Breastfeeding

I've heard, although I've never looked for it myself, that you can search under food for breastfeeding and it'll give you extra calories. I'd set your MFP weight loss goal to 0.5lbs / week then add that extra in every day.

However, I had a really hard time losing weight while breastfeeding myself. I basically couldn't do it without sacrificing my milk supply. Some women have their weight just melt off by nursing. I was not one of them. Annoying. I basically gave up on weight lose until I was done nursing each time.

I would give yourself more time for recovery if were I you. If you do go ahead and start now, make sure you eat enough food to compensate for nursing, and don't push too hard with exercise just yet. Your body has just been through a majorly rough year, treat it gently

I was just talking about this today. I've been on MFP for 1 month and have lost 20 pounds. I am nursing my 3 month old (we suppliment one bottle a day with formula). Recently noticed my milk supply decreasing...I use to be able to freeze bags throughout the week, now I am not. I work full time, so I have to pump at work -- I was thinking of adding an extra pump time either during the day or in the middle of the night. If that doesn't help to increase my milk within a few weeks, I was going to increase my calories by 200 /day as well.

If you really want to keep your milk supply, I would not worry so much about the calories right now. Just eat right and get your nutrition.

I nursed twins and I had to fight hard for my supply. I was pumping at all hours of the night and it wasn't until I was close to weaning (18months) that I started restricting my calories. My weight melted of at that point because I was still nursing a little and restricting calories.

Good luck and keep giving that baby your liquid gold!!!

I couldn't lose weight in the first six months breastfeeding, period. My supply had to establish, and any workouts I did ended up effecting my supply negatively. I picked up running again when she was about 7 months old, and found that it didn't have any effect on my supply at that point. Since then, I started running and eating healthier, along with watching calories,and I've been able to drop all the baby weight, and then some. But in the very beginning, it definitely was not an option.

Anyway, the main thing I had to remember is that breastfeeding does NOT burn enough calories to just eat whatever. It burns about 300-500 extra, which is about an extra bowl of cereal a day, on the medium to large side. It isn't as much as people think. For the most part, what I've had to do is snack. All the time. I basically spend my day grazing small meals here and there, because that, more than eating extra calories, helped keep my supply up. And drinking a gallon of water a day, haha.

Anyway, good luck! You'll have to figure out what works best for you, but remember, stress is a huge killer for supply, more than moderate exercise of calorie restriction. So if you embrace working out here and there, and eating healthier, your body will adapt remarkably well. I've been training for a marathon while still exclusively breastfeeding (mine doesn't show much interest in solids yet, and she's nearly a year), and my supply is still going strong!