Starting HCG protocol and Breastfeeding 8 month old

[jennia8181]

I am very excited to start this journey. I have a 16 month old toddler that we adopted right after birth, only to come home and find out I was PREGNANT!! What a shocker and a blessing. So, my birth child is 8 1/2 months old and I am dying to get my body back (especially after researching HCG diet like crazy and seeing everyone's amazing results). So I am going to do the protocol, but will up my calories a little and see how it works out.

I AM being supervised and my naturopath sees no real issues doing this except that I may or may not cause a decrease in my milk. I am going to supplement myself with fenugreek and drink mother's milk tea and TONS of water. Not sure yet exactly how much I should UP my caloric intake, was hoping for some pointers.

The naturopath also said HCG is of no concern while breastfeeding. I have read concerns on other blogs about toxins being released so I asked her about this as well and her reply was that women's bodies are designed to drop substantial baby weight while breastfeeding, so weight loss while breastfeeding is not the issue and that the baby is capable of eliminating toxins whether you drop the weight from just breastfeeding (as some lucky women do) or by doing HCG.

Of course if my milk supply diminishes I will up the calories and if that doesn't help I will go off the protocol. I am not writing this to be criticized or ridiculed on my decision to do this, I am simply offering my experience so that it may be a source to someone else who is deciding to do the HCG while nursing. SOOOOO... we will see how this goes.

My HCG should be here very soon, this weekend I am going to stock up on my essentials for the protocol as well as some GOOD OLD JUNK FOOD for the loading phase I am particularly looking forward to loading, since I feel like I am loading every day anyway (just kidding).

I am 155 pounds and would like to get down to 135. I am not expecting to lose a pound a day since I am going to eat some extra calories, but would be happy losing a pound every other day. I will keep you posted. JENN

[jennia8181]

OK. I got my shopping list together yesterday and am going to plan a trip to the store today. I had to figure out how much meat I was going to need since I am going to increase the amount of protein I eat each day so I don't eat too few calories.

I am doing calculations based on a 30 day phase II.

The way I figured it is I would eat four kinds of meat. Steak, Chicken breast, fish (flounder, tilapia and tuna) & shrimp.

The steak and shrimp are approximately 200 calories for 4 oz servings. I am going to eat 6 ounces of these to up my calories giving me approx. 600 calories (not including veggies, fruits and rice cakes)

The chicken breast and three types of fish are approximately 130 calories for 4 oz. servings. I am going to eat 8 ounces of these to up my calories giving me approx. 600 calories.

I figured I will eat equal amounts of all four types of meat, therefore I will need about 26 pounds of meat. 15 pounds of beef & shrimp, and 11 pounds of chicken and fish varieties. (GEE.. sounds like A LOT).

As for vegetables. I am going to eat tomatoes, asparagus, spinach, lettuce & cabbage.
Fruits. I am going to buy 10 apples, 10 oranges, 5 grapefruits, 15 lemons and a ton of frozen strawberries.

At this point I am planning to follow the protocol for the fruits and veggies, unless I see a dip in my milk, in that case I will increase them too.

I am going gluten free so I will be eating rice cakes twice a day so I will need 60 of them.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to take fenugreek three times a day and drink mothers milk tea since we are allowed an unlimited amount of tea and of course I will drink LOTS of water.

I will also pick up some chicken broth, and apple cider vinegar because it seems that these are two allowed items that are used in a lot of the recipes I have seen.

And OF COURSE I have a small loading shopping list too (gotta plan for that too... lol).

I am very excited to do this. I think my 8 1/2 month old has some food intolerances, and this way it should be fairly easy to figure out what her issues are since I will be eliminating dairy, gluten and caffeine. And then in the maintenance phase (if everything works out good and I get that far) the slow introduction of foods for me and her should be a good indicator of what may be bothering her.

I hope this helps if anyone else is considering this. And as I said before I AM under supervision through this and do NOT plan to stay on the diet if my milk supply decreases. I will keep everyone posted of how this works out.

[privatediva]

We actually have a mom breastfeeding twins on the board. You might want to check her thread here for information:

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

[Trishagrrl]

I'm also breastfeeding my twins, they're 4 months old. I did this protocol a couple of years ago while breastfeeding my 1 year old, but we were in the process of weaning so I wasn't too worried about milk supply at the time. I had GREAT results then.

My results haven't been so terrific this time around, but then my body does NOT like to lose weight while I nurse. I don't think most women have this problem. Anyhow, I did increase my protein 1-2 more/day. Typically it ends up being 2 extra protein servings, but there have been a couple of days I've only had 1 extra. I also eat some extra veggies. I'm on day 12 and I'm currently down 5.5 pounds under my pre-load weight. Yesterday I lost .2, today nothing. Hoping for a bigger loss tomorrow

There were several people that were very skeptical of me doing hhcg while breastfeeding, but I really have not seen/read/heard any convincing reason why not to. My milk supply has been great, I've even had to deal with oversupply a little bit. I haven't done anything extra as far as taking any supplements or anything to help with my milk supply either.

Best of luck to you. Glad to have a breastfeeding hcg buddy!

[jennia8181]

Trishagrrl,, I read your entire post. It is so nice to meet you. Where are you from? I am from New Jersey. After reading your story I was encouraged to try HCG while still breastfeeding. I am very excited to be doing this. Like you, I am hoping that by sharing this information it can be used as a tool for others who are in our situation. Please keep updating your results and I will do the same.

[jennia8181]

WOO HOO, my hcg drops arrived today. I am fully stocked on food, and have prepared some entrees in advance for those days that I might not feel like cooking. Now begins the loading phase. I have taken the drops twice today, and am not really even in the mood to load... i suppose i will have to force myself to eat. Tomorrow is another loading day, and then Monday I am going to start the protocol.

I took my before pictures today and did measurements. I am 150 lbs. pre-load. I am interested to see how much I gain stuffing my face these next few days. Should be fun. I am very excited to see how this works out. My only concern is my milk supply, but I haven't had any issues ever, so I am hoping that it stays that way.

[Trishagrrl]

I'm in Michigan. I hope you see great loss with hcg!

I don't know if you've purchased much meat yet, but I do purchase quite a bit in advance and pre-weight it and package it in 100g pieces separately and put it in the freezer so I don't have much work to do on a daily basis. Sometimes I stick several pieces of chicken breast on the grill at one time, or a couple hamburgers so I have meat in the fridge that is easy. With all of these kids I don't always have time to cook myself something special especially in the middle of the day!

[jennia8181]

OK... so I loaded Saturday and Sunday. I can honestly say it wasn't as much fun as I had anticipated. Not sure if it was psychological, but I just wasn't in the mood to eat as much as I thought I would be. Tomorrow I start my protocol. Looking forward to losing some weight.. just hope it works since I probably gained a few the past two days. Jenn

[jennia8181]

Day ONE of the protocol. I have my meals all planned out. I am waking up a little hungry. My goal is to eat 800 calories today, I will have to see how that goes depending on how hungry I am. My little one is eating baby food three times a day, and I am going to add a cereal snack before bed because she wakes up every two hours... uhh. I am a little nervous about losing my milk, but I will keep a close eye on it. My little girl loves her boob!

[Trishagrrl]

Good luck! I hope your first VLCD goes well. The first couple of days can be a little rough. I haven't had any trouble at all with milk production, so yesterday I decided to do a 500 calorie day, might try to start keeping closer to that. Keep us updated on how everything goes for you

[jennia8181]

ok. day one on the vlcd and I dropped 3 pounds. I feel silly even saying that because it seems impossible, BUT after weighing myself 5 times, i realized, it's TRUE!! This is crazy. I hope things continue to go this well and that I can stick to it. I was definitely hungry yesterday, but not so bad that I couldn't hold out. Hope today goes well, looking forward to losing the hunger pangs and losing more weight. 17 more pounds to GOOOOO!!

[jennia8181]

Day 2 on the vlcd and I lost another 2 pounds. So five pounds in two days. Pretty amazing. My hunger seems to be more mental then actual hunger. I am home all day and always preparing food for my babes, so I think it makes it harder then If I was working and keeping busy. Either way, I have been good, sticking to my diet. Made applesauce with stevia and cinnamon, spicy chicken (cajun seasoning) and tomatoes, salsa to go with my melba toast, and I am trying the recipe for mock fried chicken. I love trying new recipes. Tonight I am having flounder with lemon, salt and pepper baked in the oven with asparagus and I will eat my orange for dessert.

I have decided it is easier for me to break up the "rationing" of foods that I am allowed to eat, so I don't feel like I haven't eaten all day. My schedule is:

tea or coffee for breakfast with applesauce

lunch: protein, melba toast, and I have used romaine lettuce leaves to "wrap" my food in (kinda feels like I am eating a taco).

dinner: proten, melba toast and so far I have eaten asparagus every night.

snack: the other piece of fruit.

I drink TONS of hot decaf flavored tea all day long. It gives me something sweet to drink, which takes my mind off of food, and I am still getting liquid. Of course I drink water too.

So far so good, I am excited to see what my total is for the entire week. I have a lot of friends that are getting on board with this. It's nice to see everyone with hope for weight loss, and we can all support each other.

And another note: my little one (who was waking up every two hours) is starting to sleep much more sound in her crib for several hours at a time. It's a start. I suppose that since the protocol is so limited, I don't eat anything that upsets her tummy.

Also, I have Hashimoto's which is a thyroid autoimmune disease, and my dr. wants me to go gluten free. I will use this protcol to implement that as well (gotta switch up the Melba toast for rice cakes). This diet definitely has more then one benefit for me. My naturopath said that a gluten free diet could lower the antibodies that I am producing that are attacking my thyroid. Which means a better quality of life. Can't beat that.

[jennia8181]

Day four of VLCD and I weighed in this morning with a 3.6 pound loss. I have an electronic scale (a nice one)... and I reweighed myself numerous times. I CANNOT believe this at all. I am wondering if I could be losing a lot of water weight? Not sure if that's the main loss in the beginning. So far in four days I have lost 9 pounds. Is that even normal? I am not sure if I FEEL skinnier. But I do have 15 more pounds I'd like to lose. So ONWARD.

Milk supply is still good. Baby and mommy are happy

[Trishagrrl]

Did you gain a lot from loading? I always pack on a lot when I load, my body holds on to TONS of water weight (9 pounds my last load... which I took off in the first two days). I would say, probably yes you are losing lots of water weight but a lot of women lose 1/2+ pound a day even after those big numbers stop coming. 1/2 pound a day is pretty fantastic in my book! I wouldn't continue to expect to see 3 or 4 pound losses every day though. Good job!

[jennia8181]

I didn't gain that much after my load (but I had a crappy scale at that time so who really knows). It's funny that a half a pound sounds disappointing after having such big losses.. lol.... Before when I calorie counted it took a week to lose that much. I am getting spoiled. This is such an exciting experience. I had a great time reading everyone's success stories and watching before and after videos on youtube, I just can't believe it REALLY REALLY works for ME!! I can't even fathom weighing in at a weight that I haven't been to in 5 years in a month! This is crazy. After I am done this protocol I am going to share the good news. HCG can help so many people. I am so happy that I found this. By the way, TRISH, how is your hunger? I am feeling pretty good today, and have good energy. Good luck to you too. Glad we were brave enough to try this out and have success. We can offer good information to others in our shoes.

[jennia8181]

Day 5 on the VLCD and I lost 1 pound. I am at 144 now. I knew it would slow down a bit sooner or later, maybe now I am done losing water weight and am going to start tapping into the real fat? Hope so, I don't really feel like I lost 10 pounds, but I am very excited to see where I am in one more week. This is fun, and I have lots of people on board with me that I know, so we call each other every day and share our weight loss success.

Also, I was NOT hungry barely at all yesterday (except for when it was almost time to eat) and I had a lot of energy throughout the day. Got a lot done. Feelin good.

[jennia8181]

Today I had a .6 loss. Then I realized I messed up a bit. I did an essential oil treatment with coconut oil. I suppose oil it oil. So that might be why it was a lower number then usual. My hunger is completely gone. It's amazing that I hardly ever thing about eating anymore. Although, I am spending a lot of time in the kitchen these days making sure I have meals pre prepared. It's been a lot of fun trying new recipes. This is an educational process as well as a weight loss option. I LOVE this protocol.

[jennia8181]

Day 6 on VLCD and I had a 1.2 pound loss Doing good, I can't wait to see the difference a week from now. I put on a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans today. Yesterday I made enough meals for 10 days. I am almost half-way to the 21 day round I was planning to do, but I am thinking I might hang in there for 30 and see what happens. It's not as hard as I thought it would be. Losing weight everyday is all the motivation I need to stay on track. The numbers speak for themselves.

[jennia8181]

Day 7 on VLCD and I only lost .2 pounds today. I know where I went wrong though.
I was eating 800 - 850 calories a day and losing good, then I started eating chicken for lunch AND dinner (mistake #1), which left me at 650 - 700 calories (mistake #2). Since you burn 300+ calories breastfeeding, I was going too low on my calories. Because I was going low on my calories I was extra hungry and I had extra melba toasts (mistake #3). So.... now I know what I did wrong. Today it's chicken for lunch, steak for dinner, 850 calories for the day and only 2 melba toasts. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

[jennia8181]

Day 8 on VLCD and I lost 1.2 pounds. I am starting to think that eating steak on the vlcd is great for good losses. Everytime I eat it I always have over a pound loss. I have lost almost 8 inches as well and am down 4 pant sizes. From an 11 toa 7.

Today I ate applesauce for breakfast, 8 oz chicken and 1/2 cup spinach for lunch, 6.5 oz. filet mignon and 15 asparagus stalks for dinner and an orange for snack. I did not eat the 2 melba toasts. I believe I am done my craving for carbs now so I am going to omit them so I can be gluten free. Might as well since you can hardly eat anything. lol. I feel like tomorrow will be a big loss. Can't wait.

[jennia8181]

yesterday my weight stayed the same today I lost .4 pounds. I am SOOO close to breaking 140 and it seems like I am being teased because it feels like it is taking DAYS to get over this hump. Anyway, yesterday I was tempted to eat some goodies, but I restrained myself. I am going to a party tomorrow night and am nervous about not eating any of the delicious foods and snacks that are going to be there. I may cheat, and have to do an apple day. I don't want to, but it's hard to be in a social atmosphere like that and not eat ANYTHING!! Wish me luck.

[jennia8181]

ok. so i am convinced I am in a stall or plateau or whatever. I actually went UP .4 today. Blah. But then I read something that made me very happy. People do "refeeds" on this diet when they stall out and start craving carbs again. It's been almost two weeks for me following this protocol VERY strictly, and I have done amazing. But now I am hovering and even gaining. So I am going to do this "refeed" (it's a mini load basically) and try to jump start my losses again. I am excited to see how this is going to work. And it comes at a convenient time. I have a delicious dinner party to go to tonight and have been stressing all week about how I will go to this event and NOT eat. Now I can indulge and enjoy. Should be fun. I am curious to see how much I can overnight.

[jennia8181]

ok. Did the refeed from afternoon yesterday and am continuing until this evening, and then Sunday I am right back on the protocol. It was strange eating "normal". I did enjoy certain foods, but I didn't gorge myself at all, just enjoyed the fatty foods until I was full and not until they were all gone.

I had been noticing the past few days that my little one (Madison) has been sleeping worse then normal and it didn't seem like she was getting as much milk as usual, so I was hoping this refeed would help my supply as well, and it did. When I got home from dinner last night I was full again, and she has had great nursing sessions all last night and today. I guess breastfeeding on hcg is a little different because you not only have your body taking from yourself, but also another human. I am considering upping my calories to 900 or something, OR I may do another two weeks of 850 calories and then repeat the refeed. I have to see if this weight comes off first. So far I am up 3 pounds. I figured if I DO lose the weight like I did in the beginning and refeed again and go straight back to VLCD, i can do 40 days and still be 130 pounds in the end even with the refeed gains. That would still leave me with a 24 pound loss in 41 days. I would be fine with that since I would be at my goal, and not lose my breastmilk. It's a win win. Will check in tomorrow and see how much I gained.

So far I think that doing this protocol while breastfeeding takes ALOT of planning and paying close attention to what your body is doing. I also think that if someone had a tremendous amount of weight to lose it might be harder to do this because of the weight fluctuations with the refeed (unless a refeed wouldn't be neccessary because of the extra weight?) Either way, I feel this will be a success if I lose the way I did in the beginning after I am done my refeed. Time will tell.

[jennia8181]

Sunday, back on VLCD. Up 5 pounds!! (I have read that it is probably mostly water weight. I've got my fingers crossed). This is an experiment for me since I needed the refeed for my milk supply. I HOPE HOPE HOPE i lose this week like I did the first week. If I do, then it will be so worth it. Tomorrow's weigh in should be interesting. Looking forward to dropping some pounds. I HOPE.

[Trishagrrl]

It's definitely water weight! I'll bet you go back on protocol today and it will be off by tomorrow or the next day

[jennia8181]

ok. So Monday I lost 3 pounds of refeed weight and today I lost another 2.6. I would say the refeed was a success. I am curious to see if I can break 140 this time

[jennia8181]

Down to 138.8 and feeling good. I am going to keep up the vlcd for 5 to 7 days depending on how my losses go these next few days, and then I am going to transition into phase 3. I am excited to move onto the next phase soon, but sad that you still can't eat carbs. LOL. I miss them.

[jennia8181]

ok. So i did the macadamia nut fast for the past three days. Basically you eat only macadamia nuts all day in 1 ounce portions. The recommended for normal people is 1000 calories (5 1 ounce servings), but since I am breastfeeding I did 1200 calories. Anyway, the first day I lost 2 pounds over night, the second day I cheated a little bit because I went to a Halloween party (I had a few meatballs and a couple pieces of cheese) anyway, I only lost .6 the second day, and today I lost another 2 pounds bringing me to 134.2. A number I haven't seen in YEARS!!!! So excited. I will resume normal protcol today since 3 days is the max for the fast, and I am feeling a little nauseated and would like some "real" food now.

[jennia8181]

first day back on protocol, lost .2 I am not disappointed with this loss because I think it's great that my new weight of 134 seems to be stable even after eating for a day.

[jennia8181]

Well, last night I caved and ate some BAD stuff. Candy, granola bar, animal crackers. I just had this overwhelming need to eat. Last time that happened to me I needed to do a refeed because my breast milk was decreasing, and I feel that is the case again. I have a scheduled refeed this weekend since I am going to be out and about I figured I might as well make the best of it. So back on strict protocol today so I can lose the 2 lbs I gained overnight (probably mostly water weight). Saturday and Sunday I will refeed, get my milk supply up, then probably go on protocol for two more days to lose my refeed weight and then I think I will do another nut fast for two or three days to get down to my goal, or at least VERY close to it.

This is such an educating experience. Now I know how to fix a cheat and get the weight right back off again. I was slightly disappointed that I gained today but of course it was no surprise. I knew when I cheated last night it would set me back a bit, but I was ok with it.

It has been hard to do this protocol while breastfeeding. I think it's worth it, but it is also a LOT to figure out because you can't follow protocol exactly (at least I can't) without losing your milk. So you have to play around and figure it out and see how it works for you.

I am planning to stay STRICT on the protocol in phase 3 so I can stabalize properly. I have read it is way worse to cheat in the 3rd phase. But I am thinking that I shouldn't need/want to because you are allowed to consume more calories and add a few new things. Looking forward to phase 3, but not until after thanksgiving!! lol