Weight loss shile breastfeeding - any experiences?

My first baby is due in March and I would like to start losing weight right after I have the baby. Does anyone know what the safe deficit for a nursing mother is and also, how many extra calories do I need? I see different numbers in different places.

If you have experience, how long after the delivery did you wait to start weight loss and what deficit did you have?

As a mum who breast fed 3 babies i'm not sure you should!

 I think the best thing you could do is ask Mary.

my advice other than that would be breast fed for six months, then loose weight.

Hope al goes well for you, babies are best enjoyed while they are little before you know it their 20, 18, and 16

Man alive when my girls were babies being breastfed I didn't have the time to even think about dieting! Enjoy your baby and tackle the weight gain if there is any left to tackle once you have waned your baby and given him/her a great start in life x

double post not sure why

Hi there!

I've just had my second child, and they are 13 months apart.  If you do plan on breastfeeding and losing weight, you should keep it to a minimum (I think it was no more than 2 lb's a month!) because you need the calories to make milk. 

I can definitely vouch for that accuracy, because I was making too much milk (I pump only), and when I got pregnant when my daughter was a few months old, my milk supply started to dwindle, and by the time she was 6 months, I was no longer able to pump.  That being said, I didn't know I was pregnant at the time, and didn't know that I needed to up my caloric intake.  So calorie restriction does need to be minimal while breastfeeding or you will no longer make enough milk.

As for how many calories you need, I couldn't tell you that exactly (body size, weight, height, blah blah blah)... It's said that you burn an average of 500c with breastfeeding in a day (or up to 500).  So I would take that into consideration.  Your body uses the calories that you need first, and then uses extra to make milk.

That being said... take it lightly at first ;)  If you are overweight, you can safely lose a few extra, but not much.

Oh! Another thing I read -- fat hold toxins in the body, as we all should be aware.  When you burn said fat, the toxins are released into the body and some are secreted in the breast milk.  Again, don't burn too much too quick.

Hope this helped!

First of all, congratulations on your pregnancy!

I just stopped nursing my son a couple weeks ago when he turned 1. I also breastfed my daughter for 6 months. During my most recent nursing experience, I tried to gain as much knowledge as I could about the subject. So here it goes!

I wouldn't recommend having a deficit beyond what you burn nursing. What I mean is, I just ate my maintainence calories plus a few hundred. You can burn anywhere from 300-800 calories a day just by producing milk. I found that if I restricted my calories, my milk supply was cut in half. A good rule of thumb is 20 calories burn for every 1 ounce of breastmilk produced.

I'm 5'3" and was 128 pounds pre-pregnancy. I gained 40 pounds during my most recent pregnancy and lost every bit of it by 4-5 months postpartum without working out or having a deficit beyond what I burned nursing. I then lost an extra 5-ish pounds over the next several months without trying.

You really will need more calories than you think. Here's a great calculator that allows you to imput if you're lactating so the calculator takes that into account:

http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-b urned

Also, check out KellyMom. That website was so helpful when I was confused about something.

http://kellymom.com/bf/index.html

Good luck!

Each person is going to be different.  With my first baby I didn't do ANYTHING thinking the weight would naturally go down because I was breastfeeding and that's what other women said happened...usually by about 6 months.  My body doesn't seem to burn many more calories while producing milk, while other women apparently do.  So after the 6 month mark I finally decided I had to do something so I started with moderate exercise.  I would limit calories but nothing extreme, and still made sure I got a good range of protein, carbs, healthy fats. 

With the second child I started walking for exercise and just tried not to stick to good portions but probably had roughly 1700 calories a day.  I lost weight very slowly, but of course, the baby is more important than getting your body back in shape...but at least it was on it's way somewhat. 

You'll just have to take it day by day and see which type you are, but like other said, take it slow.  It wouldn't hurt you to do very moderate exercise especially in the beginning.  Walking seemed to help my stomach muscles tighten up a LITTLE, but a noticeable bit after just 1 week.  As long as you're not doing high intensity workouts and dont' leave yourself ever starving or hungry, AND you don't seem to notice a significant decrease in your milk production, you will do fine.

Thanks everyone! I guess I'll just wait until the baby is born and I'll just see then what the right way for me to go is :) But I'll definately take it slow and try not to stress over the weight too much..

You'll probably just have to play around with your calorie numbers for a while. And the only way I knew my milk supply dropped was because I was pumping at work. My son was getting enough milk when nursing but I couldn't pump enough for him to eat while I was at work.

I breastfed 5 for varying lengths of time.  I too had read that breastfeeding promotes weight loss and had seen evidence of it in a friend.  Unfortunately that was not the case for me.  So take that with a grain of salt.  Nursing is such a wonderful experience.  I'd just enjoy it and worry about the weight loss after the baby is weaned. It is important to eat and drink well to stimulate milk production.

Hi!  When I had my son I gained a huge amount of weight and I was overweight to begin with.  I was terribly depressed when my doctor said that dieting after birth while breastfeeding was a bad idea. 

However, hope is not lost.  You will lose weight by breastfeeding.  The more you breastfeed the more weight you will lose and the healthier the baby will be.  It was a commitment to never give my son a bottle, but he was healthier for it and I lost 80lbs in the 9 months.  Not only was it all of the baby weight but it was also all of the extra weight I had from before my pregnancy. 

If you decide to breastfeed and bottle-feed you will notice a significant decrease in the amount of weight you lose. This is because milk production will be lower, the baby will not be taking all of his/her nutrients (calories) from you so it is like a partial diet.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet or not -- so I'll post it here (the Kellymom site is fabulous, by the way)

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/mom/mom-cal ories-fluids.html

I find that if I'm eating around 1500cal on a fairly non-active day, I can make it.. but on days where I go to the gym, I feel like I'm ready for a big meal by the time it nears my bedtime!  So, on days where I have a heavy workout, I aim closer to 2200cal and closer to the 1500-1700 on days where I don't really do much.  I tend to pump over 40oz of milk in a day, and when my calories dropped to 1500, I noticed my supply made a little bit more than my li'l guy eats (~25 oz. daily)

Some sites I've noticed will say that excercise has no effect on lactation, but I believe this is only in regards to the amount of lactic acid in the milk?  So yeah, just keep an eye on your supply and make sure he/she is getting enough.  (Make sure to establish good supply and feeding first).

I had my daughter August of 2008. I exclusively breastfed until she was 6 months of age, and am still breastfeeding at night.  I lost all of my pregnancy weight and then some.  The weight loss was pretty rapid since I only ate 1800 calories at first.  I would say you probably need at least 2200 calories a day if not more depending on your activity level once you reach your desired weight and are continuing to breastfeed.

I want to second the KellyMom.com site, unfortunatly in this country the pediatricians and doctors don't get much education when it comes to breastmilk most of their nutritional education comes from formula companies.  If you encounter any problems they also have a great directory on their site for lactation consultants.

The comment on the doctor not wanting her to diet while breastfeeding is also been disproved.  Once upon a time they used to think it would release toxins into your milk, that is not true.

Good luck, it's one of the greatest gifts you can give your baby.

THis thread id great!  My baby boy is 22 days old.  I am exclusivly breastfeeding.  I gained 30lbs while pregnant and lost 15 giving birth.  Since then I have lost nothing.  Trying not to stress about it, but its hard!  Glad to see that I am not alone and that there is hope! :)