After having babies, your body may not feel or look the same, and you may want to change that to feel better or just to fit in your favorite jeans. There is nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight.
If you are a mom? Then you are busy—finding the right way to eat balanced and lose weight can have lifetime positive results, but figuring out the best weight loss plan for busy moms can be confusing.
Being a mom can add to the unique challenges of losing weight. Whether you are a working mom, work-from-home mom, or stay-at-home mom–it’s all a challenge.
There are many things to consider when looking for a meal plan that fits you. How do you know when to eat? What are you supposed to eat? What to avoid?
Well, guess what? There is an easy plan out there for you. This comprehensive article will break down the steps you need to take to help you lose weight.
Read on for the 2024 best weight loss plan for busy moms.
Challenges Faced By Moms
The idea is that you follow a plan that helps your individual needs and is easy; no one mom is the same.
But there are common factors that can affect with weight loss:
- Overeating
- Undereating
- Stress
- Limited movement
These all hinder consistency with eating healthily and exercising. But it’s possible to learn new habits to get you on your weight loss journey.
The Best Weight Loss Plan For Busy Moms
Overview
This 2024 best weight loss plan for busy moms will help you figure out how you are currently eating, set goals, and implement them to achieve your weight loss goals.
The idea is to make changes that last a lifetime with results that last longer than a quick-fix fad diet.
Download the worksheets to help you assess your current lifestyle, help you make goals, make up your own meal plan based on foods you like, and a physical activity tracker.
Get your worksheets right into your mailbox.
#1 Assess Your Current Lifestyle
Self-assessment of your diet is to help you have an overview of the foods you eat, when you eat, your portion intake, fluid intake, how frequently you eat out, and the kind of processed foods you eat.
In the 7-day food intake worksheet, you will inventory everything you eat per day for seven days. Most people often eat differently during the week than on the weekend, so it’s good to document what you eat every day for a week.
Once you have completed the seven-day intake, what now? What do you need to do with this information?
You can now identify the times you eat. Are you eating consistently throughout the day or having large gaps where you don’t eat? Sometimes, you don’t realize you haven’t eaten until you start to feel irritated and have a headache.
Tip
Also, in the assessment, I want you to see how often you eat out. As convenient as it can be to eat out, usually, these foods are sold in absurdly large portions and jam-packed with ingredients high in calories and preservatives.
You can also identify if you are drinking enough water or filling up with sugary beverages.
#2 Make Goals
To lose weight, you need to make small goals and big goals. This is how you will know where you are going. You can set your nutrition weight loss goals with this worksheet.
Big Goals
Choose the amount of weight you want to lose, the big goal to reach. But the most important part is to choose a date to achieve it. An effective goal is one in which you set a date to reach it, but you still need to lose weight in a way that is safe and actually stay off.
But how much should you lose to be healthy?
You can realistically and healthily lose 2 pounds per week, that is about 8 pounds per month. However, there is research that states that losing just 10% of your body weight can make a big impact in reducing the risk of developing diabetes and other obesity-related chronic diseases.
Suppose you currently weigh 200 pounds; that means you would need to lose 20 pounds to reduce the risk of chronic conditions. That means your big goal would be to weigh 180 pounds; losing 20 pounds is a doable goal that can be reached well within a year.
Small Goals
To reach those big goals, you need to break them down into small, digestible goals. In which your everyday actions can help you achieve the primary goal.
If you decide to lose 20 pounds, doing it slowly can make it something you can fit into your daily life.
Losing weight fast requires way more time than you probably have, and without guidance from a Registered Dietitian, it can affect your nutrient intake balance. Making small changes in your daily life can lead you there.
So, dividing 20 pounds by 12 months leaves you with 1.6 pounds to lose per month. Totally doable.
#3 The Nutrition Plan
Here it is, finally, the 2024 best weight loss plan for busy moms you have been waiting for. You can download the worksheets to make your own plan.
#1 Choose a time to eat for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.
By choosing a time, you let your body know when it will be fed; before long, you won’t have to be looking at the time. You will have awaken your hunger cues.
#2 For every meal, choose a food containing carbohydrates, proteins, and vegetables.
Healthy eating includes a balanced intake of nutrients. Your body needs macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein, and fat. It also needs micronutrients: vitamins and minerals.
Each nutrient has its own job that works intertwined with other nutrients.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the energy the brain and body need to function. The best carbohydrates are complex carbohydrates, which contain fiber, a complex carbohydrate. It does not get digested but passes throughout your whole intestinal tract, allowing for bulking of excess nutrients and moving stools along. Say goodbye to constipation!
Foods high in fiber will be beans, legumes, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, and whole-wheat bread.
You may want to eat less of simple carbohydrates that are low in fiber, such as white rice, white bread, pastries, cookies, doughnuts, and bagels.
Protein
Proteins are important in cell structure, tissue rebuilding, and many other important functions in the body. Proteins can be found as animal-based protein and plant-based protein.
Your best options will always be plant-based protein; they don’t have cholesterol and are often lower in calories.
Good plant-based protein sources are nuts like peanut butter, almonds, and cashews; mushrooms, beans, lentils, chickpeas, soy, edamame, tempeh, quinoa, chia seeds, broccoli, and kale.
You can also add plant-based protein powder to shakes or soups.
Of course, you may also want to choose animal-based proteins to complement your meals. You can choose healthier options like Greek yogurt, mozzarella cheese, chicken with its skin removed, or lean turkey.
Fats
Fats are also essential. They help store energy for later use, keep the structure of cells, and control the body’s temperature.
You can find fat in animal and plant products; however, you want to choose polyunsaturated fats.
These are typically in plant-based foods, liquid at room temperature, like olive or canola oil.
Limit the use of saturated fats typically found in animal-based foods; these fats are generally solid at room temperature and often are the culprits of plaque in arteries.
Vitamins and Minerals
Lastly, vitamins and minerals are found in all foods. Still, fruits and vegetables carry a large variety you need for many other bodily functions and are a great source of low-calorie options.
#3 Choose a low-calorie fluid like water, tea, or black coffee.
Your body comprises about 60-70% water; keeping it hydrated is essential, and water should be your primary source of fluids. However, other low-calorie drinks like tea and coffee can be considered, but keep in mind that caffeine is a diuretic and can cause excess loss of fluids if consumed in high amounts.
#4 If you are a snacker, choose snacks that have protein and carbs or protein with a fruit/vegetable.
Snacking isn’t for everyone, but choose wisely if you are a snacker. Choose foods that will contribute to your nutrient profile. If you select a 100-calorie bag of Oreos, you are just getting sugar.
But if you choose a 150-calorie yogurt with some nuts sprinkled on top, you add carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and probiotics for gut health.
Check out 10 Healthy Snacks for Moms.
#5 Once you finish your meal or feel satisfied, stop eating.
It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to communicate with your brain that it’s full. This will awaken your satiety cue. You should no longer serve yourself seconds immediately after eating your first serving.
That is it: choose a time to eat and stick to it, choose foods with various nutrients, drink plenty of water, snack wisely, and allow your body to communicate that it’s full.
#4 The Physical Activity
The hardest thing to do as a mom is to carve out some time for yourself for some physical activity; most times, you are running from one task to another, and finding that one hour to exercise can be hard.
There is a solution to it all; if you can carve out 1 hour for yourself daily, that is AWESOME!! But not all mommas can do that, and there are more that can’t that can. Here are some exercise tips that can go along with the weight loss plan for busy moms.
Exercise tips
#1 Adding exercise to your daily routine, means walking faster while collecting laundry or cleaning up.
#2 Home workouts can save you tons of time; you can use online videos or apps for quick 10-15 minute routines.
#3 Find a partner; it helps with accountability and feelings of support. It can be your partner, kids, or a fellow mom.
#5 Stress Management and Self-Care
Although stress is part of motherhood, it can contribute to weight gain or stubborn fat that won’t go away.
To help you lose weight, you need to take inventory of what causes you stress and how to reduce it.
Things that cause stress that can be reduced
#1 Remembering all your and your family’s appointments
Solution: Get a family planner to which the whole family can see and contribute. If a partner or older child tells you, “I have to go on a field trip X day,” your response “Put it on the calendar.”
Delegating this task to others frees up your mental load a bit more. Of course, if you have smaller children or are a single parent, you are still fully responsible for this calendar, but once it’s written down, it can’t be forgotten.
#2 Make a grocery list
Solution: Nothing is worse than going to the store with just your memory and coming home to realize you forgot something or bought double of something.
Making a grocery list frees up some of that mental space; you know what you need and limit yourself to not buying what you don’t need, aka junk food.
#3 Delegate
Solution: The saying every mom says, “It’s faster if I do it myself.” Yes, I also have these moments, but realize that you can’t do it all; sometimes, you need to delegate. That means letting someone else in your home clean the bathrooms and allowing someone else to take part in the laundry routine.
Having a partner or older child clean a bathroom is much easier, and you follow up with the details you would like cleaned. It saves you 80% of the time. The hardest part is letting go. You need to let go!
#4 Not sleeping enough
Did you know that not having enough hours of sleep can cause stress? Research shows that subjective low-quality sleep, meaning you think you didn’t sleep well, can cause weight gain.
Also, if you don’t sleep well, you just don’t feel well the following day. Try to get at least 8 hours of sleep; if that means you end your day falling asleep at 7 pm with your kids, so be it.
#5 Find a hobby
Solution: Choose an activity that you can do for 15-30 minutes every few days. You can read a book for 15 minutes, a crotchet item, or anything that can take your mind to a place of peace and comfort.
Tracking Progress and Adjustments
I know! I know! How in the world is it possible to fit it in?
For the weight loss plan for busy moms to work, tracking your efforts and checking your weight is vital. It can help you see if what you have done has helped you achieve your small goals and progress in your main goal achievements.
Tracking:
- 7-day food intake for assessment
- Initial weight
- Monthly weigh-ins (Optional: Body measurements)
- Review monthly goals to match weight loss noted in monthly weigh-ins.
Ideally, you want to measure once a month; more than that can make you feel frustrated that you don’t see immediate changes. Change takes time and patience; you will more likely see results in a month than if you check daily.
Conclusion
Even as a busy mom, you can still lose weight. The best weight loss plan for busy moms is one that can be easily implemented and sustained in the long term.
To get there, you need to assess your current eating habits to find out where to make changes.
Follow a simple nutrition plan that makes small changes every day but can significantly impact how you eat.
Incorporate physical activity throughout your day, and make sure to keep track of what you have done.
Manage your stress and find moments for self-care to help you stay clear-minded.
Make sure you track your progress and make adjustments where needed.
Want a PDF version of this article? Click here to download.
FAQ
#1 How do I lose weight as a working mom?
Working moms have the challenge of being out of the house and having to either buy lunch or bring lunch. Working moms can opt for meal prepping, maybe not meal prep for a whole week, but for the first three days of the work week.
Prepping half a can reduce the mental load of figuring out what to take to work at the beginning of the week. By Wednesday, you can prep just for the remaining days of the workweek.
#2 What are the best ways for busy moms to lose weight?
Assess your current eating habits and make changes that are easy but can make a big impact. For example, instead of drinking a large coffee with milk and sugar, switch to a small coffee. You can reduce about 100-150 calories daily with that small change.
#3 How can I lose belly fat while being a busy mom?
Some moms are left with a little pouch after giving birth; for some, it goes away quickly, and for others, it may take some time. But there isn’t a specific food or exercise you can do to target belly fat. An overall lifestyle change is more likely to provide a long-term solution to belly fat.
#4 What is some solid advice for new moms trying to lose weight?
Stay consistent with your healthy eating and exercise routine, and be kind to yourself. Being a new mom adds new tasks to your life that you have never had before.
#5 Are there any diet plans for stay-at-home moms?
Just because you stay at home doesn’t mean you aren’t busy. The advantage is that stay-at-home mom gets access to healthy options from their refrigerator. So you can follow a meal plan like a working mom since you also work.
References:
2. https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/42/6/zsz077/5413663
