If you are BFing, could I ask...

[ParkerRocks]

what do you eat on the average day? on an average day I eat:

Cereal, such a sultana bran, weetabix etc
A sandwich of some sort for lunch, today was ciabatta with ham, rocket and Mayo. Juice and an apple or some dried dates, apricots etc. Sometimes I'll have soup instead.
Usually cup of tea and biscuits when back from school run, or homemade cake if I've had time to make something!
Dinner is general family food as we all eat together, eg, chilli con carne, rice with mixed salad, or like today, baked cod, buttered new potatoes with peas and fine beans.
Most evenings I'll have a bowl of cereal, piece of toast or similar to get me thru night feeds!

The reason I ask is because I'm constantly being told I don't eat enough considering I am BFing, by friends and family, but I think I eat plenty and I'm not hungry! just wondered how much everyone else is eating?

Please, please tell your friends and family to bog off! I was a lovely size 10/12 before DS. Then interfering, albeit well meaning, friends, family and midwives decided I wasn't eating enough carbohydrate, insisted I had to eat butter, and now I'm the size of an elephant and can't shift it. If I had listened to my body and not everyone else I'm sure I would not be this size. DS is 21 months, and I'm still BF, and my weight is the only thing that makes me want to give up. I'm fat and miserable, and despite going back to my pre-pregnancy eating I'm still at least 10 kilos too heavy. :(

I eat as much as my body tells me to eat. And it tells me to eat rather a lot.

I eat too much. That has nothing to do with BFing, I ate too much already.

My typical day's food would be fairly similar to yours, except that I usually have a bit more for breakfast (e.g. weetabix with banana + a slice of granary toast). However, DD is now nearly 9 months and therefore eating a reasonable amount of solid food as well as bf (though in fact she still has about 7-8 bfs a day anyway!).

When DD was 4-6 months and still only taking breastmilk, I was eating quite a bit more than this, and was still constantly hungry and losing weight, so I do think I needed the extra calories. I definitely agree with others that you should eat to appetite, but that said, bf is a great excuse to treat yourself to a nice bit of cake from time to time! :)

organiccarrotcake, DS once told me my milk tasted like chocolate anyway. But go for the double chocolate I say.

I lost weight during pregnancy, despite eating what I wanted, but appear to have my appetite back.
I'm eating really quite healthily though, just lots.
I'm reluctant to reign it in yet though as DD is putting weight on a little slowly.
Which is stupid of me, as as long as I'm eating enough protein and vits and minerals the cals/fat will just come from my ample frame won't it?

timewasting If you're worried about your DD not putting on enough weight then no, your diet won't change that. Do you want to discuss it at all or are you ok with it?

I'm just paranoid. Probably.
I know that the quality of my diet won't make a difference to my milk, but after a long struggle to get DS weight on last time, I feel in a sort of battle mentality about it I suppose, like I should be doing more.

Forgot to say how much I eat - breakfast: 2 weetabix and a banana
Lunch: 2 slices of toast with peanut butter or marmite and some dried fruit or fresh fruit
Dinner: Eg ratatouille and couscous, or fish fingers and potato and peas
Evening snack: dried fruit

So about the same....

timewasting which is why I find the concept of eating "xyz" if you're worried about weight gain to be so annoying because it doesn't do anything, adds extra stress and doesn't solve the problem (which basically means, feed more milk).

Of COURSE it's a big worry if you feel they're not gaining enough, but very, very often it really is completely normal which is what you seem to think it is if you were completely honest - I think? (Don't want to put words into your mouth!). What does your HV say?

Never a bad thing to enourage the odd additional feed or two each day if you can.

I eat LOADS. And way less healthy than everyone here. I have a terrible diet :(

8oz in two weeks, at a month old. HV didn't have anything negative to say about it, but it looks like she's tracking a line I guess atm. I thought 5-8oz a week was average, so would have expected her to say something for 4oz a week, but I guess she can see that DD is fine.
She's going to be slender when she grows up (DH side of family ).

So, I know it's ok, but I'd be happier if she was packing it on in seal pup fashion. It's hard to be confident.

I eat lots more than I used to as Im hungrier but it doesnt seem to have affected my weight to much though even though Im not yet back to pre pregnancy weight (I dont weigh myself though so Im just going but what I look/feel like and my clothes).

Im more worried about not depleting my own body of minerals, like others have said, rather than the right number of calories.

I also remember reading somewhere about iodine deficiency in pregnancy and bf and how it depletes the iodine from the mother first. Considering the number of older women I know with thyroid problems I wanted to avoid this and so I add iodized salt to my foods.

Cheers organic what you say makes sense... am sure my teeth feel a little....hmmm, wobbly? 18 mth old over here - who still hardly drinks anything from a cup. Gah. There must be a way to get him drinking more non-bf?! Anyway, off topic.
Agree with poster who said just eat what you feel is right (in terms of amounts). FWIW I didn't mean to lose weight but I got a shock when, at around the 7 mth mark, I got on the scales and discovered I weighed less than pre-baby (still had (& have) odd stomach and etc, so assumed I wld be heavier...).
So in my exp, I think all excess weight came off after around the 6 mth mark.