Postpartum Weight Loss & Fitness After Breastfeeding: A Personal Journey

Question
My daughter is ten months old and I exclusively breastfeed. The first two weeks after her birth I lost 30 pounds of the 45 that I gained. Within 2 months I gained 15 back. 6 months ago I started watching what I eat, counting calories and exercising a few times per week. I lost about 15 pounds within the first few months. I have gradually increased my workouts to 7 times per week for at least an hour and cut my calories down further. I currently burn between 6,000-7,000 calories each week working out and I am eating approximately 11,000-12,000 calories each week and still breastfeeding. I haven't lost any weight in the past 6 weeks and in fact, I've gained a few pounds. The only time in my life I've weighed this much is when I was pregnant. I'm working really hard, measuring out my food, eating very healthy, and counting every calorie. Could it be my thyroid or other hormonal imbalances?

Answer
I did a rough estimate of your math, and conclude that you eat about 1700 calories a day, burn about 1,000 with exercise (which seems a lot) which leaves you with 1600 for both your metabolism and milk production. Milk production takes about 300 - 500 calories (depending on the size of your baby and amount of solids she's eating) which leaves you with at best, 1300 calories per day.

I believe that you are under-consuming. When this occurs, our bodies start to burn protein, not fat. Over time, this is damaging to your metabolism. Also, for most women, that last thing we are genetically designed to do is "empty the panty" while breast feeding. Instead, our bodies will lower our metabolisms, as a maternal protection response.

I suggest that you get an estimate of your basal metabolism, (their are a lot of web sites that can run the numbers for you, then add on 300-500 calories for nursing. This is the minimum that you should consume. It seems weird at first, but eating too little actually prevents weight loss.

Take a look at your exercise numbers too. Most women doing a full hour of cardiovascular exercise will burn about 500 - 600 calories. Take into account too, that the numbers that show up on exercise machines display are best possible estimates, and that since you would have been alive and moving around during that workout time, would have burned up about 60% of that total any way.