a nurse I think it is very scientifically sound. Megan Haney

This book was very informitive and helpful in understanding what the average woman's body goes through after pregnancy. I was surprised that it takes so long to get back into shape after giving birth and according to this book there is no getting into shape a few months after. Its a waiting game - which I guess is a little disappointing but the truth helps.

I read this book after my second pregnancy, because I was having a harder time shaping up than after my first. I gained 22 lbs. with my first pregnancy and lost all but 5 due to breastfeeding without even trying. I gained 29 lbs. with my second and have kept a stubborn 13 lbs. on despite moderate eating and as much exercise as I can manage with a newborn and a three-year-old. This book had way too much chatty conversational fluff and not much solid, helpful information. I had to skim through all her anecdotes and 'you can do it'! chatter to get to the salient points about postpartum weight loss. Fortunately, she does have them in bold or italized, so you can skip to those sections and save yourself well over half the text. For the most part, I found her information discouraging and disheartening. Being told to do absolutely no exercise for the first 6 weeks because your fat cells won't let you lose weight seemed crazy to me. What about the mental and emotional boost we get from exercise endorphins? And whenever the example of someone who was able to lose pregnancy weight quickly was mentioned, she dismisses it with a 'well, they must be 20 years old with a superfast metabolism. No real people can do that.' Obviously, some people are and I wanted to know how. This book did not tell me that.

I did benefit from her encouragement to accept my body the way it is, as it changes. I needed to hear that. I needed that kind of encouragement in a world where I tend not to see many postpartum women, and therefore tended to have the wrong idea about the time needed to "unpregnify." So I was really grateful for that. This book helped me to able to step back and enjoy myself once again before the weight was off.
But I did find some of the things she said to be impossible untrue for myself, meaning they were quite possible, and if I had accepted these negative thoughts as truth I could not have lost all of my pregnancy weight plus some, thus far.

But the main reason I wanted to write this review was to clarify something Waterhouse wrote about C-SECTIONS. In the book Waterhouse told a women during a meeting that since this women had a c-section, she would never regain her stomach/tummy tone, because her stomach muscles had been cut during the surgery, and this women would do best to accept that. This idea upset me quite a bit since I myself had a c-section. I set out to find if this claim was true. After researching, speaking to professionals and my doctor I have learned that if you had a "lower (uterine) segment Caesarean section" (LSCS) (the most commonly used type of Caesarean section used today, which is also known as a bikini cut incision) then your stomach muscles have not been cut durning the surgery, they were moved aside and left uncut (unless otherwise specifically stated by your doctor.)

This book was EXCELLENT in preparing you for what to expect after childbirth when your body has changed and you are anticipating weightloss...especially if you are breastfeeding. It tells how your cells are "Reprogrammed" after pregnancy and during breastfeeding and how to "outsmart" them and get your body back. I enjoyed the author's wit and style of writing, but she is very knowledgable and offers useful tips and strategies for realistic expectations of weightloss. I was always a small person, but gained 50 lbs during pregnancy only to produce a 5 1/2 lb. baby girl! So I'm left with the excess weight and frantic to get my small frame back. This book showed me how it's OKAY to keep that weight on for a while to help with nutricious breastfeeding and that GRADUALLY I will lose the weight - most of it after 6 months postpartum. I always thought I could expect to lose it in the first 3 months. Only the lucky ones can do that! THis book will tell you like it is and not make you feel bad about yourself. It'll motivate you to get going and get moving, start making wiser choices about food and lifestyle. And it promotes a safe way of doing so if you are breastfeeding. Just say NO to crash diets! I thought it was an easy read - not to hard to manage while taking care of my colic-y baby! p.s. My baby is 6 mos now and I've got 15 lbs left to go...