Best Way To Lose Weight While Nursing

Struggling with how to lose weight while breastfeeding? You are not alone! Here are some of the best tips on how to lose weight while breastfeeding – without hurting your milk supply!

Many women want to lose weight after their baby have arrived – but they worry about the impact it could have on their growing baby and breast milk supply.

But there is good news – you can lose weight while breastfeeding safely while still continuing to sustain your child and help them grow appropriately.

Ways To Lose Weight While Breastfeeding

While it’s important to take certain precautions, in this article, you’ll learn some of the best tips and tricks for losing weight while nursing.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-follow and breastfeeding-friendly meal plan, you NEED to grab our 28-day Breastfeeding Meal Plan. Developed by a nutritionist, this meal plan is customizable to meet your goals and has tons of recipes that you are gong to love!

It’s important to do this especially as you start to exercise more so your body still knows that even though some of your fat stores might be disappearing, your body still needs to produce milk!

Losing Weight While Breastfeeding — Natasha Pehrson

On average, when you are exclusively breastfeeding, you’ll burn about 500 calories a day. If your baby gets formula in addition to breast milk or complementary solid foods, it’s probably closer to 300 calories.

It is important to realize that extreme dieting and exercise can cause a decrease in your supply – so be careful. You can check out this post about low milk supply if you are already experiencing that.

As a new mom, it can be easy to just grab whatever food you see when you have a snack – but often those “convenience” foods aren’t very good for you.

Simple Tips To Help Lose Weight While Breastfeeding

It’s important to pick filling foods to help you stay sustained for longer. For instance, if all you are eating is carby-snacks, you likely won’t stay full for very long. Carbs

Important, but you should pair these with something with protein and maybe even fiber to keep your blood sugar stabilized and your body feeling full for longer.

I also recommend making sure you incorporate collagen into your day tohelp with postpartum healing and continue to take a quality prenatal vitamin.

Postpartum Weight Loss With Breastfeeding

While breastfeeding, you need to determine your BMR – which is basically how many calories you burn by existing and doing your typical schedule. On top of that, I would add 300-500 calories.

MyFitnessPal is a great way to track calories if you are into that. In the food diary section, you can even add breastfeeding, and it will add that to the number of calories you can eat that day!

As you start exercising more, make sure you eat more calories so you don’t drop below the 1500-1800 total mark. You want to make sure you are eating good calories and fat as well.

Lose Weight Safely And Effectively While Breastfeeding: The Ultimate Guide To Balancing Your Health And Your Baby's Nutritional Needs

Try to avoid anything super sugary or greasy. I know lots of people who eat too many calories (and most of them are sugar) that really struggle to lose weight while breastfeeding.

Here are some great breastfeeding snacks that will help you eat enough without a lot of extra effort. My FAVORITE are these protein bars – they are the only ones I can stand eating, and they feel like a treat. You can get 10% off through this link.

Drinking water is recommended to help with weight loss – regardless of your breastfeeding status! It helps flush out toxins, and excess water weight (which seems counter-productive, I know), and it helps keep you fuller.

Breastfeeding & Weight Loss

There are a lot of changing opinions out there on what it takes to lose weight. A growing body of nutritionists and dietians are saying that it’s most important to make sure your blood sugar is balanced throughout the day.

The simplest way to do this? Eat meals that are balanced with protein, fat, and fiber throughout the day and don’t fast more than 12 hours at a time.

Exercise can be a great way to increase how many calories you are burning each day. While there are some really intense exercises out there, it is better to do moderate exercise.

Can't Lose Weight While Breastfeeding? (3 Reasons Why)

It is great for busy moms of babies because the workouts can be as short as 10 minutes. You can modify the intensity, so if you find your breast milk supply is being affected, you can just tone it down.

They also have an amazing 40-week program that spans your entire pregnancy – you can read more about that here –The BEST Exercise App for Pregnancy: From First Trimester to Postpartum.

It can be hard to make it to the gym when you have a baby! I mean, even if they have childcare, that’s kind of iffy since there are

How To Lose Weight While Breastfeeding Without Losing Your Milk Supply

So find new ways to exercise with your baby. Put your baby in a baby carrier and walk around the house – it’s like carrying around an 8-20 pound weight!

You can do exercise videos at home (I love HasFit). Something as simple as going on a 10-minute walk around the neighborhood while pushing your baby in their stroller can do a lot of good (plus fresh air is always helpful!

I’m in several different breastfeeding support groups on Facebook, and it seems like a day doesn’t go by where someone asks “Is such and such diet/program safe while breastfeeding.”

Real Ways To Lose Weight While Breastfeeding

Every time I see one of these, there’s always someone that chimes in and says it totally is – often someone selling the resources for the program.

I’m always curious about them, so I jump on Google, and I see that although there were a few people who had no ill effects from the diet, many, many others say that their breast milk supply dropped significantly.

If you start doing something that is going to hurt your breast milk supply, you have to decide what’s more important to you – losing the weight FAST and NOW or having a little more patience to make sure your supply isn’t affected.

How Many Calories Do I Need When Breastfeeding And Pumping?

With that said, I never think these “quick fix” diets are worth it, breastfeeding or not. They limit your caloric intake significantly, and more times than not, people who do them end up gaining weight back. Yo-yo dieting is NOT healthy.

It’s easy to fixate on the number on the scale – I certainly do! While breastfeeding, you may be the unlucky one who can’t lose weight…but you CAN tone up, and those measurements aren’t as apparent by a number.

Learn how to take measurements – all you need is a flexible measuring tape. I have the Qardio Base Scale, which I love, because it tracks progress, and it measures your muscle and body fat percentages. It also has a pregnancy mode, which is pretty cool.

Reasons You're Not Losing Weight While Breastfeeding

Plan your meals ahead of time – if you need some different ideas on how to meal plan, be sure to check out this post. I think that planning what and how you are going to eat can definitely help you eat less and make sure you are eating foods that are compatible and helpful with breastfeeding.

I think one of the biggest reasons I struggle with losing weight is this one. I get stressed out extremely easily, and it’s a good day when I’m in bed before midnight.

I know that if I were to adjust these two factors even just a little bit, I would be more successful. Stress is linked to weight gain, as is not getting enough sleep. Sleep is when your body works to repair itself!

Tips On How To Eat To Lose Weight While Breastfeeding Without Losing Your Supply

I have found merit in meditating or just deep breathing for 10 minutes a day. I recently attended a church activity where one of the teachers mentioned that deep breathing can help boost your metabolism!

I know it can be hard to get enough sleep when you have a breastfeeding baby. It can also be stressful if you are dealing with other children, a baby who isn’t gaining weight, or low milk supply! But take all the opportunities you can to de-stress.

And I know it’s easier said than done but get as much sleep as you can. If you have to, invest in a better mattress or even pillow to help you get better sleep when you are sleeping!

Effective Tips To Lose Weight While Breastfeeding

It basically puts the ax in all dieting and helps you to learn how to eat intuitively (without limiting any foods). I think it’s perfect for breastfeeding mothers because you learn how to eat what your body needs you to eat.

You can buy it on Amazon, or you can read it for free with this 60-day-free trial to Scribd that I’ve arranged.

Focus on eating whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and avoid processed food if you can. If you do this, I believe you will have an easier time losing weight (even without exercise!) It will also ensure you are eating a well-balanced diet as well!

The Best Teas To Lose Weight While Breastfeeding

Don’t try and lose a ton of weight at once. It’s not healthy, and if you do a crash diet, you’ll be at much higher risk of losing your breastmilk supply. Aim to lose no more than 1.5 pounds a week.

My favorite thing to say is this – it took you nine months to grow and