Losing weight while breastfeeding?

I was 135 when I got pregnant, 175when I had her, and 120 when I finishednbreastfeeding. Did not go to a gym, and never counted a calorie. It is about 700calories a day.

I didn't really lose weight while nursing my first two - with my first I had lost some initially (though mostly water weight from having severe pre-e) but I also gained a bunch on my birth control. With my second, I tried tracking calories and doing WW but when I started losing weight, my supply went with it.

My third has been a completely different experience. She was born in late May and I cautiously started trying to lose weight around September. Did pretty much the same thing I did with my 2nd but ate a bit more, just to get into better habits and see what happened. I dropped 14 pounds in 6 weeks and nothing happened to my supply. In November I started doing the 30 Day Shred and tracking calories on here. I've lost another 7-8lbs. since. I'm also down 2 dress sizes and at a weight I haven't seen in about 4 years (since mid-2nd tri with my first). My now 6 month old is growing perfectly on their curve and I haven't had the same supply issues I did with my second when I cut my calories/started exercising.

I just take it week by week. It's been awesome to lose the weight this time and I hope it continues but breastfeeding her as long as I can is a priority right now so if I stall out or need to change things up I will. It's crazy how different it is for each person and each pregnancy though! Best of luck with your new baby! Take it easy at first and enjoy those first days too

I have 8 children. I have breast feed them all. If you'd like to friend me I think I could be some support for you. Best of luck on a healthy birth.

Congratulations on your daughter!!! Babies are such a blessing! I have 7 children and have nursed all of them. I am currently nursing my (almost) 10 month old twin boys.

Make sure you get enough calories to maintain nursing. You can add calories back in to your daily amount on here. If you want you can look at my food long to see what I mean, I log it at breakfast. The average calories per day that nursing burns is 650. The ubiquitous "they" recommend eating an additional 500 calories per day while nursing. This gives a 150 calorie loss per day.

With all that being said nursing can help you lose weight, part of the reason we gain extra fat while pregnant is so we can produce the milk necessary for the baby. However, nursing also makes you hungrier. So if you can keep the extra foods healthy and within that calorie range you will be just fine. It is so easy to overeat and eat junk with a little one around. You will be tired and overwhelmed at times just make sure you don't reach for high fat/calorie comfort foods in those moments. You will regret it later. ( This I speak from personal experience. )

As far as exercise, I personally did not hit the ground running after the birth of my children. Some of their births were super easy to recover from ( went garage saleing the next day) others took me a long time to feel human again. So maybe at this point, don't set what you are going to do in stone. See how you feel and what you actually have energy for. Hopefully you will have a lovely birth experience and will be ready to conquer the world quickly, but if not it's okay to go slow. Even if you do feel great take it easy for the first while so your body can fully heal. Walking, like you said, is a great idea at first. I have lost a lot of my baby weight (again and again) from walking. It is also good to get out for your little one too. Dress warmly ( if it's cold there) and keep the baby covered and you can both enjoy at change of pace. Later as you are feeling stronger and up for the challenge, I really liked Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. I saw improvement quickly and the video did not take long to complete. I am going to start p90x soon, but I am not sure if I can handle it so we shall see. If you would like to add me, I would be happy to help or just encourage you.

Congratulations once again! Make sure to take time just to enjoy the sweet smell of your little one and the soft snuggles, and welcome to the mommy club.:flowerforyou:

P.S. Nursing is really rough for the first two weeks and then gets SOOOO much easier to the point that you will think," Why does anyone who could nurse bottle feed? That is just too much work!" You can do this!

I nursed two boys for 3 years each (yikes!)

It took me 6 months each time to get back to my pre-pregancy weight, but then each time I lost 25 (first son) or 15 (second son) pounds more than that. In other words, for my eldest, I started pregnancy at 165, gave birth at 198, and weighted 141 by the time he was 3. Same pattern with the younger one. (BTW, I'm tall and that means I started at a BMI of 22 and ended at 20).

Nursing is a great way to lose weight, but it does take TIME. Worry about your little one and do some gentle exercises to get your muscles back in shape. THAT is the harder part than the weight.

I LOVED aquasize (aerobics in the pool). It was gentle on my body and tuned me all over. And it was RELAXING - something I definitely needed with the babies.

<----Lactation consultant. Experiences will be different for everyone. Some people notice a huge difference from breastfeeding some do not. Working out and breastfeeding are great and as far as calories go, if you cut them too low you will notice a decrease in your milk supply. Pay attention to your baby's output and your body. Those will be the biggest signs of how things are going. Sometimes exercising will cause your milk to have a different taste and some babies don't like that, some don't care. Here for help if you need it.

Breastfeeding helped me to lose with both my boys. But I did not get enough calcium and my teeth took a huge hit, just an FYI. I didn't really exercise then, but was working as a CNA and was very busy on the job. Congrats on the new life and on your choice to BF!

I hadn't thought about the milk change with the exercise, but this is actually an important point for some women.

My sister's daughter was very lactose intolerant. She was more ambitious and I and worked out like a dog with aerobic exercises, producing a lot of lactic acid. Her daughter reacted to it just as she would have had she been given milk. Interesting! I wouldn't have thought of that connection.

I was the same as skatingisfun....lost all my baby weight plus more. Enjoy it as it is truly an awesome experience. Good luck ;-)

You have to get moving, now and after the baby is born. Pregnancy is a big risk factor for blood clots, as is a c-section and being around cigarette smoke. My sister-in-law almost died from 2 bloodclots after she had her baby. She was doing everything wrong.

But, do not try to do any hard exercising (other then straightening the house and walking) during the first six weeks. Here's why. Your hips are not "in place" until then. Like a BIG DUMMY, I went out onto the ice at 4 weeks post-partum. I was doing a simple backspin and fell out of it. When I hit the ice, I thought I broke my pelvis. I didn't and couldn't get up for 10 minutes. I laid on the ice in agony, with a Russian coach trying to help me and yelling at me at the same time. I'm not mad, as we were good frined. But, I got so busy with the new baby that I gave up skating for a very long time. :-(

Congratulations on your baby girl!!! I hope you enjoy your delivery!! My son was born on August 12, 2012 and I have exclusively breastfeed him since he was born. You have made a wonderful choice!!! It is an amazing experience with so many benifits. It will help the weight come off a lot easier. Personally, I gained 60 pounds while I was pregnant with my son. When he turned 3 months and 1 week old, I lost all of that weight (he will be 4 months on the 12th of December). I did not do any exercise until 6 weeks postpartum...just let your body recover during that time. After that, here was my game plan:

Eat 2000 calories a day and drink at least 8 cups of water.
Start off jogging for about 10 minutes (for me it was very slowly with lots of breaks...I just couldn't do any more)
If you have access to an eliptical, that will help out a lot (once I started jogging, the extra weight hurt my knees so I had to do the eliptical)
Work out about 5 days a week.
Log everything.
Once you get smaller and your weight loss slows down, eat 1850 calories a day.
Have a free day where you eat more calories once a week (this will help your metabolism).
Eat whatever you want, just in the right portions .
Buy a digital food scale ($12 at Ross)

I've kept this up and now I can run over 3 miles without stopping at a nice pace and I've lost 66 pounds . 12 more to go until I reach my ideal weight . I think nursing helped out a LOT! Have a great time!!!

I also do the "crunch boot camp" that is available on youtube.com (& now the biggest loser at home challenge- not on youtube)

Thanks for all the information. This wasn't my thread; but I had the same question and found this to be quite helpful.
I gave birth to a little boy the day after you on 13 August 2012. I was 145 before pregnancy, lost quite a bit of weight due to morning sickness, but put it back on of course, by the end I was 162. Just 3 weeks after delivery I was down to 142 because I wasn't eating anything but a couple of bowls of cereal each day and I am exclusively breastfeeding (except for two weeks when I breastfeed and supplemented). My supply dropped (hence the supplementing) and I realized I needed to make a strong effort to eat a lot better no matter how tired I am. Even then I stayed fairly steady at 145 until two weeks ago.
Now I am back up to 149. Not a big difference to be sure; but the scale is creeping in the wrong direction! I don't know if it was the overeating during the holiday (love my mom's cooking) or the Depo shot; but I want to get back to eating HEALTHY foods and exercising again. I just found this website today. I love it so far; but the fact that there breastfeeding isn't taking into consideration with the calorie consumption left me feeling really bad when I counted my calories for the day. I was over what I should have been for a breastfeeding mom; but I was REALLY over what I should have been from their calculations.