Healthy diet for a breastfeeding mother?

[Gilbertomorden]

My skin is had normal color..not so white not so dark but last few months..got darker spots under the eye and on the forehead .. on the nose like that..just darker..by the way im living in gulf area which is so hot there..but i dont go out what its so sunny and hot.. im just wondering how thats happened ?
what should i do ? Laser ? or any kind of cool cream ? and do you have any idea about it?
please advice.. THX
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Edited by Gilbertomorden - 5/3/11 at 10:45am

[RosemaryS-F]

Originally Posted by Gilbertomorden

I'm pretty good with exercising, but I need diet/nutrition help. It's been six months since I gave birth to my beautiful daughter and I'm still carrying lots of pregnancy weight.

I need some tips on a weight loss diet that won't negatively affect my milk supply.

Have you looked into Weight Watchers? There's a great nursing mothers program.

If you aren't up for spending the $, there's also sparkpeople.com. What are you interested in? How much do you have to lose?

[Carley]

This is the best tool I've found to calculate your calories needed: http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-burned

Instead of your own weight, enter in your desired weight (& select "Lactating" for however months postpartum) & that will give you your target. You can eat this amount and (theoretically) eventually fall to your desired weight without drastic measures (though exercise is always healthy )

If you're a number person, there are loads of free calorie counting websites e.g.

http://caloriecount.about.com/article/screencast

http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/

[ithappened]

I've been using livestrong .. the only downside is they don't have BFing listed as an activity (although I have put in the rest many times, they won't add it) so I usually just minus 300 cals for 'fitness' each day to account for BFing. .

[Carley]

I haven't used Livestrong, but you can choose your own "Daily Target" for calorie intake on CalorieCount.

It also allows you to choose the "CalorieCount" recommendations in lieu of the "crash diet" recommendations for weight loss. CalorieCount recommends losing 1lb/week with a reasonable daily calorie intake instead of the voracious & unsustainable 2lbs/week 1200 calorie "diets" that are so popular (& unsuccesful, since most participants are starving & unable to meet their nutritional requirements in such a low calorie diet). Unfortunately they aren't the default settings, but all you need to do is edit them for personalization.

On http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-burned I entered 30 year old woman, Lactating 0-6 months, 5ft 4in with a current weight of 130.0lbs (my pre-pregnancy & desired weight) and a somewhat active lifestyle.

That gives me a calorie target of 2450ish. If I eat 2450ish I will eventually reach my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm eating WELL - sometimes well over my calorie count, exercising in the form of walking & hatha yoga, losing .5-1lb/week the healthy way & have plenty of milk - that's really all I need!

Good luck all!

[KatWrangler]

Weight Watchers is excellent for nursing Moms.

[bronxmom]

I've also started using the dailyplate to track my calories and fitness and really like it. I lost 45lbs without officially tracking by just exercising and eating better/less junk and keeping tabs on my portions. But now that I'm down to the final twenty, I'm finding this very helpful for planning my meals. For breastfeeding, I just picked my activity level and then bumped up one for breastfeeding. That gives me 300 extra calories, which seems about right. But I'm nursing a toddler not an infant so you may want even more cals if you're nursing a baby exclusively. When I was nursing an infant and not tracking, I tried to keep my calories to 1,800-2,000 and was losing 1.5-2lbs/week. Now I try to eat closer to 1650 and am losing about 1.5lbs week (actually I tend to eat closer to 2,000 on avg and still lose this. Btw, these are all "net" calories after exercise - eg., if I burn 300 cals working out then I'll eat 300 cals more. I think while breastfeeding is a great time to try to lose weight more gradually and with a higher calorie count because your body is using more of those calories - so that keeps your metabolism going so that when you stop breastfeeding you pretty much keep eating what you were while losing weight but it's plenty. The goal is to end up being able to eat about 2,000 cals a day to maintain your weight (but if you're breastfeeding, you can eat that or a little less and lose). If you breastfeed for 1-2 years then that gives you plenty of time to lose the weight gradually and adopt a new lifestyle.

In terms of what to eat/what's healthy: I go for lots of protein and healthy fats, modest amounts of whole grains, lots of vegetables and some fruit with moderate "treats" worked in in smaller portions (e.g., alcohol, chocolate, baked goods, sugary foods, etc).