Weight Loss and Breastfeeding

[OhBanana]

Just going to lay it out there. I’m 5ft 7, 20 stone. EBF and really need to loose some effing weight!

Whats holding me back from going all guns blazing is the breastfeeding - I’m worried about losing or reducing my supple by losing weight too fast (and consequently not losing anything at all!! - baby won’t take a bottle either else I’d happily combi feed and not have to worry so much.

Anyone out there lost significant weight whilst EBF? Any tips? I can’t still be this size and running around after a toddler!!

For context - I eat to hunger generally and try to stop when full. Usually breakfast is nut bar/protein bar, fruit and coffee, lunch is salad with mixed beans in with either chicken or tuna and hummus with peaches or mango and Greek yoghurt after, dinners vary but are probably my downfall as partner is asd and only eats limited beige ish foods (pizza, burgers etc) and a couple of types of veg. Exercise wise I usually do one baby wearing walk a sat for about an hour. Struggle to do a proper workout as DD is a contact mapper!

Calorie counting. Use My Fitness Pal or similar to work out your maintenance calories and then slap 500 on top of that, because that's roughly what you will need to feed your baby. It's annoying at first measuring and weighing but it gives you overall a much healthier idea of what and how much you're consuming. I'm a devil for undereating protein which is hugely important in breastfeeding but I wouldn't know that without my app.

My DC2 is 11 months now and I'm down to pre pregnancy weight- pre DC1 pregnancy! 30+ kilos gone. The only thing I'm afraid of is the boomerang when I stop bf.

I ate/eat 1400 calories whist breastfeeding and have lost 40lbs since baby was 8weeks. That was a year ago. Not had any issues with supply. Sounds like you're getting the right nutrients so maybe just a reduce portion size.
Running also really helps.

I always lose a lot of weight whilst breast feeding and my babies have been/ are big and fat and healthy.... they just take your calories and nutrients!

Ha watching with interest. My DD is now nearly 8 months and has EBF. Won't take bottle at all. I'm back to work and she waits til I get home to get the boob. I am now almost 16st which is just at the weight I was when ready to have her. I feel I have put on weight, especially round my middle. Was size 14 pre pregnancy now up to 18 in trousers. It's killing me. Every time I try to exercise, my knees swell up and get so painful I can hardly walk. Vicious circle. My diet probably isn't the beat to be honest and I just turned 40 at Xmas which also probably doesn't help. 😭

Thanks so much for your advice/experiences! I think realistically I need to calorie count for a week or two to get a grasp of how much I’m actually eating (I was trying to avoid as I’ve a history of ED but I don’t know how else to ensure I’m not over eating!) and then gently increase exercise to get a decent deficit. Fingers crossed I can wrap my head around it and stop worrying so much about my supply!

Update: Lost 3lbs since last week (when I last weighed myself)! I’ve been a bit more busy/active this week and taken on board advice re portion control etc and so far seems to be working! Haven’t needed to calorie count yet but I am focusing on eating plenty of protein in particular and no overdoing it on the carbs. So far so good and no issues with breastfeeding that I can tell (I didn’t even realise I was losing anything!) - will try and check in regularly for my own accountability!

Another 1.5lbs down! Not been out as much this week because of the heat but hopefully will be back to normal next week!

Well done @OhBanana ! Good work 😊

Thank you! I didn’t think anyone would even see my update haha - mostly just updating for my own accountability!

It’s been a month since I updated! Down another 2lb, had a wobbly few weeks around my birthday but very much back on the wagon!

Well done! For what it's worth I never lost weight breastfeeding it came off when I stopped, my body hung on to everything and I fed all of my kids (6)

@OhBanana that's great well done.my baby is 6months and I'm breastfeeding. I need to lose weight too! Got other kiddies to run about after and just put myself on the back burner may set myself a little challenge to lose a few pounds over the 6 weeks hols! 🤔

@Fooshufflewickjbannanapants it feels like my body is hanging on to it all too, not trying to do any extreme weight loss though, I’ll be happy with a steady slow loss - I just don’t want to end up still 20st and trying to chase after a toddler (not sure my body could cope with it!!)

@Bagofsocks thank you! It’s so easy to put yourself second isn’t it!? You can do it!

Another of my sporadic check ins! I’m down another 4lbs and the scales are finally comfortably under 20st, I have SO far to go but I finally feel like I’m making decent progress.

Currently calorie counting (2700 a day due to breastfeeding!), daily walks, and eating a high protein diet and it’s actually working!

I naturally lost weight while bf as I was eating right portion sizes. Then unfortunately I started eating more and got overweight again.

@OhBanana well done! I am postpartum and looking to lose weight too but not breastfeeding!