Succeeding While Breastfeeding

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dbrooks82
dbrooks82 Posts: 46 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Anyone who has ever breastfed knows not everyone loses weight while doing so. Some of us actually gain weight instead

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  • pinggolfer96
    pinggolfer96 Posts: 2,248 Member
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    Weight gain is a surplus of energy vs your expenditure. Weight gain during breastfeeding is induced by a caloric surplus, not the breastfeeding
  • charli3anne
    charli3anne Posts: 25 Member
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    I’ve lost 20kg since a week before birth with breastfeeding. Just keep calories 1600-1900 a day
  • julie_broadhead
    julie_broadhead Posts: 347 Member
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    dbrooks82 wrote: »
    Anyone who has ever breastfed knows not everyone loses weight while doing so. Some of us actually gain weight instead

    That’s interesting. I’ve never heard of someone gaining weight with breastfeeding as the sole cause. Did you up your calories to increase your supply?
  • bishicat
    bishicat Posts: 3 Member
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    I gained a stone post birth whilst breastfeeding, definitely the extra calories but I had such an appetite and just could not stop stuffing my face.
    Still breastfeeding now and have to say the weight is coming off very slowly, I'm sure will get there in the end. Feedback from a few friends has been that they lost a lot of weight when they stopped feeding - fingers crossed x
  • marywilliams6212
    marywilliams6212 Posts: 12 Member
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    Breastfeeding and trying to lose weight is tough, especially in the beginning. I gained initially due to increased calories and decreased activity. My time was spent nursing, rocking, or playing with baby as well as resting to recover from my cesarean. Once you can start to exercise again, it gets better. It’s still a game of calories in and calories out, breastfeeding is just an added variable. I’m losing at a consistent pace now, and still breastfeeding (going on 20 months). Keep going, momma! You got this! You can also try to drink a bottle of water before you eat. For me (and several BF friends) it was thirst more so than hunger, but we didn’t realize until we started drinking first.
  • vallary14
    vallary14 Posts: 215 Member
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    I can understand why that might happen. I was hungry all the time while breastfeeding. What you eat makes a big difference. Keep more nutrient dense foods around and avoid having a lot of energy dense snack foods in your pantry. Try and get lots of walks pushing baby or hiking with a carrier to help strengthen your muscles and burn calories. Be patient with your body.
  • DomesticKat
    DomesticKat Posts: 565 Member
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    Some people can eat intuitively while breastfeeding and lose weight. Some cannot and need to log their food. Breastfeeding creates a calorie deficit, and as long as you're not out-eating that deficit, you'll lose weight. If you're gaining weight, it's because you're in a calorie surplus. I too was a breastfeeding gainer until I started weighing and logging my food, and then it was obvious what the issue was (it wasn't breastfeeding). Since then I've lost 70 and 60 pounds and counting after my last two pregnancies. Breastfeeding is a blessing because it's really the only time in our lives when we can eat at maintenance calories, or even above, and lose weight without any other effort. It all comes down to weighing and logging food accurately.
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
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    My friends who have breastfed admit to being very hungry during that time.
  • dsboohead
    dsboohead Posts: 1,900 Member
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    I lost quite a bit while breastfeeding many years ago but I went on walks with baby and ate 3 square meals that were sensible and drank alot of water. This was in the 80's......not that it matters.
  • dbrooks82
    dbrooks82 Posts: 46 Member
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    nooshi713 wrote: »
    My friends who have breastfed admit to being very hungry during that time.

    SSSSOOOO hungry!!! I swear it's worse then while pregnant!!
  • dbrooks82
    dbrooks82 Posts: 46 Member
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    Thank you everyone. I know it's not the breastfeeding specifically that causes the weight gain, but other factors that come as a result/coincide with it. I am going to try and make a conscious effort to do low carb/high protein meals (my sis and I just did meal prepping for the week so it'll be easier!) up my water even though I feel like it's all I drink already, and with the warmer weather definitely get out more.
  • tkmotivation
    tkmotivation Posts: 19 Member
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    marywilliams6212 wrote: »
    Breastfeeding and trying to lose weight is tough, especially in the beginning. I gained initially due to increased calories and decreased activity. My time was spent nursing, rocking, or playing with baby as well as resting to recover from my cesarean. Once you can start to exercise again, it gets better. It’s still a game of calories in and calories out, breastfeeding is just an added variable. I’m losing at a consistent pace now, and still breastfeeding (going on 20 months). Keep going, momma! You got this! You can also try to drink a bottle of water before you eat. For me (and several BF friends) it was thirst more so than hunger, but we didn’t realize until we started drinking first.

    Can I ask a question: my daughter is now 15 months and I’m ready to lose this extra pregnancy and baby weight. I am hypothyroid so my doc specifically said not to watch calories until baby was 1 year due to potential low supply created from my thyroid issue. I was ravenous while BF, hence the increased weight. I just couldn’t stop myself, and no, it wasn’t always healthy choices I reached for. With that being said, she now only nurses 2-4 times a day, with the majority of the days being only morning and night. My question is, do I log breastfeeding in my diary? I’m set to lose 1.5 lbs per week, so I get around 1450 cals per day. I don’t want to sabotage my efforts in weight loss by adding breastfeeding into my diary. I am trying to walk most days of the week as my exercise (for now, until I can get into a little better shape cardio-wise). I sometimes eat back my exercise cal, sometimes some or sometimes not at all. I don’t know if I should be also adding breastfeeding to my day?
  • DomesticKat
    DomesticKat Posts: 565 Member
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    dbrooks82 wrote: »
    Thank you everyone. I know it's not the breastfeeding specifically that causes the weight gain, but other factors that come as a result/coincide with it. I am going to try and make a conscious effort to do low carb/high protein meals (my sis and I just did meal prepping for the week so it'll be easier!) up my water even though I feel like it's all I drink already, and with the warmer weather definitely get out more.

    Don't overcomplicate things by thinking you need to do anything different with your diet. You don't unless you have some kind of medical condition. Eat a balanced diet that makes you feel good. Breastfeeding creates a deficit. If you're logging everything you eat (using a food scale helps with that) you'll lose weight. In the vast majority of cases, you don't even need to incorporate a deficit when breastfeeding because you should only be aiming for a pound or less of loss a week. I recommend just eating at maintenance for 4 weeks and logging everything consistently and accurately and see where you are after that time.
  • DomesticKat
    DomesticKat Posts: 565 Member
    edited May 2018
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    tkmotivation wrote: »
    marywilliams6212 wrote: »
    Breastfeeding and trying to lose weight is tough, especially in the beginning. I gained initially due to increased calories and decreased activity. My time was spent nursing, rocking, or playing with baby as well as resting to recover from my cesarean. Once you can start to exercise again, it gets better. It’s still a game of calories in and calories out, breastfeeding is just an added variable. I’m losing at a consistent pace now, and still breastfeeding (going on 20 months). Keep going, momma! You got this! You can also try to drink a bottle of water before you eat. For me (and several BF friends) it was thirst more so than hunger, but we didn’t realize until we started drinking first.

    Can I ask a question: my daughter is now 15 months and I’m ready to lose this extra pregnancy and baby weight. I am hypothyroid so my doc specifically said not to watch calories until baby was 1 year due to potential low supply created from my thyroid issue. I was ravenous while BF, hence the increased weight. I just couldn’t stop myself, and no, it wasn’t always healthy choices I reached for. With that being said, she now only nurses 2-4 times a day, with the majority of the days being only morning and night. My question is, do I log breastfeeding in my diary? I’m set to lose 1.5 lbs per week, so I get around 1450 cals per day. I don’t want to sabotage my efforts in weight loss by adding breastfeeding into my diary. I am trying to walk most days of the week as my exercise (for now, until I can get into a little better shape cardio-wise). I sometimes eat back my exercise cal, sometimes some or sometimes not at all. I don’t know if I should be also adding breastfeeding to my day?

    Think of it this way. Even if you ate at maintenance for your current weight and height and breastfeeding burned an estimated 250 calories a day, you would still lose a half pound a week from breastfeeding alone with no other deficit incorporated into your diet. So yes, you should count breastfeeding because too big of a deficit is not healthy or sustainable. Is one and a half pounds a week appropriate for you based on your current weight and the amount you have to lose? I would suggest adjusting to a half pound a week, track your rate of loss for 4 weeks with a weight trending app like Libra, log everything you put in your mouth consistently and accurately (see the stickies for how to do that), and see where things are after 4 weeks.

    Also, yes you should be eating back at least some of your exercise calories. This app is designed for you to do that. It doesn't take your exercise calories into account when you set your calorie goal. It expects you to eat those back on top of the calorie goal it gives you every day.
  • DomesticKat
    DomesticKat Posts: 565 Member
    edited May 2018
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    I also want to mention that rapid weight loss should not be the goal while breastfeeding. Nobody should be aiming for two pounds a week while nursing a baby. Losing slowly over the long-term is the healthiest and most sustainable method for you and your baby, and you'll give yourself the opportunity to keep the weight off by learning new habits that will carry over once baby weans. Don't incorporate the biggest deficit possible into your goal with the hope that you'll hit some kind of deficit to lose weight as an alternative to weighing food and logging accurately. It took me over a year to lose 60 pounds after my fifth pregnancy. It took me two years to lose 70 pounds after my fourth pregnancy. I eat over 2000 calories a day at 5'1" and I'm still nursing my one year old and losing weight consistently. Again, it really just comes down to consistency and accuracy.

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