Breastfeeding

[youaremychocolatecake]

I know from reading posts and t'net in general this is a controversial subject and not recommended but are there are breast feeding mummies here successfully doing 5:2 on an increased fast day allowance? Not actually doing it before anyone jumps on me. My weight is falling off naturally so far. I am just interested to know x

I'm going to join you here- I have a 5 month old ebf baby and have done 5:2 for the last 4 weeks. I had half a stone to lose (once I'd come out of hospital and things had settled down), and today I did it, and I am half a pound lighter than when I got pregnant :)

I am now 4 stone over weight, have battled my weigh all my life. If I could lose just over 2 stone I think I'd be really happy. FD are really hard going though, esp with a baby going through a growth spurt-again!

Hello all.

Interesting discussion here.

I've been on 5:2 since last June. I am still bf my 10mo - she was ebf till 6mo. She is a whopper and my boobs have always produced torrents of milk for her so anecdotally no effect on milk supply here.

I have usually done 500 cals but sometimes liquid only zero fast, until I lost it big time at Xmas.

I was literally crazed over food and would eat 5000 cals on my nfds.

I've not managed to get back to fasting since and have felt better. Have felt a bit bored by being SO obsessed by food - it took up all my time.

Now trying to start again with a 1000cal fast. Today have had 2 milky coffees.

I definitely recommend eating more rather than less when bf - I felt it all got too extreme, I was too ravenous to control myself on NFDs - nothing filled me up, it wasn't entirely fun, it was a bit bonkers.

Hi- I have been doing 5:2 since Dec while bfing my now 16 wk old. I was coping quite well with 700-800 cals on FDs and have lost 12lbs so far. But in the past couple of weeks DD has suddenly started feeding much more esp at night (5 times last night!) and I am correspondingly ravenous! She must be having a growth spurt. I don't want to jeopardise my weight loss but if is really hard.

fairy sounds familiar. It agrees with my experience. It is a bit too wild the calorie deprivation when they are bf a lot and it makes one overeat on NFD.

I got up to a 17lb loss but that is now 10lb. However I've been interrupted by moving house. If I could go back I would eat a bit more on FDs when it got so crazy.

I agree I am ravenous and grumpy! I feel that the 'nothing fills me up' thing is perhaps more nutrition value than calories if that makes sense so have made a huge vegetable soup I am eating today on a fast day and trying to fill up with nuts, seeds and other protein first on nfd's. I also slightly worry that my LO is struggling to get enough milk by the end of my fast day and he doesn't tend to sleep as well that night, but it seems to go back up again in NFDs. Also I think we need even more water on FD and hence why I am eating clear soup with lots of veg in... Be interested to hear others' experiences too

I agree with nutrition. I CANNOT eat ready meals, it has to be freshly prepared colourful and packed with veg. When you are bf your body really knows if you are cutting corners on nutrition - there is no slack to eat crap on a fast day.

But even this didn't stop my ravening hunger. But my dd is a whopper - she is 10mo and over 2 stone (an average 2yo) so I am probably having an extreme experience .

Yes, avocado on toast or wholenut peanut butter on toast for breakfast on day after FD helps me too. Does anyone else find it really difficult to get back to sleep if they wake in the night on the night of your FD? I just lie there feeling utterly miserable but determined not to cancel out all my good work!!!

Wow! You clearly have amazing milk!! Well done you for fasting at all. I'd be very proud of myself if I was you!

I have also found myself going to bed at 8 pm as get totally shattered.... Doesn't sound great does it? But I actually do like the approach and especially the health benefits. Having children makes me determined to do my best to be healthy and live to a long age if possible.

Well I have compromised a bit and had a roll with a bit of cheddar along with my hard boiled egg and veg soup for lunch. If I can make it to dinner without any snacks though I shouldn't exceed 700 cals too much.

slugs I find most evenings my milk is a little low around 6 pm but I'm more paranoid about it on FD.

On FD I find it hard to fall asleep!

Milk was fine today... But I did make a massive pan of veg soup and I think that helped, maybe even just with liquid intake. Fairy me too re sleep, I often fall off the fast wagon a little bit but still losing so that's good !

Hi everyone. DD2 is 6 weeks and I'm starting 5:2 today. I'm aiming for 750 calories as she has a bottle of formula daily so I'm hoping that will be okay. I'm just going to see how it goes....! My fast days will be Mondays and Wednesdays most weeks.

BFers Even if you have got down to 500 or 700 cals, do feel free to go back up to 1,000 if you start feeling ravenous.

There are a lot of demands on you and a growth spurt can mean that your body suddenly needs more fuel to make milk.
Don't be tough on yourselves.
On FDs: Only eat healthy nutrient-dense food. So, no junk, added sugar, fizzy crap, alcohol etc

Hello mestella welcome. I started at same point. Will be glad to hear how t goes for you.

good advice from bigchoc there.

My baby is huge - I started a thread on it and one hypothesis was that i had super-rich milk. I'm wondering if fasting, esp when eating a good diet, might lead to richer milk. Dunno.
Anecdotal.

Anyway I had my first successful fd for a long time thanks to food poisoning.

I'm EBF my 14 week old baby and have been doing 5:2 for about a month now. I have just under a stone to lose now to get to pre-preg weight which I would be very happy with (especially with my new larger sized boobs which must add a couple of pounds!). I previously did 5:2 before I became pregnant (hadn't shifted baby weight from DD1) and lost about 2 stones in 2 months and felt good. I didn't start it until I stopped BF DD1 at 2 years old (of course she was only having a couple of small BF feeds a day by the end) and found it fairly easy, was able to not go too overboard on NFDs unless it was a special occasion. This time it's much harder, I can manage FDs ok and usually stick to 500 cal or slightly over. However, NFDs are HARD! On the morning after a FD I feel quite weak and tired (although a teething baby doesn't help!) and need breakfast to get me going. However, I am seriously hungry and end up overeating on NFDs. I have lost about a stone since starting however, and am determined not to give up, but I feel annoyed by my lack if willpower, when it was previously so strong. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself as I'm breastfeeding and my milk supply seems fine. I also express milk most days to store in the freezer. It doesn't help that I meet once a week with my NCT group and there's always cake, biscuits, home baking etc! I try to make sure that's a NFD but still feel bad about eating it! Gah!

Hi all! I tried the 5:2 for a couple of weeks but have found it did affect my milk supply. I have a 12 week old ds who is combined fed (1bottle of formula in the evening). It wasnt the fd's which were the problem but the next nfd- i didnt feel i was making enough milk and ds was clearly hungry even though i drank tons during my fd and ate about 700 calories. I havent fasted this week ans my milk supply has gone back to normal. Its a shame as i was enjoying the 5:2- guess i'll have to wait til ds is older and no longer bfing!

Hi cookie. Out of interest how many calories were you having on FDs? I tried 750 on day one which worked well. I stupidly had fewer (circa 600) on FD2 and the next day definitely noticed a reduction in my supply so I moved DD's formula bottle to breakfast. Doubtless a coincidence, but she ended up having her best night's sleep!

Hi I'm doing 1000cal fasts. It's really easy. How are others doing?

I'm doing 500 cal fast days and am EBF my 16 week old (DD2) and have had no impact on milk supply, I've got tonnes of the stuff! I did find NFDs hard and was overeating (i think) because I was so hungry. I was also eating chocolate, cakes and biscuits on NFDs (truly living the "you can have it tomorrow" mantra plus NCT meet ups seem to revolve around cake!) so this week have switched to eating healthily on NFDs (max of 15g of saturated fat per day and between 20g and 50g of "good" unsaturated fats) which of course means choc and junk is off the menu. This has been so much better as I no longer feel I'm undoing all the good work (calorie wise) of a FD. I'm eating much more nutritious food on NFD (plenty of nuts and oily fish etc) which is probably especially important as a breastfeeder I guess.
Regarding the bottle of formula (sorry can't check name of poster who mentioned it), this is likely to have more of a negative impact on your milk supply than the calorie reduction (sorry, you probably already know this!) can you give a bottle of expressed milk instead? I agree it's important to introduce them to the bottle and DD2 has a bottle if expressed milk now and again to remind her!

I have been averaging around 750 cals per FD but don't beat myself up if I need a little extra - last week I HAD to have a half piece of bread with peanut butter around 4:30, otherwise I would not have been able to get through the evening routine with DS and DD. NFDs can be a bit difficult too, especially as I have recently developed more of a hankering for sugar. However, it must all be working because I have now lost 18lbs (in 12 weeks) and am at the weight I was at my booking in appt with the midwife. Another 8lbs and I will be at 'normal' weight! However I might keep this up for a while to see if I can be the weight I have always wanted to be, eg half a stone lighter than 'normal'.

Hope everyone else has been finding it as easy as I have.

How's everyone doing? I had a couple of bad weeks eating, in which I maintained. Have been back on for a week and am now 2lb down from this time last month. Slowly but surely...

I had a hellish night with the kids last night and almost didn't fast today but as I was trying to tuck into a bowl of cereal I got a terrible tummy ache! Couldn't eat it at all... don't know if I'm just in a fasting rhythm but I have probably had at least 750 cals today so not a major fast. It's working well for me though (over 5kg lost!! yay!) but I still have that mummy ring around my tummy... can't wait for it to be gone but might have to do some exercise too. Ah next week maybe.

Marking place.coming back later once kids are asleep....