hey everyone.. im here to seek out another opinion really! 1st of all i have 2 children (one 6yrs old and my 3month old) i couldnt nurse my daughter because she was born with complications witch stopped her from latching on. This time with my son i was successful with nursing him fully with out any help of bottles so its all new to me. i have been slowly loosing weight now since he was born (i know most of it was fluid from charring my son) im currently calorie counting and know i have to stay above 1500 to maintain a healthy milk supply so i guess what my question is.. do you know if i have my full 1500/1800 calories (i also eat back the calories i burn breastfeeding) and exercise but eat back the exercise calories would i loose more weight or would it just be the same as now with out exercise?

so in a nutt shell.. if i eat back my burnt calories for breastfeeding and exercise would i lose more or quicker even tho id be consuming the same total of calories than just not exercising and eating just breastfeeding calories? so all the time no matter what staying at 1800 cals?

sorry if that dont make scene im terrible at explaining things

ok

Gosh I miss those days!! I wasn't successful dieting during breast feeding at all so I can't help you out with the calories. Anytime I tried to exercise or control input, my milk would go down way too low.

How much weight a week are you losing doing what you're doing now?

thank you for replying im losing about half a pound evey 2weeks so its a very slow loss but its something.. i lowered my calories and my milk started to go down but as soon as i started to eat more it came back but weight loss did slow right down but im happy that my milk is back as it can be very worrying! i have figured out if i stay above 1800 my milk stays fine and i have a tiny loss. i guess its all trial and error x

From what I've read, nursing moms need 2000 calories a day to maintain supply. You burn about 500 calories a day by breast feeding. So I think you need to eat back any calories you burn exercising, but not the cals you burn breast feeding. Good luck!

thank you mozzy for replying, i eat back the calories from breastfeeding but sometimes i struggle to! i think as long as i stay above the 1800 after all exercise and b.f i shouldnt lose my milk but should have a healthy weight loss.. here to wishful thinking! lol

I'm not sure if I'm answering your question but i breastfed all 3 of my children & I currently have a 4 month old. And i never was able to really diet without having issues with my milk supply. I did weight watchers as they have a good program for breastfeeding mommies. They work on a point scale & they say that if you earn points for exercising you should eat the points back. I'm only assuming if you didn't your milk supply might go low. I'm dieting now using "my fitness pal" because you actually get to see the actual amount of calories & not the points like weight watchers. But even when i was getting 1800 calories in my milk supply got really low and it took a couple days to get back to normal. I won't really diet until i wean. I think I'm just going to focus on exercising. Good luck to you !!!

I breastfeed my DD for about 3 years!!! I was able to lose 7 lbs in those 3 years... So pretty much I maintened the whole time. I must say that I never really tried to diet or excercise during that time.

I say if your milk supply is good, go for it. You will know when it gets low just eat a little more. Oatmeal increases milk (or so they say) so you might want to add it to your diet.

thank you! sorry i havent replied sooner. ive been poorly the past week with a chest infection. i have been sticking to my 1800 cals and eating back breastfeeding calories but havent exercised as yet. im losing a healthy half a pound a week im also walking alot more so im guessing thats helping to. ive lost a total of 13 pounds in about 3months! (oh and im on my fitness pal if you want to add me im bbguk)

I nursed my oldest for 38 months and my 18 month old is still nursing. My body hangs onto about 10lbs while nursing, and I can't seem to do anything to convince it otherwise. But, I have been trying to loose just by counting calories for the past 18 months, with no measurable success. I started working out in February and I am finally seeing some loss. I have only lost 9lbs since Jan 28, but I have lost 11.25 inches since Feb 5.

I know the last 10 pounds will stick around until she weans, but I figure exercise is speeding up my metabolism and making me stronger and healthier, so that 10lbs will come off faster when the time comes.

Because my daughter is 18 months and I am no longer her primary source of calories and nutrition, I only allot 200 extra calories a day for nursing. I can't post links yet, but I was just reading on Kellymom this week about how to determine how many calories to allot depending on the age of your child. It's all just a rule of thumb, of course, and there are exceptions, but it was a good read.

thank you for posting! well done for losing those lbs ive been doing light exercise (walking and power walking) with counting calories but making sure i dont go under 1500 in net cals or my milk does go down. like you i have found that im losing weight slowly but a loss is a loss!. if you could find the link for me i would really appreciate it thank u x

I'm not allowed to link until I have 30 posts, I believe. If you google "Kellymom" and "losing weight breastfeeding" it should come up.

Thank you