Weight Loss During Breastfeeding

After pregnancy and childbirth, many women find that they are frustrated with their post-baby body and want to begin an exercise and weight loss program to help shed postpartum pounds. If you are breastfeeding and your baby is dependent upon you for her nutrition, you might wonder if it is safe to lose weight.

Significance

Weight loss while breastfeeding is possible, but a nursing mother must pay close attention to maintaining a healthy diet that ensures she and her baby thrive. It's essential that nursing mothers and their nurslings receive the vitamins and minerals that they need to stay healthy. Nutritional deficits might not cause a mother's milk's quality or volume to suffer, but they can negatively impact the mother's health. According to Kellymom.com, crash diets and overly rapid weight loss are not beneficial for nursing moms or their babies.

Exercise

While an array of old wives' tales and anecdotal evidence relate exercise to a mother's loss of her milk supply, according to the La Leche League---an international support group for nursing mothers---there is no research data to support those tales. In fact, a 1990 study on exercise and lactation by C.A. Lovelady found that many women who exercised regularly had increased supply volume. You can begin to exercise as soon as you receive your doctor's approval, and it can help you shed pounds and boost your self-esteem and energy levels.

Diet

Additional calories are used during breastfeeding, which boosts a nursing woman's weight loss efforts, ensuring they will not have to rely strictly upon diet and exercise to shed the baby weight. Experts recommend that women wait about two months before beginning any type of weight loss regimen, and at that point they can cut their caloric intake by about 100 calories a day without any negative effects upon their health or that of their baby. Women can safely lose about 1.5 pounds a week while breastfeeding without any detrimental effects, according to the La Leche League.

Considerations

Nursing mothers should consume between 1500 and 1800 calories a day to keep up their milk supply, according to Kellymom.com. Crash diets that lead to extremely rapid weight loss might potentially be harmful to nursing babies. Toxins and pesticides, present in low levels throughout a mother's body, might be released into the milk. These types of diets also deplete a mother's body and her milk of vital nutrients.

Expert Insight

Dr. Judith Roepke, a perinatal nutritionist and researcher, recommends that nursing mothers not worry about losing weight until about six months postpartum. That is the point, she says, when many women tend to naturally return to their pre-pregnancy weight. Roepke also states that during lactation is an ideal time to lose weight, as lactation helps eliminate fat deposits, even those from before the pregnancy. Always consult with your doctor before beginning any weight loss program.