Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms, Week by Week Pregnancy Guide

Weight gain is a natural process during pregnancy so there are a lot of women who may be looking for the side effects of dieting while breastfeeding. It is a known fact that women can lose weight simply by breastfeeding; specialists say that this way they can burn 300-500 calories a day.

Breastfeeding dieting side effects

Since we know that women burn more calories while nursing, all they have to do in order to lose weight is to have a lower calorie intake. As a result they won’t have to ‘starve’ and they will still be able to burn more calories than they take in every day.

Risks of dieting while breastfeeding

In case you take dieting to the extremes, it could have a negative effect on the health of the baby. According to official information the diets don’t really decrease the milk supply; some specialists argue that a sudden decrease of the calorie intake can result in mothers having less milk.

The side effects of dieting while breastfeeding must be carefully monitored during the first months of the baby’s life. The truth is that the majority of the risks affect the health of the mother and not the health of the child. Nutritional deficiencies might result in fatigue, depression or anemia.

Function

The specialists claim regarding the negative effects of dieting when breastfeeding that the body stores fat during pregnancy to make sure that it will have enough energy to breastfeed. Even if women aren’t trying to lose weight, they will because of nursing. As it has been mentioned before, if you limit the calorie intake, you can speed up the process.

If you want to make sure that you won’t have to think about the side effects of dieting while breastfeeding, ensure that regardless of the number of calories that you have, you have a healthy diet that comes with vitamins and nutrients and that doesn’t involve any processed foods.

Time frame

When it comes to the breastfeeding and dieting negative effects, you should know that women aren’t supposed to start dieting for two months after childbirth. It takes about 8 weeks for the milk supply to be established and after this, dieting will not affect it.

If you do it right, you won’t have to worry about the side effects of dieting while breastfeeding. This is something that you could discuss with your doctor or with your lactation consultant.