Has breastfeeding helped you lose your pregnancy weight like you had expected? Your body burns about 500 calories a day when it takes the nutrients you eat from your food and putting it into breast milk. What I mean by that is that when you are pregnant, your body builds up extra fat stores to help in this process. This is what I like to call "baby fat". Breastfeeding moms only have to eat about 300-500 additional calories above their pre-pregnancy baseline needs every day because of these fat stores. When you eat this recommended amount of additional calories and are exclusively breastfeeding, your body will get the additional calories it needs from the fat stores. Therefore, you should experience a slow and steady weight loss toward your pre-pregnancy weight just by breastfeeding.
Losing fat is more important than losing pounds. Many of my patient's moms are obsessed with losing a specific number of pounds. I tell them it's not the number of pounds that count, but more importantly it's the amount of fat loss. Fat is lost when the body uses up more calories than it takes in. Everyone has what we call a basal metabolic rate, or commonly referred to as a "metabolism". This is basically the amount of calories your body burns at rest. The main controller of this rate is the amount of lean muscle your body has. So one of the key ingredients to weight loss, is building up lean muscle tissue. You can do this through strength training. Strength training can be lifting weights, using your body weight, or using stretch bands...anything to make the muscles work.
Another thing you can do to burn more calories is cardio. Don't start frowning yet. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to go running outside or on a treadmill, but you can if you want. All you have to do is be more active than usual for 30-60 minutes a day, 3-5 days a week. It doesn't have to be done all at once either. You can break it up into chunks of 10-15 minutes if you have to. Get creative with it. Park your car at the far end of the lot instead of in front of the door. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Take the baby in a stroll at the park or around the block. Walking is an excellent and simple way to burn calories. Remember that slow and steady is the key to success. 30 minutes a day for 3 times a week is pretty doable. So start by doing a little bit of cardio each day and then the next week do a little more. Next thing you know, your doing 1 hour of cardio straight for 5 days a week. Imagine how many calories that burns!!
Losing weight while breastfeeding is not as simple as just eating less. Many breastfeeding mothers who don't lose weight are not eating enough calories. They have the intentions of losing weight, but they are not meeting their breastfeeding needs. This ultimately leads to frustration. The problem with cutting calories is that if you cut too much, your body goes into "starvation mode" and it holds onto fat because it doesn't think it's going to get enough calories. Many times, just simply eating mere 300-500 calories more can get you over the hump and into the fat-burning path back to your pre-pregnancy weight. A friend of mine recently had a baby and unfortunately ran into this same problem of not eating enough. She wanted to lose weight and though if she ate less then the weight should come off because she's breastfeeding, but it didn't. She asked for some advice and come to find out she was eating twice a day and about 800 calories a day. I told her she wasn't eating enough. She said I was crazy. Then I told her to eat at least 1500 calories a day and adjust the calories from there. She told me I didn't know what I was talking about. I eventually convinced her to take my advice. Low and behold the weight started coming off in no time!!
Eating 1 or 2 meals a day can cause starvation as well. When you're in starvation mode, your body slows down its metabolic rate. This means your burning less fat and that's also why many times people are feeling like they have no energy or maybe tired all the time. When your tired you eat more as well because you have more cravings.
Eating throughout the day will stop food cravings which cause so many people to quit. This is another one of the biggest reasons post-pregnancy mothers don't lose weight and get discouraged. When you go for long periods of time in between meals, your blood sugar levels drop. When they are low, your body starts to get cravings for quick supplies of sugar. Of course, these are all the bad things for anyone trying to lose weight...cookies, chips, fried food, etc. A simple solution is to eat every 3-4 hours, just like your baby. A great rule of thumb is to eat roughly 300 calories (doesn't have to be exact) and drink 8 ounces of fluids after every feeding. Eat a balance of carbohydrates (fruits/veggies/whole grains) and proteins (beans/nuts/seeds/lean meats/low fat dairy) at each meal or snack.
The quality and supply of your breast milk does not suffer if you do the right things. As long as you are eating and drinking fluids throughout the day your body will signal to continue making breast milk. The supply goes dry when you start cutting back too much on the amount of food and fluids you take in.
weight loss
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