Advice on improving body comp after pregnancy?

[momli]

Hi there,

I gave birth to a beautiful daughter nearly three months ago, and I love spending time with her at home. Before the pregnancy, I was in pretty good shape (compound movements and intervals + thai boxing + a decent diet) with not too much fat and a decent amount of muscle. Now, however, the situation is a bit different. I'm only around 9 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight (gained nearly 30 lbs), but looking at my body comp, I am nowhere near the shape I was in earlier.

Surprise, surprise - I've lost muscle in the process

I want to get back to 18-19% bf, and since I've done it before, I know I have the knowledge and discipline to do it. But for some reason, I seem to have a really hard time getting started... Something comes up all the time, and the start gets postponed. I know there are a couple of things I need in order to succeed:

1. Accountability. Last time I succeeded, I logged my diet and workouts on a forum, and I plan on doing the same now as well - here on JP
2. Diet program. I love working out, so that usually comes automatically. A good fat loss diet plan, however, doesn't.

And this is where my question (finally) comes in.

What kind of diet would you recommend? I'm breast feeding my daughter and plan on doing so for at least another 9 months. What do you think of Leigh's programs for a nursing mom? Any advice is highly appreciated. And if you have any links to journals/success stories of how other nursing moms have got back in shape, please let me know.

Looking forward to shedding the fat and getting some muscle back!

[Leigh P.]

Since you are about 3 months post (after checking with your doctor to make sure) you should be pretty clear to do normal training.

A fat loss diet is going to be the same in the aspect that you have to achieve a deficit. That is the first thing to understand. Changing your "shape" and "toning" is going to happen through fat removal and training to stimulate growth. That is the second thing to understand.

So you can't really appreciate the "look" of your muscles at a higher body fat. You will have to lose some body fat to get that. How fast you should be losing body fat really depends on the breastfeeding IMO.

You have to look at it as a time that your baby is needing what you carry in your body to grow into who they are going to be. Is 6 more months of waiting worth that? I think it is. So if breastfeeding I think training is fine, but a noticeable hypercaloric diet, I wouldn't recommend.

[fengshway]

be careful about taking dieting advice from leigh. we have had a number of pregnancies occur on this board that were directly related to her advice. so unless you want two in diapers at once, I'd be cautious....

[momli]

Leigh: Thanks! I won't do anything that would put my ability to breastfeed my daughter at risk. So a large deficit is definitely out of the question. I was more thinking in terms of macronutrients, for instance, whether breastfeeding requires a certain amount of carbs that I need to take into account.

I've decided to track my intake for a couple of days and see where I'm at. That'll make it easier to decide on a potential deficit and change in macronutrient ratios.

fengschway: I'm probably a bit slow from breastfeeding (yeah, I can always blame everything on that ), but I didn't quite understand what you meant...

[LisaS]

we had a period of time here on the board where the following pattern was repeated more than once:
1) forumite asks Leigh a fat loss question or signs up to work with Leigh directly
2) Leigh answers question
3) two or three weeks later same forumite posts "all bets are off - I just found out I'm preggers"

so -- be careful of taking advice from Leigh unless you want two in diapers

[momli]

Originally Posted by LisaS

we had a period of time here on the board where the following pattern was repeated more than once:
1) forumite asks Leigh a fat loss question or signs up to work with Leigh directly
2) Leigh answers question
3) two or three weeks later same forumite posts "all bets are off - I just found out I'm preggers"

so -- be careful of taking advice from Leigh unless you want two in diapers

Okay, then I get it. Better not listen to her then Thanks for the warning