How do I diet while breastfeeding?

I am finding it difficult to loose weight. I have been having a problem with my weight for about 5 years now. I recently had 2 babies in 13 months. My husband has been telling me I am not taking in enough calories for my body to allow me to take the weight off. How can I consistantly keep my calorie intake up with two babies to take care of?

Maybe express milk and hand over the little ones once or twice a day, so you can sit down at ease and have a decent meal?

Bearing in mind you should not diet whilst breastfeeding. Maybe you need to relax in the fact that the weightloss is slowing down till you stop breastfeeding. Your body has been through quite a bit the past 13 months, so it might take a good while for it to settle in a good loss-routine./

Congrats on the babies and good luck!

I personally have a hard time losing weight while breastfeeding. I have discussed this issue on another topic but when I had my first child 4 years ago, I was unable to lose weight (other than the initial weight loss at birth) until after I stopped breastfeeding. I had my second child 10 weeks ago and am currently breastfeeding. I lost 20 pounds in the first week and have only lost 3 pounds since then. I cut my calories so much that it started to effect my milk supply. I have since started to eat more calories so we'll see if it helps me lose weight.

Just remember--the weight will come off in time. It's better to lose it slowly and keep it off. Right now, you're doing something wonderful for your baby.

I had twins in 2000, nursed them for two years, had a baby boy in 2003, nursed him for over a year, and a girl in 2006 who I nursed for about 11 months (I was so done with nursing at that point!)

In a seven year period, there was only 15 months that I wasn't either pregnant or nursing.

For the twins, I put on over a hundred pounds.  I'd read in several places that to have twins at term, it helped to put on as much weight as possible.  It worked; the girls were born 5 days overdue (40 weeks +5, I was massive).

For my boy I put on 70lbs.  He was born at 10lbs, overdue, and had a voracious appetite.

The fifteen months grace from pregnancy and nursing allowed me to finally lose some weight, but then I had some issues with some medication I was taking that caused me to bloat up 40lbs in three months.  I didn't lose that before getting pregnant with the last child.

The long and the short of it is, I couldn't lose a single pound while nursing the first three children.  Think about it; you're sitting most of the time and your body is producing mass amounts of estrogen and prolactin in order to produce enough milk -- I'm guessing you probably have a healthy eater on your hands!

I lost weight with number three ONLY because DH put a paper in my stocking telling me that he'd signed me up for a triathlon 9 months hence.  I had to start moving if I wanted to finish a sprint.  Without doing any physical activity, I never would have lost a pound.

Fodder for thought...have you considered taking the time to do 1/2 an hour of free weights, three times a week to get your metabolism going?

This is a brilliant topic.  I am a new mommy to a gorgeous little 5 month old warrior princess.  Going back to work, I'm also nursing, pumping at work and practiacally nursing the whole time I'm at home.  It's such a hectic life right now trying to get things done around the house, work and nurse at the same time, losing the weight seems crazy.  Now, what brought me to this sight, is a desperate need to pull my body back in shape, especially since I'm noticing that little hang in the front of my body, it's like my butt had gone to the front below my navel.  I have never seen that before on my body and something has to be done.  But I see articles that say "don't diet while nursing", blah blah blah.  Okay, I get it, but I KNOW I CAN DO SOMETHING to get that little frontal butt off of me and look half way decent.  So I'm here.

I'm nursing, and I'm changing to eat healthier.  I just have to find out how because I know there's a way to drop pounds and still have healthy nursing.

Original Post by pen_coed:

 

Bearing in mind you should not diet whilst breastfeeding.

 It's not that you shouldn't diet, but that you shouldn't be on a very low cal diet.  Just eat about 400-600 more calories than normal, since that's what breastfeeding burns.

I love the La Leche League website. I have found a wealth of information there, including an article as well as links about dieting while breastfeeding:

http://www.llli.org/FAQ/diet.html