How to Lose Weight While Breastfeeding

Hmm... Well, most experts say that breastfeeding a single child on demand burns an average of 200-500 calories per day. And, for you moms of multiples, your breastfeeding calorie burn rate is set to hyperdrive - at a jealousy-inducing average calorie burn rate of 1000+ calories per day! Pretty impressive, considering that you could lose up to a pound a week (theoretically) just by breastfeeding alone (since you only need to burn 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat).

And the numbers for short-term weight loss do seem to bear out the presumption that you lose more weight while breastfeeding, as breastfeeding moms who eat when they're hungry shave off an average of a little more than a pound of weight each month in their first 4-6 months post-partum. But that's when the built-in advantage of breastfeeding seems to take a nosedive.... A study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that non-lactating mothers appear to pull out ahead of breastfeeding mothers by 6 months post-partum in the yummy mummy race - losing more overall body fat and doing so more quickly.

So, the answer to whether breastfeeding moms lose more pregnancy weight is: in the short-term, fact, but over the long-term, fiction .

Ouch.

photo by blmurch

Why the reversal of fortune? The study pointed to two main reasons that breastfeeding moms lost their built-in weight loss advantage by the 6-month mark: 1) they ate more calories than they needed, and 2) they didn't exercise as much as non-lactating moms. Yep, there it is again, that age-old mantra: you've got to eat less and move more to lose weight!

And, since it's perfectly safe for a breastfeeding woman to lose up to 1.5 pounds per week without adversely affecting her milk supply, don't you want to learn how to turn that running start on weight loss into a permanent advantage?

Here's how:

1) Find a Way to Fight the Munchies.

Breastfeeding mamas produce lots of the hormone prolactin which stimulates our appetites and can give a woman a mean case of the "munchies." To lose weight while breastfeeding, you've got to beat those munchies back with a wooden stick.

I am NOT talking about going on some fad diet. This is not the time to start restricting your diet. One: severe calorie restriction can adversely affect your milk production. The whole reason why you're breastfeeding in the first place is to nurture your baby. Don't start some fad diet which is all but guaranteed to jeopardize that. And, two: severe calorie restriction can adversely affect your metabolism by slowing it down. Slowing down your metabolism can make it harder for you to lose weight, in general - not the result you want.

I AM talking about making conscious, supportive choices about your nutrition. This way, you can stay well within the recommended 1500-1800 calories per day for breastfeeding women - WITHOUT getting hungry. This means using a system to help you think through your eating choices when you are too bone-tired from taking care of your child to do it on your own. What you want to do is to learn how to eat healthfully, without dieting - by loading up on produce and lean protein, and cutting down (or, better yet, cutting out) processed foods. You'll also want to have a grocery checklist and menu planner with loads of sample menus to make it super-easy for you to lose weight while breastfeeding. As you can read here on my blog, I used the Fit Yummy Mummy system (complete with a grocery checklist and menu planner) to help me shed 19 of my 24 pregnancy pounds in two months. But eating in this way is not new and there are a lot of systems out there that you could choose from. To be honest, I found that the FYM nutritional plan has a lot in common with a lot of the main tenets of The South Beach Diet (except without that hair-pulling Phase I which is near to impossible to commit to). So, if you happen to have an old SBD recipe book lying around, that might work for you just as well.

photo by adria.richards

Here's how you fight the munchies and lose weight while breastfeeding:

• Eat primarily whole, natural foods, not packaged and processed ones. Whole foods provide more and better quality nutrition for you and your baby, making it easier for your body to use the nutrients you require and quickly slough off the extra fat and waste you don't.


• Stick to the periphery of the grocery store when you go shopping. That's where you'll find the majority of your unprocessed foods, like fruits, veggies, fish, meat, and dairy, anyway (although, you will need to dart into the middle quickly for your beans, legumes, and whole grains). You'll notice that your grocery bill will drop way down if you start shopping this way, too - which is a nice bonus.


• STAY AWAY FROM STARCHY FOODS. Yes, this means YOU. Cut out or drastically reduce your intake of cereals, breads, pasta, rice, potatoes etc., especially if they're processed. There are some grains (like oats and quinoa) that are naturally less starchy, and even some types of potatoes that are less starchy than others (for example, sweet potatoes have less starch than white potatoes), so you will continue to have choices here. But kicking your starchy carb addiction will be a HUGE boon for your weight loss. It's what all the celebrities do to lose their baby weight, and for good reason! For you moms who had to deal with gestational diabetes like I did for my second pregnancy, this part should be easy for you. For the rest of you moms, I promise it's not as hard as it sounds.
  
  If you want a real-life example of what this kind of eating can do for you: my 61-year-old, starchy carb-loving mother-in-law stayed with us for 5 weeks after I delivered my last child. She switched over to the way that we eat while she stayed with us, and went back home almost 15 pounds lighter. What can I say? It works.


• Cook at home as much as you can - it saves on cost AND calories.


• Get a good grocery list and menu planner. You're a mom, now, which means you're chronically sleep-derived and you don't have time to waste. Buying a book or e-book with these tools, or taking some time to compile your own will save you a lot of frustration and keep you committed to the healthy eating necessary to meet your weight-loss goal.


• Eat in a balanced way that emphasizes PRODUCE, along with protein. Eating diets that are too low in vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains and too high in animal proteins can cause your body to release toxins called ketones (which cause that bad breath smell you may have noticed on some people who eat unbalanced low-carb diets). Ketones are released into breastmilk, as well. While there haven't been any major studies evaluating the effect of ketones in breastmilk on infants, common sense would tell us that it is best to keep known toxins out of the milk we feed our babies if at all possible.


• Have three small produce-and-protein meals (like a chicken breast, avocado and tomato sandwich on sprouted Ezekiel bread with a cup of homemade vegetable soup on the side), and three smaller produce-and-protein snacks (like a handful of nuts and a green apple) in-between.


• Don't drink your calories! Fight the urge. It's just not worth it. Stick to water (flavor it up with lemon or cucumber, if you don't like it plain) and herbal tea, if you can.

What you should find is that eating this way will naturally help you fend off the munchies - you're not starving yourself by restricting your calories with some crazy diet plan; instead, you're feeding your body the high-quality, nutritional foods that it needs when it needs them (so you feel satisfied). Bye-bye, munchies!

2) Find an Easy and Effective Way to Move Your Body.

By "easy," I mean a workout that: 1) you can fit in during your baby's nap-time, 2) will get you results fast, and 3) will not leave you even more exhausted than you already are!

There are a number of excellent workout programs that can help you with this goal. For example, after my first pregnancy, I did Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred. I really liked it and got good results, but it was really hard on my knees (I had a Sarah Jessica Parker decade or two where I lived in high heels, so I need my workouts to be gentle on my knees, now).

If you follow my blog, you know that I have been following the Fit Yummy Mummy workout plan, after my second pregnancy. I'm doing 15-minute a day workouts and I lost 19 of my 24 pregnancy pounds within 2 months, so it works for me. Feel free to try that program, if you'd like.

No matter which program you follow, if you want to lose weight while breastfeeding in the quickest workout time possible ('cause God knows leaking milk everywhere as you do your hour-long cardio session does not sound like fun), here's what your workout plan will need to look like:

• It must emphasize weight-lifting over cardio exercises. Building muscle burns fat, it's as simple as that. If you do intense (for you) weight-lifting sessions several times a week, they don't even have to be long workouts for you to see great results (seriously, even 15-20 minutes/day will yield beautiful rewards). And you don't have to invest in fancy equipment, either. You can use your bodyweight and/or a simple kettlebell (see my Squidoo page on kettlebell training for more on this amazing fitness trend) for a great workout.



• You'll get even better results if you practice "slow burn" weightlifting moves. Slow burn lifting, in a nutshell, is lifting a heavy weight (for you) in a slow (approx. 10-second) motion and lowering it just as slowly - until your muscles are fatigued. It dramatically increases your muscle mass (which burns fat), and the slow, steady movements (as opposed to quick, jerky ones) reduce your risk of injury.



• When you do your cardio exercises, though, do them in "bursting" intervals, to get the fastest results. For example, do 60 seconds of walking in place and then do 60 seconds of jump-roping and keep going back and forth like this for 10-15 minutes. You'll see big results in no time.



• You'll get Brownie points if your workout program incorporates kettlebell workouts. These workouts can sculpt your body and reduce body fat super-fast. As an example, my little sister took my advice and lost 20 pounds of baby weight within 9 months, just doing kettlebell swings during T.V. commercial breaks while watching her favorite sitcom (and she did it 4 years after having had her last baby). And, by the way, for those of you who still crave a great cardio workout, using kettlebells counts as BOTH strength-training and cardio-training, so you get a two-for!



• And add a high-quality Protein shake after each workout. Protein helps build and repair your muscles so you get results faster.

Doing short, slow, INTENSE lifting sessions will build muscle fast and burn fat faster - helping you to lose weight while breastfeeding, in no time flat!

Use the extra calorie-burning boost you have while breastfeeding, and combine it with: 1) eating small, frequent meals of non-starchy produce and lean protein, and 2) doing short, intense workouts focused on slow-burn weight-lifting and bursting cardio intervals and lose weight while breastfeeding - quickly, easily, and permanently.