Vegan and breastfeeding - listing too much weight

[ChaosMoon]

Hi guys. I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask this question.

While I'm not technically vegan, it's a rare month that I do eat meat, and dairy doesn't feature in my diet much more often. I'm still breastfeeding my nearly 1 year old DD and we're doing baby led weaning so some weeks she wants more milk than others. She's always refused a bottle.

I weighed myself for the first time since I had her and I've lost a stone and a half on my pre-pregnancy weight, which puts me in the underweight category. (And explains why my clothes look rubbish.)

I've looked at my diet and all I can think it's that it's too lean. Vegan proteins just don't seem to have the same levels of fats as other sources.

So I guess my question is, what can I do to healthily put on weight? I'd rather not up my meat intake (or eat all the chocolate yes I would ). Do does anyone have any suggestions?

I'd keep a log of what you are actually eating over the course of a week. Chronometer is a good app. That should make it very easy to see whether it's actually protein you are missing or perhaps fat. You can then easily adjust your diet. And unless you have a health issue, you are losing weight because you are not consume enough calories. So the adjustment may be to just eat more of what you are eating already. A protein deficiency doesn't typically cause weight loss.

DH was trying to put on weight whilst doing veganuary.
He ate things like:
Peanut butter and banana on toast
Bagel with dairy-free cream cheese
Porridge with nut butter/ground almonds/desiccated coconut stirred in
Avocado on toast
Coconut milk curries
He snacked on bread sticks and houmous, bread sticks and guacamole, dried dates, bananas, -Oreos- , nuts and seeds.

When you can, also worth getting your bloods checked for thyroid disease - can be affected by pregnancy

I'm so sorry I haven't replied! I must have my settings wrong, because I didn't get any notifications.

@forkfun I'll download Chronometer today. I think it's fat that I'm not getting enough of rather than protein itself but it'll be useful to know for sure.

@Ricekrispie22 that's a really helpful list, just the kind of things I was looking for.

@Gwynfluff that's really interesting. I didn't know pregnancy could trigger that and my mum's half sister has just been diagnosed with a thyroid problem. I'll have to get an appointment when this madness is over.

Thank you all so much! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer.

If your diet is otherwise balanced and you're only worried about your weight, I'd suggest looking at all the calorie-heavy foods that would fit in your diet. Like avocado, peanut butter, cereal...