Mother of 3 'transformed' after losing more than 30 kg after each birth

Hanoi With the habit of eating clean combined with Keto and exercising at home, Vu Hong Anh, 26 years old, lost more than 30 kg after each birth.

Hong Anh, currently a freelancer, became pregnant for the first time in 2019. At that time, she was 1.64 m tall, weighed 60 kg, and was hospitalized many times due to high blood pressure, seizures, and preeclampsia.

At 37 weeks pregnant, she had to give birth in an emergency, her weight before going into surgery reached 96 kg. After giving birth, Hong Anh was still at 90 kg, her body was flabby, covered with stretch marks, making the woman self-conscious, embarrassed, and afraid to meet people.

Determined to lose weight, she bought the medicine online and used it. Initially, her weight dropped quickly. However, after a while, Hong Anh had to stop taking it because she had a stomach ulcer and weak kidneys.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Head of the Department of Digestive Surgery, 108 Central Military Hospital, recommends that users should be careful with the ingredients in weight loss drugs sold online. In particular, many foods are advertised as herbal, but contain hidden, undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients that can be harmful to users.

Mr. Tuan said that weight loss products of unknown origin or not tested can cause stress or harm the liver and kidneys. More dangerous are complications such as digestive, cardiovascular, and neurological disorders... On the other hand, using weight loss products at the same time as other medications can affect the effectiveness of both drugs.

"Using weight loss products cannot replace a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle," said Mr. Tuan.

Giving up extreme weight loss, Hong Anh switched to the Keto diet and spent 1-1.5 hours doing cardio and tabata exercises online. Thanks to that, after a year, she lost 51 kg.

Three times on the operating table, Hong Anh exceeded the 90 kg mark. Photo: Character provided — Three times on the operating table, Hong Anh exceeded the 90 kg mark. Photo: *Character provided*

In 2021, Hong Anh gave birth to her second child. During this pregnancy, she gained more weight, a total of 40 kg. Her weight before surgery was 93 kg.

After giving birth, she started to lose weight. Thanks to her existing experience and learning more about nutrition and how to calculate calories, she chose to eat Keto and Eat clean at the same time to stay in shape and still have enough milk for her baby.

The Keto diet emphasizes fat, protein, and carbohydrates, then uses a backup system called ketosis to force the liver to use fat for energy. The diet severely restricts many food groups, including grains, fruits, starchy vegetables, many dairy products, and even some nuts that contain carbohydrates. People must consume large amounts of dairy and fatty meats. This diet can be effective in the short term, but is often counterproductive in the long term.

Eat clean is a diet with the purpose of being healthy, losing weight, maintaining a good figure and focusing on using natural foods. The general principle of this diet is to encourage the consumption of more whole foods such as: fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains and healthy fats... At the same time, the eater needs to limit fast foods, processed foods, sweets and other packaged foods.

During the process of combining these two regimens, Hong Anh eats a full range of nutrients, limits starch and uses slow-metabolizing starch groups, but does not cut them out completely. She does not consume fatty meat or skin of meat and fish, limits spices and only eats food that she prepares herself so that she can control the ingredients and quantity. In addition, the woman prioritizes cooking by steaming, boiling or pan-frying, using olive oil, and does not consume canned or processed foods.

Hong Anh eats 5-6 meals a day and each meal is not too full. In addition to 3 main meals, she consumes fruit, yogurt or drinks detox water from vegetables and fruits for each snack. The woman also limits fruits that are too sweet such as durian, longan... When her weight is stagnant, she applies the 16:8 intermittent fasting regimen (fasting for 16 hours, eating within 8 hours) for about 3-4 days and then returns to her old diet.

However, due to losing weight immediately after giving birth, the incision had not healed yet, so Hong Anh could not exercise much. She often had back pain and fatigue due to IV injections, so she combined acupuncture to improve her health and switched to boxing to burn fat and reduce excess fat on her body. Thanks to that, after 13 months of giving birth for the second time, Hong Anh lost 54 kg, completing her desired goal.

Hong Anh before and after successfully losing weight after giving birth to her third child. Photo: Character provided — Hong Anh before and after successfully losing weight after giving birth to her third child. Photo: *Character provided*

With her two children gradually growing stronger, Hong Anh became pregnant for the third time and gave birth 5 months ago. Similar to the previous two times, this time Hong Anh also suffered from preeclampsia and gained a lot of weight during pregnancy. After giving birth, she weighed 90 kg. However, thanks to prior preparation, the mother of 3 applied the same diet as the second time she lost weight, combining Eat clean and Keto, quickly losing 58 kg after just over 4 months of giving birth. Her waistline also went from 115 cm to 70 cm, slim, revealing her waist.

Because this was her third cesarean section, Hong Anh mainly focused on changing her diet and not exercising too much to avoid affecting the incision and the mother's health after giving birth.

Currently, Hong Anh still applies this diet to be healthy and not gain weight again. "Only when I successfully lose weight do I feel like I can live as myself, I am more confident and energetic," Hong Anh said, adding that she is satisfied with her constant efforts.