Weaning, Workouts, & Weight Gain

[TMac521]

Background:

First W30 completed July 21. Weaned my 14 month old towards the end of June. Began training for a marathon June 28th.

Life Before Whole 30:

I ate what I thought was healthy...a lot of fruits and veggies but also relied heavily on grains! I was a carb addict, partly because I thought that was what I needed to improve my running performance. I ran my first half-marathon in April and averaged 15-20 miles per week.

Problem:

During the W30 challenge I noticed my pants were falling off of me..woohoo a NSV! However, I seemed to have developed a "mummy tummy" and almost look like I'm 3 months pregnant again. I did full body measurements and there was really no change there either, which seemed odd. Full disclosure--I have not done well with the no snacking and have found myself reaching for the nuts and raisins a little too often.

Typical day:

6-8h of sleep. I run early in the morning, usually by 7:00am, averaging 15-20 miles per week. M1: 3 eggs unless it's a long run day, I usually eat a hard boiled egg with some guac. Post run I'll have protein and sweet potato or butternut squash. M2: a salad filled with veggies and some form of protein, M3: protein and veggies

Has anyone had a similar experience? I'm not sure whether to attribute the weight gain to weaning, or diastis recti, or training, or snacking or if I need to shoot for a Whole 60 instead.

[MamaJ]

I am planning for a Whole 30 in January, so any advice/thoughts I have are just based on the fact that I am a fellow breastfeeding mama who is working on weaning and I'm pretty sure I DO have diastasis recti. 

 

First, if you'd like to confirm that you absolutely have DR, I'd schedule a doctor visit to have the doc confirm. You can confirm on your own but sometimes it's nice to hear what you have is real and valid. 

 

If you do have DR, that wouldn't/shouldn't affect the fact you're gaining weight but your body will look different for sure. Even if you're losing weight, you will definitely have a mummy tummy. The good news it that DR doesn't usually affect your health; it just makes buying pants extremely difficult and you will probably think you look odd (that's how I feel about myself anyway). 

 

As for weaning, you will definitely be burning less calories as you continue to wean. For every ounce of milk your body makes, you burn 20 calories. So if your baby was exclusively BF, you burned at least 600 calories assuming baby takes in the average 30 ounces/day (depending on age of baby of course and whether any other foods are introduced). If you pump after feeding or exclusively pump, you may find you are burning more calories. So as you continue to wean, if you're looking exclusively for the number on the scale to decrease, you may want to limit your calories a little more, which would equate to less snacking. 

 

I hope that helps!