To diet whilst im breastfeeding?

[wantstosleepnow]

Somedays i am eating one meal a day. My dd2 is 6wks old and i am also bf dd1 but only about twice a day. Do you think this will affect my milk. So far it hasn't and its been about 2 week.

You will be burning up so many calories anyway with the bf, plus being up and down in the night (unless you are really lucky!) that eating healthy regular meals should mean you lose weight gradually.

Eating one meal a day won't be enough to keep you going and you'll feel devoid of energy. Everything will be so much harder going. I really needed to dig deep into my emotional reserves at times - you need the energy to come from eating decent food.

Sorry but honestly why would you?

Does it matter?

You'll be BF for what - two to three years. You'll be really hungry initially then it will settle down.

I was a 16 in pregnancy, a 14 for much after it, now a 12 and slipping back to my 10 but DS is two and half years old.

Eat what you like within reason, BF does burn loads.

And I do have to agree with Starlight there.

Fuck your weight OP it really isn't the main thing now.

The quality of milk is affected by nutrition ? mostly the quality of fats ? some of the omegas in particular are important for brain development. Also although not proven by solid research, a lot of toxins are stored in body fat and it is though that losing weight too fast during BF can release these into the milk. Keytones produced by rapid weight loss aren't to hot for a baby either.

Slimming World and WW programs are widely recognised as very balanced

There are also well-documented cases of MNers being told by HVs that they will become "husks" if they continue to BF, and much hilarity ensued

Hi wantstosleepnow, I am currently b/feeding ds1 (22mnths) once or twice a day and ds2 (9 weeks) all the time

And I'm dieting.

I am using the weight loss resourses website that is linked earlier in the thread and its excellent.

I have done quite a bit of research into dieting & b/feeding although i'm not an expert.

Everything i've read says wait until breastfeeding is properly established don't diet until your baby is 8 weeks.

During dieting & b/feeding don't let your calories drop below 1500-1800 calories per day - most women will need to be at the upper end of the scale.

Protien intake each day needs to be about 65 grams.

Everything that I've read says if you drop below these levels it can affect your supply, but also if you drop below these levels your body will start to strip body fat to go into your milk, sounds great but apparantly environmental toxins in your body fat are then fed direct to your baby.

I have no idea at all as to how serious this would be but the info is on kellymom under diet.

I know it may seem like a lot of calories but I am doing it and losing weight, it is working and I feel really healthy too.

I recently spoke to an NCT BFC about this, who said that you have to be severely malnourished for months to affect supply, but my supply is well and truly established- I'm not sure if this applies in those all-important early weeks.

However one meal a day while bfing will leave you exhausted with no energy at all. I can't imagine it'll help your post natal recovery either.

I know how horrible it is to feel so fat after a pregnancy (I used to have an ED which has certainly threatened to rear its ugly head since giving birth) but the other posters are right when they say that you have plenty of time for weight loss, it's such early days. Try to eat a healthy diet and just focus on enjoying your new baby for now.

Really glad i posted this now. Definately going to eat more regularly now. Its really easy to get sucked into your own little world were you are focused on losing weight. I had no idea about toxins being released into the milk! My poor baby, will definately eat better now.

I'm glad you posted to Just to say that yes supply is only affected by severe malnutrition but quality is affected by what you eat every day -

Hey, wantstosleepnow, why don't you come and join the august mummies in the slimming section? Theres not many of us on there but I think most of us are b/feeding too..

hope to see you there

These damned celebrities have a lot to answer to - please sort your mind out before starting on your body : CUT YOURSELF SOME SLACK!!! NOBODY (EXCEPT YOU) expects you to be superskinny so stop depriving your body of the precious energy you NEED to keep yourself focused and alert during these precious and tough early days.

BF aside for a second, I am a cranky, distracted mess if i starve myself and that's without the stress of a newborn and other issues that will be going on, so for your mental well being, please eat more than one meal a day, but just be wise about what you eat.

You don't want to look back on the early days and just remember miserable days where you were hungry - they go so quickly you should be cherishing them which is best done with a fuller stomach (full of healthy yummy food!!)

You could push yourself towards a disorder if you're not careful which is a whole different (and very ugly) ballgame.

Take care of you

Beens x