I always thought when your breastfeed you lose weight like nothing else..well WRONG for me. I have gained. I am still under my 9mo PG weight but not far from it

I am always hungry and I tend to eat when I have a spare minute...like I am going to starve or something

I would love some tips and stories about how you have lost weight and nursed.

Thanks

I too did not lose any weight nursing. I have weaned my daughter as of the last 4 days because she is now 18 months old. But, I gained weight after I gave birth because of eating. I used to have a great metabolism and thought it would just all fall off after my daughter and now Im on the Sonoma diet trying to lose 20-25 pounds before the next baby. My grandmother and mother in law lost 10 pounds when they quit breastfeeding so maybe that will happen to me. But I would do it again just so my daughter can benefit and I will do it with the next one, but I wil watch what I eat from now on. You are not alone and its just going to take a little more work than we are led to believe. Some people are just lucky with good genes. Good luck to you. Dont stop the bf to lose weight, try cutting some calories first or talk to your doctor.

thank you very much, I commend you for BF so long. I fear I am drying up so am trying to pump and get more milk flowing!

I want to look into that Sonoma diet...what do you think thus far?

Thanks. I would have weaned at one year, but she has been stubborn.
I love the diet thus far. Ive been on it 3 weeks and have lost 9 pounds, but I was eating terrible up until the day before the diet. The recipes are really good and can be fun to make. The are teaching me how to cook and cook right. The downside of it was spending a lot of money at first to get all the spices and herbs. The other thing is all the prep and cooking involved. But, its is worth it to prepare it because they want you to eat healthy and natural and not eat processed foods.
You can cheat a little with Lean Cuisine Spa Cuisines. They have the blue banner around them. I dont follow it exactly. For lunch I usually eat a whole wheat wrap with turkey and a little cheese dipped in balasmic vinegar. I dont have the patience to cook two involved meals a day. I did go and buy a couple meal replacement shakes but only because I dont usually eat breakfast and thought it was better than nothing.
I would go to the website, dont join, and see if it sounds good to you. I like that I can have good carbs.
The membership is expensive and the site still has a lot of glitches. I hope this helps. Good luck. Stay in touch if you want.

how old is your baby? a lot of women dry up, dont feel bad or worry about it.

thanks. I looked at it, I will have to see what i want to do. Does sound yummy though

He is 8 months.

Its very yummy. well, if you do dry up atleast you made it this far. sometimes birthcontrol or certain changes in your life can also dry you up. just a thought. good luck to you.

I am also one of those women who starve all of the time when they nurse. My advice is to keep very low calorie snacks handy, but ones that have "bulk" to them. Raw fruits and veggies are great for this-you can eat 2 cups of strawberries for 90 calories...or 2 cups of cantalaupe for about 120. A large handful of baby carrots is about 35 calories.

Compare that to some other low calorie snack foods...the little "100 Calorie Packs" of cookies/crackers are a nice portion controlled snack for someone who wants a treat but doesn't want to eat a whole box-but for someone who has a big appetite that little half handful doesn't do much for satisfying their hunger.

Hot cereal is another good one-oatmeal, Cream Of Wheat, etc. are cooked with a lot of water, so they provide a lot of fullness for under 200 calories a serving.

An egg is also satisfying at only 70 calories.

The key is to try to choose foods that are "big" for a low calorie count.

thank you. Great ideas. You are doing gret on your weight loss!!

I got mastitis in my breast and started to dry up. My baby is 6 months old and I didn't want to stop nursing. I called the lactation specialist she told me to pump and use a herbal suppliment called Fenugreek. You get it in health stores. Within 3 days my milk was flowing to where I needed breast shields again. Also try putting your baby back and forth on both breast. She said we are never completly empty so if we keep switching it will stimulate the milk flow. Good luck!!

Well, in the case of my son (who is now 4) I dried up due to stress. He had pneumonia as an infant-bad enough to be in intensive care for a few days, and then a regular hospital room for a few days as well-and the stress dried me up.
I tried fenugreek tea, and it worked some, but I dried up so much that was never enough to fully sustain him again on breastmilk alone.
If you think stress could be a factor, then try to do what you can to alleviate that.