Breastfeeding and loosing weight

[Pearlgracie1]

Anybody know how you can loose weight whilst breastfeeding?
Being this size is seriously depressing me, limited on what exercise I can do as I had an Emergancy c-section and put it this way, it hurts to wear trousers(or anything around my waist even tights) so would love to be able to find an exercise I can do. Try to eat healthy but when your body needs sugar because your baby needs sugar you can't not have it!...it's impossible, so much pain , think if the weight was gone might ease my pain
3 1/2 months after having my daughter.
Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

[meladeso]

Sorry to hear that pearl
I had a (2nd) section 5 months ago,.with a dreadful recovery, and still I am worried about why you are still in so much discomfort on your tummy? Is it on the surface?
Have you spoken to your GP about it? I do think you should get it looked at if it is that painful.
Most people find the scar area a little tender / hyper sensitive, but not painful, in my experience.

[meladeso]

As far as the eating goes I can relate to that!
I feel the same, and have started off the year using a superfood cook book or two, and just religiously cooking meals from that every night.
I'm making sure we all get a good hearty meal, with rice / pasta etc so it's sufficient for me while BF, but am hoping some weight will gradually drop off.

[meladeso]

And if you are going to manage any exercise, you are going to have to have plenty of food in you! It's hard isn't it. Someone will hopefully be along who knows their stuff about nutrition, but from what I do know, I can tell you that I eat things like -
Porridge (2/3 water, 1/3 milk) with berries and a bit of agave at 8
Spinach, banana and one other fruit smoothie at 11
Jacket potato with a little butter and tuna or cottage cheese and salad around 1
Then snack on a few satsumas, grapes, and Ryvita in the afternoon if I need to
Then dinner as mentioned in my other post above.

Good luck!

[Pearlgracie1]

Have spoken to docs, they just say it will ease with time...have an appoint later so will mention again.
We do have a fairly balanced diet already, I just find I need to eat more otherwise I feel so drained I haven't the energy to do anything climbing the stairs seem like a mountain. To have the energy to exercise feel like if need to eat more which defeats the point. Argh it's a vicious circle!

[ArgyMargy]

Neither you nor your baby "needs" sugar. This attitude is the root of your problem.

[meladeso]

It is!!

[Keepingupwiththejonesys]

Some people think they have a good diet but in reality its really not. I'm not saying you don't but why not log this week into mfp and see how many calories you're consuming each day?

[Pearlgracie1]

Argymargy are you implying you don't need sugar as part of a balanced diet? Do you not eat sugar?..
I was Using sugar as an example, when your breastfeeding your body tells you you need something then you need something. Am I wrong?

[Pearlgracie1]

I know what you mean keepingupwiththejoneis, what is mfp?...

[jobrum]

I actually put on weight bfing! I weighed more three months after giving birth than I did a week after the birth. It made me ridiculously hungry. I just took am honest account of what I ate for a couple of days and then cut out the biscuits I was taking to bed , the entire bags of filled pasta with whole balls of mozzarella... I chose filling food, tried as much as possible to stick to meal times and swapped chocolate bars for little square of chocolate for yummy sugar along with something that would give me more slow release enery instead. No instant fix but it worked and kind of reset my appetite - bf for 18 months so couldnt have kept up that diet!

[Keepingupwiththejonesys]

Its my fitness pal. Basically just a calorie checher type of app. I use it and like that it shows daily vitamin intake as well as calories. I'm 36+3 today with my third child and my other two children are still young themselves so its gonna be very busy lol. I plan to breastfeed but don't want to fall into the trap of losing a little weight in the first month then gaining lots in the following. So, I've been getting used to logging on mfp again lately (used it before pregnancy and lost lots of weight) to get me used to it again and I plan to carry on using it after the birth

[Pearlgracie1]

Oh wow you are going to be busy, so exciting ,congratulations not long to go now can still remember to excitement at that stage...good luck to you thank you very much I will certainly take a look.

[MyKingdomForBrie]

Neither you nor baby need refined sugar is I assume what the pp meant. A balanced diet including for example fruits will contain enough natural sugars, and in fact you don't even need fruit sugars. Sugar is naturally in a lot of non sweet tasting foods. Stick to brown rice, wholewheat pasta, vegetables etc. Being full doesn't have to mean over eating. I'm ebf and have lost weight.

[meladeso]

totally agree with mykingdom about no refined sugar

and i also second the recommendation to try My Fitness Pal, it's excellent and the only way I've found of ever properly controlling my diet

[Penguina]

I had a section 7 months ago and I was fat (I felt fat anyway...). At 3 months pp I hi a wall and was stuck at a weight I was really unhappy with. I just stopped eating like a pig and ate small portions and no cake or crap. It helped that I followed a dairy free diet for ds. I lost a stone and a half in 10 weeks and my supply was not affected. I don't really think you need anything special if your bf, it's just used as an excuse!

[StopShoutingAtYourBrother]

I couldn't lose a single pound while I was breastfeeding. My body was just too hungry and needed the fat to make the milk, despite what every HV and the magazines said. Once I stopped BF and I was able to go on a sensible diet the weight came off. I know this doesn't help you with your weight goals but I did want to reassure you that your experience is not uncommon, but I think if I'd have 'treated' myself with less chocolate cake i would have felt all round and achieved my goals quicker

[Penguina]

I also agree with pp. Not everyone is able to lose while bf. I have ever been very lucky!

[Keepingupwiththejonesys]

Aww thanks pearl, my other two are 4 and 2 so I'm sure I'll be kept very busy!

I've been trying hard not to gain a lot of weight this pregnancy, I gained over 4 stone with my second and really didn't want to do that again! I started this pregnancy a stone over my 'goal weight' so not to bad. I've gained around 2 stone through this pregnancy and I'm happy enough with that, it was much less but I went a little mad on the food over Christmas! Definitely have a look at mfp though. When I first started using it o was surprised in a lot of ways. Firstly I was surprised just how many calories I actually was consuming some days without realising but on a positive note I was also surprised at just how much I could eat if the food was the right stuff.

[Swearwolf]

Sorry you're finding it so hard. I'm starving too and my baby is 9 months old, like a PP I've actually managed to put on weight this time! So different to when I had my son and the weight just fell off.

There are a whole bunch of us on a thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/2815781-Anyone-else-trying-to-lose-weight-whilst-breast-feeding
Come and join us for some mutual support and diet ideas!