Looking for more friends- Intermittent fasting and/or breastfeeding moms out there?

I'm breastfeeding, but I'm in maintenance now. I lost 35lbs last year though while breastfeeding. My LO is 18 months now, but he was 6 months when I started trying to lose weight, and 13 months when I went into maintenance.

My daughter is 21 months now, but I lost ~25 pounds on here in 4 months while breastfeeding in late 2017 (she was 4-8 months in this timeframe). I didn't do IF, but I set my calories to maintenance and let BF create my deficit (~500 calories). Ate a semi-low carb diet, as I find protein and fat provide me with more satiety. Some moms find they are ravenous and can't lose weight until they stop BF. Don't stress too much, feeding your LO is more important right now than weight loss. Drink LOTS of water. Have faith, the weight will come off eventually!

I started with making exercise a habit for 2 months before I even started tracking my food, when LO was 6 months. Didn't lose a single pound until I started tracking, go figure. But getting in the exercise habit helped. I went from gym 2x a week to 3x a week and started tracking when he was 8 months.

I started at 2400 calories and was losing, then my losses stalled so I went down to 2100, lost on that for a while, then down to 1850, then losses slowed, so I went 1650 on non-workout days and 1900 on workout days (IIRC), so I took a minimum deficit approach to losing in order to not mess up my supply. I was rarely excessively hungry, I did pay attention to my macros as I was lifting when I went to the gym so protein was important. I focused on protein (1g per pound of estimated lean mass, about 120g when I started) and a fair amount of fats, carbs to balance. No more than 45% carbs, so fat just kind of filled in after protein. Keeping the protein and fat up helps you not to feel hungry or deprived. Also drinking lots of fluid with all the milk production.

I stopped tracking in maintenance or I'd say look at my logs, I found myself becoming obsessed (and still losing in maintenance) so I just track my weight now. If it gets out of whack, I will start tracking again. I've stayed in my weight range almost completely, around the first of the year my cycles returned and I bloated and retained enough water to push my over my desired range. I thought I had gained holiday weight but after my period it just vanished.

I have done intermittent fasting before and am thinking about starting back. Having a difficult time getting back into dieting right now.

Anyway, feel free to add me! 😊

Hi! I'm Lani and I'm new here but would love to be friends. I have 6 kids and my youngest is 1 week old so I'm breast feeding as well. I must admit I've never heard of intermittent fasting but now I want to try. How would you suggest I start?

I just want to add a caution to maybe talk with your doctor before trying to do IF while breastfeeding. I don't think of those two things as being compatible. Depending on how many times per day you breastfeed, your body may need more consistent energy input to support milk production.