New baby, breastfeeding, and the last twenty calories.

tapwaters · September 2018

I used to be 250lbs. I lost 120-125lbs and last summer I was 128lbs. I got pregnant (woo!) and just had my baby girl in April. I only gained about thirty pounds during my pregnancy, I kept running, I commuted by bike until I was eight months pregnant, and overall, my pregnancy and birth was extremely healthy and uneventful. Even giving birth without any pain meds wasn't so bad thanks to all the squats I did (125 every day).

But now I feel like I am stalled out. All during pregnancy, I ate between 1800-2200 calories a day, which was fine for my activity level. The day before I gave birth I had 19,000 steps. But now I am having a hard time meeting 10,000. I started a new job (yay!) and now I have started going running during lunch. This is such a hilariously lunch-focused office that I am really proud I have rejected going out with them for lunch every day. I haven't been watching what I eat. I haven't been active. Between not having enough milk stored to go out on my own, to it being 90 degrees (no excuse, we bought a treadmill), getting our house ready to sell, buying a new house, starting this job, having a brand new baby, I am still right where I was weight wise two weeks after giving birth.

I am afraid to eat significantly less because I don't want to hurt the milk supply, but I hate what I see what I look in the mirror even though my post-baby body is basically exactly the same as my pre-baby body. I got down to 125 eating 1200-1500 calories a day and running about an hour a day. I can't do that right now.

But I need to start logging what I am doing and I need to continue to go running/walking at lunch.

If anyone else is a new mom or breastfeeding, please feel free to add me. Any encouragement could also help. Having lost everything once already I am truly terrified that I am on the on-ramp to gaining it all back. Luckily I have not gained beyond my pregnancy weight, but I want to lose it.

PAV8888 · September 2018

How long post partum are you? It doesn't sound as if it's been that long, so you're taking action perfectly on-time! Your milk costs you typically around 500 Cal (more or less depending on how much the baby is consuming-- typically less as time goes on and they wean).

You've been very busy and stressed. Good on you for handling all this so well and keeping your weight in check. You've definitely got this!

And as you no doubt know you will be able to lose slowly and steadily while eating 1500 or more... especially if you keep your activity level up (and toddlers and babies are great for generating activity levels

) As usual a trending weight application may help you gauge your progress.

And I don't doubt that just starting to log will bring into focus how much more than 1500 you're currently eating. I would not be surprised to hear that you're maintaining at 2500 or more, which would mean that a 500Cal reduction (or just eating normally while letting milk production generate your deficit) would result in the weight loss you want.

Remember that at normal weight... things take longer and go slower and that's ok and as it should be to maximize the fat to lean mass lost ratio! And lifting babies almost qualifies as progressive weight training too!

DomesticKat · September 2018

Congratulations on your baby!

First, I can't stress enough how important it is to please be gentle with yourself. You recently had a baby and are breastfeeding, and that really does change everything. You seem to be putting a lot of pressure on yourself and that may not be compatible with the new pace your life is at now. You will find your new normal, and it likely won't look like what life did before baby, and that's okay! You have a lot going on, and priorities change and you just have to roll with it. Nobody is perfect 100% of the time but you seem to be doing what you can and that's what counts so please don't beat yourself up about it.

Secondly, breastfeeding burns a lot of calories. It has to be accounted for in your calorie goal but nobody can tell you exactly how many it burns. The easiest way to figure it out is to start by eating at maintenance for your current weight, and log accurately and consistently for 4-6 weeks. Track your weight with a trending app to give you an idea of how much breastfeeding burns per day after those 4-6 weeks. If you're exercising, you need to eat your exercise calories back in order to avoid too big of a deficit. If you have 20 pounds or less to lose, you should aim for a half pound a week and adjust your calories up from maintenance accordingly.

I don't recommend losing more than a pound a week or going below maintenance while breastfeeding for multiple reasons. One being protecting your milk supply. If you body has to choose between essential bodily functions to keep you alive and your milk supply, it will choose to keep you alive. The other being that too big of a deficit is pretty much impossible to maintain when you're nursing. You will end up starving and binging and yo-yoing and feeling like garbage. So I recommend being very modest about attempting a deficit.

Weight loss while breastfeeding is a very slow process. It tends to be even less linear than non-breastfeeding weight loss due to hormones and the ever-changing demands of baby. I personally have lost almost 70 pounds while breastfeeding over the last 17 months. I never ate below maintenance during that time, and I'm currently maintaining (and still breastfeeding a toddler) at 126 pounds on 2500-2600 calories a day. I focused on eating as much as possible while still maintaining a deficit from breastfeeding alone, and that allowed me to be consistent over the long-term in order to see results.

OblasMummy · September 2018

Please don’t put too much pressure on yourself. I’m currently feeding my 3rd baby, she’s 11 months and I’m only 5’4’’ I’m losing on 2000 calories a day and I think I could add a couple hundred and still lose. It’s early days for me as I’m only now really focusing on it. I have 20-25 lbs to lose (only good thing to come from having gestational diabetes is the lower weight gain). I eat at maintenance plus all exercise calories. It sounds like you have the right idea and realise how important food is for your milk. How old is your baby?

Eden1215 · September 2018

I only had 20 pounds to lose after the baby. I tried less food , exercising,etc. I lost a lot of hair but not my milk supply. I nursed my baby till he was one. Two months later I lost 25 pounds . I didn’t have much to lose so I think my body was holding on to the extra weight to produce milk. Every body is different but I would advice not doing anything until you are done nursing .

urloved33 · September 2018

zipmilk.org or ask your doctor to refer you to lactation consultant. ins may even cover it. this is not for laymen to be advising each other on.

tapwaters · September 2018

I don't really need a lactation consultant, I'm not asking for advice on breastfeeding. My daughter and I have that down pretty well

She's five months old tomorrow! I'm trying not to put any pressure on it and it's sort of why I haven't been logging, that way I don't feel the pressure for the numbers to "add up," but I'm afraid of things getting a little out of control, blinking, and suddenly being back at 250.

urloved33 · September 2018

caloric intake and breastfeeding go hand and hand but...whatever.

DomesticKat · September 2018

tapwaters wrote: »

I don't really need a lactation consultant, I'm not asking for advice on breastfeeding. My daughter and I have that down pretty well

She's five months old tomorrow! I'm trying not to put any pressure on it and it's sort of why I haven't been logging, that way I don't feel the pressure for the numbers to "add up," but I'm afraid of things getting a little out of control, blinking, and suddenly being back at 250.

The great news is that you're breastfeeding, so you do have some leeway with calories and would have to eat quite a bit over a long period of time to see a serious gain. Logic tells me that you know that, but I do understand your fears. My highest weight was 215-220 pounds post-pregnancy, and I maintained or lost and regained at obese levels for years WHILE breastfeeding my older four kids (#5 is still nursing) so I know it's possible to do. You have significantly more awareness of calories and intake than I did, so I have faith in you. I think you're on the right track with tracking things loosely and being aware of your intake.

SweetPia33 · September 2018

Hey, just wanted to say I get the fear of the weight going out of control and also the disappointment in your body and the fear of losing the milk supply. I am 3 months post partum and trying to lose while breastfeeding also. I have only been tracking for 2 weeks so I don't have too much advice, but just wanted to say hey!

Katiebear_81 · September 2018

I think your best bet is to spend some time (like, a few weeks) to record everything you eat. Don't change what you're doing, but log what you're eating. Also, start making notes for yourself on your milk supply. Take a few weeks to develop that habit, so when you do decide to start restricting your calories, you already have that habit and can easily tell when your supply changed (if it does) or continue to be comfortable with the level that it's at.

Once you've developed a baseline/average over the few weeks, you'll know what you're consuming on average. Spend a couple of weeks there at the average and see if anything happens to your weight/your supply. Continue to record your supply in your notes.

You can gradually take 100-250 calories out of your diet every couple of weeks. Give it a couple of weeks, because you might have an initial little dip in your supply that evens out. Continue to record your notes, and if you have a dip that doesn't come back up, bring your calories back up to where they were when your supply was good (ie. 100-250 calories more than when the dip happened).

Keeping notes and going slowly will give you the best chance of keeping your supply up.

When my youngest was nursing, I decided I was DONE being fat and went on a pretty restrictive diet all at once. My supply tanked, and I felt like I had to overeat for a week or so to get it to come back up. Not everyone will have a supply that recovers. If you take it slow, and keep in mind that you're working on your body composition, you should be able to slowly lose weight and keep nursing. It's so worth it to take it slowly. When you wean, then you can be more free to manipulate your diet however you like, but if you want to preserve your supply... take it slow!

tapwaters · September 2018

Katiebear_81 wrote: »

I think your best bet is to spend some time (like, a few weeks) to record everything you eat. Don't change what you're doing, but log what you're eating. Also, start making notes for yourself on your milk supply. Take a few weeks to develop that habit, so when you do decide to start restricting your calories, you already have that habit and can easily tell when your supply changed (if it does) or continue to be comfortable with the level that it's at.

Once you've developed a baseline/average over the few weeks, you'll know what you're consuming on average. Spend a couple of weeks there at the average and see if anything happens to your weight/your supply. Continue to record your supply in your notes.

You can gradually take 100-250 calories out of your diet every couple of weeks. Give it a couple of weeks, because you might have an initial little dip in your supply that evens out. Continue to record your notes, and if you have a dip that doesn't come back up, bring your calories back up to where they were when your supply was good (ie. 100-250 calories more than when the dip happened).

Keeping notes and going slowly will give you the best chance of keeping your supply up.

When my youngest was nursing, I decided I was DONE being fat and went on a pretty restrictive diet all at once. My supply tanked, and I felt like I had to overeat for a week or so to get it to come back up. Not everyone will have a supply that recovers. If you take it slow, and keep in mind that you're working on your body composition, you should be able to slowly lose weight and keep nursing. It's so worth it to take it slowly. When you wean, then you can be more free to manipulate your diet however you like, but if you want to preserve your supply... take it slow!

Thank you so much for this!! This was very helpful. Right now we use the app "Baby Connect" to log basically everything. I get three pumps in while I am at work, so I can use that to track the volume.

I think a lot of losing/maintaining will come down to not eating out as much. The lunch culture in this office is that they go out every single day. I think having hit the point where I am running at lunch time and eating at my desk will significantly help.

blobby10 · September 2018

When mine were babies, I found that if I 'dieted' then I lost my milk supply. I had big babies so this was not good!
Instead of running in your lunch hour, could you maybe walk briskly? Its not so hard on your poor old body which has just carried and given birth to another human! Maybe walk with your baby before or after work? I appreciate its harder now the nights are drawing in

But echoing the earlier poster - please please please be kind to yourself and your body. Yes keep an eye on what you are eating, keep your calorie intake at a sensible level but focus on your baby - these early days go far too quickly to waste your time worrying about losing weight x

New baby, breastfeeding, and the last twenty calories.

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