Breastfeeding and cals

[pambeesleyhalpert]

I have a newborn ( 3 weeks) and am really keen to loose weight as quickly and safely as possible. I'm EBF so don't want to do anything to hinder my supply. I was going to have 2000 but have been told it's not enough. Looking online 3000 seems to be the recommended which seems insanely high. Would 2500 be enough to loose weight and not affect my supply?

Before anyone says- I know it's early to be calorie counting but honestly I need it for my MH. I don't like being overweight and have put on 3 stone so I just want to take some control and be a healthier version of myself

You won't know until it shows it's not working. I cut calories, while breastfeeding much later along, not even exclusively as it was after my baby started food at 6 months.

It clearly affected the quality (fat content?) of my milk and my baby was ravenous, grumpy and unsatisfied. And I felt awful emotionally as well for doing that to her.

Why not try the higher amount, eating healthy foods, for a couple of weeks, see what happens?

If you struggle with a volume of healthy food at at that level, instead of grabbing junk, try making something like a milk of choice based smoothie, with almond butter, fruit or something. You will need the liquids and will bump up healthier food calories.
Eat a big bowl of porridge, oats are amazing for encouraging milk supply, full of goodness for you both.

@WeirdPookah thank you for your advice. You're right, going to focus on healthy eating instead of grabbing junk. Will prep some smoothies up for the week as well. Thanks!

I did calorie counting to breastfeed and lose weight. You're right about mental health, baby matters but so do you - you give so much of your body to pregnancy and breastfeeding and you need to have some part of yourself for you.
So I followed team RH which is a bit marmite-y but you can do the same thing on your own. I was also tandem feeding.
I started by setting my calories to 1800 based on my starting weight and doing 15000 steps a day. If you're on maternity leave you can get a nice walk in with the buggy especially now it's spring and the weather is getting nicer and walking is so good for weight loss and mental health. Then add 500 for breastfeeding which took me to 2300.
The really important bit then is data.
You don't know at the start how your body will actually respond - how many calories your baby is taking (personally I was feeding two, plus donating milk - at one point I did the maths and found out I was using 1200 calories a day just in milk!)
You need to track your calories really accurately in my fitness pal or similar by weighing everything in grams (hard at first, gets A LOT easier after a couple of weeks). Get your steps as consistent as you can. Weigh yourself in pounds every day and ignore the daily fluctuations because they are just water (and milk!) you need at least three weeks to see a trend.
To keep a good supply of milk you want to aim for a weight loss of 1lb a week. More than that and you are risking your supply. You can increase your calories up or down 100 a day until you get it right .
Some people say eat to appetite but if I did that I was eating an entire box of mr Kipling in one go or a whole pack of Jaffa cakes before breakfast so it wasn't the solution I needed.

@ilikecatsandponies thank you so much. People I've talked to about it have all said it's too soon but I just need to do it and know I'll feel better for it.

I'm glad you said about 2300 because that's what nutra check has recommend as well. It's going to be hard to get back into the routine of weighing everything again after 9 months off!

Yes to the walking! I had a c section but as soon as I can I'm going to start exercising but I'm so unfit atm I'm looking forward to lots of walks with the toddler and baby!

Thank you x