Gaining weight after breastfeeding ends

sierragoneau

Hey all!
I had my son almost a year ago and am wrapping up breastfeeding. Between the calorie loss from breastfeeding and developing Graves disease during pregnancy, I found myself down around nearlu 25lbs from my healthy prepregnancy weight while consuming a ton of food per day. I was 130 before I got pregnant, hovered around 108 at my lowest and now that I've mostlu stopped breastfeeding I am starting to gain some back and am up to 111.

I would like to stay close to 120lbs as I begin to gain. My appetite is definitely still high since I have gotten so used ro eating close to 3000 calories a day and still losing weight. Right now I eat on a maintainence plan of around 1600 calories a day with 30 minute workouts every other day. I'm wondering if I should up my intake if I am desiring to gain weight without ballooning up? Any tips to not feeling so hungry as my body adjusts to it's new caloric needs?

PAV8888

Are you sure that breastfeeding would account for more than 250 Cal or so a day if you have been tapering off???

Your maintenance doesn't sound like maintenance.

weight trend apps help people to get a better idea of what their weight level changes really are...

sarahq81

I have this worry too! I have been eating about 2500 cals per day and still losing a pound a week! Then I dropped a couple of feeds and had to adjust to about 2000. It was tricky at first but I found it was more out of habit than actually being as hungry as I was before. My tips are to have really good filling meals and then keep chocolate bars as snacks, I get crunchie and flakes in multipacks and they are only 100 cals. I also stopped the cake and coffee habit I had started. Just have the coffee. I don’t know how I’m going to cope when mfp goes back to saying i only need 1200 cals 😟

puffbrat

I was ravenous while breastfeeding but that stopped within a week of me ending breastfeeding. It became much easier for me to appropriately restrict my eating after that. In general, the overall trend of your weight will tell you whether or not you are eating enough. Focus on protein and fat for satiety but still allow yourself some treats to not feel deprived.

PAV8888

We are all clear that the OP is wanting to GAIN weight?

Just... not too much.

And her current plan is to eat around 1600 Calories a day.

kimny72

sierragoneau wrote: »

Hey all!
I had my son almost a year ago and am wrapping up breastfeeding. Between the calorie loss from breastfeeding and developing Graves disease during pregnancy, I found myself down around nearlu 25lbs from my healthy prepregnancy weight while consuming a ton of food per day. I was 130 before I got pregnant, hovered around 108 at my lowest and now that I've mostlu stopped breastfeeding I am starting to gain some back and am up to 111.

I would like to stay close to 120lbs as I begin to gain. My appetite is definitely still high since I have gotten so used ro eating close to 3000 calories a day and still losing weight. Right now I eat on a maintainence plan of around 1600 calories a day with 30 minute workouts every other day. I'm wondering if I should up my intake if I am desiring to gain weight without ballooning up? Any tips to not feeling so hungry as my body adjusts to it's new caloric needs?

The key is really to monitor your progress and tweak as you go. You are looking to gain 9 lbs, correct? But at 130 you were fine too? So if you get to 120 and continue gaining weight, you know you are eating too much and need to cut back a little. Maintenance is a range, and it can take a little trial and error to figure out the math. It sounds like you have some wiggle room to work with there, so don't panic if you overshoot a little.

I agree with @pav8888 that 1600 sounds low, so your logging might be off a bit, but what's important is what your weight is doing and how you feel. Allow yourself a little leeway as your body acclimates to the new normal. If you are struggling with hunger, yes eat a little more, also make sure you are getting enough protein, fat, and fiber.

Congrats, be patient with yourself, and good luck :drinker:

sarahq81

PAV8888 wrote: »

We are all clear that the OP is wanting to GAIN weight?

Just... not too much.

And her current plan is to eat around 1600 Calories a day.

Yes, but I got the impression she is wanting tips from those who know what it’s like to feel ravenous from breastfeeding as it’s very easy to go overboard (at one point I was getting up in the middle of the night and eating kitkats because I was so hungry). 1600 cals would be a lot lower than what we are used to.

puffbrat

PAV8888 wrote: »

We are all clear that the OP is wanting to GAIN weight?

Just... not too much.

And her current plan is to eat around 1600 Calories a day.

Yes that was clear, but she also seems to be concerned about hitting her goal weight and then continuing to gain due to hunger. You have never breastfed so it is unlikely you know what that kind of hormone-driven unending hunger is like for some breastfeeding women. Unless I am missing something, OP has not stated her height or activity level, so it is possible that 1600 calories/day before exercise is slightly over her maintenance calories and would allow her to gain slowly.

PAV8888

New mothers are almost by definition lightly active to active.

It is very unlikely that an active mother looking to gain would gain so at 1600.

If a person loses weight at 3000 Calories intake while breastfeeding, then her maintenance is quite likely above 2500 given that breastfeeding USUALLY accounts for about 500 Cal. This "factoid" including that when breastfeeding is tapering the additional expenditure is probably in the 200 to 300 range can be used to take a guess at maintenance.

Intense hunger when not taking in sufficient calories (as evidence by loss of weight) seems to be a pretty normal response and will only intensify if the calories are not provided.

Why would I be surprised to hear that a person who is being hit by a 500 to 750 Calories "exercise" inescapable demand *needs* to fuel that and will feel compelled to eat kit-kats or tigers in order to get the fuel that they need?

Is it possible to over-shoot if you gain too fast? Of course it is. Nobody is advocating gaining too fast. Time is needed for signals to settle down. Hence weight trend app to monitor weight level change.

But starting from deficit calories won't help the situation.

Even if 1600 is MFP maintenance, it is MFP maintenance for sedentary (a new mother isn't), and it assumes adding all activity and eating back 100% of it on top. And it is for maintenance, not weight gain.

sarahq81

PAV8888 wrote: »

New mothers are almost by definition lightly active to active.

It is very unlikely that an active mother looking to gain would gain so at 1600.

If a person loses weight at 3000 Calories intake while breastfeeding, then her maintenance is quite likely above 2500 given that breastfeeding USUALLY accounts for about 500 Cal. This "factoid" including that when breastfeeding is tapering the additional expenditure is probably in the 200 to 300 range can be used to take a guess at maintenance.

Intense hunger when not taking in sufficient calories (as evidence by loss of weight) seems to be a pretty normal response and will only intensify if the calories are not provided.

Why would I be surprised to hear that a person who is being hit by a 500 to 750 Calories "exercise" inescapable demand *needs* to fuel that and will feel compelled to eat kit-kats or tigers in order to get the fuel that they need?

Is it possible to over-shoot if you gain too fast? Of course it is. Nobody is advocating gaining too fast. Time is needed for signals to settle down. Hence weight trend app to monitor weight level change.

But starting from deficit calories won't help the situation.

Even if 1600 is MFP maintenance, it is MFP maintenance for sedentary (a new mother isn't), and it assumes adding all activity and eating back 100% of it on top. And it is for maintenance, not weight gain.

That’s not what she asked, though. I think we can trust that this woman knows what she is doing and will adjust calories accordingly. She’s asking for tips about hunger. And whilst you’re right about calorie deficit making us hungry, there is also a hormonal factor which you will just never have experienced. It’s like a hunger you’ve never felt before.

ruqayyahsmum

sarahq81 wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

We are all clear that the OP is wanting to GAIN weight?

Just... not too much.

And her current plan is to eat around 1600 Calories a day.

Yes, but I got the impression she is wanting tips from those who know what it’s like to feel ravenous from breastfeeding as it’s very easy to go overboard (at one point I was getting up in the middle of the night and eating kitkats because I was so hungry). 1600 cals would be a lot lower than what we are used to.

1600 to gain a little weight is too low if she's been losing on 3000, exclusive breastfeeding is around a 500 calorie deficit
1600 is what I'm losing on
I know the hunger, I was ravenous the first year of breastfeeding. Now in year 3 of feeding and I don't get the hunger at all

As others have said a weight trending app will help you see if your under or over shooting the calories after a few weeks of data

EmbeeKay

If you have been maintaining on 3000, it’s likely you won’t gain at all on 1600 even when you stop breastfeeding. That seems low.

For me *personally*, the extreme hunger went away when I stopped breast-feeding. I didn’t handle hunger well during breast-feeding, it seemed to say “If you’re this hungry, you’re not making enough for your baby.” After stopping, however, I wasn’t worried about hunger cues as much, and that was helpful too, because I still had a little bit of baby weight to lose.

sarahq81

EmbeeKay wrote: »

If you have been maintaining on 3000, it’s likely you won’t gain at all on 1600 even when you stop breastfeeding. That seems low.

For me *personally*, the extreme hunger went away when I stopped breast-feeding. I didn’t handle hunger well during breast-feeding, it seemed to say “If you’re this hungry, you’re not making enough for your baby.” After stopping, however, I wasn’t worried about hunger cues as much, and that was helpful too, because I still had a little bit of baby weight to lose.

So true. You won’t feel guilty for feeling hungry once you stop either so you can experiment with how much you need in order to gain just a bit