BREASTFEEDING AND DIETING

[peachskin]

Hi - my DS is 14 months old and still breastfed.

Has anyone successfully lost weight while breastfeeding ?

I lost almost all the weight I had gained while pregnant (I was 83 kilos in the last stage of pregnancy and went down to 70 kilos within 2 weeks after child birth - all due to breastfeeding not beacuse I was eating less !!).

But I am still overweight (by around 10 kilos I think that's 20 pounds ?).

I have joined ww and using their home programme. After a couple of days of dieting I feel really hungry during the night which wakes me up. Last night I woke up 3 times with hunger and ended up eating 1.5 bananas and 3 biscuits.

Does anyone have any suggestions how I can ward off hunger during the night ? The lack of sleep is going to make me tired and when I am over tired I over eat to find energy. The funny thing is I am doing really wel during the day with the diet, so I want to keep going.

Help !!

I suspect you need more calories - lucky you!

I never lose weight until i have finished breastfeeding and the longer i feed the longer it seems to stay afterwards!!Sorry!

Hi - I've lost a stone since giving birth 20 weeks ago. I put it down to two things:

Lots of walking with the pram.
Following the Paul McKenna weight loss plan - in a nutshell, eat whatever you like, BUT, eat only when you are hungry, stop when you are full and enjoy every mouthful. Don't worry about leaving food on your plate. I can't do diets so this works really well for me and is common sense really.

Worth a try?

Barefoot - oh dear ! I thought so. Thing is I don't want to stop bf until my baby wants to, but that might be when he is 4 years old.....??? by which time I will be 40 and will find it even harder to lose weight at that grand old age !!

Usually I lose weight very quickly - once I start a diet the pounds just fall off. But finding it really difficult now with hunger in the middle of the night.

bonym - thanks for the advice too. I am not very good at leaving food on my plate though which is why I need something that counts points or calories otherwise I over-eat.

I agree with the exercise thing though. Not very good at that either, but now have a post-preg. video so trying to do that every day. So let's hope that works !!

Any one else with a suggestion about middle of night hunger ?

hello peachskin, im still feeding my dd who is almost 16months old. i have recently joined slimming world and to date have lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks. I am not hungry as there is loads of "free" foods to fill up with and i am allowed extra bread,cheese etc. cant offer u anymore advice im afraid only to say i was hungry during the first week but that was because i wasnt eating enough but i am ok now because i just eat extra of what i,m allowed hope this helps

jenk1 - thanks for that encouraging news ! Is slimming world similar to weight watchers ?

I would like to stick to ww because I have lost alot of weight with them before plus I have already paid quite alot for their home package

WW recommend that you eat an extra 5 points a day when breastfeeding. I think I might try to save up my points for later in the evening so that I don't get hungry late at night. It would mean less during the day which I think I can survive.

Like you say I think the first week is hard and then your stomach gets used to eating less !

Good luck with your programme, sounds like you are doing really well !

Another good tip - when you feel hungry, have a glass of water first as you may actually just be thirsty (the brain sometimes "reads" thirst as hunger. I find this works for me if I wake up hungry in the night.

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Hi all - thanks for your advice. I have looked at Slimming World's 7 day menu on the net. The concept is very similar to ww (eat as much of the list of "free foods" as you like, etc. - no need to count calories).

I think I am going to save my "points" for later in the evening - i.e eat more in the evening and less during the day. I know most people suggest sleeping light, but that just doesn't seem to be working for me.

I think the problem is that I over-eat when I am tired and if I cut everything out I can't sleep and so it goes on and on and I just can't stick to a diet long enough to lose weight.