Breastfeeding and weight loss
I get a lot of questions about this because I lost my pregnancy weight while breastfeeding both times and there is a lot of misconception around that specific topic.
First of all as usual it’s important to check with your ob-gyn and your midwife because each person is different and it is good to check that whatever lifestyle changes you want to implement are the best for you.
Then, another important disclaimer is: take your time. Unless you are a professional athlete or model, your life doesn’t depend on your body shape and you have all the time in the world to go back to your pre-pregnancy weight if that is something you want.
When I had my first baby, I got a lot of contradicting information, and some people told me “you should not lose weight while breastfeeding, it will cut your supply”. I did a lot of research and experimented on myself and I will share my experience with you. Again, each person is different and a number of calories that work on someone might affect someone else differently. That’s why it is good to experiment on yourself. Milk production reacts extremely quickly to lifestyle changes and it is really easy to adapt and reverse back any change that you feel isn’t positive.
First of all, it is true that a high calorie deficit or extremely strenuous physical activity can impact your milk supply negatively. You need food to produce milk and you should consume at least 1800 calories per day while breastfeeding. When I was breastfeeding, I was always eating between 1800 and 2200 calories per day, depending on my activity that day. You can test and see how you milk supply react at 1800 calories. If you feel your production decreasing too much, adjust and increase a bit. Your priority at this time of your life is to feed your baby and if you need more calories to produce milk then so be it. At around 1800 calories per day, I would lose around 500gr per week, and even more once I started exercising again. It also reflects the experience of people I’ve talked to.
Another important thing to take into account is how you get your calories. We talk a lot about pregnancy cravings but breastfeeding hunger can be wild and overwhelming as well, and your body is sending you signals that it needs rich food to produce milk (so no, you usually won’t be craving spinach unfortunately). Try to focus on rich, healthy food like avocado, porridge, bananas… I am a big fan or anything with spelt flour (dinkel if you live in Germany) and I mostly eat bread/pasta with spelt flour as it is rich in proteins and fibers. Eating healthy is extremely important for your body and also for your baby. What I did both times after birth is to focus on what I eat the first two/three weeks rather than how much I eat. Your body needs to recover post birth and start producing that milk so I wouldn’t recommend counting calories in the first few weeks but focus on the quality of food and eating as much as your body says you should eat. Then when I had a stable milk production and I felt good, I started weighting myself and restricting calories slowly. Again, it is not a race, you don’t get a medal for going back to pre-pregnancy weight as fast as possible. And please remember: you don’t HAVE TO. For me it was important because I wanted to go back to a weight I feel comfortable with, but if you feel comfortable at a higher weight, why not stay there? Always question what you do, and never do things because other people say you should.
When it comes to exercising, I started walking as soon as I felt physically ready. Again, there is no timeline and it can look really different after different births. After my first C-section, I didn’t feel ready before one month. Both physically and mentally, I felt the need to stay at home one entire month and I listened to myself and resumed walking and light exercising (yoga, stretching) after a month. After my second daughter, even though it had been physically more challenging (I had a really big surgery during the birth because I had an ovarian tumor during the pregnancy and got several surgeries), I felt the need to move much earlier. So there’s definitely no fixed rules except: check with your doctor/midwife and listen to yourself.
Another thing I get asked often is if exercise will affect your milk production/taste. Strenuous exercise can affect your milk production if you don’t eat enough so as I mentioned earlier, make sure to consume enough calories. And yes, lactic acid that your body produces during strenuous exercices can affect the taste of the milk a little and some babies might react negatively. It is not bad for them, they might just not like the taste; it is said to make the milk a bit sour but I didn’t try myself! Neither of my daughters reacted when I fed them, even after I started running again, so it really depends. In any case, it can affect the milk only for one or two hours, so if your baby seems to not enjoy the taste of your milk after a cardio session, try waiting a little bit before the next feed, or give a bottle in case you are also pumping.
So overall, it is definitely possible to lose weight while breastfeeding, but you need to set realistic goals and give yourself some grace: you are feeding a human being with your body and it’s a performance in itself. Don’t rush, enjoy that time of your life, it’s magical but also really challenging and can feel isolating so make sure you take care of yourself emotionally first!