!!!!!HELP!!!!!WEIGHT CONTROL AFTER PREGNANCY ;/;/;/

okaluzna

Hello People!
I have a problem...
I gave a birth to the beautiful little girl 6 months ago. I breastfeed and I do not eat meat and very rarely eat deiry. I have started doing Insanity (not for the first time in my life) and this time I CANNOT LOSE any fat/weight! I do everything what I did befor pregnancy ( apart from drinking protein shakes and eating meat) and NOTHING. I was 70.4 kg when I started doing Insanity and now I am 70kg (after first phase). Maybe sometimes I eat irregular or I eat a little bit more fat ( avocado, nuts....- has to keep my milk fat) ... but 400 gr in a month....;/;/;/
Ps. On top of insanity I do fit camp 3 times a week- 1 session = 1 hour.
What do I do wrong, what should I change...????
heeeeelp I do not want to be an elephant for another year :P

kommodevaran

Do you log your food intake? If so, how many calories do you eat per day, on average, according to your log? How tall are you?

knotmel

You are doing a great job of being so active with a tiny baby! That is no easy feat!

I have an 11 month old. While I was breastfeeding him, I tried to lose the baby weight several times by calorie restriction and adding exercise. I found myself so hungry and tired and miserable that I quickly abandoned that quest each time. And just ended up maintaining. Now that I’m no longer breastfeeding, I am having no trouble eating at a deficit (down 7 lbs in one month), and working out now gives me more energy rather than wiping me out. I’ve read that even though the myth is that breastfeeding = weight loss, that doesn’t seem to be true for all women. Some women’s bodies try to hold on to fat more during breastfeeding than others (to ensure nutrition for the baby). That’s certainly what it felt like to me.

So, if I were talking to myself from 5 months ago, I would encourage myself to be more forgiving and gentle with me. Feeding a baby (and all the other stuff that goes with keeping an infant alive) is hard work! There will be plenty of time after this period to work on weight loss.

MonkeyMel21

knotmel wrote: »

You are doing a great job of being so active with a tiny baby! That is no easy feat!

I have an 11 month old. While I was breastfeeding him, I tried to lose the baby weight several times by calorie restriction and adding exercise. I found myself so hungry and tired and miserable that I quickly abandoned that quest each time. And just ended up maintaining. Now that I’m no longer breastfeeding, I am having no trouble eating at a deficit (down 7 lbs in one month), and working out now gives me more energy rather than wiping me out. I’ve read that even though the myth is that breastfeeding = weight loss, that doesn’t seem to be true for all women. Some women’s bodies try to hold on to fat more during breastfeeding than others (to ensure nutrition for the baby). That’s certainly what it felt like to me.

So, if I were talking to myself from 5 months ago, I would encourage myself to be more forgiving and gentle with me. Feeding a baby (and all the other stuff that goes with keeping an infant alive) is hard work! There will be plenty of time after this period to work on weight loss.

OP:
Pretty much all of this was my experience too. I didn't lose any weight till I stopped breastfeeding at around 16 months. Then I was able to work hard and lose it and really get back in to shape and felt great. Let this time right now be supportive of your breastfeeding and health (and baby's health), don't make your self feel bad about not losing weight. This phase of life doesn't last long.

fromnebraska

I would go for a more gentle approach to weight loss and eat at maintenance and let the breastfeeding do the work for you. I wouldn't exercise either.

DomesticKat

How tall are you? How much weight do you have to lose to get to a normal BMI?

The previous posts hit on some important points. Breastfeeding makes you extra hungry because it requires calories from you. If you have less weight to lose (and less fat stores to pull from), too aggressive of a deficit is going to make you miserable and hungry and likely unable to stick to it. If that's the case, it's a wise idea to stick to a half pound of loss a week. You'll need to collect your own data over time to figure out how much you can eat to create a 250 calorie deficit because nobody can tell you exactly how many calories breastfeeding is burning. If you estimate that breastfeeding burns 500 calories a day, you would eat at maintenance plus 250 calories a day to lose a half pound a week.

In any case, I recommend starting out eating at maintenance for your current weight. Get a food scale if you think you need more accuracy, check the entries you're using for accuracy, and log everything you eat consistently for 4-6 weeks. Track your weight with a trending app (like Libra) to help determine your daily deficit from breastfeeding. Eat back your exercise calories. Then see where you are in 4-6 weeks.

It's also possible that it's just too difficult to incorporate a deficit from breastfeeding right now and you need to satiate your hunger and eat more, and that's okay too!

DomesticKat

And as far as the exercise - you can't out-exercise too many calories. Trust me, I tried it for years. Don't rely on exercise as a backup plan if you aren't consistent with tracking your food. If you're consistent with logging and stick to your calorie goal, and stay committed to nourishing yourself and not undereating, that's 100% of it. Exercise for health. Not for weight loss. It's not necessary while you're breastfeeding, because you're already burning a lot of calories producing milk for your baby.

mrsiv3

Hey, I am having the same problem. I gained 65lbs during my pregnancy. I lost 30 so far but I cant seem to shake the rest. I used to not eat meat but starting back eating it when I got pregnant. I am slowly tapering off again.

nxd10

It takes a while. I gained 50 pounds with each pregnancy, nursed forever. It was steady steady steady until 7 months. Then the fat started melting off. I wouldn't keep weight on. From ages 1-3 (both nursed that long) I could eat ANYTHING and was at my skinniest adult weight ever. Be patient with yourself. You just made a human being.

ahoy_m8

MonkeyMel21 wrote: »

knotmel wrote: »

You are doing a great job of being so active with a tiny baby! That is no easy feat!

I have an 11 month old. While I was breastfeeding him, I tried to lose the baby weight several times by calorie restriction and adding exercise. I found myself so hungry and tired and miserable that I quickly abandoned that quest each time. And just ended up maintaining. Now that I’m no longer breastfeeding, I am having no trouble eating at a deficit (down 7 lbs in one month), and working out now gives me more energy rather than wiping me out. I’ve read that even though the myth is that breastfeeding = weight loss, that doesn’t seem to be true for all women. Some women’s bodies try to hold on to fat more during breastfeeding than others (to ensure nutrition for the baby). That’s certainly what it felt like to me.

So, if I were talking to myself from 5 months ago, I would encourage myself to be more forgiving and gentle with me. Feeding a baby (and all the other stuff that goes with keeping an infant alive) is hard work! There will be plenty of time after this period to work on weight loss.

OP:
Pretty much all of this was my experience too. I didn't lose any weight till I stopped breastfeeding at around 16 months. Then I was able to work hard and lose it and really get back in to shape and felt great. Let this time right now be supportive of your breastfeeding and health (and baby's health), don't make your self feel bad about not losing weight. This phase of life doesn't last long.

Same here. Plus I will add sleep makes a HUGE difference to ghrelin (hormone signaling hunger) & leptin (hormone signaling satiety). Don’t exhaust and frustrate yourself trying to lose until you (and the baby) have some semblance of normal sleep.