I'm so hungry!

SleepyQueen98

I'm not meeting my calorie deficit goals very well, but I'm still starving.
Nearly 700 calories over the other day and I was still so hungry. Today I'm starving unto feeling like I'm going to throw up after dinner and already over my calorie goal. I'm breastfeeding, but that should only be around 300 extra calories. I desperately want to lose back the weight I gained during pregnancy after a weight loss journey. I was doing so well, then pregnancy hit and I was starving all the time and I'm even more starving now. Help!

AdahPotatah2024

I'm not a dietitian, but I feel really strongly that women shouldn't watch calories while pregnant or breastfeeding. I'd just try to do the best I could to eat healthy, filling foods like oats, beans, etc. and avoid too much sugar and junk foods.

SleepyQueen98

@AdahPotatah2024 do you mind sharing why you feel so strongly about it? I'd love to hear your perspective.

AdahPotatah2024

Thank you! I just think it's such a critical time for starting a healthy foundation for the baby.

I wasn't able to breastfeed as long as I wanted because I ate too few calories and stopped producing milk. Not because I was trying to lose weight..I just didn't realize it mattered and found it tough to get out and buy the food I needed. I ate really healthy while pregnant, but ate terrible afterwards!

If I had to do it over, I'd focus more on healthy foods.

PAV8888

How many calories you spend breastfeeding depends on quantity of milk consumed and can exceed 300 by quite a bit. That said how long postpartum are you now? What is your daily deficit goal? How many lbs are you trying to lose to normal weight and/or goal?

Many women eat at maintenance for their current stats and activity level and let the calories needed to breastfeed create the deficit. This is often enough to bring weight back to a starting point at a rate similar to the one it was gained at and generally speaking, if there is sufficient fat available to be lost, it is a pace that does not endanger one's milk supply

Of course the exact details matter ... and I'm obviously discussing hearsay, not offering direct experience!🤯🤣

yirara

What is your calorie deficit? What's you're calorie goal? Like Pav8888 said: it might be a good idea to eat at maintenance and let the milk create the calorie deficit.

SleepyQueen98

@AdahPotatah2024 thank you for sharing. I realized that my babys newfound fussiness is definitely correlated and adjusted my calorie goal for what feels right for my body now. This morning has been much more positive already.

@PAV8888 I'm 2 months post partum. I did notice a significant shift as of yesterday after 4 days back. I adjusted my calorie intake to be something that feels much better for my body and for baby. I suppose I'll just use it as a suggestion for now instead of trying to take it so seriously. Current weight 255lbs goal weight is 180lbs so my goal was around 1,700 calories which is what it was in my journey before.

PAV8888

So initial losses from 0 to 6 weeks postpartum would be accelerated beyond straight caloric deficit since you may still be dealing with post baby re balancing. But by the two month mark you should more or less be at your longer term baseline. BUT.

When comparing to what you were eating before "to lose".
--what weight were you at then and are you at now?
--aren't you more active (and sleepless) than in the past?
--aren't you breastfeeding (which you weren't before).

So the caloric goals are not 100% comparable.

Of course it is worth reviewing WHAT you're eating and WHERE you're spending your calories in terms of optimizing satiety for the least amount of calories. And, of course, if you're operating in a zombie like state due to lack of sleep... that's not going to help much.

That said: 500 real Cal a day deficit is a good 50lbs in a year. Trying for that and achieving it beats trying for larger deficits and NOT succeeding in staying the course.

Make it as easy as you can on you while still continuing to make progress