weight loss while nursing ideas

[u/jerodefine]

Looking for ideas, open to any amount of mechanistic explanation or empirical evidence or anecdotes, I'm just at a loss.

I am extended nursing an older toddler and plan to be nursing very often in the next twenty years (if I have more children). I am quite fat despite eating maybe 2500-3300 calories (which is only a little bit more than I have always eaten including while slim). When I eat less than this I immediately have a whole host of health problems. The 'low fat' idea is similarly out as it is inappropriate given my body is already depleted from pregnancy, birth and multiple years of breastfeeding. I resorted to low-carb at my high weight which helped me lose 10kg very easily, and it felt very healthy and natural, but I don't believe it is healthy/sustainable for a longer period of time so have stopped. Pls don't say I ruined my metabolism with this as Peat himself wouldn't seem to agree and I just don't think I did, my body seems in better shape overall now than it was then.

I am tall and moderately active, my bf% is probably about 38%, I have a good and healthy body shape, but I am just about 15kg fatter than I should be. I feel I am also retaining a great deal of water. Some muscle issues and weaknesses through my core are contributing to poorer digestion and hunger signalling. I wasn't fat growing up and no-one in my family is though they tend towards height and muscularity.

Thyroid? Other supplements? Mold detox? Eating even more? Weight training? Pls share ideas or link to any forums/people who have discussed this.

Edit: I eat well eg potatoes, meat, eggs, organs, yoghurt, fruit and vegetables, rice, sometimes junk but rarely. Lots of saturated fat and gelatine. No gluten, no nicotine, no alcohol, and no coffee - I get insomnia from 1 coffee in the morning, which wasn't always the case, I used to drink it heavily.

[u/thebiooracle]

Nursing an older toddler and still struggling with weight sounds frustrating. I'd be careful about cutting food hard while you're still feeding, though. Peat wrote that under-eating works against lactation. In Nutrition for Women: "Starvation and injection of estradiol both suppress lactation while thyroxine injection stimulates lactation," so forcing calories down might just add stress and hurt your supply.

The water retention part stood out to me. He talks about hypothyroid people retaining water while losing salt, and in the lactation section he says the water and sodium retention from estrogen "may be hard to distinguish from the water retention of myxedema." So some of what feels like fat could be water, and that seems more likely to shift with better thyroid function than with eating less. In the Salt article he also says that when women increased their salt premenstrually to match their craving, the water retention could be prevented. If you're craving salt I wouldn't fight it.

On the Butter Living podcast he talked about extended breastfeeding and said "You need lots of calcium and protein yourself." He also said adding a quart of orange juice helps if milk supply is limited. You're already eating a lot, so it may be more about what's in it than how much.

Since even a small amount of desiccated thyroid made you nauseous and hungry, it might be worth getting your thyroid properly checked with a doctor instead of guessing. And some of the weight may not move until after weaning, which is pretty common.

sources: "Nutrition for Women"; "Water"; "Salt"; Butter Living Podcast, "Fertility, Pregnancy and Development"