Losing weight on 1600 calories a day?

[Carolineno]

Post pregnancy I started to gradually lose weight, but I'm still breast feeding so taking it easy. My fitness pal put me on a 1400 calories a day diet and i calculate 200 a day for breastfeeding, so I'm eating, tops, 1600 calories.

I started at 70kg (that's BMI 23 point something, on the overweight side of normal.) With an aim of 64kg. I got down to 68kg in a month, now I seem to have gone back up to 68.4kg, but I have been eating exactly 1600 calories a day the whole way through and have not eaten more.

Is 1600 a day enough to lose weight slowly?

And is the gain of 400g likely to be water? Or a plateu? I am exercising a little (yoga/swimming 3 times a week)

[pippistrelle]

The thing is, as you lose weight, your body actually requires less food, so even eating the same amount of food, your weight loss will slow down, or even stop. But it's also normal for weight to fluctuate depending on a number of factors. It sounds like you're reasonably active so as long as the overall trend is downwards, then I don't think you should worry too much about what is most likely a temporary blip. I get that it's frustrating though.

[eepie]

I have been eating less - cleaner, smaller portions and less calories since January when my DD started going 4 hours between breastfeeds (she is 9.5 months old) I was less hungry and so adjusted my calories intake and cleaned up my diet as I was desperate to lose weight ! I went from 2000+ cals a day on MFP to 1800 to 1600 and then was on 1360 for a couple of weeks.
Before this I had only put on weight from breastfeeding cos I was so damn hungry all the time with my DD feeding every 2-3 hours for 6 months. I used MFP to gradually reduced my calories and stopped adding in anything for breastfeeding as I wasn't losing any weight.
In January I weighed 82kg and now I weigh 76.5 kg .... I still have about 10kg to lose to get back to my pre-baby weight of 66kg. Sorry to tell you but I have been experiencing very slow weight loss, whilst also having been doing more exercise than I ever have in my entire life ! Started with Body Balance, Yoga, light calisthenics type stuff, power walking with the pram, a bit of Crosstrainer and jogging on treadmill at the gym. And now I'm doing HIIT 3-4 times a week and football training once a week - my weight actually went up a few weeks ago as I became more muscular. I can see a difference in my body in pics from January compared to recent pics - I have noticeably lost fat around my waist, love handles, toned my stomach muscles considerably, lost a couple inches off my hips and thighs...But in general I am still heavy & cannot wear any of my old clothes. Exercising makes me feel great and I am glad I am building muscle with strength training and HIIT and increasing my fitness so I can play football (something i never thought I'd do 4 months ago...)
BUT ..my point is: I worry/think that because I'm breastfeeding my body is just hanging onto this fat & all my efforts are not really making much different as I am losing weight so slowly. Pre-pregnancy if I just adjusted my diet a little or did a bit more physical stuff, 1/2 a stone would drop off me within 2 weeks...I had really good metabolism, now it seems to have packed in. It's quite discouraging. Maybe don't even bother cutting calories and trying to lose weight whilst breastfeeding,,,,Let me know if it works well for you as it certainly doesn't seem to have done for me ! Still going but quite disheartening. I am hoping when I stop breastfeeding my body will let go of the fat....and I'll be left with my toned muscles that I"m building now??? RIGHT ???