Breastfeeding and STARVING

animal907
animal907 Posts: 1 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
Hi all! I'm breastfeeding my very hungry, 3 week old baby and I'm constantly hungry too! What can I eat that isn't too high in calories and takes almost no time to prepare? Preferably something that will give me loads of energy because I'm running around after my 7 year old as well!
I worked out my bmi yesterday and it's 30.3, I'm obese! It's the kick up the bum I needed to start eating a bit better, I'll be doing a food shop on Monday with plenty of good snacks. I love eating fruit, but getting kinda sick of it now.

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    How big a calorie deficit are you running?
  • Clawsal
    Clawsal Posts: 255 Member
    I don't think the bmi is a good indicator of wealth for someone that just spent 9 months growing a little human inside them! Give yourself time!
    Maybe you are hungry because you are not eating enough and since you are breastfeeding you NEED to be eating enough. So how many calories are you eating?
  • jmacaroni
    jmacaroni Posts: 242 Member
    You just had a baby three weeks ago! You need to eat extra calories to maintain your milk supply. You are still establishing your milk supply so I wouldn't mess with dieting right now. Almonds are a good snack that help with breastfeeding. Also if you look up the recipe for no bake energy balls. Drink lots of water.
  • OblasMummy
    OblasMummy Posts: 40 Member
    At 3 weeks I was eating whatever whenever - toast at 3am yum. You can seriously eat so many calories for the first 3-6 months and you will probably naturally lose some weight at the same time. When I started dieting I was eating around 2000 calories a day and still losing (I'm only 5'4'') - this was when my son was about 4 months and I wasn't exercising at all.
  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
    I plan on eating all the foods for BFing.
  • julie_broadhead
    julie_broadhead Posts: 347 Member
    Early in my breastfeeding journey I liked Larabars, lactation cookies, apple slices with almond butter, cheese sticks, almonds, and pinwheel sandwiches. As others have said, don't worry about loosing weight right now. Eat enough to keep you going while your milk supply becomes established.
  • JenniferNoll
    JenniferNoll Posts: 367 Member
    At this point, you should be adding 500 calories for making breastmilk if you are exclusively breastfeeding. As baby nurses less, you can reduce those calories to about 250. Making milk uses up calories.
  • salembambi
    salembambi Posts: 5,585 Member
    trail mix , dark chocolate , dried fruit , snappea crisps,cereal, toast with anything , chips & whatever dips , have some veggies pre cut and hummus ready to go easy snacks :) little ice cream sandwiches , make yogurt parfaits with granola & fruit whatever you want


    eat momma, dont feel guilty about it
  • Golbat
    Golbat Posts: 276 Member
    You need to make sure you don't cut calories too much right now or it will affect your milk supply. Wait at least three more weeks, and then even be cautious cutting calories too quickly. It takes 500 calories a day to make milk, and until your body is used to it, your body will be very happy to simply stop making milk if you have a big calorie deficit.

    The other thing is that you willl probably lose some weight without a whole lot of work. At 3 weeks postpartum, you are still recovering from birth and there's weight lost during that time just like after your period. Your BMI number will reflect stuff your body is still holding onto that you will lose without having to diet. And then once you've completely recovered from the birth, your metabolism will be ramped up with the milk production. You might give yourself a few weeks and see how you're doing.

    Congrats on the new baby!!
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,766 Member
    animal907 wrote: »
    Hi all! I'm breastfeeding my very hungry, 3 week old baby and I'm constantly hungry too! What can I eat that isn't too high in calories and takes almost no time to prepare? Preferably something that will give me loads of energy because I'm running around after my 7 year old as well!
    I worked out my bmi yesterday and it's 30.3, I'm obese! It's the kick up the bum I needed to start eating a bit better, I'll be doing a food shop on Monday with plenty of good snacks. I love eating fruit, but getting kinda sick of it now.

    You're not really obese. You're recovering from having a baby. Your breasts are (hopefully) extra large and producing milk to feed baby. You're probably still retaining some water from pregnancy. You should NOT be focusing on losing weight yet. You are still at the "weight loss will happen as you recover from pregnancy" stage.

    I don't know what your calorie goal is, but if you're eating any less than 2,000 calories/day, stop doing so and bump up the calories. Approximately 500 of those calories are going right out of you and into baby and don't "count" anyway. And you don't want to mess with milk supply - which undereating will do.

    Eat maintenance (i.e. what MFP calculates for you + 300-500 cals for baby) for the next three weeks. Don't even think about trying to lose weight until after your six week check-up and after your milk supply is established. Once you get there, don't aim for any more than 1 pound/week.
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