Dieting whilst breastfeeding

[fhdl34]

My DD is 7w3d, is EBF and I have my post natal check today. I want to rejoin weight watchers ASAP and am expecting to get the go ahead from the doctor today. DD is gaining weight well (she'd put on 2lb in 3 weeks at 6 week weigh in) and I seem to have a good milk supply going.
I was wondering if other people found dieting did affect their milk supply? I'm not expecting my diet to change that much from what it is now as I'm eating quite healthily, I just want to start tracking what I'm eating and generally be more aware.
The most important thing to me right now is breastfeeding my daughter so it's very important that my supply not be affected.
Since giving birth I've lost about 2.5 stone from my pre-pregnancy weight but I didn't put any weight on during pregnancy so really that's been over the last 11 months, not 7 weeks. I have a very high BMI (50+) and was being monitored by the hospital.
I'd like to continue losing weight and improving my health so I have more energy to raise my daughter and also so I'm healthier in my next pregnancy (should we be lucky enough to get pregnant again).
How will I know though if my milk supply is affected? Are there signs I should be looking out for?

Congrats on the birth of your DD :)

Most experts recommend waiting a couple of months at least before trying to lose weight. It sounds like things are going really well so far and it's brilliant that you are so dedicated to BF.

I don't know a lot about weight watchers but I think they do allow for BF in their points system. If you are following a balanced diet and losing weight gradually then you should be fine, but I would give it another few weeks. A lot of mothers find they lose weight after the birth without making a conscious effort.

http://www.llli.org/faq/diet.html is some info on dieting and BF.

Good luck with it and enjoy your new baby!

Buuger, I screwed up the link. http://www.llli.org/faq/diet.html.

FFS!!! www.llli.org/faq/diet.html Sorry

I did slimming world whilst BFing and it worked well for me, no reduction on milk. With sw, you are allowed extra "A" choices which are the milk, cheese, etc so that would seem a sensible thing to do to help with milk surply whilst losing weight.
Good luck.

I'm bfing and doing slimming world, they have a special thing for bf-ers that involves extra portions of cheese/ milk on top of your normal 'allowance' :o It's the best thing ever about bf-ing (kidding - feeeding ds is the best thing ever but extra cheese allowance is good too)

x-posts :) it works for me, have lost 1st in 6wks and still bfing too

I'm another to recommend SW! The free foods and allowance for bf means you can graze all day long and not feel like you are dieting!

EauRouge Thanks for the link, it says that diet is sometimes discussed in the groups so I rang my local LLL group and they're next meeting on 2nd March so I'm going to attend. DD will be 2 months by then and I can't afford to join WW until after payday anyway so it all coincides well.

My SIL suggested I try Slimming World but it's never appealed to me. I've never tried them but I don't like the idea of green and red days; when I'm on a diet I need to know that no food is off limits, regardless of the day, even if I know I'm not going to eat that food. I'm just awkward like that . WW has always worked well for me in the past, I lost 7 stone with them previously.

I am currently doing weightwatcher while BFing DD who is 5m old

i didnt start until DD was 4 months old (January)

I get 14 extra BFing points a day (so i eat 40 points a day + have the 49 per week points allowance)
It has made no difference to my milk supply at all

One of my friends has a baby 2 days older than mine.. she started weight watchers when her baby was 2 months old (November) and it massively effected her milk and HV ordered her to stop dieting as her baby was dropping through the centiles

In 5 weeks i have lost 12lb

Just to let u know that there is a better SW plan now- extra easy and it's a combination of green and red. I couldn't follow it when it was like that, but it really is soo easy now- no food off limit at all!

My dd is 8 weeks old and I have downloaded the myfitnesspal app onto my smart phone. It is basically a glorified calorie counter and can even scan barcodes to save you having to enter food details! I know it is early for us but I can't stand the thought of another fat summer.

You can programme in that you are exclusively breastfeeding which gives you an extra 520 calories onto your allowance. I love it and don't feel hungry. My milk is still plentiful.

I'm exclusively BF and have just started diet using that app too! Stinky how do you programme in that you are BF - I hasn't spotted that.. (dD is 4 months)

I just went to add food, (I usually enter it under dinner so I can find it easily) and where you search for food enter breastfeeding. It brings up several options so you can change it later when you start to wean.

Oops forgot to mention most important bit - it's free!

Thanks Stinky! Yes would definitely recommend it myself, has good range of exercises you can add too, and you can add your own recipes/foods/exercises if they aren't in there already (and the database seems pretty huge)

thanks stinky. Unfortunately they don't have the app for my smart phone which is a Nokia, otherwise I'd have used that instead :( weight watchers is half the price of slimming world so I'll definitely be sticking with them i think!

The only diet I wouldn't do is an extreme low carb one. And I wouldn't go mega-low calorie suddenly.

I went on Atkins lite (no ketosis) when first baby was taking in food in quantity at 9 months (BLW) as I put 4 stone on!

This one I'm struggling not to lose weight as a size 8!