Breastfeeding and CAD
 

So what do you all think about breastfeeding and CAD? My baby is now 3 months old and I am looking at losing this weight, but I don't want to do Atkins and I hate low fat diets.

I was following CAD for about 6 months at one time but then got pregnant and had a free for all.

I need to do some refreshing and read the book again but if anyone has some good tips for me that would be great.

Is anyone else breastfeeding?

Hi Amy :) Congratulations on your new little baby! Did you have a boy or girl?



My experience was I couldn't do it. I didn't make enough milk when I went low carb for my CMs. I did try it for a few days, but it wasn't worth it. I didn't want to stop bfing b/c I wanted to lose weight.

I did find that I could eat alot more while bfing and not gain. :lol: My weight held steady.

I would say you could try it, and you should know right away how if effects your milk and your baby. If s/he is fussier at the breast you will know it may be effecting your milk supply.

Anyway I am not doing CAD right now, but I had to stop by and congratulate you when I saw your sign on name in the post :)

TTYL~ Jill

Hi Jill. I need to do lots of catching up. I had a little girl!! This is day 2 of CAD, I did notice a smaller amount pumped this morning but I will wait and see what tomorrow brings.

She has been crabby for about 1.5 weeks now and spitting up every feeding. The doctor didn't seem concerned though so I don't know what to do. Maybe it's just normal, she spits up about 6-7 times a day.

When you say spit up do you mean alittle?

My youngest had acid reflux when he was a baby and he'd reflux up the whole bottle. The dr end up putting him on meds, and I took him off cow's milk and his reflux went away.

I knew within 3-4 days of doing CAD while bfing, that I couldn't do it. The minute I added more carbs back in my milk supply got better.

Its so good to "see" you :D

Oh no the spit up is just a little.

Hi Amy,
I'm not nursing anymore but did breastfeed on CALP with great success. For me, it's the only way I can eat like a normal person. Supply wise I didn't have any issues, but breastfeeding was well established by then. Drink lots of water and include lots of good foods and I don't see how you can go wrong!

I personally never lost much weight while breastfeeding- my appetite more than made up for my increased caloric intake! I was able to start changing my diet and exercising more when my babies were about 9mo (except for my first baby because I was pg again at that point.) I was able to lose small amounts of weight at a slow, steady pace when my kids were crawlers and toddlers, even without weaning. I didn't discover low-carb eating until well after all my kids were weaned so I have no personal experience with that.

What I would recomend is that you start off by logging your foods; see just how much you're eating now, how many carbs, etc. Do this for a few days so you get a good idea of what your average intake is, as any one day might be a little bit "off" from your average. Then slowly tweak things from there. I would do things like cut back on grains but not worry about the carbs from dairy or moderate-carb veggies, and under no circumstances would I cut back on fat while breastfeeding. Make sure you get plenty of protein too!

For example, if you find that you've been taking in 300g of carbs per day, try cutting back to 250 or 200; jumping to 30g per day is too much of a shock to your system and could affect your milk supply. Then, If reducing your carbs doesn't seem to have affected your baby or milk supply after a few days, cut back a little more- over the course of a few weeks you should find a carb intake that's safe for you and your baby and still lets you lose weight slowly.

I wouldn't do any of the official "plans" while nursing, unless you're starting with "maintenance" and willing to do LOTS of tweaking if you find your personal carb needs are higher than the plan recomends. I really think you should ease into changes extra slowly right now.

Well, congratulations on your newly born. :cool:

Toxic elements, like pcb's, are stored in our fat. When you rapidly slim down, the baby gets too much of these toxic elements into his system.

That's why I just had nature have its way, did not have anything sugary whilst breastfeeding (which is bad for the baby as well) and lost my surplus weight in a natural manner.

I breastfed my youngest for four years (!).