Breastfeeding complicating my weight loss. Help!

anthrophobia
anthrophobia Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello All,

I feel really confused with all my numbers when it comes to the weight loss and the muscle gain I am trying to obtain. I have had little luck searching online as to where I should be. I also don't understand eating back the calories I burn and if I should consider breastfeeding an exercise. Is there something in MyFitnessPal for breastfeeding?

As a breastfeeding sedentary woman 5'8'' 258lbs I am told to eat 2500-2600 calories a day to maintain weight.

To lose weight @ 2lbs a week I need to eat 2000-2100 a day.

That part makes sense to me. Before I got pregnant (and gained back 50lbs) I had lost over 100lbs just by counting calories. The problem with just calorie count was the fact that I lost muscle along with the fat. This time around I would like to lose the fat and gain muscle.

While eating my 2100 calories a day I started exercising ( very hard HIIT training) and my weight loss came to a complete halt. I understand I might be gaining muscle which weighs more but I hardly makes sense to that extent (1lb of muscle?)

So here's the real (probably dumb to some of you) questions...

Did I put my body into starvation mode? If so, should I eat the normal 2500 calories and exercise? If I burn around 1300 (aka a lot) should I eat some of them back? How do I eat that much food? I was told to take in some of the extra calories through a protein shake at the end of my workouts, should I be doing that? Are there any suggestions to get MFP to calculate my bodies calories when it comes to Breastfeeding?

If someone could help me out that would be great. I am getting really frustrated and I want all my hard work to really start counting. I know I could be measuring inches but I want to make sure I am doing everything the correct way first.

Please help!

- Angela ( the new mom)

Replies

  • sirena192005
    sirena192005 Posts: 13 Member
    I can help with some of this but not all. First off, the estimated burn from exercise calories is almost always overestimated, so if you're eating them back, eat back about half. Second, if you just started a new exercise program, especially one high intensity, it is normal for your joints to retain water to help repair the muscles. Give it a few weeks and it should slough off.

    As far as starvation mode, there are a few really good pinned posts about why that's likely what's not happening, so go read those, but I'll briefly recap: starvation mode or metabolic inhibition only occurs if you are eating less than 1200 calories for an extended period of time. You shouldn't enter it at 2100.

    Also if you're TDEE is 2500, you would need to eat 1500 calories to get 2lbs per week, which as a breastfeeding mom, you do NOT want to do. Here's the deal(I nursed, so I know):

    You need those calories to make milk. For the time you are exclusively breastfeeding(i.e. before baby starts eating solids) you are burning approx. 500 calories a day just by making milk. Calculate your TDEE without breastfeeding and eat that. You should still see 1 pound per week in loss just because you're nursing. After you introduce solids, so after 6 months post partum, count about half those calories, so 250 per day from making milk. Restricting calories too much is going to inhibit milk production and at this stage, your focus should be on taking it off slowly and healthfully while being able to meet the nutritional needs of baby, not by doing it fast.

    I hope this helps!

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