Loosing Weight While Breastfeeding

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Good Morning :) Looking for ideas, pics (inspiration), and extra calories needed while breastfeeding. I had my son the end of October. I was almost 200lbs (I'm 5'2").I am down to 170 currently and was 165 before getting pregnant. I would love to get back down to the 130s. I guess what I am looking for is inspiration and what worked for other mama's out there :)

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  • laurapal00
    laurapal00 Posts: 15 Member
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    Hello! First time posting 😅

    I had a baby in October. I was already 10kg overweight before my pregnancy (74kg, 167cm), gained 8 kg during pregnancy and was 76,5kg in January (3 months pp). Now I’m 70,8kg, I’ve lost almost 6kg in 3 months, since I started using MFP.

    I have my account set to lose 0,5kg/week and then I add everyday 500kcal for breastfeeding. I’ve been losing around 0,3-0,7 kg/week. Since lockdown I reduced the breastfeeding calories to 400: I’m not as active and baby started eating fruit/veggies. I will keep reducing it around 50kcal every month, watching how my weightloss goes.

    I would recommend to lose really slowly and watch your weightloss + hunger: to keep your milk supply you cannot be on a very low cal diet.
  • Cjlhardy4
    Cjlhardy4 Posts: 2 Member
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    Hello, when I first had my baby it was very hard for me to do calorie counting or anything while strictly only breastfeeding so I just focused on what my body needed for baby. Fast forward he will be 2 in June I am down to only feeding at night. I started getting serious on here March 10. I have lost 11lbs and I do cardio of some sort 6days a week (walking or jogging) Good luck to you. Remember to fuel your body for baby!
  • Be_the_best_me_4_baby_no2
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    How many calories are you allowing?
  • MarissaJean04
    MarissaJean04 Posts: 21 Member
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    How many calories are you allowing?
    MFP says 1560 but I'm adding 300 to 500 calories each day.

  • pink_mint
    pink_mint Posts: 103 Member
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    Great job breastfeeding!

    My experience with breastfeeding is that my body seems to need a fat reserve and if I tried to eat at a deficit I'd just lose my milk. Some women have trouble keeping weight on while their bfing but some of us it's sort of the opposite. That was me.

    I'd say just do the best you can with eating enough to keep a good supply.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I'm going to pass on a recommendation I heard from several sources, and many have reported great results from it as well.

    Set MFP as the Lightly-Active mother you are. That is honest, even with a 8 hr desk job for 40 of your weekly hours.

    Set MFP to maintenance weight loss goal.

    Log any purposeful exercise outside of being an active mom - taking into account some light calorie burn activities need to be corrected to 1/2 the stated calorie burn.

    Eat to the stated goal. You want to hit your goal - not miss it. 30 over better than 100 under.

    Now the extra energy needed to make milk is creating your deficit, whatever that may be. Results over time will tell you. Usually over 500 at start.
    But you are still eating enough for good nutrition to make sure that happens without issue.
    Not really a situation you want to find out after the fact you crossed the line and caused issues.
    More deficit at the start with more production, less deficit near the end usually.
    And not having to mess around with adding and subtracting stuff in. Much simplier.