How To Lose Weight As A Stay-At-Home Mom

As a mom, life is busy. After taking care of kids, homework, hobbies, chores, meals, and everything else in between, there is a lot to be done everyday.

It can be hard to implement new routines and diets while balancing all that you do. But there are a lot of little things, that are easy to change, that can be hindering your results.

To lose weight as a stay at home mom, you must:

1. Set a realistic and time bound weight loss goal. Be sure to tie your weight loss goal to a personal reason that runs deeper than aesthetics.
2. Eat a nutrient dense, whole food diet that maintains a calorie deficit. Be sure to hydrate
3. Be sure to workout most days a week with a balance of strength and cardio training. Strength training will help you build muscle and boost metabolism and cardio will burn fat.
4. Minimize stress and make sleep a priority. Stress and poor sleep will keep cortisol levels high and make weight loss harder.

Some of those may be harder than others. Keep reading and we will go over how to easily incorporate each step into your daily life so you can lose weight stress-free.

Why is it so hard for a mother to lose weight?

Lack of schedule, easy access to food, stress, and poor sleep can make weight loss extremely difficult.

As moms we are in charge of a lot. Kids, work or side hustles, the household chores, meals, and the general day-to-day that keeps life moving.

It is so easy for our own personal fitness to take a back seat to all these are things. Especially since there are a few pieces to the fitness puzzle that we need to be successful in weight loss.

These are proper nutrition, exercise routine, stress management, sleep, and goal setting. Often, if one or multiple of these elements is missing or not optimized, we can plateau in weight loss.

It is important to remember, that in order to get results, you must make your needs (and health!) a priority so that you can continue to fill the role your family needs from you.

Losing weight doesn’t need to run your whole life, but developing good habits or even breaking bad habits, requires effort. Often, a lot of it. What leads to success in reaching your goals is consistency and balancing mom life and your fitness.

Stay-at-home mom diet plan

Each meal should have a balance of each macronutrient (carbohydrates, fats, and protein) that consist of minimally processed, whole foods to saitisfy hunger and reduce cravings.

You may hear this referred to as clean eating. Cleann eating allows for flexibilty if you struggle with tracking or sticking to “diets.” When we opt for nutrient dense foods, we satisfy our hunger and cut out excess calories that come from processed foods.

Eating clean foods in macro balanced meals is a great way to naturally control your portions and appetite. It’s like the cheat code to traking calories.

But take a moment and think about your nutrition game plan. Ask yourself these questions and see if there is something you can improve on.

• Are you cooking your food or eating out often?
• Are you eating what is most convenient or taking the time to ensure your food is nutritious?
• Do you cater to picky kids or family members?
• Are you distracted during your meals or taking the time to enjoy your food?
• Do you skip meals and overeat later?
• Are you eating to compensate for an energy boost?
• Do you find yourself snacking often or mindlessly?

All of these things can really add up. Planning your meals ahead of time and/or meal prepping can really knock out a few of these problems.

Something else I want to hit on is eating your kids leftovers. If you are like me I HATE to waste food. Even if its a few grapes. And I will find myself eating my toddlers unfinished or even untouched meals because of that.

If you are like me, break that habit and store uneaten food for a later time. Those are extra calories that you don’t need and easily forget about if you are tracking that can really add up to take you out of that calorie deficit.

If all of this sounds overwhelming and like you just don’t have the time for it, I can help! I have created a Meal Plan for Busy Moms that want easy-to-follow guidance that is realistic and simple to implement.

My meal plan is designed to be customizeable to your lifestyle and fitness goals so you just plug and play! Filled with every tool you need to eat healthy and reach your fitness goals. Check it out here!

Why do stay at home moms gain weight?

Mindless snacking, being too sedentary, pregnancy and/or breastfeeding, ineffective workouts, stress, and poor sleep can all contrtibute to weight gain.

When I became a stay at home mom, I was home. A lot. And being within a room’s distance to the fridge or pantry was a challenge for me. Mindless snacking and over eating was one of my pitfalls because food was so accessible. If you also struggle with this, use these tips to fix this bad habit.

• Don’t keep processed “snack foods” in the house. They are high in calories and lack nutrients.
• Maintain a supply of sliced fruit/veggies stored for easy access healthy snacks.
• Balance your meals with complex carbs, protein, and fats to minimize cravings.
• Distract yourself from temptation by getting active, doing chores, or starting an activity with your kids.
• Eat only in the kitchen at the dinner table with no screens. Distracted eating can lead to eating too quickly and feeling disatisfied with your meals.
• Stay hydrated throughout the day. Thirst is often disguised as hunger pains.
• Try intermittent fasting to build control and food discipline.
• Try to minimize snack time for kids and get everyone on the same schedule.

When we are home, it’s easy to fall into the trap of being too sedentary. Due to weather, playing on the floor with kids, newborn feedings/burpings, contact naps, schoolwork, or even feeling stuck in a rut.

You may feel like you are busy all day long, because you are! But we can only get so much activity from chores and interacting with the kids, especially if you are restricted from going outside.

Plus, if you are spending a lot of time in the car because of school, errands, and extracurriculars that is more time spent sitting.

So be sure to get up and move frequiently and try to get yours steps in throughout the day. Something like 8,000 to 12,000 is a good range each day.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding can make weight gain practically inevitable. WE must gain some weight during pregnancy, and breastfeeding can make your hunger increase or just make you hold on to those few pounds.

But you can always lose the babyweight, just take a long-term approach and avoid quick fixes and opt for 1-2 lbs per week for sustainable results.

If you are stress or not sleeping well (which is super common for moms!) you can increase your cortisol levels which can increase sugar cravings and lethargy, making you more likely to eat jumnk and less likely to be active.

But an effective workout routine will help you de-stress and energize your body for a better night of sleep and improved mood throughout the day.