Here I Go... starting my hhcg while breastfeeding experiment
 

Here is my story and a little background on my experiences thus far with hhcg:

hhcg isn't new to me. hhcg while breastfeeding isn't even completely new to me. I tried hhcg for the first time not quite 2 years ago when DS2 was about a year old. I was breastfeeding him at the time, but he was also eating some solid foods too. We were working on weaning and I had him weaned in a few months. (For the record I didn't see any problems with my supply as I was also pumping breastmilk for my cousins baby as well for a little while.)

My body is really weird. I don't gain a whole lot while pregnant (15 and 20 pounds with my singleton pregnancies, 32 with my twins). But I DO gain a ton of weight while I nurse (25+ pounds). I've tried MANY different types of diets while nursing to no avail. The best I got before finding hhcg was losing 3 pounds over the course of several months doing JUDDD.

After having DS2 I ballooned up to my all time high of 220. With one 40 day round and one shorter round I was able to get down to 177, a number I haven't seen in probably close to a decade! I maintained the weight really well for about 6 months and then had a summer of too many pool parties with decadent food and gained about 8 pounds.

It was after last summer, at 185 that I found out I was pregnant (yay)... and then had the shock of a lifetime when we found out it was twins (yikes? yay?). At two weeks post-partum I was down to 194, but have since in the last 5.5 weeks gained about 10 pounds (give or take...). It's SO hard to be eating healthy (lots of fruits, veggies, and lean meats) and see the scale go up a pound every few days. SO, I've decided that it's time for a round of hhcg.

My Plan:

Let me first say, feeding my babies and making sure they are getting adequate nourishment is most important to me... even if I have to be fat for a while. SO, I'll be carefully watching my babies to make sure they're getting enough to eat and having adequate wet/dirty diapers. If for any reason I suspect that I'm having trouble with my supply or my babies are not getting adequate nutrition then I'll stop protocol.

This weekend (Saturday and Sunday) are my load days. I'm not going to lie... I'm REALLY looking forward to this. I've already been salivating just thinking about all of the yummy stuff I'm going to eat. I have a family reunion on Sunday, so that will be a perfect load day.

Monday will be VLCD1 for me. My plan, since I'm nursing is to increase my calories. I'm going to, at first, be a little loose on this. I'm going to stick with protocol foods, just more of them. Where protocol allows 2 servings of everything, I may go up to 4. Or if I don't feel I need that much, then maybe I'll just stick with 3. I really just need to see how I'm feeling. I know with nursing, I tend to have a ravenous appetite. Also, when I'm not on hhcg and nursing I know that my energy levels can really plummet if I don't have enough calories and I really don't need that to happen (especially with taking care of 2 little boys and 2 infants and being sleep deprived!).

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working on putting up a bunch of meals for my family in the freezer so I don't have to think about cooking as much. That is really one of my big problems with this diet. When I have to cook, I feel like I have to taste. I'm glad I'll be able to avoid that a lot. I went grocery shopping tonight and picked up all of my staples to begin the diet on Monday. Tomorrow and Saturday I'll be working on portioning out my meats and pre-cooking some of them and freezing some of them so they're easy to prepare.

I'm hoping to get in a 25 day round, but I may extend it if I'm feeling up to it. The very biggest bummer for me with this diet is that I feel like I can't be as social with it. I try to avoid parties, getting together with friends, and having friends over, going on dates and out to dinner with my husband because all of those things always involve food. The easiest way for me to stick to protocol is to simply not be around lots of food I can't have (and not have to answer everyones questions about why I'm not eating). I'm just not sure I was to lose the rest of the summer and having people over to our house for pool parties because I'm on a diet! I figure if I can get myself back into the 180's and stabilize there then I can be content until the fall where I'll do another round and hopefully make it to 160 which is my big goal!

I'll keep everyone posted on this thread as to how my progress is going! Thanks for taking the time to read this novel that I've constructed. :)

Can't wait to get started... or rather, to see the losses :up:

Just wanted to wish you luck! I just quit nursing my 16 month old and, having nursted 5 babies in my life (I also have twins and nursed them till almost one year) I can say with authority that not all of us lose weight (and some of us gain- I certainly did) while nursing. Im sure as long as you are paying careful attention to the babies' cues and their weight gain you will be okay. I did alot of research about nursing while doing hcg and I never really found any definitively negative information on it. The main thing is not letting your milk supply dry up (if I remember right). Having a few hundred extra calories would be the way to go, Id think. Anyway, Im no expert! Just wanted to say good luck and keep us updated.

I lost a lot of weight when I breastfed my two without dieting. Did you discuss this with your doctor? I don't think being on a 500 calorie diet and taking hcg would give you enough nutrients let alone a baby. Plus, I would worry about putting anything in my body while breastfeeding because it could have negative effects on the baby later on. You are always hearing "If you took this while pregnant or breastfeeding you may have a claim" I am not trying to scare you. Its just my opinion.

Just food for thought.

Wishing you luck as well, but have you also considered that certain foods on protocol may not agree with the babies? I know when I breastfed my daughter, she would get colic something fierce over certain foods I ate (right now only peanut butter and Tabasco sauce come to mind, but that was 18 years ago, lol). I'm not saying anything will... just... what if?

Good luck!

Breastfeeding for me kept me really slim after my babies were born. It was once I stopped breastfeeding that the weight came on. I was actually 116-118 pounds after the birth of both my daughters and was able to keep that weight until I stopped breastfeeding.

I hope your milk supply is good while on the diet. With my second daughter, I became sick and wasn't eating much and I noticed a drastic reduction in my milk supply.

I've talked to multiple doctors about my weight gain while breastfeeding (general doc, OB, and thyroid doc). None of them have any insight. I'm not too worried about the hcg itself having any negative impact on the babies as women who are pregnant and producing LOTS more hcg nurse all of the time. It's more the supply issue I'm concerned about, and I'll be monitoring that as closely as I can.

You know, I hadn't really thought of that. Probably because I haven't ever had any trouble with my other kids while breastfeeding and foods not agreeing with them. I guess if there are certain protocol foods the babies don't agree with, I'll just have to sub them out and find something to eat in its place.

good luck! i think you'll do great! and remember you're NOT just eating low calorie/low fat....the hhcg is providing energy thru the release of fat.

will this be your journal, then?

i miss nursing....loved it! :)

I love nursing too! Though, with two babies to nurse sometimes it feels like all I'm doing all day is nursing babies and running around after my almost 3-year-old!

Yes, I'm going to keep this as a journal. Looking forward to the next two load days... but looking even MORE forward to losing weight :)

If HCG in YOUR system helps you to lose weight, don't you think it might hinder your babies from growing and thriving like they should? If your doctor's don't have any insight, I'd say there have been no studies. And there's no way I'd risk the health and welfare of my children to lose a few pounds.

Sorry to be so blunt.

how's it any different than nursing while pregnant? :confused:

women do that all the time and the nursing baby does just fine.

Also isn't hcg like a detox? When you are detoxing all the stuff in your fat cells will go into your breast milk.

again, how is it different than nursing while pregnant? i don't believe that a pregnant woman goes thru detox?

I don't know, I've never had a baby. But I do know unless my doctor told me specifically it would not harm my baby, I wouldn't do it.

I nursed while pregnant for 3 months (I nursed for 2 years total). That being said, my bottle of pellets does say not to take while pregnant or nursing. Also, it might hurt milk production/quality depending on how strict her diet is.

I wonder how old her babies are. At 6 months some babies start supplementing their diets with baby foods. I also gave my daughters multivitamins from a dropper. By the time they were a year old, the breastmilk was a small part of their diet.

there is MUCH more circulating hcg while pregnant than what we are taking homeopathically. pregnant women have nursed right thru pregnancies with great success. i think she'll do great. as long as she is mindful of babies' diapers and how they are acting, she'll do great.

remember....she's done this before. ;)

See, a warning. Always there for a reason. Why risk a baby's health?

ITA No way would I even chance it. There is plenty of time to lose weight.

I meant the Hcg diet plan. If it releases all of that fat in your system it also releases whatever toxins are in your fat stores which will go into your milk.

I had put this quote on another thread, but I do think it is appropriate to put here too.

A trained HCG specialist and Life Coach answered the question about breastfeeding while on the diet.
"Using HCG for weight loss when breastfeeding -- I am so glad to be answering this question......because it is okay for women to nurse during pregnancy when producing up to 1 million units of HCG it is okay for women to use HCG for weight loss. (I'm still nursing a 20-month-old and am on VLCD.)
The HCG may affect your milk supply, although I haven't really noticed this in our situation. Breastfeeding women can even increase their calories by 300 to 500 when doing the protocol to help ensure milk supply and still experience great results. There will be no adverse effects on your baby -- as a matter of fact since the fat stores are where vital nutrient are stored in our bodies and HCG opens these stores this means, in theory, that your milk will be higher in vital nutrients as you have access to these nutrients 24/7."


It would seem to me that opening up the fat stores and releasing all of those vitamins and nutrients would actually be quite beneficial to my babies.

To those who have expressed concerns, I am tweaking the protocol as stated above to increase calories and will be proceeding cautiously. I know its a long post, but you can see my plan outlined in the first post.

Thank you to those offering support. I'm pretty confident that it will work out fine, even if I do need to tweak some things along the way!

Again, I am a huge proponent of both breastfeeding and hcg dieting.

It's different because when a woman is pregnant and nursing, there is a 99% chance she is NOT taking in only 500 calories a day. Granted, she already said she is planning on MORE than the 500 calories a day, but we're obviously still talking a reduced calorie, reduced fat, and reduced carb diet.

IMHO, a diet plan, no matter HOW the hcg is circulating inside you (from pregnancy, a bottle, a pellet, or an injection) is not the way I'd go. The babies need all they can get. They need vitamins and minerals and nutrients. I can't say that is 100% what we've got stored in our fat cells.

I do wish you luck because your mind is made up and I know how I get when MY mind is made up to do something. Opinions and concerns be darned. But I would worry about the babies, that's all. There is plenty of time for dieting afterward.

I would not take the word of just ONE specialist, though. If however, there was a plethora of facts to back up what that one specialist said, then yes I would tend to believe it. But not just one.

I have found some other info in the affirmative, but I pulled that quote because it was the most succinctly written. Obviously though, there is no deffinitive answer or else this wouldn't be so controversial.

Well. Let me ask you this. If your SOLE source of nutrition came from a controversial source, would you WILLINGLY eat it? Are you one that doesn't care about hormones in beef, pesticides on fruits and vegetables, and whether or not tuna is caught in the same net as dolphins? I am not judging you as I am one of those people who don't care, lol. But others do.

Again, I'm not trying to be a downer. Just. Well. If your babies could talk and could understand that this was a controversial thing, do you think they'd have an opinion?

Sadly today is my last post for Phase 2 - I was down .4 of a pound for a maintain weight of 162.8 - See you all on the Phase 3 Thread and keep up the good work!

I think if you go too low cal, babies nursing will just pull from other places. Meaning, your heart or bones. I'd think it would make you really tired pretty quickly, so that along with short supply...well, you know what you're looking for! I was so scared to even go LC while bf'ing, so I did for 1 or 2 meals each day and limited my sweets in the evening. It sounds like you've done some research.

As a Lactation Consultant I know that those warning just mean that they don't have a published report saying that it is ok to take it while breastfeeding or pregnant. It is a way for the makers of medications to cover their you know whats. If you listened to all those warnings, pregnant or breastfeeding women couldn't take hardly any medications. This is even true for those that we give infants. Ok, I'm off my soap box on that for now, lol. I just have had too many dr's tell a mom she can't breastfeed if she is on Amoxicillin.

The only foods I really worry about in a nursing mother's diet are allergens like cows milk, peanuts, eggs, soy and things like that. I don't worry about spicy foods or "gassy". Oh I do caution against raw fish and soft cheeses like brie. ( increased bacteria).

Please let me know how things go for you. Dr Thomas Hale at Texas Tech studies medications and mother's milk. You could post the question in his forum. I will also ask the neonatologist at the hospital where I work what she thinks. She has done several rounds of HHCG and is very supportive of breastfeeding. I won't see her until next week tho.

Good point! It seems all medications say they are not to be used when breastfeeding or pregnant.


I will keep everyone posted here on my progress. I'd love to hear anything you hear from the neonatologist. Thank you for thinking to ask!

Started loading today. This morning my weight was 2 pounds up from what it's been the last couple of days (yikes!) and that's before loading. Starting out this round at 206.2. It will be scary to see what my weight does the next couple of days while I load if I can gain 2 pounds while eating healthy!

best of luck...you'll do great!

i'll be following your progress, if you don't mind. :)