Breastfeeding and Losing Weight

Jessilemley
Jessilemley Posts: 2 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hi everyone! I just had my daughter 2 months ago and I am ready to get back to losing weight. Has anyone else lost weight while breastfeeding and do you have advice? I want to make sure I don't affect my milk supply and I know that can happen when losing weight.

I currently weigh 263 pounds and I am focusing on eating a well rounded diet, drinking tons of water, and staying within 1,800 calories. If anyone has ideas on what might work better I'd love to know!

Replies

  • LeahSpielman
    LeahSpielman Posts: 2 Member
    I see no one has responded. I am nursing my LO, she's 15 weeks. Following to see if anyone responds!
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    Not personal experience, but I have seen many women post that they ate their maintenance calories and let the calorie burn from breastfeeding create their deficit. Congrats BTW :smiley:
  • BrettWithPKU
    BrettWithPKU Posts: 575 Member
    Jessilemley wrote: »
    Hi everyone! I just had my daughter 2 months ago and I am ready to get back to losing weight. Has anyone else lost weight while breastfeeding and do you have advice? I want to make sure I don't affect my milk supply and I know that can happen when losing weight.

    I currently weigh 263 pounds and I am focusing on eating a well rounded diet, drinking tons of water, and staying within 1,800 calories. If anyone has ideas on what might work better I'd love to know!

    From the experience of my wife (we have a 12-month-old), she exercised very little, ate in a way that would cause her to 'maintain', and lost her preg. weight gradually through breast feeding.

    If you're 263 pounds, and assuming there's extra weight there to lose beyond general 'baby fat', you could probably manage losing a small amount of weight beyond the loss from breast feeding. Starting out I wouldn't be any more aggressive than, say, 1 pound a week. This is arbitrary though, and your doctor would know MUCH better than I would.
  • Francolley34
    Francolley34 Posts: 2 Member
    I did weight watchers when breastfeeding my little one. I lost 38lbs and ate all of my exercise points!! Now that she has been weaned it's harder to cut back on calories but I'm taking it slowly.
    Great question!!
  • bluesheeponahill
    bluesheeponahill Posts: 169 Member
    I was breastfeeding but I couldn’t lose weight. It was like not going anywhere. I warned my son off at 20mths. It’s the first time in the last two weeks I’ve seen anything finally shift.

    Good luck though! I hope you’re much more successful than I was!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    Not personal experience, but I have seen many women post that they ate their maintenance calories and let the calorie burn from breastfeeding create their deficit. Congrats BTW :smiley:

    Yep, do that, or add breastfeeding to your food diary to get negative calories to eat back
  • warriorgurl23
    warriorgurl23 Posts: 5 Member
    Hi! Breastfeeding mama of a 5 month old here! At 40 weeks preggo I was 223 lbs then after delivery I was 200. I am currently down to 180. I’ve only been activity trying to lose weight for about 4 weeks, but I started exercise again at 6-8 weeks. I have MFP goal set to 1 lb a week with active lifestyle which puts me a bit over 2000 calories. I personally do not eat my exercise calories back. I’ve been losing a steady 1-2 lbs a week. From my research, to maintain milk supply and lose weight it’s important not to eat less than 1500 calories and to try not to lose more than 1 lb a week! Don’t stress too much. Just watch your supply and if you notice a dip eat a little more and it should return as long as you continue to feed baby on demand. Also I think if you really want some hands on help, a dietitian would be great. Sometimes insurance will cover them. Good luck and pls add me! I’d love to have another BF mama friend with the same goal as me! Much love.
  • karenburnsbot
    karenburnsbot Posts: 14 Member
    In the same boat! I have an 8 week old and am trying to lose weight. I lost 6lbs quickly and have stagnated since December 1. I’m frustrated that I’m maintaining even though I feel like I’m eating well and I’m breastfeeding on demand.
  • jessimia
    jessimia Posts: 134 Member
    I successfully dropped all of the baby weight and some (58 -65lbs) before both of my kiddos were one year old. What worked best for me was getting up early before they woke up and making sure my husband would support me in the morning if they did. So basically, we worked out a schedule that included him doing morning duty which means he makes breakfast and is with them until it’s time for him to go to work. Then I take over. That gives me some time in the morning to do workouts and also work from home while being able to stay home and homeschool my children as well.

    This is just what worked best for our family but I understand it may not work for all families. There was a time when I did not ask for his help in the beginning after my first one was born and what I would do then was try my hardest to get on the treadmill and or elliptical or do video workouts through out the day from home with weights whenever my infant would allow. I also ended up getting a jogging stroller which allowed me to have a great work out while my kiddos were content in the stroller while I ran them to the park. Some of our fondest memories! They are now 4 and 6 years old😊

    I hope that you add me so that we can help support one another!
  • christies_journey
    christies_journey Posts: 3 Member
    I was always told to eat to maintain my pre pregnancy weight. And never to go below 1800.

    My son is 13.5 months now still breastfeeding and I lost a stone in the first year.
  • mmaloney3987
    mmaloney3987 Posts: 1 Member
    Hi, I just rejoined MyFitnessPal in hope to get encouraged to eat less unhealthy stuff and exercise more. I had my second baby almost 4 months ago. My first son was born only 17 months before that. I didn't lose all my first pregnancy weight before getting pregnant with my second so I would like to try to get back to my weight before having kiddos. I am breastfeeding and do not want to sacrifice my milk supply at all so I guess I have been too liberal with calories. I lost a lot of weight after my first pregnancy bc I avoided all sugar and my colic baby never let me eat. After the second pregnancy I stress ate and over ate bc I remembered feeling starved so much with my previous post pregnancy. I lost most of the baby weight easily then so I thought it was from breastfeeding, but here I am breastfeeding again and the weight is definitely not coming off. I just need incentive to eat better and eat less. I play competitive ultimate frisbee twice a week so that is some good cardio. I try to do other at home work out, but having 2 kids under the age of 21 months just wears me out.

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