Can I Lose Weight on Trim Healthy Mama While I’m Nursing?

You’ve carried that sweet baby in your own body for nine months. What a miracle! Then, you continue to sacrifice yourself to nurse your baby for months longer. You would think the “baby” weight would literally fall off because all those extra calories you’re expending nursing, right?

Right???

Well…for me, that was a “no”.

Weight Loss While Nursing

Let me start off by saying that this is my personal experience. Everyone is so very different, and your case may be the complete opposite of mine. (In fact, my mother dropped weight like crazy while she nursed.)

The purpose of this post is to encourage those mama’s that might be a bit slower in losing weight during their nursing season, while they are on the Trim Healthy Mama plan.

This is for the THM Mama’s that are trying so hard to eat on plan, yet the scale isn’t moving much.

Maybe you are eating on plan, trying so very hard to juggle fuels, then you notice your milk supply dropping! (Cue stress.)

I’ve been there! I wanted to speak a few words into what may be going on with you, nursing THM Mama.

(To learn more about Trim Healthy Mama, check into this post!)

I’ve Been There…

So maybe I splurged a little bit there after I had the baby. After all, labor was LABOR and I deserved a treat after the baby was born! I remember wanting like two hamburgers after my first birth. Then after my second, third, and fourth, it was toast and muscadine jelly (that my mamaw made), and then a big ole steak and sweet potato dripping with butter and salt. YUM. (Homebirths have better food, fyi.)

Then…the meals from church members came through the door. I can’t say no to the delicious pastas and breads that they generously brought!

Do you remember after you had the baby how you thought you were so skinny? (Maybe it was just me.) But after having a huge basketball belly for several months, I felt so flat haha!

But…

that feeling soon passed though, as I got used to my flabby stomach and I didn’t feel so skinny anymore.

The Resolve to Eat Better Started

So after a month or so of realizing that I may actually be gaining weight (yikes) I decided it’s time to hop back on the THM train.

So I make my plan and execute the plan. Then I notice my milk supply dropping. (double yikes)

Then I start stressing out, which as we know, doesn’t help milk supply!!

Is eating THM while nursing hurting my milk supply?

I thought this was supposed to be the far superior way of eating! I’m fueling my body the way THM’s are supposed to so why can’t my body appreciate that?

Fuel for YOU

It’s definitely true that swapping fuels (fats, carbs, or neither) is conducive to weight loss. But in doing so, the milk making mama is not getting enough of what she needs.

At least for me, I cannot get by with swapping fuels during my nursing seasons. I’ve tried four times. This fourth time I finally figured it out!

I personally cannot go long in the day without a Crossover meal. That means that I’m eating fats and carbs in the same setting: multiple times a day.

Breakfast might need to look like two fried eggs with a side of leftover sweet potatoes. Lunch is usually sprouted bread sandwich with mayo and deli meat. Dinner is my big meal, which I always make a Crossover. For myself and my growing kids.

In order for my hormones to cooperate and my body to feed my baby…I need the C word.

Calories

Yes that’s right. If you’re new to the THM world, you will be surprised to learn that this way of eating doesn’t restrict calories! But, when I separate fuels, calorie loss just naturally happened.

So for me, to keep up my milk supply-which is more important than weight loss- I have to not only eat a lot of Crossover meals, but they have be BIG crossover meals. No measly salad with a little bit of oil and sparse meat–no, no. I’m talking like a meatloaf, mashed potatoes with butter, and then maybe a salad with some oil!

My body also loves sourdough bread. Especially sourdough pizza! The good combo of all the meat, cheese, and sourdough makes the milk maker very happy.

I figured this out because if I went off plan and had a regular pizza…milk would boom. It was frustrating because I was trying to eat healthily but I needed to feed my baby. So I learned over time that it’s all in the Crossover calories.

Struggling to Produce Enough?

If you find you’re still struggling to produce enough milk, look into these things:

-Am I drinking enough water? It’s true…you must stay hydrated to produce more!

-Consider drinking ginger tea. This might sound crazy. But I made a ginger drink (from ginger powder and homemade ginger juice) and I noticed I was producing more milk.

-Beer. This one might be controversial but it works. Have one beer at night. I did this for several weeks and noticed a big difference! Call me crazy…but that boost of liquid carb and calories really helped. Brewer’s yeast is always on the top list of things to try for milk production, so maybe that’s why it helps. Don’t drink the light beer. It has to be the heavy stuff to make a difference for me!

-Nursing more often = more milk. Supply and demand. It helps pump it up. (I never do use a pump, but many women find that pumping for 10 minutes after nursing your baby will help ramp up production.)

-Don’t worry about weight loss, just make sure you’re eating enough.

That Last thing I said…

In conclusion, I want to talk about that last point. I said not to worry about losing weight.

Ouch.

I know, this is very hard. I have been there multiple times! It’s one thing to tell yourself not to worry about the weight loss…and it’s another to actually forget about losing the weight!

You want to be thin again! I get it!

But let me remind you of some important truths:

It took 9 whole months for your skin to stretch and your body to change in so many ways to grow a baby. We should not expect to bounce back to pre-baby size in a few short months.

Change your mindset and give yourself 9 whole months to shrink back. Postpartum time is so precious! Don’t add any stress to these sweet months by wishing your belly away.

It’s very hard to be patient.

It’s even harder to realize that you can’t “diet” while nursing. Even over exercising isn’t a good idea! (Calories expended in exercising is taken away from your body, remember!)

Have some patience and a lot of grace with your body. It’s done some amazing things. Birthed a baby now you’re keeping that baby alive with your body! You have got to feed and nourish your body! This may mean that extra fluff on your body is there for a reason. Your hormones need it to properly function. Don’t sweat it.

Let me encourage you in this, too.

As soon as my babies slack off nursing, my weight falls off.

It’s gotta be a crazy hormone thing for me. Prolactin levels or something. Because I’m not kidding, around 9 months to a year, when my babies start solids and are not nursing as much, I’ll drop weight overnight.

Maybe you will be the same.

Love your nursing body. Show it that you love it by nourishing it and not stressing over how it looks right now.

I hope I could bring you, nursing mama, some encouragement and truth.

Eat your meat and sweet potatoes. 😉

Work with me!

Hey, did you know I am a THM Coach? Check out my business page for more info!

Check out these Farm Fresh THM recipes.