Insanity and Breastfeeding

CarSuth

I am exclusively breastfeeding a 4 month old and am currently 1/4 of the way through my second round of Insanity. The first round I lost about 10 lbs but I was not calorie counting or eating clean. I have about 10 more lbs to go and I have seen a plateau in weight loss. I calculated that I need 1900 calories a day through the Insanity calculations which doesn't account for breastfeeding. I don't know if this is a good number or not because I have heard 2 schools of thought. Obviously I have always heard a calorie deficit leads to weight loss but when you breastfeeding, I have heard that you'll hold onto the weight of you aren't taking in enough calories. I am so confused! I just want to know how many calories I need to be eating in order to continue losing weight and toning up! Can someone help? I am 5'5" and 140. My pre-pregnancy weight is around 130 and I would like to get down to that or 125 if I can. More than a weight goal, I just want a tone body without fat!! I push really hard in the workouts and I am following the insanity nutrition plan as well.

Aed0416

I would slowly decrease calories until you see a loss in milk production. I would not make the jump to 1900 calories. Make sure you are staying hydrated. For me, it came to a point where I had to prioritize nursing over fat loss. I was still able to increase endurance and was able to see progress in running but I did not lose the last five pounds until I was no longer breast feeding.

3dogsrunning

I was eating around 2000 calories a day or more while nursing and exercising (mostly running) at the same height. I did weigh a bit more.

What is your calorie intake now?

CarSuth

Was 1900 but today I decreased it to 1500 because I was frustrated with lack of progress. But now I am second guessing that too.

victoria_1024

I lost 80 pounds while breastfeeding so it can be done. I'm still nursing my 1 year old and still losing.

So where does the 1900 calories come from? You need probably 500 calories a day when you're breastfeeding full time. You are relatively light already so I would aim to lose .5 lbs a week, personally. Maybe 1 pound a week at the most. Then how are you figuring out how many calories you burned? I don't have a heart rate monitor so I had to guess and then I ate back half of my estimated exercise calories.

If you're doing an intense work out program and nursing, you need calories to fuel your body. I agree with a previous comment that you should adjust your calories slowly. If you were eating 1900 a day and not losing, don't just jump down to 1500 a day because you really risk your milk supply dropping. Drop your calories by a hundred a day for a week or two and then reassess.

Oh yeah, and weigh everything on a food scale and log accurately or you really don't know how much you're eating.

lindsayh87

The first time I started insanity I was nursing my then 7 month old. I was 153 and got down to 130. I kept my calories around 1400-1500. The main thing to keep your milk supply up is to drink plenty of water. If you feel your supply go down too much then add 100 cals every few days until you find the sweet spot. I will also add, that I didn't lose a ton of weight on the scale the first month of insanity, it's the second month that it all melted off! Be patient & trust the system