Breastfeeding and losing weight

vivalasam37

Anybody lose weight while breastfeeding? How many calories did you consume? I have mine set at 2400 because I definitely don't want to have my milk supply go down and I'm always hungry. I'm also kind of more focused on just making better choices than calories but curious if anybody has any advice!

Kale0209

I have a really hard time losing weight while breastfeeding. I need at least 30 minutes of exercise a day and eat at least 1800 calories. Any lower and I wont lose anything too much higher and I gain. I am one year postpartum and I'm 5lbs from my prepregnancy weight (I gained 52 total). Its a slow process and takes a lot of trial and error but its possible.

ClosetBayesian

Nope. I did not lose weight breastfeeding any of my kids.

babybear_mt

I did, and still am, but my situation isn't the best. I was unable to exclusively breastfeed my son, who is now 7.5 months old. At one month, when he wasn't gaining, we started supplementing with formula. So he was about 60%ff/40%bf. I started working on losing weight when he was 4 months and started with 1700 calories and have slowly dropped it down to 1450. He still nurses, and I don't think that I have had a drop in my already low supply. But that's just me! I've lost 35 pounds so far, I'm past my pre-pregnancy weight, and have around 30-35 more pounds to goal.

babybear_mt

I should add that I lost about 30 pounds in the first 6 weeks postpartum and started to gain some back with the stress of not being able to ebf. I'm positive most of it was water weight (and baby stuff!!!) Due to pre-eclampsia and massive amounts of retained water. You should have seen my legs and feet!!! I gained around 42 ish pounds throughout my pregnancy.

thedafftone

I have been losing approximately 1-2 lb a week on around 2,000 kcals per day. Some days I am a hunger monster so eat more but I try not to go over 2,500.

kbotsh

My daughter is 9 months now and has been exclusively breast fed. During the first 6 months I gained 5kgdue to overeating bad foods ( mainly cake, sweets and fast food alongside my healthy meals) I started weaning at 5 months and decided I was using breastfeeding as an excuse to eat badly. I now eat my maintenance calories minus around 200 kcal in "healthy food" mainly, without taking account of any breastfeeding or exercise calories and have been steadily loosing around 0.5kg per week the last 3.5 months

I spoke to my gp and my nutritionist first who advised this was safe for me to do

savithny

I was one of those people who just dropped weight without trying while breastfeeding. My daughter was born at 10 pounds and grew to 26 pounds before she'd eat any solids, and all those calories came off me...
I was never so aware of the hormonal basis of hunger and cravings as during that time - every time my weight dropped below a certain point (my lowest adult weight), I'd find myself in front of the fridge eating boiled eggs and meat - all my cravings were for protein and fat, not sugar....

How old is your baby? Some people find their body holds onto the last 10-ish pounds, but I know others who had experiences like mine. Remember, *all* your babies calories are being created by your body, so if you look at the calorie count of similar amounts of formula you get an idea of how much it takes jsut to feed the baby.

Chef_Barbell

Baby is 10 days old and lost a few pounds BFing. I'm still retaining fluids from my c-section so my weight isn't too accurate. I'm just focusing on eating enough to keep up with little Vi's supply. She's going through a growth spurt and I usually only have one hand to eat. Lol

lilnena75

Yes you can lose weight breastfeeding. Talk to your doctor to see what they recommend because everyone is different. But get lots of protein and water to help milk production. I've breastfed all 6 of my kids and I'm on my second set of twins. Now only one is still nursing but he is probably my best eater lol. Not too sure but I believe after you calculate your calorie intake add about 600 calories more if you are breastfeeding. I'm almost to my pre pregnancy weight and my babies just turned 3 month old good luck with your weight loss

CupcakeCrusoe

I lost weight initially, when I exclusively breastfed. Once I went back to work, though, my milk supply dropped at the slightest calorie restriction because pumping just wasn't the same. So I purposefully gained some weight back (because I'm horrible at maintenance). At a year out, we're weaning, I'm calorie cutting, and I'm losing weight again.

Long story short, even if you don't lose weight and breastfeed at the same time, all is not lost.

MaxineSayers2016

Hi. I am nearly 10 weeks post partum. I started on a 1800 calories at about 3 weeks post partum and i have gradually reduced my calories to 1200 where i am now. As of today I am officially back to my prepregnancy weight.

I was also worried that i would affect my milk supply so i try make sure that even though im restricting calories.. the calories i take in are good quality.

I however battled with having TOO MUCH milk which was painfull and i was constantly leaking so after about two or three weeks of restricting my cals the supply slowed down... still more than enough for my baby but no pain for me.

A tip i got was too eat potato, as new moms we are tired a lot and when you tired you tend too make bad food choices and snack too much. I can really say a baked potato at lunch helped me avoid the afternoon unnecessary snacking.

You just have to take it slow and do what works for you and baby. Listen to your body.

HealthyBodySickMind

I ate 2506 cal/day on average for her first 6 months and was down to prepregnancy weight by 9 months postpartum. She is now 2.5 and still bfing. My original goal was a year for bfing.

akmomof7

Definitely listen to your body and baby. I never had issues with milk supply but I ended up flat on my back in bed when I started at 1500-1600 calories. I had to go up to 1800-2000 a day for a while. I am now weaning the munchkins and 1600 is about right if I eat back all my exercise calories. You will probably have to do a little experimenting until you find the right place for you to be (and as soon as you get it right baby starts on solids and you have to play with it again lol).

sardelsa

I waited about two months before dropping my cals, I was very careful since I didn't want to affect my supply. I was pretty much eating at the high end of my maintenance just in case. For me that was about 2700-2900 cals but I wasn't really tracking. It took me about 7 months to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.

SusanMFindlay

Chef_Barbell wrote: »

Baby is 10 days old and lost a few pounds BFing. I'm still retaining fluids from my c-section so my weight isn't too accurate. I'm just focusing on eating enough to keep up with little Vi's supply. She's going through a growth spurt and I usually only have one hand to eat. Lol

C sections are brutal for the water retention. I peed out 10 pounds of water weight in a couple of days (a couple of weeks after the birth).

So, keep doing what you're doing, and congratulations on the baby!

akmomof7

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

C sections are brutal for the water retention. I peed out 10 pounds of water weight in a couple of days (a couple of weeks after the birth).

So, keep doing what you're doing, and congratulations on the baby!

Absolutely! I couldn't believe how swollen I was after mine! My husband kept joking about my sausages for toes! And then one morning, the flood gates opened quite literally!

Verity1111

It depends on your weight and height as well. I ate about 1700-1900 when breastfeeding and I stayed a little active.

Chef_Barbell

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

Chef_Barbell wrote: »

Baby is 10 days old and lost a few pounds BFing. I'm still retaining fluids from my c-section so my weight isn't too accurate. I'm just focusing on eating enough to keep up with little Vi's supply. She's going through a growth spurt and I usually only have one hand to eat. Lol

C sections are brutal for the water retention. I peed out 10 pounds of water weight in a couple of days (a couple of weeks after the birth).

So, keep doing what you're doing, and congratulations on the baby!

Thanks! And tell me about it! I am peeing more now than when I was pregnant. :laugh:

LAWoman72

Sad to say, even when EBF I wasn't able to eat more (without gaining/not losing).

But I remember my mother telling me the weight "just fell off her" while breastfeeding so it must happen for some women.

And...congratulations!

vivalasam37

I didn't expect so many responses! Thank you ladies!! to answer some questions I had a c-section and baby girl is almost 11 weeks. I have lost 20 pounds since I gave birth...only gained 25 with my pregnancy but I was overweight before I got pregnant so I have a long ways to go! I talked to my Dr today and she recommended starting out at 2000 calories a day and adjusting as needed after a few weeks (a couple of you suggested similar). So that's what I'm going to do! Focusing on eating healthy foods and being more active! EXCITED to lose weight but more excited just to be healthy in general

maemommy813

vivalasam37 wrote: »

Anybody lose weight while breastfeeding? How many calories did you consume? I have mine set at 2400 because I definitely don't want to have my milk supply go down and I'm always hungry. I'm also kind of more focused on just making better choices than calories but curious if anybody has any advice!

I am NOT one of those moms who just loses weight breastfeeding. My 8 month old takes solids but still nurses several times a day so I'm trying 1600 calories a day and adding an extra 250 for nursing. I'm also eating my exercise calories back. We will see how it goes!