If you are looking for the ultimate guide to weight loss for busy moms then this article may help you.
I understand how you feel juggling between work and family can be overwhelming. And without you realizing your health is physically and mentally affected. Waking up can be a struggle, your energy is draining and it is not afternoon yet, worst you cannot recognize your own body anymore.
Being a full-time working mom myself, doing side hustles, and having three kids is challenging. Often, I feel defeated. Not until I found a way to make my work and life balance. And I am excited to share with you the ultimate guide to weight loss for busy moms.
Disclosure:
Some of the links here are affiliate links, and I may earn if you click on them, AT NO EXTRA cost to you. I hope you find the information here useful! Thanks!
13 Checklist Weight Loss For Busy Moms
1. Planning Your Day
Have you ever heard “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”? I found this quote by Benjamin Franklin so relatable. Having a conversation with other busy working moms, I realize that planning your day is one of the weight loss tips for working moms that works.
By planning, you have a general idea and help to visualize your task at hand. Getting the tick list of your list is so satisfying. Feeling accomplished can help you to achieve your daily goal, one step at a time.
By achieving your daily goals, as working moms weight loss is possible. It is the act of compounding that can bring you nearer to your goals.
How I Do It: Every night before I sleep, I will write my schedule and tasks that I need to complete for the next day. I will then divide the list from the most important (must get it done) to the least important tasks.
Pre-plan my routes is one of the time-saving tips for busy moms that really helps. You can check google maps to estimate time from point A to point B and get the fastest route to save time. For me, extra time means I have more time for “me time” which is essential for your mental health.
2. Meal Planning
You need food for energy. Making food choices when you are hungry often will result in poor choices. Hence, it is imperative to do meal planning for busy moms as we often skip or choose the wrong food choices that did not bring any benefit to our body causing unnecessary added extra pounds.
Meal planning must come hand in hand with what kind of food you are putting in your body. The best food is the one that has well balanced nutritious meal aka complete macros. (Carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fat).
To make meal plans for busy moms you must ask yourself these questions:
- How many times per week are you willing to meal prep?
- How many times will you eat per day?
- How many meals/snacks will you eat per day?
Once you know the answers to the questions above, you can start to do meal planning for busy moms.
Of course, doing a meal plan, you had to include your family member’s preferences as well. Especially if they are picky eaters. It might be hard when you first start out but believe me with practice you will get the hang of doing a meal plan for working mom.
How I Do It: Meal planning tips for busy moms that I would give is to choose a day to do your meal plan. I do a meal plan every Saturday and do grocery shopping on the same day.
Once I already set my weekly meal plans for busy moms and have all my groceries sorted out, I will do meal prepping on the next day which is on Sunday.
You can check these recipes that I use on my meal plan.
3. Meal Prepping
GET FREE MEAL PREP GUIDE FOR BEGINNER
Choosing what to eat for you and your family is important. You must choose what is best for your and your family’s health.
One of the time-saving tips for busy moms is to do meal prepping. Meal prepping is the concept of preparing whole meals or dishes ahead of time. You can try to cook these recipes for a working mom meal plan.
Busy mom weight loss can only be achieved if you know how to choose and eat a well-balanced nutritious meal – complete macronutrients. Macronutrients consist of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fat.
Another weight loss tips for busy moms are to eat in a calorie deficit. It is easier to cut 250 – 500 kcal calories from your daily calories requirement than doing exercise, especially for busy working moms.
If you don’t know how to count your calories and want to know your macronutrient ratio to help you achieve weight loss for busy moms. You can fill in your details in this calculator down below.
How I Do It: After meal planning and doing groceries on Saturday, I will meal prep on Sunday. On Sunday, after I have decided what to cook for me and my family, I will also make sure to separate and store them in a meal prep container.
Often when I am not around, this will help my children to reheat the food easily in the microwave.
4. Eating Your Macros
Proven mom weight loss is eating your macros. Now, you may be wondering what is a macronutrient. Macros consist of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fat.
Eating too many of one type of macro can never be good. A well-balanced nutritious meal is always the best. The most common and readily available food is processed food. However, this food is usually high in calories, carbs, sugar, and sodium.
If you wake up and suddenly feel that you don’t know what has happened to your body or wonder why you are tired all the time. Chances are it is because of what you put inside your body that causes hormone imbalance and getting high risks of obesity, insulin resistance, and hypertension.
How I Do It: The best weight loss plan for busy moms is ensuring that you have well-balanced nutritious food! My family’s plate consists of half vegetables and fruits, 1/3 of protein, and 1/3 of carbs. You can refer to the picture I provided down below for reference.
I highly recommend that you buy “the everything macro diet cookbook” It is a good book if you are a beginner and the recipes inside the book are delicious.
You can check my recipes and weight loss smoothies for breastfeeding moms too for free.
5. Focus On Your Protein
As busy working moms, we are always against time. By the time, we had a chance to eat, we end up being very hungry and reach out to what is available in front of our eyes. Without thinking about whether it is fulfilling or not.
The most available food that is readily available inside our pantry is high-rich carbs. Eating carbs can give us instant energy but cause a spike in sugar levels in the blood.
This is the reason why we feel sluggish, bloated, and gained extra pounds in the blink of an eye! Worse, when you feel a craving for sweets or munching all the time. Sound familiar? Because I was too in the same situation as you.
Eating protein not only can help you feel satiated. It also can help you to reduce your craving. Protein is important to our bodies as it helps to repair and build the body’s tissues. Drives metabolic reactions, maintains pH and fluid balance, and keeps the immune system strong.
How I Do It: Again, meal planning for busy moms and meal prepping is crucial to help you not to eat unhealthy food that does not benefit your body at all. You may feel overwhelmed and difficult to do this at first, but believe me these methods for weight loss for busy moms works!
6. Be A Mindful Eater
I find being a mindful eater can help tremendously with weight loss for busy moms. What is a mindful eater?
Mindful Eater is a technique to eat slowly and without distraction. Becoming aware of your body’s physical hunger cues and eating only until you’re full and able to distinguish between true hunger and non-hunger triggers for eating.
Besides being a mindful eater, diets for busy moms that I recommended is intermittent fasting especially if you are insulin-resistant or have diabetes.
How I Do It: From my experience and the clients that I have coached, moms weight loss can benefit from doing intermittent fasting.
Busy working moms, we are struggling to find time to eat. There is always something that needs to be done ASAP. I find intermittent fasting can help us to weight loss for busy moms and balance our hormones.
7. Drink Water
Never underestimates drinking water. Water is beneficial to our bodies. Getting enough water can prevent dehydration, which can cause unclear thinking, mood change, body overheating, and leading to constipation and kidney stones.
Furthermore, the most common mistake is drinking your calories. Sweetened beverages have high calories and can cause sugar spikes which may contribute to insulin resistance in the long term.
Try to drink your water at least 8 glasses per day.
How I Do It: I know it might be challenging for you to get yourself to drink enough water especially if you are not used to drinking tasteless water. My advice is to make infused water (mixing your water with slice fruits like strawberry/lemon/mint).
I also find it more motivating to drink water from a cute water bottle with motivational quotes and timing.
8. Managing Stress
Being a busy working mom, it is easier to be in stress due to work-related or at home. It is important to know how to manage your stress well.
Unmanageable stress can cause hormonal imbalance, especially for women. In the long-term stress can cause increased levels of cortisol resulting in insulin resistance, hence weight gain, and a high risk of getting diabetes, and hypertension.
If you want to achieve weight loss for busy moms, you must learn to identify your problems and find solutions.
How I Do It: I write my problems and try to find and list down possible solutions to help me overcome my issues. Often when you list down your problems and solutions, you get to visualize and see that your problems are actually manageable.
I also do deep breathing techniques, meditation, and yoga to help me calm and clear my mind so that I can think clearly.
Writing in a gratitude journal also helps me to overcome stress and made me realize there is so much more in life and energy that you can focus on. When you focus on positivity, you will attract good vibes in your life and vice versa.
9. Getting A Good And Quality Sleep
Getting a night of good and quality sleep can accelerate busy mom weight loss. In order for your body to function well, you need at least to sleep between 7 to 9 hours.
I know it is easier said than done. I have three kids the age 9 years old, 5 years old, and 2 years old. To make it even seems impossible, my youngest still breastfeeding meaning I will wake up from time to time to breastfeed her.
And the worst is not yet to be revealed, I work shift too! I have to work the night and day shifts. While everyone sleeps at night, I have to work and breast pumps too!
So I know and understand your struggle. Disrupting our circadian rhythm can bring harm to our body causing our hormone imbalance and inflicting health issues such as weight gain.
How I Do It: I always try to create a conducive environment before I sleep. My curtain is sun-proof in that it will block sun rays from entering my room. I also sleep in the dark which can help to increase melatonin that helps me sleep more soundly. Sleeping on a bed with nice smells and comfortable bedsheets helps too.
My children are trained to sleep early at 8 pm. Occasional wake up due to breastfeeding is inevitable but making sure my baby is full before sleeps help to less her dependency on breast milk.
10. Walk More
My experience coaching busy working moms, especially those who weigh more than 190 pounds will have difficulty to start exercising. For them, making time to exercise can be tough and unmotivating.
I always advise starting small but consistently. Try to walk 10,000 steps daily. When you go grocery shopping, you can park a bit far so that you can walk more. Based on research, walking for more than 30 minutes can strengthen bones, reduce excess body fat, increase cardiovascular fitness, and boost muscle power and endurance.
How I Do It: I find having a smartwatch and smartphone can help to record your steps daily. Seeing your progress every day and trying to achieve goals of 10,000 steps daily is possible. When you are able to reach that goal, believe me, you will get addicted.
11. Start Exercising
One of the weight loss tips for working moms to help you shred that extra pound is doing exercise. Doing exercise can make you feel happy and good due to endorphins and overall health.
Try every exercise if you are a beginner and stick to the one that makes you feel good and happy. Once your body is used to exercise. Try to combine your exercise with weight training. Building muscles can help you in the long run.
Muscles can help to boost your metabolism and prevent you to be frail when aging. Women tend to lose 3-6% muscle mass somewhere around 30s per year. As women are sensitive to hormones, if we did not build up our muscles from now, it will be difficult to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight during our menopause and post-menopause.
How I Do It: I start off with walking, once I gain traction and achieve my daily 10,000 steps goal. I start cardio, HIIT, and yoga and combine them with resistance and weight training. I do my exercise mostly at home and occasionally in the gym where I teach Yoga class.
12. Involved Your Kids
Time-saving tips for busy moms are to involve kids in doing house chores. It’s a win-win situation for both of you because you teach them to be responsible and independent by preparing them to survive and you can have extra time for exercising or relaxing.
You can teach them from a young age. When my children reach the age of 4 or 5 (depending on their readiness, each kid of mine is different so are yours) I will teach them to pick up their own toys and store them inside a box.
You can also teach them to clean up after themselves and bring dirty plates to the kitchen sink/dishwasher. Teaching them early can help them to become a responsible adult in the future. Kids are smart.
How I Do It: I teach my children at the age of 4/5 years old. I treat them with respect and talk to them. Praises them and make play pretend to help. When they are older like my eldest, he knows to tidy up his own room, put clothes for laundry, and even wash dishes.
Involve them in daily chores and even exercise can help them to be independent and healthy. My youngest like to imitate my yoga poses. End up, I am giving her kisses and tickles. The best memories you can make as a busy working mom spending time with your kids whenever possible.
13. Don’t Be Too Hard On Yourself
I understand being a busy working mom, you and I are not perfect. You may plan the best plan for your day but you encounter hiccups here and there.
I want you to know, you are enough, worthy of being a busy working mom. You are wearing many hats in a day and the only times you rest is when you fall asleep. You are only human, with limitations is it okay if you face failures today.
You will rise higher and achieve your goals.
I believe in you, Mommy!
FAQs On Weight Loss For Busy Moms
How Can A Busy Mom Lose Weight Fast?
A busy mom can lose weight fast with 7 weight loss tips for busy moms:
- Cut down on refined carbs
- Eat more protein
- Drink more water
- Filling up on fiber
- Snack smarter
- Get a quality sleep
- Managing your stress
How Can I Lose Weight When I’m Busy?
You can lose weight even when you are busy with these 6 strategies:
- Meal planning and meal prepping
- Choose to eat whole food. (Carbohydrates, Protein, and Healthy Fat)
- Breakfast with a well-balanced food. (Target calories between 280 – 350kcal)
- Prioritize your protein
- Remember your WHY
- Squeeze in exercise whenever possible.
How Can A Mom Lose Weight?
A mom can lose weight by becoming a mindful eater. Focusing on well-balanced nutritious food. If you are a new mom with a baby you need to eat frequent 5-6 small meals a day with healthy snacks in between to help you energize and breastfeed. This can help you eat to lose weight.
Is It Harder For Moms To Lose Weight?
Yes and No if you are wondering if is it harder for moms to lose weight. I found a mom that is struggling with weight loss due to her eating patterns. Too many moms are eating processed calorie-rich foods that are low in nutrients. While there are moms who easily shred weight by taking care of what they eat and engaging in active lifestyles.
How Do Moms Lose Belly Fat?
Moms do lose belly fat when they focus to eat well-balanced nutritious food and engaging in effective exercises such as the V-Ups exercise, plank, bicycle crunches, flutter kicks, mountain climbers, burpees, and squats.
What Should I Eat To Lose My Mommy Belly?
To lose your mommy belly, you should eat high-fiber, high-protein whole foods or snacks like low-fat cheese, fiber crackers, fruits, veggies, or Greek yogurt. Avoid eating processed calorie-rich food and sweet beverages. Being mindful of what you eat combined with an active lifestyle will help you to lose your mommy belly sooner than you thought.
Why Do I Struggle To Lose Weight?
If you are struggling to lose weight, certain factors can contribute to your struggle such as genetics, race and ethnicity, age, physical activity, diet, hormones, and social factors. You need to burn more calories than what you eat combine with an active lifestyle. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to weight loss.
How Do I Start Staying Motivated To Lose Weight?
Here are motivation tips to start motivating yourself to lose weight:
- Find your WHY.
- Become the hero of your life
- Start with self-love
- Practice positivity
- Set Goals
- Keep On going
- Get educated
- Make it fun
- Avoid fads.
Will My Mommy Belly Go Away?
Yes, your mommy belly will go away but not instantly like how it was before you were pregnant, it can take months or even years and the belly’s shape can be different permanently. Some moms unfortunately may experience diastasis recti, a bulging tummy due to a separation of the abdominal muscles during pregnancy.
How Can I Lose Weight If I Am Lazy And No Motivation?
If you are feeling lazy and have no motivation and want to lose weight, you can try these 8 ways weight loss for busy moms:
- Focus and eat more protein
- Eat foods that hydrate you
- Avoid drinking your calories
- Drink plain water
- Rearrange your fridge and pantry
- Seat a goal that has nothing to do with your weight
- Stop doing exercises that you hate
- Give the sweatpants a break.
Here you go mommy, 13 checklist plans for weight loss for busy moms. I am rooting and believing in you.
It can be challenging and intimidating or even overwhelming to follow these ultimate guide weight loss for busy moms, but it’s okay you can do one step at a time following your own pace. Choose one steps that you think is doable with your current state. Then once you mastered them, you can add on more.
Setting your goals, being consistent, and all your effort will be compounded. It is not impossible to lose weight, be healthy, and be happy. A well work-life balance is doable.
If you feel that this article is beneficial to you, why not share them with your family and friends. Do let me know if this article does help you by leaving me a comment down below.
Related Posts
Meal Planner For Busy Moms – Effortless Saving Time and Stress!
Crescendo Fasting: Intermittent Fasting For Women Weight Loss
Guide For Intermittent Fasting For Women Over 40
Intermittent Fasting For Night Shift
Mediterranean Diet Smoothies – Recipes and Benefits
10 Best Tea For Intermittent Fasting (Personally Tasted And Tried)
