Diet while breastfeeding?

That's going to depend alot on how old your baby is. My midwife was against any calorie restrictions till at least 6wks postpartum and even then, ONLY if you have a good supply and only if you were cutting cals a little.

I'd often lose weight nursing without purposely cutting cals...too busy to eat as much, maybe?

My kids' pediatrician advised me not to cut calories until my baby is at least 6 months old to ensure that my body gets enough nutrition.

You have to be really careful restricting calories while breast feeding. I tried to cut about 300 cals out of my diet before and my supply completely tanked. As soon as I upped them back up my supply was fine again. It's a fine line to walk. My suggestion is cut out 100 each week and monitor your supply as you go. If you notice a dip just add those 100 back. Never go below 1500 calories. I had to stay at right around 1700 to keep my supply in check.I still was losing, just gradually. I held onto the last 10 lbs of my pregnancy weight until my daughter weaned.

My daughter is 8mo old and I am still breastfeeding, I am allowed 1200 calories a day from MFP. I was looking online and it looked like they say you average burning about 20 calories per ounceof milk produced. My daughter doesn't breastfeed as much, so I figure she usually gets about 6 ounces per feeding (from what I can tell by pumping), and I usually feed/pump 4 times a day now. The way I set it up on my daily diary is I added an exercise titled Breastfeeding and set it for 20 calories per minute, and then instead of how many minutes a day I just put in how many ounces a day as an exercise. Then I just try to eat back most of those calories. I have not had a problem with my supply going down at all from what I can tell. I have been on here for 20 days and I lost 13 pounds (but gained 5 back this week with Easter and Family functions I ate some crap food).

I just had my daughter on 12/14/11 - I've lost almost 66 lbs total since my highest pregnancy weight. I've been eating an absolute TON of food and losing weight very steadily. My milk production has actually dramatically increased now that I'm eating balanced meals (carb/protein/healthy fat) at every meal, and making sure I get enough food too!! I used to have supply issues when my calorie intake was lower, and to top that off, my weight loss results were confusing and discouraging.

If you'd like to learn more about what I'm doing, I have my blog on my page: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/sar123bear/view/eat-more-not-less-especially-for-new-moms-even-while-breastfeeding-236541

Bottom line, don't try to lose weight "fast"- especially while breastfeeding. If anything, to make it easy on yourself set your goal to either 1 lb weight loss or .5 lbs weight loss. You may end up very well dropping a lot of weight if you don't starve yourself and get proper nutrition. 1500 "net" calories is a pretty decent figure to shoot for normally, but that means you have to get 500 extra calories in for breastfeeding (until your baby starts eating solid foods or 1-6 months old), and if you add any exercise, say a 2 mile walk burning 200 calories, then you need to eat those calories too.... so for example, total calories consumed w/ breastfeeding and the 2 mile walk would be 2200 (-500 and -200 would be net 1500). Doing nothing more than eating your maintenance level of calories (typical female is 2000 or so) and breastfeeding (-500) should normally allow you to lose weight at a very steady rate of 1 lb or more / week... yes, even without exercise.

If you wish to do exercise, I'd keep it light, because eating enough HEALTHY FOODS is already hard enough to maintain when you're getting that much of a calorie allowance.

I do hope this helps! Best of luck on your success at losing! :happy: