Breast feeding mums trying to lose weight

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dciantar
dciantar Posts: 14
in Introduce Yourself
Is there any breast feeding mums out there that are trying to lose the weight? Is there any restrictions while breast feeding. ? Any do's and don'ts... Any thoughts?

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  • vakaranshah786
    vakaranshah786 Posts: 49 Member
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    i don't think you should cut down on your food intake while nursing doctors say it cuts down the nutrients in the food, eat good quality food and be active..Iv'e had three and it is hard to get back to what your body was like but remember it took nine months to get you here so take your time you might lose it through breastfeedng anyways... good luck
  • dciantar
    dciantar Posts: 14
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    I'm eating a lot better than what I was more fruits whole grains etc and now I'm exercising . I was sorta concerned about the calorie intake don't want deprive my son anything that he needs.
  • viclee1
    viclee1 Posts: 156 Member
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    make sure you're getting lots of healthy foods, lots of water. If your milk supply goes down, you're overdoing it somewhere, likely too much exercise. Another thing i would caution you about is when you decide to wean baby, that's when I gained a good chunk of weight with both my kids, so really watch what you eat around that time. Good Luck, I'll add you as a friend :)
  • rejoicin
    rejoicin Posts: 9
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    You can add to your breakfast that you are breastfeeding and it will subract that (actually adds caloires to your total daily calorie intake) so you are to be sure you are getting enough calories...if you are full time feeding exclusively you should add about 500 calories so you have enough milk. Hope that helps!
  • mzpharrell
    mzpharrell Posts: 43 Member
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    I breast fed my baby for a year (still do once daily) and I would suggest just eating healthy (3 meals and 2 snacks)! Don't try any crazy fad diets and drink ALOT of water. I retained weight while nursing full time...now I am finally dropping pounds!
  • azeiha
    azeiha Posts: 9 Member
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    I am a breastfeeding mom! My weight has always been around 130 but my daughter is now 11 months old and I am at 140 and the last 10 pounds are going nowhere. I always heard that breastfeeding just melts off the pounds so I am very frusterated that it didn't happen for me.

    Every time in the past year I've tried to cut calories and exercise my supply has tanked and I had to give up so I could continue breastfeeding. It's like my body will stop producing milk before it lets go of any weight. :-(..

    I've been with MFP for only about a week staying within calories and about 1 hour of cardio per day and so far I've gained 3 pounds - up to 143 and I've almost completely dried up. My baby is 11 months old so I've been slowly weaning her to cows milk.

    The only advice I really have to is contact a lactation consultant in your area or see a dr to find out what you should do? Sorry I'm not much help but wanted to let you know I've had the same issue and feel for ya

    Take care
  • Nerdybookgirl
    Nerdybookgirl Posts: 105 Member
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    My son is 15 months old and down to just comfort nursing. I didn't work on losing weight last year, but I could have. Weight Watchers has a breastfeeding mom program and according to that and my doctor you don't want to lose more than a 1/2 pound a week. When you lose weight you lose toxins and they go to the breastmilk. They also advised that I take prenatal vitamins and make sure I had plenty of protein. Drink lots of water. It is also better if you lose from exercising as opposed to restricting calories. Also -- eat when you are hungry! It is hard work making breastmilk!
  • astrasburger
    astrasburger Posts: 28 Member
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    I never lost weight with my first when i breastfed...i had to work out and then the lbs started melting away. i breastfed for a year and then found out i was pregnant. Things that helped me was making sure i drank a lot of water. And oatmeal is an excellent item to have in your diet while breastfeeding as well. I ran for 20 minutes (interval training on the treadmill) 4 - 5 days a week from 8 weeks postpartum until 7 months postpartum and then started P90x until i found out i was pregnant with twins and the docs recommended me stopping that.

    I am currently 1 day away from having breastfed the twins for a whole year. I did not work out this time until 2 weeks ago...because i was tired and i felt chasing a 2 year old and twins around was enough for that:)
  • mellynat
    mellynat Posts: 345 Member
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    yes, i started MFP when my baby was 4 mtnhs old. She's 10mnths now and im still breastfeeding. I've lost 20lbs so far. It didn't want to come off at first at all. But after several weeks it did. You can add breastfeeding into ur food diary, it gives u additional calories varies 300-500 depending how often u feed the baby. Feel free to add me.
  • samhelen
    samhelen Posts: 98
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    The most important thing I noticed when i was nursing my son was that I had to drink a LOT more water to keep my milk production up -- generally I paid closer attention to the quality of the food I was eating and didn't spend a whole lot of effort looking at the quantity. I naturally gravitate towards lower carbohydrate foods so I essentially eliminated non-vegetable based carbs from my diet (i.e. grains and simple starches) but ate fats, animal proteins, and a limited amount of beans along with whatever veggies I wanted. That helped me drop all the weight I gained when I was pregnant. The only real exercise I got was playing with my son and taking him for walks around the neighborhood.
  • CeCePII
    CeCePII Posts: 13 Member
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    I'm a nursing Mummy- trying very hard to find the balance of losing the pregnancy weight, but also keeping my milk supply up. I find it very difficult, especially because my son has a dairy intolerance so I can't eat much dairy- maybe once a week and can pump/dump. So, I find it difficult to get in good fats. I tend to do a lot of nut butters and eggs. Thanks for posting; nice to know there are other Mums out there with this problem too:) Hugs!
  • elian123
    elian123 Posts: 2 Member
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    It will be one year of nursing for me on 2/9 and I woudl say the first 9 mos. I coudl eat wahtever I wanted and not gain any weight. I was lucky enough to lose all the PG weight within a month and I credit nursing to that b/c that didn't happen with my first child who was formula fed. For some reason...around the 9 month mark, which of course was the holidays, I started gaining some weight back. I suppose that was also around the time that he started solids, although breastmilk was still his main source of nutrients. Anyway, now I'm only nursing once a day and I'm ready to lose the 8 lbs i gained over the past few months plus the six or so that i gained prior to getting PG.
    If you are new at nursing...do not restrict calories at all. You will be more hungry, but remember you are burning 500 calories a day just by nursing. If you want to lose weight, add more exercise in and make sure your food choices are healthy ones, but I wouldn't even bother to count calories at this point. Later on, when nursing is well established, you may find it easier to cut back on some calories.
    Good luck and remember you are doing a wonderful thing for your baby!
  • Elliebird88
    Elliebird88 Posts: 2
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    I was glad to see this post! I have a four month old and when I first started to try and lose weight my supply ran low and I was affraid it would stop. So, I stopped dieting. But, now I feel like I'm producing enough to try again...If I don't lose weight maybe I can at least not gain anymore til I can really cut back on the calories. The other ladies comments here have been helpful and encouraging for breast feeding mommies. :smile:
  • maru84
    maru84 Posts: 128
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    I'm nursing a 7 month old full time and I'm sticking to a 1530 calorie diet- I eat all my exercise calories and don't count my fruits or veggies, and my milk supply has been awesome. Yay for breastmilk!!
  • mlv1028
    mlv1028 Posts: 11
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    This is all great information. I'm new to counting calories on this site and I am also breast feeding, well, I pump and feed my baby breast milk. Glad to see there are others on here that do the same!

    - Mary Lou
  • lubsil
    lubsil Posts: 4
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    I'm so glad that I've just found out that you can include Breastfeeding in the food diary :D,I tried searching for it under exercise and didn't find it :/. I've been nursing for 10mths now by pumping and latching on as I've returned to work 6mths back :). Just eat as per normal and whatever you want (don't overeat), the weight will comes off naturally through breastfeeding. And in fact I'm now 6.5kg lighter than I was before I'm pregnant (my lowest weight). Breastfeeding really does wonder :D. Don't jeopardize breast milk for your baby by dieting! Maybe just toning up will be ideal instead :)

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