New Moms as friends?

I'm not a new mom, but one of my best friends is. I just wanted to wish you luck! My friend slimmed up SO much while exclusively breastfeeding, especially when her son was around 9 months. Just in case you didn't know, womens bodies experience homeostasis while breastfeeding and/or pregnant. Here's the definition from biology-online.org:

"Definition

noun

(Science: Biology)

(1) The tendency of an organism or a cell to regulate its internal conditions, usually by a system of feedback controls, so as to stabilize health and functioning, regardless of the outside changing conditions

(2) The ability of the body or a cell to seek and maintain a condition of equilibrium or stability within its internal environment when dealing with external changes


Supplement

In humans, homeostasis happens when the body regulates body temperature in an effort to maintain an internal temperature around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. For example, we sweat to cool off during the hot summer days, and we shiver to produce heat during the cold winter season."

In regards to pregnancy and breastfeeding, a women's body will slow down the breastfeeding mother's metabolism if it does not consume enough calories to supply adequate nutrition for the child. For instance, you lower your caloric intake to 1200 calories, and the baby consumes X% of the calories you consume/day. If 1200 calories/day is not enough sustain the nutrition for the child and your nutrition, your BMR will slow down so that the 1200 calories will not be consumed as quickly by you and the breastmilk, which can possibly change your BMR drastically enough that it will not return to normal after your child has weaned (whenever you choose for that to be... if at all). Instead of burning fat, which your body regards as life-sustaining (insulating, potential emergency reserves--much like the 72 hour survival kits people have in their homes), you will simply cease using calories as quickly.

I'm not sure what exactly new moms should do to lose weight and avoid homeostasis. Talking to a doctor or nutritionist would be really helpful. You're already doing great by using myfitnesspal. Maybe "breastfeeding" can be considered an exercise?

If you haven't already, I highly recommend visiting your local La Leche League at their next meeting! You'll find lots of healthy, female (and sometimes male) support for breastfeeding and possibly learn some tips on how to lose weight while preventing homeostasis.

Hope my advice is useful (and not redundant)! -Emilie

You figure out how many calories you should eat to lose weight and then add 500 to that # for the baby and if you exercise you would want to use those calories too. When the baby starts on solids you can lower that # a bit!

Feel free to add me as well, my little one is just about 5 months old and we've been nursing exclusively as well. I had read that breastfeeding mothers need at least 1800 calories a day so I've manually set my calorie intake to 1300, add 500 each day for breastfeeding and eat back most of my exercise calories. Every website seems to have different information but this seems to be working okay for me.