Not happy with my weight!

chrissyskisses3

I have a 16 month old who is still breastfeeding! I am 5'6 130lbs pre-pregnancy weight and after lo was born I now weigh 165lbs. I started trying to lose weight after she was 6 months old by eating healthier but my weight stayed the same. Now currently for the past month I have been exercising on the ellipital for 30 minutes 5 days a week and eating very healthy (protein and veggies) with a 1200 calorie a diet and still no change in weight? I would like to wean her although it will be difficult cause she is very atached to nightime feedings which helps her fall asleep. I heard your body can hold on to fat in order to maintain your milk supply. Is this the reason why I can't lose weight? Anyone have any advise or suggestions on how to wean her? Why am i not losing weight? Thanks for any advise you can give!

gfam89

I know of this one product that helps with milk supply while getting in more veggies and more natural energy. Sadly the most effective way to weight loss is a healthy diet and exercise. When you're breastfeeding as well, there aren't many things you can take such as supplements to assist you in your weight loss goals. You could try a healthy way to maintain your milk supply with natural ingrdients so that your body doesn't hold as much fat. Has she started she started whole milk yet? Because when my lo was old enough, I started him on milk and he weaned himself off within a week. Granted I was formula feeding, not breastfeeding.

chrissyskisses3

Yes she drinks from a sippy cup of milk and water during the day just at bedtime she can't fall asleep without nursing. I didn't know if i was holding on to weight due to breastfeeding because i am eating very healthy and exercising for the past 30 days. Am i not waiting enough time to see a difference in the scale or is breastfeeding the culprit for no weight loss?

rklinge0

Ftm and recently delivered but I was an athlete before I got pregnant. Sometimes it takes a while for you to really start losing weight. You build up muscle which weighs more than fat. Also cardio should give you lean muscle but it does take some time for metabolism to kick in and lose the weight. Sometimes up to 2 to 3 months. You may be losing inches right now and even if you aren't your body is getting healthier! Which in the end is all that matters.

imrachellea

First of all, if you are building muscle at ALL the weight will not come off as you'd expect. It just won't. But that lowers your overall BMI. I nursed my DD until she was 8 months and unfortunately I was not one of those women that lost weight BFing which, according to my doctor, is 100% normal. And that is just fine! I have lost an additional 10 lbs since weaning my daughter 10 months ago, which sounds cruddy when you think that's a pound per month. But I am STRONG. My weight doesn't even matter anymore (at least not at the level it did before). I'm 8 lbs heavier then when I got pregnant. But this body had carried a baby for 9 months, gone through natural childbirth, nurtured her in the womb and out, and then there's all the things I can do at the gym that I couldn't even imagine doing before. I am a warrior, and so are you. Do what feels right for you and your DD. Focus on what your body CAN do, and just make healthy choices. You'll get to a point where that is more than enough.

Coco118

I'm a registered dietitian so can speak a bit on this. For starters, a 1200 calorie diet while BFing and exercising can actually seriously damage your metabolism, making it harder to lose weight both now, but also long term. I've seen a lot of patients who have horrible metabolism due to long term low calorie diets. So make sure you are adding calories for your exercise and BFing (if you're only nursing at night, you don't need those 500 that everyone says for BFing. I'd just add another 150 or so). A 500 calorie deficit per day is what you need for weight loss and more than that causes your body to go into starvation mode and hold onto fat even more.
In general, I'd look at what exactly you are eating. Track all your food online or in an app (such as myfitnesspal) and look at the breakdown. Are you eating 1200 calories but also exceeding the recommendation for sugar? Are you getting 40% of your calories from fat? Things like that have an impact more so than the calorie count. You should aim for 45-55% calories from carbs, 20-25% from protein, and 25-30% from fat. A good app will track these percentages for you.
Also, are you doing 30 min elliptical at a steady state? The same workout each time? If so your body will adapt and you'll stop burning calories from it. You need to constantly change up your workout. Research HITT workouts and tabata as those are the best for fat burning. Weight training will also increase your metabolism.
Also, as the poster above said, you may be losing inches but not pounds (however to correct them, BMi is simply weight and height. So your BMi doesn't change unless your weight does. I believe what she was thinking of was body fat percentage)
Good luck!

sweetn123

Although my difference in weight wasn't 35 libs, I did however find that my body fat wanted to continue hanging around while I was breast feeding. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be, reading everything that you have been doing. I know what will help though is instead of just doing the elliptical for 30min at a comfortable intensity, you should take 3 of those days, get off the elliptical, and do anything else that gets your heart rate up more than it is not up. Do calisthenics, and mix it with kickboxing aerobics, and you get the idea, and you can do all that stuff anywhere. Hope this helps.

chrissyskisses3

Thank you everyone for the wonderful advice