Scared... any diet suggestions for breastfeeding mom?
 

Hello, everyone -
I am new here (or at least new to posting). I'm very scared about my health. I'm 5'7 and weigh about 315 lbs. I've never weighed as much as I do now in my life. I'm 32 years old and I am worried that I won't live long enough to see my son (and future children) grow up. I just keep gaining weight.

I am breastfeeding right now, and everything I read says not to diet while breastfeeding... but I can't keep gaining weight either. Are there any other mama's out there that have tried dieting while breastfeeding? I know not to take diet drugs or do any crazy crash diet, but surely I could count calories or something.

I find exercise is so difficult for me. I went for a 1.5 mile walk yesterday and felt so exhausted afterwards. I used to walk or job 5 miles a day when I weighed about 200 lbs. I was fat but fit. Then in the last two years I gained about 100 lbs. I am on thyroid and high BP medication. I feel so disfigured and horrible about myself... I barely feel human sometimes. I just want to feel healthy again. I have no aspirations of being a stick figure. I just want to be close to normal -- or how about just overweight instead of morbidly obese?

Not only has all this extra weight started to effect my physical health, but it is also starting to effect my mental health too. I never want to go out in public. I never want to meet new people. I don't even like to see my old friends because I feel so disgusted by how I look. I need to lose weight so I can be a better mother to my son and watch him grow up. I need to be a better example to him of good health and I need to simply be able to keep up with him. I should have all kinds of motivation, right?

Sorry for the clumsy introduction. I feel at a loss for what I should do. It should be simple, right? Eat less, exercise more. Done. Why can't I seem to do that? I think I need a plan and I need accountability. Does anyone have a recommendation, because I am all ears?

Anyway... thanks for reading. I hope to check in here a couple times a week for motivation. The support here seems great, and it's nice to have a group of all 300+ folks to talk with.

you should check out weight watchers. they have a program for breastfeeding moms. you get more points for your day. if you aren't into that, i'm sure that you can diet, just not like you would if you weren't breastfeeding. you will need more calories and nutrients for your body and your baby's. weight watchers is my suggestion, it's what i am currently doing (although not currently breastfeeding, but if i were, it's where i would be). not sure if this is helpful, but hoping it is :)

hi! there is a forum for breastfeeding moms - but i was also very heavy while breastfeeding, and started dieting with no trouble. if you find that your milk supply starts to dwindle, obviously you've gone too low. never happened to me, though. :)

can i ask how long you're post-partum? it was insanely hard for me to lose weight for a lot of reasons. support is MAJOR!

I want to encourage you to keep working out - daily, even if that means just going for a walk around the block while you push you baby in the carriage. If you live in northern climates, do a DVD while baby naps.

Leslie Sansone "Walk Away the Pounds" videos are easy to follow for us large women (low impact, no complicated moves but a very good cardio workout!), are available on Netflix. Start with a 1-mile workout and do that until it's easy and you can graduate to the 2-mile.

1. the fitter you are, the more energy you will have to deal with life, including a baby.

2. the fitter you are, the more calories you burn while "at rest" (when you are going about your daily life doing things like digesting food, etc.).

3. endorphins produced while working out will help you feel better emotionally.

I started being able to do onky 7 minutes of cardio 2 months ago, now I do 40 minutes of cardio a day - exercise bike or videos.

I am not dieting for personal reasons (long, complicated reasons which I'm happy to discuss privately if you're interested though they don't apply to motherhood or breastfeeding). Still, working out for 2 months have yielded the benefits above plus 9 lb weight loss and inches lost all over my body. Clothes that didn't fit 2 months ago fit loosely now.

Best of luck to you! :-)

Thank you for the responses and suggestions!

The only hesitation I have about weight watchers is I have become so shy that I don't know if I would be comfortable going to group meetings. I know I'd probably be the heaviest one there. I know...lame excuse, right? But that is interesting that they have a breastfeeding program. At least that tells me that it can be done!

My baby is just 11 weeks old. I gained about 45 lbs in pregnancy, but it was basically all water weight and I lost 40 pounds by 2 weeks post partum. I went into this pregnancy over 300 lbs. I had actually just started a diet program when I became pregnant. (It was after trying for over a year, so it just shows that some good nutrition helped in the fertility department. :D)

My milk supply hasn't been great and I've been having to supplement with formula since birth, but I am determined to keep breastfeeding for at least the first year. So I don't want to do anything that would further jeapordize my supply. (I've worked hard to get what milk supply I have - bfing every other hour, pumping when the baby didn't take much breast, and even taking a prescription medication to increase my milk supply)

I'd love to exercise when the baby naps -- but he is a very active little guy and has days where he doesn't nap at all, and others where he only naps 10-15 minutes at a time. (Like right now, as I type fast!) Thankfully, he sleeps well at night! But I am trying to take him out for walks everyday. I figure when the snow hits I can go to the local mall and take a few laps. I know I need to find a way to make exercise a priority! It just depresses me how winded and sweaty I get, especially since I used to be relatively fit. It's very discouraging.

BTW...

I also wanted to say that I was thinking about my original post and I wanted to apologize as I think I was being insensitive. The way I worded my own self-disgust with my weight isn't at all the way I think about or view others of the same or higher weight. I've seen women at my weight who are confident and wear it pretty well! I am definitely not one of those women. I hope my post didn't offend anyone or hurt anyone's feelings. It was completely self-directed and just part of feeling down on myself and in no way reflects how I view others. I hope that makes sense. :^:

Although you may not want to diet, this would be a perfect time to get used to say, calorie counting, planning etc. Start with a really high number, say 2500 cals a day, and try and make them good healthy foods. See how you do on that and it should give you a starting place. You may need to raise it though, so be aware of that. I still need to eat about 3000 calories (with only daily movements) to maintain my weight. If you're breast feeding it might even be higher. However, it's probably the perfect time to get the routine of calorie counting down for when you stop breastfeeding.

Keep in mind that you only really need about 300-500 extra calories a day for nursing your wee one. So find out what you need to maintain and stay at THAT calorie count. This should result in about a lb a week loss which is very safe while nursing.

(Tammy takes her La Leche League leader hat off)

I've lurked for a while and this is my first time posting...anyway...

You know that you don't have to do WW in person, right? You could do it online. I've done it online in the past b/c I dread the idea of group meetings. And, although my stats don't currently show it; it has worked for me. So, that is something to keep in mind. You log your food and weight online; they have message boards, recipes, ect. However, I understand that some people need the "accountability" of an actual meeting.

That being said, you could probably do almost any kind of healthy eating plan while breastfeeding. I do South Beach, which basically is about eating lean meats and dairy and whole grains. You could skip phase one (which limits all grains and fruit) and go to phase two that focuses on the aforementioned food groups.

Anyway, best of luck!