# Living in The Zone, and breastfeeding



## gottaknit (Apr 30, 2004)

Anyone else here trying to live life in the Zone? (Dr. Barry Sears' lifestyle diet that balances carbs and proteins at every meal to control insulin levels)

I'm having some trouble computing my total grams of protein needed per day. My lean mass is 100 lbs, and I'm moderately active, so that equates to 70g of protein a day. *But I'm also breastfeeding.*

I don't want to compromise my milk supply in order to live In The Zone. So how much more protein (and carbs and fat) do I add to my diet? Any idea?









ETA: OK I guess what I'm asking is do I need to eat more when nursing, even though I'd really like to lose this last 15 lbs of fat? ie is it ok to "diet" and breastfeed?


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## CJNeeley (Jun 8, 2005)

I'm not currently bothering to try to zone my meals. But during the second half of my last pregnancy and while breastfeeding I was. The way I did it was I simply didn't restrict myself. I made sure all my meals were 40-30-30 but didn't portion control the blocks in the slightest, just ate to my hunger. I ate way more than was recommended (regularly more than twice as much or at times close to 2.5 times), and still went from a size 15/16 before pregnancy to a 1/2 before this pregnancy (losing only around 40 lbs, so I must have built plenty of muscle because I was 20 lbs or more larger than everyone else I knew in the same size clothes). And it didn't compromise my milk supply at all, but then again I was far from depriving myself of calories :LOL , I was able to feed a ravenous baby and even pump upon occasion to maintain a supply of bm for preparing food for the baby and toddler. (And I realized just how uncompromised my milk supply was when I was away from the baby for 2 days when hubby and I did the housing/apartment hunting trip for his job, I dumped over 3 gallons of milk and the pump was just a crappy hand pump that didn't come close to emptying my breasts any of the times I pumped.) So yes, you can live in the zone have your milk supply and still trim down. And after a while you plateau and quit losing weight at all, I'm guessing when your body hits its ideal weight but I don't really know, but you'll keep toning up and going down in sizes.

Other than never count your blocks, some tips to help you get through it:
* Always have a Zoned snack ready to munch on during or just after breastfeeding. For some reason I would nearly die if I didn't have at least a block and 16-24 oz water while nursing. (But maybe it was just me) And having it be easy meant I could nap with the baby when he was done nursing--when ds1 would oblidge that is.
* Listen to you body! You may find you have to add more 'unfavorable' grains (you may want to for variety anyway as they basically just suggest oatmeal and barley) and starchy veggies to your diet than they recommend. I found after a little while, if I didn't eat about 50% 'unfavorable' grains or potatoes/corn, etc per meal (not the 25% or less they recommend) I wouldn't make it before it was time for another meal or snack--technicially a little backwards from how it's supposed to work but whatever. (I started with eating the full 25% every meal but it didn't cut it so I settled with 50 favorable/50 unfavorable carbs because it was easiest to figure, and it worked out really well for me, but they have all these complicated suggestions for figuring out how much protein or carb to add if you really care to go through it all--I just knew I wouldn't have the discipline to do all those steps to test myself, I mean who really wants to evaluate their hunger level, energy level, mental acuity and whether or not they feel weak or faint and weigh them against each other to determine what you need more of when everything in your body is saying 'get your butt in front of a plate'?) As a side note, I didn't really always do this at breakfast as I'd usually eat oatmeal and fruit for my carbs but that would workout fine because my baby nursed a lot in the morning so I'd be snacking often enough it didn't matter.
* In theory you may need to increase blocks to maintain your weight once you achieve your goal weight, but since I never did the restrictive calorie thing in the first place I just ate less as I need to eat less--it worked out to be around the time the baby started to supplement a bit with food and again about a week or two after he weaned, but I really just kept eating as much as I needed to it just turned out to be less sometimes--like any other non-zone nursing mother probably does. But again I guess this is still part of "listen to your body."
* Never ever, ever skip the evening snack while you are nursing or you will regret it! And if your baby nurses at night be ready with a zone snack for in the middle of the night, by the way the easiest thing when you are in a sleep-deprived fog is a glass of 2% milk zoned, minimal effort, and I feel it sat better than actual food when I'd go back to sleep (but again it could just be me).
* Stocking the fridge with pre-prepared zoned snacks (or at least something easy to grab like string cheese and fruit) is a life safer for those days you just don't want eat without having to think about it.

That's all I can think of right now. Good luck, CJ

ETA: Yes, you generally need to eat more while nursing even if you are trying to lose weight (and you will lose weight while eating more even if you aren't doing the zone). And yes it is often ok to 'diet' while nursing, ask your doctor if it's a good idea for you. But I would say NO! it's not remotely ok to do the Zone diet at the recommended blocks while pregnant and nursing because it's too restrictive--multiple your number of recommended blocks by 100 calories and you'll quickly see you'd never be able to support you and baby off of that little food, of course you probably won't have to eat as much as I did--and I think they even say (somewhere on the website if not in one of the books) it's not recommended for pregnant and nursing to "strictly follow the zone" or something to that affect, and may even precisely point out that it's because it's a restrictive diet. So I would really urge you not to do Zone as is (especially if nursing is more important to you to the 15 lbs, because I'm sure a 1000 or so calorie diet would compromise your milk supply), so hope this helps.


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## gottaknit (Apr 30, 2004)

Thanks so much CJ! What a very thorough answer. You really know your stuff!

After I posted I checked out the Dr. Sears website and it said pretty much the same thing. Eat more if you're nursing.

The one thing I'm having trouble with is the way foods are viewed as either carbs, proteins, or fats, when in reality many foods contain all three. Like the whole grain bread I eat has 7 grams of protein! That's a whole block of protein right there, yet it's considered an "unfavorable carb".







:

Maybe I'm over-thinking the whole thing. :LOL

One other question for you, which will be wayyy TMI.







Did you experience any symptoms of, um, detox or "flushing out" of the system when you started? (ie the runs) I'm having flashbacks to my castor oil induction.









Thanks again for the suggestions!


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## CJNeeley (Jun 8, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *gottaknit*
The one thing I'm having trouble with is the way foods are viewed as either carbs, proteins, or fats, when in reality many foods contain all three. Like the whole grain bread I eat has 7 grams of protein! That's a whole block of protein right there, yet it's considered an "unfavorable carb".







:

I think the explaination on your bread thing (as well as beans and such) if you read it all







is something to the effect of not absorbing all the protein as well from item where it is bound up with fiber because of the interconnected cell structure or something like that. He pretty much only counts protein from meat and soy (aside from eggs and some dairy). The other big thing is "negligable amounts" anything less than a certain amount, which maybe like half a block but don't quote me on that, is considered negligiable otherwise it's a mixed block--milk, yogurt, soft tofu. Sometimes I would use the block lists--you can print some of from the Dr. Sears site or the Zone Perfect site (Dr Sears no longer associates himself with Zone Perfect, but they have a more comprehensive list as they have moderate and unfavorables listed too)--and sometimes I would use the actual grams. If I did the grams then I didn't worry about absorbtion rate or anything else but adding the numbers--in fact, after a while I just started using ZoneRunner a database/calculator all in one and it's free (if you register it you can print out recipes, and I believe registered members can exchange recipes or something, but this didn't matter to me enough I was mostly just too lazy to do the math), you can add your own ingredients (or even recipes to use as ingredients if you cook a lot from scratch), and it automatically adjusts your totals as you adjust the amounts so it's great for recipe tinkering (which was great for me because, as you may know if you read very many of my posts, I really am as lazy as I can get away with in as many aspects of my life as I can be--of course God's big retaliation/joke on me is to surround me with as many high maintenance people and crises as I can humanly bear in order to hinder me from being as completely lazy as I probably by nature would desire to be so alas I do not have the lush hendonistic life I might otherwise have, but I'm totally rambling).

Quote:


Originally Posted by *gottaknit*
Maybe I'm over-thinking the whole thing. :LOL

Possibly, but as I mentioned you can eliminate thinking altogether by using the food block guides preventing the possibility of such problems reoccuring. :LOL

Quote:


Originally Posted by *gottaknit*
One other question for you, which will be wayyy TMI.







Did you experience any symptoms of, um, detox or "flushing out" of the system when you started? (ie the runs) I'm having flashbacks to my castor oil induction.









Thanks again for the suggestions!









No I didn't, that I can remember, but I was pregnant so I was probably too plagued with the related constipation to have seen such a thing as a downside had it occured. Plus, my own TMI, I had been so sick with hyperemisis I probably puked my guts up enough not to have much around to 'detox' anyway. Some people do get the runs though, I have also heard of terrible bouts of gas in the beginning--but I'd imagine that's because most people don't really eat their fruits and veggies and this is a very fruit/veggie heavy diet--and I've also heard about people getting constipation, as in the non-pregnant folk, from the Zone which I personally don't understand at all since it is so high in fiber if you actually eat the 75% or more 'favorable' carbs that are recommended and they urge you to drink lots of water, but who knows. But if you find yourself afflicted with the dreaded detox symptoms, just eat some brown rice or some cheese or something and it should balance things back out pretty well.

Oh and you're welcome, as you may have noticed, I'm pretty good at running my mouth when I know about or have experience with a topic so it's really no big deal to me. I just stick to giving my suggestions to those who solicit them that way it works out better for everyone. :LOL


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