I was originally following the Atkins plan over a year ago and lost abot 60 lbs (before I had lost 20 from just being active). I want from 260 (280) to 199 before becoming pregnant. In my pregnancy I kinda freaked out and didn't know I could follow the later phases to keep me on track...

I was lucky that I only kept 5lbs of pregnancy weight. Now that my daughter is a month old, I'm wanting to start back on that healthy path again. Especially with the sluggishness I had before returning. The only thing is, I don't know how to go about it while breastfeeding. For the past month i've been maintaining with 80-100 net carbs. This does include bread. But I'm wanting to lose weight badly. I had been breastfeeding my son when I started, he was a little over a year, but he was mostly eating solids and only nursing for naps and bed time.

QUESTIONS ARE: Have you followed Atkins while breastfeeding? Anything go wrong? Any advice?

I'm wanting to get to around 140, and I feel it's urgent to do something other than maintaining and exercise.

Hello, and welcome !

While I don't follow Atkins I have been low carb for almost 2.5 years. I've had no problems with breastfeeding at the same time as being LC, my little one is 14 months old now. My advice to you would be to make sure you eat enough otherwise you may get extremely tired. Be sure you are drinking at least to thirst. You also don't want to lose weight very quickly, as you burn fat the toxins that are stored there are then released to the bloodstream where they make their way into your milk supply and into your baby, so for this reason you may not want to start at an induction level of carbs. If you are maintaining at 80-100 I would just try reducing them a little bit for a week or two at a time, and at only one month PP you body may still drop very easily weight gained during pregnancy.

Congratulations on your new little one

If it were me I would concentrate more on whole, quality foods rather than carb counts. For me this means getting strict about no grains or dairy. It's hard to overdo it on meat, eggs, and veggies. Of course, YMMV. Congratulations on the little one and sending lots of good vibes your way.

I didn't receive an immediate response last night, so I did a thorough internet search. Lol I know Atkins recommends not starting in phase one while pregnant and breastfeeding, but there are a lot of mothers out there who said no harm came to their children and they made sure to drink plenty of water and such. They also tested their milk for ketones, and they said it was very low if present at all....

To mfish, that is the one thing I am worried about. The toxins. But I think with anything else, wouldn't there be toxins going into the milk anyway? Like with milk and stuff? (By the way, I haven't had milk in over a year lol). With the FDA recommending people to drink milk, and eat all these foods that are bad for you (seriously, sugary cereal is good for you) I'd think that you'd get more toxins from that than anything else, wouldn't you?

I'm going to nuts trying to decide what to do as I know I need to lose weight, and a low carb diet is the only thing my body will adhere to..... I guess I'm answering my own questions. xD But I was looking for more experience, which Mfish has. <3 <3 <3

Thank you both for the help! I think I'll cut it all in half (to 40 or so) and see what happens.

I think the toxins thing is a myth.Women in 3rd world countries mostly breastfeeds and they may not have a lot of food to eat,so their body fat gets used.
BTW I just joined a plan called afterbaby.com .
hope it works out for me.I don't want to go VLC for many reasons,but right now moderate LC(around 100 I think including occasional bread/brown/wild rice but mainly oats)
seems to me oats is helping my supply.but I am stuck at 212 for a month.just wondering which way to go?
I do have faith in this new plan and what it looks like it is a low carb plan(moderate LC) eating low GI.lets wait and see.

When I was detoxing off sugar and wheat I found it really hard to take care of my baby and my supply suffered a bit but I made sure to nurse a lot more than usual and a week later its back on track. He's 11 months old btw.