I know you shouldn't diet whilst Bf but a nurse at my surgery today said it's okay

[Helgicita]

I'm feeling so confused. My DC2 is four months old. She's feeding well - totally bf. She was a big baby and is still growing well. I lost some weight after her birth initially but after a few weeks of feeding my appetite increased and I have put quite a lot of weight on. My eating seems out of control. For my dinner each night I have to eat pasta, at least two large bowls of it - i cant manage on anything else, and last thing at night you'll find me stuffing my face with cereal. Sometimes up to 5 weetabix. I go to bed still feeling hungry quite often and if I haven't eaten at least some cereal no matter how tired I am I cant get to sleep.
I'm so depreesed about my eating, there's no enjoyment anymore, it seems like a desperate activity, cramming as much in as possible. And sometimes I feel like I want to vomit it all back, but I cant because I wont make milk/sleep etc .... !
I went to the doctors today and saw the nurse practitioner. I'm so worried about my tummy still being huge (I still look 6 months pregnant) but I also talked about my eating. She said that I need to start doing more exercise. This is true and I will do this. But also that I should cut down on what I am eating and that perhaps I'm not drinking enough fluids, supposedly the receptors for hunger and thirst are close together in the brain and can get confused. I said to her that I cant sleep if I don't eat the amount that I am currently eating and also that DC2 has started waking earlier in the morning on days when I haven't eaten as much the night before, not a problem in itself but surely demonstrating that my milk is of poorer quality. She seemed to think that cutting down on my food would be fine for DC2 and that I would experience a few weeks of discomfort but it would be a totally safe thing to do.
I feel so tempted to start this mainly because i now hate eating so much but I'm so apprehensive about how crap I'm going to feel and how DC2 will be. I already feel crap this evening having only had 1.5 bowls of pasta and a small bowl of muesli.
Sorry this goes on and on!

I still had a stone or a bit more to lose when my DC1 was about 4 months - was a clothes size bigger than normal. I kept saying to myself that I 'had' to try and control how much I was eating, but I felt so hungry. Then when he was about 5 months I started eating less (ie a normal amount, and no biscuits/cake/fattening things) - he was still feeding as much, but I think that my body had got used to bfeeding and I didn't need the extra food.

By 6 months I was back in my old clothes and after 7 or 8 months I weighed less than I ever had.

Strangely enough, after DC2 I didn't feel as hungry as after DC1 and I lost the weight more quickly. My theory was that my body had got used to producing the milk and I didn't need the extra calories as much (though that is probably just me!). I did need loads of liquids though.

As Filly and Jelly said, I also found that the hunger dropped off around 6/7 months. DD is nearly one, still BFing, and not eating much solid food, yet still I'm not as hungry.

I starting running again at 3 months, and didn't really see the results until 7 months or so. But running does make the weight drop off, even though I'm not dieting. Exercising won't help a little, it will help a lot.

But don't kill yourself at four months. Have another bowl of cereal if you need it. It'll get better

helgicita - I'm hearing depression here. have you done the edinburgh test?