Intermittent Fasting While Breastfeeding

I’m giving the 16:8 Intermittent Fasting (IF) a try even while breastfeeding.  I talked with both my pediatrician nurse and lactation consultant prior to doing this.  I also watched my milk supply the first few days.  The consultant said if I maintain the same amount of calories within that 8 hours, then my supply should not be affected.  I’m 4 days in, and so far it has not.  But here are some of the specific results that I had from intermittent fasting while breastfeeding.

Day 1

Actually started with an 18 hour fast, but this was too long.  With breastfeeding, I’d rather have my eating window longer.  I may change it after I’m done with bf’ing. I may also throw in some 1 or 2 day fasts then.

Day 2

Seemed difficult to not snack after 8PM.Going to try to move my break-fast time up to 1pm so that I can eat until 9

Day 4

Did long 30 minute interval workout (ZUzka).  Made it til 12:30 PM. Ate a couple of bad things this day, 1/2 cookie & piece of carrot cake (not together), and could really feel the impact that it had on my system.  Could it be that I’m already more in tune with my body?

Day 5

I woke up refreshed today (which is unusual for a mom with a baby still not sleeping through the night). Each day, I seem to wake up with more energy.  Did interval workout-zuzka. Done a HIIT workout every day for the last 4 days for at least 15 min.  My body has felt pushed, challenged each day but I don’t feel overly sore like I normally would.  Maybe the fasting time is giving my muscles more healing/recovery attention.  Made it til 1 PM today (12:54).  Didn’t feel like overeating really and ate something really healthy.  Pulled out some chips to snack on that afternoon, but just didn’t feel good eating them. Ate another piece of carrot cake just because I felt like I could (didn’t really want it).  Forgot I was fasting and ate a slice of apple at 9:15. Oh well…

Day 7

Woke up at 7am – wide awake and energized.  This is a first in over a year. I find myself wanting to push the fasting window a little longer.  I actually am liking the hunger and exercising my self-control.  I feel like I have self-control muscle that I am working and it’s getting stronger!  The scale has not changed much this week, but I definitely feel leaner and less bloated. I’ve also started a HIIT program and hopefully am putting on some muscle.  So “no change” on the scale numbers may mean my body composition is changing from fat to muscle. About to do a fasted workout and excited about it.  It actually makes me have better, more energized, more intense workouts.

**Really overate during my eating window on Day 7.  Even though I actually felt like stopping around 8pm, I continued to eat and overate because “I could”.  I felt miserable afterward.  I’m going to listen to my body from now on & not stuff myself just because I “CAN”

EFFECTS ON INFANT With Intermittent Fasting While Breastfeeding:

As I stated in the comments (below), I thought that Sofia had had a horrible reaction to the fasting.  I now know that she had a cold. I gave her baby Zyrtec and she was a new baby.  Basically the cold was making her overtired, then she couldn’t sleep because she didn’t feel good. Poor baby!  But now that the cold has almost entirely cleared up, she is her usual cheerful, bright self.  I have seen absolutely no negative effects on her doing intermittent fasting while breastfeeding.

MILK SUPPLY With Intermittent Fasting While Breastfeeding:

Sofia is actually nursing for shorter amounts of time and with longer periods in between feedings.  She is not acting fussy (she had a cold on Days 1-4 of this week) at all anymore. If it’s possible I actually think intermittent fasting has increased my milk supply. I also did not feel that intermittent fasting while breastfeeding was overly taxing on my energy. Now, I will state that Sofia is 8 months old, and while she is still almost exclusively breastfed, my supply is definitely established. And I’ve never had any kind of supply issues.

WEIGHT LOSS With Intermittent Fasting While Breastfeeding:

My weight bounced up and down between 163 and 165.  So, no weight LOSS exactly this week. But I read in The 4 Hour Body that with intermittent fasting weight loss does not begin until after the 3rd week and it continues to be around 1lb. per week after that point.  I’m also still in a “learning” phase of this lifestyle. For example, when I overate on the 7th day.  This may impede my weight loss as I learn the amounts and kinds of foods that my body really needs. I definitely feel the fasting will aid my weight loss.

Another factor in weight loss results is I have started high intensity interval training.  The goal of this type of training is to gain strength thereby MUSCLE.  Although a pound of muscle is equal to a pound of fat , it takes up a LOT less space. So, while the scale may be staying the same, I may just be trading muscle for fat which is good! And an added reason for no scale change is that with intense workouts, workouts that really challenge muscles as HIIT does, can cause an increase in weight.  The reason is because water rushes to those micro tears in the muscles.  This increases your retained water weight for a period of time.  And trust me–I been tearin those muscles UP!!!!

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This is my AFTER pic but also my BEFORE pic since I’ve lost all the baby weight but  I’m also just starting out on IF, Xyng, and HIIT. Xyng is like motivation in a pill, but I still feel like I’m doing the work which is actually a good thing.  It’s definitely helping me in the intermittent fasting and HIIT workouts.