Speed up your weight loss

Keep an eye on this, especially as you have a kidney infection, which may have been exacerbated by not drinking enough water — you need lots of water to help to clear the infection. But a warning to women who increase their water intake if they think they have cystitis: be careful not to dilute the minerals in the body by drinking large volumes in short periods of time — don’t exceed 4 litres in 24 hours. Any more than that may lead to problems for the heart and brain. Drink water consistently through the day in small amounts.

On to your metabolism: I suspect that you are probably doing a lot of different, moderate-intensity cardiovascular work, which unfortunately burns carbohydrate stores and not fat, and can make you feel very hungry. So even if you’re not eating “naughty” foods, you may be matching the energy you expend through portions of rice, pasta and potatoes. You have two choices: spend your hour and threequarters doing a low-intensity activity such as walking or cycling, as this burns fat and won’t affect your appetite. Or increase your muscle mass: muscle burns more calories (which is why men, who have a higher muscle mass, annoyingly lose weight more quickly than women). Ask your gym to help you devise a muscle-building programme. Unfortunately, I see many women who have crash-dieted and whose metabolic rate has dropped as a result of not eating enough, which seems to be what’s happened to you. It may take weeks, even months, of regular exercise before you start noticing any weight loss. And weight loss isn’t always linear: you might average at 2lb (1kg or so) a week, but sometimes it will be more and other times, alas, less.

Keep a food diary with portion sizes, and include a column where you write down the reason why you’re eating, whether you’re hungry, bored or it’s just habit. See if you’re eating the way you think you are — you might be surprised by what you discover.

Finally, it may be that your body has got used to the form of exercise you are taking: change the time of day you exercise, it could kick-start your weight loss again, or change the type of exercise.

My four-month-old daughter has been exclusively breast-fed. Because she has not gained any weight over the past two weeks, and had a similar weight-gain slowdown last month, my health visitor has recommended using formula milk to “top her up”. I plan to continue breast-feeding until my daughter is at least six months, and I know that my milk supply depends on her demand. How can I optimise my milk supply?

Cathryn Pearce, Amersham, Bucks

I’m glad that you have been managing to breast-feed your daughter because it’s the best start in life you can give her — not only does it give you the bonding experience, but it helps to build a healthy immune system, to keep her gut healthy, and protects her against high blood pressure.

But I suspect that knowing the benefits of breast versus bottle is adding to your anxiety about having to use top-up formula feeds. I wouldn’t wish to contradict your health visitor’s advice, as sometimes mothers can’t produce enough or sufficiently rich milk to support their baby and formula is the only option, but you should know that most women who start using top-up feeds will eventually find their baby moves on to getting more milk and sustenance from bottles than from the breast — babies learn that sucking from a teat is much less work than sucking a breast and they take the easy way. So you’ll start to become less essential — the less milk the baby takes, the less milk you’ll produce.

If you haven’t already started giving bottles, I’d check out a few things. First, are you drinking enough water? It’s easy in hot weather to become dehydrated, you need 2.5 to 3 litres of water every day. I normally recommend pure water, but you might like to add something such as elderflower cordial or a good-quality fruit squash — the extra calories are few, but will mount up, which is what you need.

Breast-feeding mothers need to increase their calorie intake from about 1,600 to 2,100 — this may mean that you need to eat more than you’re used to. Some women who are keen to lose weight after giving birth can be too strict about the amount they eat.

I often find that new mothers’ mealtimes and the amount they eat are erratic, too. Make sure that you get enough nourishment. You might also need snacks (sandwiches, crackers, even biscuits) between meals to ensure that you consume an adequate amount of calories. Include good starchy food with meals; bread, rice, pasta, potatoes and couscous.

You may have been able to manage on salad and a chicken breast before you became a mother, but now you need the starch for extra energy and to help you to produce enough milk. Fruit and vegetables are healthy foods, but not enough for a new breast-feeding mother — if you eat fresh berries, say, add some natural yoghurt, fromage frais, or Greek-style yoghurt, for extra calories. A disrupted sleep routine can make you hungry at different times of the day, so while it’s good to aim for a routine of set mealtimes, be flexible about it; if you’re awake a lot at night, have a bowl of cereal or a slice of toast (or keep some biscuits by the bed).

A full stomach will help not only your baby to sleep well, but also, most importantly, you.

And make sure you’re eating enough protein; the baby will drain your stores, so aim to have a protein-rich food — chicken, fish, seafood, lean red meat, a good lentil salad or bean casserole — at lunch and suppertime. Cooking a lean steak might seem an effort, but it takes only a few minutes, is rich in iron (which could help to replenish iron stores drained by the pregnancy) and can be fantastically energising. I crave it when the responsibilities of motherhood are particularly draining.

If, however, you try everything and still don’t manage to give your baby enough milk, please don’t beat yourself up about it — you’ve managed the first few months, which has given her a great start in life. Sometimes it’s better to use formula milk, seeing her blossom and thrive, than to struggle to do something your body just can’t manage.

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