How To Lose Weight While Breastfeeding

Hi , I'm Doctor Mike Russel .

And in this installment , I've asked Doctor Mike , we're gonna look at if it's possible for a breastfeeding mom to also lose weight at the same time .

So today's reader question comes from Jill , uh from Facebook and Jill asks , I feel like it's not possible to lose weight as a nursing mom because I'm afraid of losing my milk supply .

So she's wondering what can she do ?

So this is a real good and calm concern about new mothers who are breastfeeding .

So you wanna be able to produce enough milk that you can feed and nourish your baby .

But you also want to jumpstart the weight loss process so you can lose any excess weight that you've gained during the pregnancy .

So here's the thing about weight loss .

So weight loss is really about at its most basic level , the calorie deficit .

So it's about maximizing this calories in calories out equation , right ?

And you actually , as a breastfeeding mom have a really good advantage that most other people don't .

And that's that breast feeding burns actually a lot of calories .

So , back to Jill's question when she's afraid of losing her milk supply .

So she's afraid of restricting her calories too much , which is a good and valid concern because if you restrict your calories too much , you're not gonna have everything you need to both fuel yourself and also your baby .

So I'm recommending against focusing too much on calorie restriction .

Instead focus on getting enough nutrient dense foods .

Right .

So , calories in versus calories out is there are two parts to that equation .

Right .

The calories , in part , we don't want to reduce those calories in too much .

So , what we'll do instead is maximize the calories out so we can do that two different ways .

The first way is through exercise .

Now , there's not a whole lot of research looking at the effects of exercise on women who are breastfeeding .

But what we do know is that exercise doesn't seem to impact your milk supply at all .

And there's some research to suggest that it might actually improve and increase it .

So what exercise is then gonna allow us to do is burn more calories .

So it's going to bump up your calorie burning , which will put you in a calorie deficit without having to reduce your calories so much .

So , the other way that you can burn calories is through breast feeding itself .

Now , uh , researchers estimate that you can actually burn anywhere between 200 and 500 calories per day .

So that's a significant amount of calorie burning .

If , think about running a mile , you can estimate maybe you burn 100 calories .

So this would be the equivalent of running 2 to 5 extra miles a day .

So it's a lot of extra calorie burning .

OK .

So then if we look at an equation we did here right here , look at kind of , I wanted to show you kind of a math example of how this works .

So if we say um use an example of 100 and £50 woman , right ?

And multiply by 10 and that gives about 1500 calories .

So that's about uh the basal metabolic rate of a woman that size .

So that would be how many calories you need just to basically exist , not including any of your daily activity .

So we're adding exercise to the equation .

So assuming saying exercising three , maybe four times a week .

So probably a moderately active life .

We take this energy factor of 1.3 to 1.4 .

We multiply that by 1500 what you get is between 1950 2100 calories .

So that's how much you would need to eat to maintain your weight in this situation , not counting these calories .

So traditionally , if we're looking at weight loss , what we would do is we take this equation or these numbers say 2100 calories , 2000 split the difference , say 2000 calories .

And then we subtract anywhere between two and 502 105 100 calories to create a calorie deficit to elicit weight loss .

Well , in this situation , because of the calorie needs of breastfeeding , we already have a 2 to 500 calorie per day deficit .

So instead of focusing on dieting and restricting your calories , instead focus on adding exercise right , 3 to 4 times a week and then you'll automatically get your natural calorie deficit from your breast feeding .

And that's gonna allow you to lose weight without having to worry about compromising your milk supply or the nutrition to the baby .

Ok .

So you can actually use these equations .

I use just the example of 100 and £50 but you can plug in whatever your body weight is there to estimate your basal metabolic rate and get about how many calories per day you need .

But the key is focus on , we're gonna focus on burning more calories instead of taking in less calories .

So that's through exercise and then through the breast feeding that you're already doing .

Ok .

So Jill , hopefully that answers your question .

That's gonna wrap it up for this issue of ask doctor Mike um post as many questions and comments as you can below the video .

I'd love to hear from you .

I'll respond to every one of them and uh make sure you subscribe to the youtube channel as well .

All right .

That's gonna wrap it up .

Have a great day .