I have been struggling with my weight since I had my baby in October. I have cut my calories to 1500 a day and do cardio six days a week. Three days I do HIIT and the other three days I try to jog for 40 to 45 minutes with little breaks of walking to catch my breath. My weight has not budged since the beginning of January. I have stayed the same. i am nursing my 4 month old baby. Is there any way that nursing is causing me to not lose weight, or might it be muscle.

It sounds like you'd be getting muscle. It's also possible that your body is saving all the calories it can because it thinks you're starving. 1500 calories isn't alot, especially for a breastfeeding mom. Nursing moms actually need about 300 to 500 more calories than they would eat to maintain their weight. This is to make sure your baby gets all the nutrition she/he can. When done healthily, breastfeeding can actually help you lose weight. Have you talked to your doctor?

I'm stuck in my weight loss with nursing myself. I've tried eating 1,800 - 1,900 calories and I've tried 1,500. I've tried watching my sodium intake, etc. etc. and not budging. What I found to help the best is no snacking after 7:00 p.m....something I was doing a lot. Nursing seems to take a lot out of ya. I keep gum to chew on now, or drink tea to stave off wanting to snack. And now I see my weight starting to move.

My daughter was born on Ocotber 3 2005 as well. Congrats to ya. It seems like all she wants to do is nurse all day! I usually dont eat after 7 pm unless I am busy with her and dont get around to it!. I did weigh this morning and am finally down 4 pounds. I tried doing atkins but she became so cranky and I think that I was starving her to death, poor little thing. Her stools even became dark greenish black for a couple days while I was on it. I was also trying Fenugreek to try to increase my milk supply because I thought I was low so I dont know now if it was the diet or the pill. I am too scared to try the pill again in case that was it!

Not all women lose weight while they're nursing. The theory that you'll lose weight while breastfeeding is predicated upon the calories in vs calories out equation. See, you need to burn 3500 calories to lose a pound, which translates out to 500 calories a day. Coincidentally, that's exactly the number of "extra" calories you need while breastfeeding. So, in theory, you will lose a pound a week by breastfeeding alone.

However, there's some stuff missing from this equation. Namely, that you cannot defeat nature. Our bodies are to begin with programmed to retain some fat stores so that we can nurse. When you're actually nursing, that tendency seems to kick into high gear for some reason, and cause them to hold on to weight. It doesn't apply to all women, all the time, but there are enough women who've told me they can't lose weight while nursing that I suspect it's fairly common.

The advice you've already been given is great, of course. If this is your first, I can tell you it will probably get better when baby starts in on solids, which might be as soon as tomorrow or as late as four months from now--the range of normal for that is 4 to 8 months, & go by baby's cues not the pedi's suggestion on that. I think that 4 months is also prime time for another growth spurt. If she's doing not much more than sleeping or eating, she's probably fixing to grow.

As far as Atkins, some people have said babes don't like the taste of ketones if they start spilling into your milk. Since I'm not convinced of the safety of that, or of how good my nutrition would be in that case, I try hard not to go into ketosis.

If you're worried about milk supply, you can also pick up mother's milk tea or try supplementing with brewer's yeast (the latter I have found at Wal-Mart). Other than that, just be sure to keep hydrated & get enough protein.

Monster Momma,
Thank you for the post. I have read some of your other posts and you give great advice. Thank you for responding. It does seem hard to lose weight, but it is worth it to breastfeed her!

I feel your pain, but I think that it is true that some do not lose while BFing. I am one of them!

I am open for suggestions too