Breastfeeding mama needs some help

amykins1984

Hi everyone,

So I'm a proud mom to a 14 week old baby girl. I gained 60 lbs (yikes) during my pregnancy and have lost 40 of that in the last few months. So I'm now left with 20lbs of lazy weight to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I've just returned to running and am able to run 5km in a session, so am aiming to run at least 10km a week, plus 1-2 days of zumba and I lift weights on sundays. I am exclusively breastfeeding my little one so I am hungry ALL THE TIME. I am trying my best to get back on the healthy eating wagon and am aiming for around 100 net carbs a day since that worked well for me last time I was using this app religiously (lost 70lbs. yay!). So here's the dilemma. According to calorie calculators, because breastfeeding burns ~500 calories a day, I should be eating 2500 calories a day as a nursing mother, but that is wayyy too much for me. I eat when I'm hungry and as I said, aim to eat well although I do have cheat days/meals (which I log to keep honest). So I have adjusted to 1900 a day and do not count my nursing as calories burned, only exercise. Over the last couple weeks, I lost some pounds but woke up this morning and they were all back, plus my pants felt like they were fitting tighter. This was after a good week of lots of cardio too. Needless to say, I'm frustrated and very impatient to get my pre-baby body back to some semblance of what it used to be, but there is a a lot of conflicting information out there, so I am not sure if I'm doing this right. Any advice would be appreciated and I'm happy to answer any questions to give you some more background or a better idea of the picture. Thanks!

BusyRaeNOTBusty

You need to try and be more patient. 14 week is still pretty early. Don't beat yourself up over scale variations. Sounds like you are just a little bloated. Definitely NOT fat regain. Most likely it's due to water retentions and/or fluctuating hormones, etc. Give yourself more time. Sounds like you've only been working out and exercising for a couple of weeks. You should probably try for no more than a half pound to a pound a week loss while nursing.

Also, I'd talk to your doctor and/or a lactation consultant before going low carb while breast feeding? How is your milk supply handling the 1900 calories?

sistrsprkl

Congrats to you! And congrats for exclusively breastfeeding. That's a full time job and not always easy. Please be patient with yourself and your body. I had 2 babies 20 months apart and breastfed them both until 14 months. My youngest is almost 2 and I'm just now getting back to where I was pre-pregnancy. Some moms get there faster, some don't. Just listen to your body and eat when you're hungry. You'll get there. In the meantime, kellymom.com has really helpful info for breastfeeding, fitness, diet, etc...

amykins1984

@Busy....Supply seems to be fine, if not a little over-abundant. And I really am trying to be patient, but damn it's hard lol. It was a tough pregnancy and it was very hard watching myself gain back almost every single pound that I had worked so hard to lose previously. I'm not going abusively low carb though, just making a concentrated effort not to overdo it since my body tends to either gain or stubbornly hang on to fat if I eat too many carby foods. I'm making sure to get lots of protein though. My lactation consultant said as long as I am eating when hungry and to fullness, then not to worry about undereating (although she cautioned me that it's very easy to overeat when breastfeeding due to the constant hunger)

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Trust me, I understand. I've done it 3 times. It's SUPER frustrating. Plus the hormones make body issues even worse. Just remember, it took 9 months to gain that weight. Give yourself 9 months to a year to lose it.