Breastfeeding!

klp_crh

Does anyone know the safest and heathiest (for baby) way to lose weight? Additionally, what is considered a "balanced" diet? I know I can look up fruit, veggies etc. but I want to know more like how much iron, calcium and so on.

gradchica27

My youngest is 17 mo now, but I breastfed all four of mine to 13-18 months and lost my baby weight by 9-12 months pp (I gained 50-60 lbs each time) by counting calories and weighing food and following my normal eating pattern. I'm vegetarian, but that's incidental.

Anyway, at first stay above 1800 calories and monitor your milk supply. If baby seems hungry , up your calories a bit. Aim for 1lb a week--being too aggressive may affect your supply.

Keep taking your prenatal and strive for a varied diet and you and baby should be fine (providing no particular health issues that would require a special diet). I am healthy and so are all my fat babies without tracking anything too closely. "Balanced " = try for whole foods, a mix of fruit and veggies, grains and protein. No need to overthink it.

shaumom

If your little one is getting all their calories from you still...then the safest and healthiest way is to essentially not try to lose weight, honestly. Your body will need an incredible amount of calories and nutrients right now, and it will be a huge stressor on your body to try to curtail any of that at this point. As well, part of your weight gain during pregnancy is aimed at being used up while breastfeeding, and in most cases I know of, that's what happened.

I did not diet at all, but breastfeed for the first year, and I lost 60 pounds in that year alone, just from feeding. :-)