Weight Gain and Breastfeeding

Question
Hello. I am 21 and just gave birth to my second child. I am concerned because while I was nursing my daughter, I lost a lot of weight. When I weaned my daughter, I had dropped to 116lbs and I'm 5'5". I was not happy with my body at that size and I do not want to get back to that. My newborn son is 11 days old and already I'm losing the weight extremely rapidly. I lost 5lbs in less than a week, even though it seems that I am eating constantly. This time around I am trying to be very conscious of what I am eating, so that I am eating healthy foods, but it doesn't seem to work, so far. Here is an example of my eating habits:
BREAKFAST:
*a bowl of whole grain cereal with whole fat milk (I've always drank whole fat milk)
OR
*a bowl of oatmeal and a piece of fresh fruit
OR
*two scrambled eggs with two pieces of whole wheat toast with butter and jam
WITH
*glass of pure fruit juice (grape, apple or pineapple)
*cup of coffee with cream and sugar

MID-MORNING SNACK
*Fruit Yogurt with almonds w/ glass of water
OR
*Peanut Butter and Crackers w/ glass of juice

LUNCH
*Tuna sandwich (tuna, mayonnaise, mustard, pickle, hard boild eggs) on whole wheat bread w/ carrot sticks and ranch dressing
OR
*Grilled chicken breast sandwich (with mayo, mustard, lettuce and tomatoe) on whole wheat bread w/ 1/2 avacodo
WITH
*1 cup whole milk

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK
*String cheese, piece of fresh fruit and whole grain crackers
OR
*Granola bar, fruit yogurt and dry roasted peanuts
WITH
*Water

LATE AFTERNOON SNACK
*Cheddar Cheese and Whole Grain Crackers w/ glass of pure juice
OR
*Fresh Veggies and ranch dressing w/ glass of water

DINNER
*Organic beef steak, baked potatoe w/ butter, and veggie (corn, green beans, broccoli, peas) and whole grain dinner roll
OR
*Salmon patties (salmon, 1 egg, and bread crumbs cooked with olive oil) with angel hair pasta with garlic and olive oil and veggie and whole grain dinner roll
WITH
*Whole Milk

I also generally have a "dessert" every night, however, this varies from 4 Oreo cookies and milk to an extra bowl of whole grain cereal to a milkshake made with whole milk, vanilla ice cream and frozen fruit. This is also just a basic...many days I find myself "grazing" almost constantly, but generally on the foods I've mentioned. I do allow myself some "bad" foods such as potatoe chips, cookies, candies, ect. however, this is how I tried to keep weight on when my daughter was nursing and it didn't work, so I try to limit those foods, replacing them with other, healthier foods. Do you have any suggestions on how I could keep weight on this time around?

Answer
Hi, Jessica!  It sounds as if you are in a good weight range health-wise.  However, weight is as much about liking yourself as being healthy so will definitely try to help you out.  You appear to be eating pretty healthy; you actually already follow a lot of the tips we give people (eating avocados and peanut butter, drinking whole milk, adding olive oil to pasta).  The goal for weight gain is to add 500 calories per day; since you are also burning around 500 calories breastfeeding, you will want to try to add approximately 1,000 calories to your pre-pregnancy diet.  (1,000 calories sounds like a lot, but a medium chocolate shake at McDonald's has 770 calories.)  Of course, that is just basic, if you have a fast metabolism and have trouble putting on weight you may need to try for 1,500 extra calories.  For breakfast you can read labels at the store to look for the highest calorie cereal options (cereals with granola and/or dried fruit such as raisins or cranberries tend to be higher calorie options); you can add honey, milk, and/or raisins to your oatmeal; eating dried fruit instead of fresh fruit will still give you fiber but you will be able to eat more calories worth of fruit without getting as full because the water content is lower; and you can make your scrambled eggs with milk, butter, and cheese.  Your snacks are good but you may want to switch from water to milk or juice and sip on water throughout the day to meet your hydration needs; eating nuts throughout the day instead of as a specific snack is also a great way to add calories; you may also try adding granola, wheat germ, or ground flax seed to your yogurt.  Your lunch and supper look good.  Other tips are to snack on olives, add carnation instant breakfast, ensure, or ovaltine to your milk or milkshakes, and add powdered milk to casseroles and cream soups.  In the past, adding butter and mayonnaise to everything and eating lots of ice cream was advised (when I was pregnant I even had other nutritionists telling me to eat fast food as much as I could!) but now most nutritionists look just as much at nutrient content as just adding calories.  Grazing is actually a good way to get a lot of calories in because you don't have that same full feeling as after a meal; if you feel bad about grazing because you feel like you are constantly snacking, you could try having 5 or 6 "mini-meals" instead.  Most importantly: eat, eat, eat!

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