Breastfeeding

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KaiteyLady
KaiteyLady Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Is there any mamas on here who would be willing to share how they are losing weight while maintaining a healthy milk supply for their babes?
What’s your carb, Sugar, Protein & fat intake daily // workout routeine?
Trying to find a balance in the middle!
Thank you

Replies

  • youngcaseyr
    youngcaseyr Posts: 293 Member
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    To preface my answer, I'll say that I started my pregnancy at a very low weight and was within the average weight range for my height after I delivered (5'3" and 119lbs at the end the first week after delivery). That being said, I definitely had to create a deficit in order to lose any more weight...

    I didn't lose any weight whatsoever from breastfeeding alone, but I had to be very careful with my deficit so I could also maintain my milk production and supply. It took me about 6 months to find a balance between breastfeeding, exercising, and a deficit until I started to lose weight, and I had to go below 1500 calories to lose. After the initial 6 months my supply was established enough that it wasn't impacted by the lower calories. My son is 18 months old and I am still breastfeeding and still trying to lose the "last 10." I run and do HIIT on alternate days for exercise, and I don't track my macros. Some women are able to lose the "baby weight" plus some just from breastfeeding, but some will struggle to lose weight until after they wean.
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
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    I found the info in the second half of this post really helpful:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10176233/gaining-weight-during-pregnancy-and-losing-it-post-partum

    Personally, I ate at maintenance+BF calories for the first 6 weeks after delivery and just let my body resettle and make sure supply was well established before I started tweaking things. From there I cut about 200 calories at a time and waited to see if it would effect my supply. I mostly stuck with a 500 cal/day deficit so I would lose 1lb/week, and did see any drop in supply related to decreasing calories. I didn't really pay much attention to macros, just tried to generally stay balanced.

    Make sure you are drinking plenty of water, especially if you start working out again and are sweating. I could drink 12-16 glasses a day while breastfeeding and always felt thirsty. It was incredible. For me, I found my supply was most sensitive to my water intake.
  • DomesticKat
    DomesticKat Posts: 565 Member
    edited June 2018
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    youngcaseyr wrote: »
    To preface my answer, I'll say that I started my pregnancy at a very low weight and was within the average weight range for my height after I delivered (5'3" and 119lbs at the end the first week after delivery). That being said, I definitely had to create a deficit in order to lose any more weight...

    I didn't lose any weight whatsoever from breastfeeding alone, but I had to be very careful with my deficit so I could also maintain my milk production and supply. It took me about 6 months to find a balance between breastfeeding, exercising, and a deficit until I started to lose weight, and I had to go below 1500 calories to lose. After the initial 6 months my supply was established enough that it wasn't impacted by the lower calories. My son is 18 months old and I am still breastfeeding and still trying to lose the "last 10." I run and do HIIT on alternate days for exercise, and I don't track my macros. Some women are able to lose the "baby weight" plus some just from breastfeeding, but some will struggle to lose weight until after they wean.

    Already starting out at a healthy weight and wanting to lose more is not going to be the same scenario as someone who is obese or overweight at delivery who has a lot more calories to consume every day and still lose. Someone who is already on the low end of the BMI scale would likely end up sacrificing far too many calories in order to continue losing weight while breastfeeding. I'm 133 pounds, 5'1", and eating 2300 calories a day to lose a half pound a week while nursing a one year old. I know I personally couldn't manage losing weight while breastfeeding and keeping up with a baby if I was only netting 1200 calories or less, so I can understand why it would be difficult. Also, from a hormonal standpoint, the kind of stress that underfeeding while breastfeeding would result in likely didn't help.

    Weight loss is still governed by CICO even for nursing mothers, but it takes more effort to determine the CI and CO and get those numbers figured out. This is why I recommend collecting data over time and using various tools, like a food scale, to help determine CI. I never lost weight while breastfeeding until my 4th and 5th pregnancies and was obese. It didn't have anything to do with breastfeeding, it had to do with not accurately tracking my CI and not being in a calorie deficit.
  • shaumom
    shaumom Posts: 1,003 Member
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    I gained 60 pounds during pregnancy. I lost 70 pounds the first 12 months, and breastfed for the entire time.

    I just tried to eat the full complement of recommended foods, you know, like X servings of veggies and fruits a day, X servings of protein, etc... I counted calories not at all, didn't exercise at all, but just fed the baby and she took it all off for me.

    The main thing, I think, is just don't overeat. Eat when you are hungry, and stop when you are not. Because aside from the breastfeeding, your body is ALSO trying to recover for 9 months of changes, physical and hormonal, and you need enough nutritional resources to let it do that, you know? I would not go into a deficit right now.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    I set my goal to maintain current weight while I was breastfeeding. Breastfeeding burns roughly 500 extra cals a day, assuming your child is still a baby and that’s how he’s getting most of his nutrition. It worked really well for me. I didn’t want to have to bother with logging breastfeeding as “exercise”
  • DomesticKat
    DomesticKat Posts: 565 Member
    edited June 2018
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    These are my weight loss stats over the last year while breastfeeding. There were two diet breaks in there, and a stomach virus last week that resulted in a two pound loss. The deficit created by breastfeeding is going to be unique to each person, but estimating 500 calories and getting a minimum of 1800 calories is a smart idea. It all comes down to collecting data and logging consistently and accurately. If a person has less weight to lose, logic would dictate that they may only be able to support a half pound deficit every week or none at all for that matter until after they wean. I don't know how much of mine is breastfeeding and how much is an actual deficit, but I've stuck to one pound with 2100 calories a day and now a half pound at 2300 calories a day.

    btgdjd83o98e.jpg
  • fauxfurfoxxy
    fauxfurfoxxy Posts: 3 Member
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    Wow! That's awesome! I'm 5 weeks postpartum. I gained 50 pounds during pregnancy and lost 25 pounds pretty quickly. I haven't lost any in 2 weeks. It took me 2 years to lose the 50 ibs with my last pregnancy. I just started logging my food and I'm eating less than 1800 calories. Maybe this is my problem!
  • DomesticKat
    DomesticKat Posts: 565 Member
    edited June 2018
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    fauxfurfoxxy wrote: »
    Wow! That's awesome! I'm 5 weeks postpartum. I gained 50 pounds during pregnancy and lost 25 pounds pretty quickly. I haven't lost any in 2 weeks. It took me 2 years to lose the 50 ibs with my last pregnancy. I just started logging my food and I'm eating less than 1800 calories. Maybe this is my problem!

    Breastfeeding is going to require energy from you in the form of calories. How many calories that ends up being is going to be entirely unique to you and your baby's nursing habits, but start with the assumption that it's 500 calories. If you eat enough calories to maintain your current weight - 500 calories from breastfeeding, that's one pound of loss per week. But it's not going to be every week, or every two weeks, or every month for that matter. Weight loss isn't linear. So be patient and log accurately and consistently. If you're inaccurate with measuring your calories in or out, or inconsistent with hitting your calorie goal, that will influence things as well. Not everyone can support that rate of loss, either. Some women will have to accept a slower rate of loss, or none until they wean. My maintenance calories are probably north of 2000 at this point. I won't know until my baby weans. For someone maintaining with 1500 calories a day, they may just have to wait to lose until after they wean to avoid undereating. If you're undereating and starving, it's obviously going to make it really difficult to comply with the calorie goal you set and can have all sorts of negative consequences if you did manage to stick to it for any length of time. Here's my PSA for being smart and not doing that.
  • Candyspun
    Candyspun Posts: 370 Member
    edited June 2018
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    OP, when I breastfed (the third time), I tried to eat the macros I needed, but the reality was that my appetite went crazy. Breastfeeding made me crave a block of chocolate a day. Which I know is a terrible thing, but I felt like I would die without it. So, I decided at that point if I simply didn't put weight on in that time, then I'd be happy with that. I was walking two hours a day to get my eldest to school and back, and pushing a gigantic double pram at the time, so I managed to lose a tiny bit of weight, but was just glad not to gain.

    With my first two children, I was not craving in that way thank god, but I was happy to again just get through without any weight gain. What helped me was to drink tons of water, make sure I was eating enough and I aimed to take my babies for a walk in the pram at least once a day. I was flat out looking after the babies when they were young enough to be breastfeeding, that I felt this was just enough. Gotta love that extra calorie burn we are given when breastfeeding, though!

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