The women's fitness blog

It's inevitable that a pregnant woman will gain weight. Some lucky women manage to lose all the weight again afterwards. For other, the extra weight seems almost impossible to get rid of.

It's a sensisble idea to talk to your doctor about this during your pre-natal check ups. However, considering the hormonal craziness that pregnancy brings, the bizarre urges for all sorts of foods, and the significantly decreases exercise that a pregnant woman can carry out, it's not always easy to follow this advice.

That brings us to the crux of the matter. How do you lose the extra flab?

You may be eating lots of so-called "comfort food" to deal with stress or sad feelings, sometimes called post-natal or post-partum depression. This is completely normal, and best of all, it's treatable - so you don't need to allow it to take over. Have a chat with your doctor if you're concerned.

Planning to breastfeed? Getting nutritional advice from your doctor would be a good idea. Happily, nursing your new baby may actually help you lose the extra pounds - but make sure you don't short-change the baby (or yourself!) by going on a fad diet.

Get back into your daily routine as soon as you can. Don't over do it, of course, but start moving again if you tended to sit a lot during your pregnancy. When it comes to health and exercise, bad habits can easily creep in.

To help you get back into walking for exercise, think about getting a front carrier or sling so you can take your baby with you on short walks through the neighborhood instead of always putting him in the stroller. The baby will enjoy being close to mom, and you'll have more fun, too.

Since you now have a new family, it's a good idea to learn as much as you can about healthy eating, so all of you can feel your best and be as healthy as possible. If you've slipped into sloppy eating habits during your pregnancy because cooking right just seemed like too much trouble, now is the time to snap out of it and put those veggies back on the menu.

Eat a big salad at the beginning of every meal, and make them fun - with lots of variety and taste - so it starts to become second nature. Be sure to always have more vegetables on your plate than anything else, as well, because that way you'll be able to fill up without the carbohydrates and calories in bread, pasta, red meat and sweets.

The one thing that will be the most helpful to you is to remember that the way you eat now will influence your new child's health for many years to come. Many people have discovered that they have a hard time losing weight until they realize their own eating habits may be hurting their kids.

Doing something for yourself might feel like a waste of time, or too much work, (especially if it means cooking a real meal instead of ordering a takeaway), but doing the same thing for people you love is fun and gives a real sense of satisfacion. Of course, your baby wont be eating those veggies for a while, but you'll want to get in the habit now.

You'll probably discover that it's easier to stay committed to your baby's health than your own. It's just human nature. Fortunately, good eating habits help both of you stay healthy, and it will help you lose weight.

If your baby grows up in a household where natural, healthy food is always on the table, and where treats are only given only on special occasions, your child will grow up strong and healthy. If you take the time now to learn how to eat right, you'll naturally lose your that extra weight and your whole family will benefit from your healthy habits.

From a purely practical point of view, you can see how this may happen because the longer you take to eat a certain quantity of food, the more aware you are likely to be of what and how much you are eating, which in itself is likely to put the brakes on overconsumption.

From a physiological perspective, it is possible that chewing more helps us to eat less because, it seems, the act of chewing stimulates nerve centres in your brain that register a sense of fullness. Chewing may also trigger the release of hormones that tell you it is time to stop eating, and so, in theory at least, the more you chew, the more likely it is that these hormonal signals swing into action.

Whether or not the amount of chewing you do improves digestion depends on the type of food. Yoghurt and fromage frais clearly need no more than a second or two in your mouth because they do not need to be physically broken down before swallowing, and digestive juices can tackle them easily in your intestines. An apple, on the other hand, needs a good chomp to get it into a manageable size to swallow and the chewing helps to break down cell walls, which makes the nutrients inside more easily accessed by enzymes in your intestines.

How long it takes to break down foods efficiently in your mouth depends on things such as the size of your jaw, the strength it can exert in its crunches and the amount of saliva you produce. As scientists from the University of California, Berkeley point out, while one person can take only nine chews to swallow a piece of carrot, another can require 65 chews to get it to an acceptable state for swallowing.

And so finally, in answer to the question, yes, it is probably a good idea to take your time over chewing. You may find that you gradually lose a few pounds doing so and will probably get more nutrients from the foods you do eat. I'm going to have a go myself.

Eating slowly: how it helps

Chewing and eating slowly mean that you are likely to swallow less air than when gulping food down and are less likely to feel bloated as a result.

British researchers found that people chewing sugar-free gum three times a day after surgery had a speedier return of normal colon functioning than non-gum-chewers and left hospital on average a day earlier. Gum chewing may “fool” the digestive system back into action by stimulating production of saliva and gut hormones.

Chewing releases flavours that pass up to centres in your brain that register pleasure and satisfaction. If nothing else, chewing may well help you to enjoy your meal more.

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Adapted from a Times Online article