Am I eating too much?

[Aiionwatha]

Since having my baby 2 months ago, I'm about a stone heavier than I was before I got pregnant. Back then I was 9 st 6 lb, now I'm 10 st 7 lb (I'm tall - 5 ft 8").

I'm breastfeeding but not exclusively.
I can't seem to shift this extra weight.

This is what I typically eat in a day:
Breakfast: bowl of homemade yoghurt with sugar free mueali, a tsp of honey and berries.
1 slice thick homemade brown toast - half with peanut butter and marmite, half with marmalade
Coffee
A tiny glass of orange juice.

Lunch: it changes, but usually something like a quarter of a potato and egg tortilla, some salad and a packet of crisps.

Dinner: something like a homemade chicken casserole with brown rice and steamed spinach.

Snacks: a few chocolate biscuits / piece of cake. A few cheese on crackers. I probably have about 3 snacks a day.

Is this a lot?

So you are eating crips, chocolate biscuit or cake on a daily basis and can't seem to shift this extra weight?

Maybe cut the crap first, increase your veggies, and if you need a snack, have a pear, a kiwi or cherry tomatoes.
Increase the quantity and variety of fresh vegetables.

I don't think quantity wise you are necessarily eating too much but your food choices could be better

Your sugar intake is way, way too high, and the calorie count appears to be, too.

Realistically yes, it seems quite a lot. I’d start by cutting the snacks, crisps and fruit juice out altogether and make your breakfast smaller but more filling e.g. a bowl of porridge.

Watching with interest as our measurements and circumstances are almost identical. Baby is 3 months old and I'm not able to shift the weight. I also feel like I'm eating pretty normally and exclusively breastfeeding. I think it can be hard to shift the last bit until breastfeeding is done so I'm trying not to focus on it for now, but if there's a magic fix I'd like to hear it...

Three snacks a day and you're wondering why you're not losing weight?

Start by cutting out the snacks and see if that works.

How is her sugar way way too high? She has some sugar in it sure but it’s not way way too high. 3 chocolate biscuits or a piece of cake, a tiny bit of marmalade and 1 tsp honey.
Hardly way way too high.
Way way too high would be a bag of haribos, a chocolate bar, tub of ice cream during the day.

Even the breakfast alone is quite a lot without all the snacking, so yes I'd say you are.

OP. Cut out rice and pasta. Anything processed and wheaty.
Cut out crisps.
Change cake and biscuits to a lower calorie alternative.
Pack more lean protein in to fill you up.
wait for breast feeding to end as that can make you hang on to weight.

Try cutting out the snacks and have one breakfast. Drink more water.

Oh also cut the bread. The media and public health messages have made us believe that eating brown bread and brown rice are good for us. They really are not. Nutritionally empty. Empty calories that will make the weight pile on.

And i just realised that you are only 2 months PP!!
9 months up 9 months down!

Adults should eat around 30g or lower of free sugars a day. The honey alone has around 17g. It is very easy to eat too much sugar. Add in the sugar from the bread, the juice, her lunch and dinner, and it's far too much.

Too many high calorie snacks. Have a slice of melon or cantaloupe or an apple instead.

Replace some of the 'heavy' carbs (pasta, rice, potatoes, bread) with healthy carbs - mostly vegetables, plus a small amount of legumes or quinoa.

Don't drink calories - fruit juice is sugar without the fibre of real fruit.

Finally, the devil is in the detail..... aka portion control...

NB: I know looking after and breastfeeding a baby is exhausting, but can you find time to exercise? Even just 10-20 minutes a day can be a powerful motivator.

I would keep track of the calories in the snacks. They are normally very high calories so I would be planning them. I struggle to lose weight for ages despite meal planning. Once I really planned my snacks it got way easier.

The only thing that I would question is the snacks. Having snacks is perfectly normal but perhaps change them from cake/cheese and crackers to a yoghurt or fruit.

But in all honesty OP you're 2 months PP so please don't stress yourself! That's still early days. I needed the snacks to get through those first few months and for little boosts of energy and also simply for comfort. As baby gets older and more on the move, so will you be and you won't even notice how much you're doing so the weight may well balance itself out. It took me until about 6m pp to start noticing a change and feeling myself and I didn't really change much of my eating habits (apart from less chocolate. I had DS at Christmas!) and I realised it was because I was moving more.

So move more is my advice - take babe out for more walks. But it won't be long before he/she will have you running up and down after them anyway

@Pinkpeony2 in what way I'd brown rice nutritionally empty? Carbs are a source of energy that your body needs, and brown rice contains vitamins and minerals. It's very nutritious!

You had a baby two months ago, only have a stone to shift and are well within a healthy bmi at your current weight.

All the people jumping to to chastise op for 3 snacks need to look at the facts in the post.

@Minimalme I am not from UK, and find extremely weird that adult women justify eating kids' or party food. I don't know how they did it, but food companies did a great job in convincing the population crips are a daily food, and that sugary snacks are ok. Very different from a Sunday cake with friends and family.

And @Pinkpeony2 you really misunderstand carbs. Brown rice, homemade bread are part of a healthy diet and excellent body and brain fuel. This carb obsession and hatred is incomprehensible to those who come from high carb countries and yet are slim, such as France. Maybe it is the ultra-processed food and not the carb? Just asking.

OP, focus on food quality and not calories or macros. Nourish your body since your are feeding a new human being and give them the opportunity to develop good food preferences.

I will rephrase that better.
White rice is nutritionally empty. It’s just pure starch. Nothing particularly bad about it but no nutrients either. Just a filler and energy and calories.
Brown rice should be avoided. The outer brown husk contains
anti nutrients - phytic acid which stops absorption of vitamins and nutrients and is a gut irritant. Much of the fibre and protein found in brown rice can’t be easily absorbed by the body and goes to waste anyway. And that’s before we get into the arsenic found in brown rice which becomes a problem if you eat it more than a couple of times a week.
Google brown rice phytic acid.

It’s more the fact that it’s an processed carb and the wheat. I have no problem with other carbs such as sweet potato, carrots, the odd banana etc.
Modern wheat contains so much more gluten than wheat used to contain and we eat far far too much of it because it’s in so many foods that are considered staples.
Just from experience, if you want to lose weight drop the sugar and drop the processed carbs. Falls off.

Re brown rice and fibre can't be absorbed

I thought no fibre was absorbed ? It keeps your system functioning but isn't meant to be absorbed ?

Which makes me doubt the rest of the rice post

Breakfast - no toast
Lunch - no crisps
Snacks - fruit

Job done

Being more specific then:
The fibre in brown rice in insoluble fibre. It’s harsh and irritating to the gut. Causes bloating and gas. Causes food to move quickly through the digestive tract.
The bran in brown rice is an anti nutrient. It blocks nutrients from itself and other foods being absorbed properly.
Hope that clears it up. More info if you Google or on this link.
Why you should stop eating brown rice