Welcome to the Forums! My recommendation would be as follows:
First, there is no reason that pregnant or lactating women should not eat a ketogenic or carnivore diet. Do not, however, try to fast, until you’ve stopped giving milk. That’s important; trying to fast while keto and lactating risks a condition called “euglycaemic ketoacidosis.”
Second, your body is under just as much metabolic strain as when you were pregnant, so you’re still eating for two. This means supporting your body with plenty of protein and plenty of fat.
So my conclusion is as follows: Your protein intake is supporting both your own body and the baby’s. Naturally, this will change as the baby is weaned, but for now, ignore any protein recommendations you read, and just eat. You also need fat, both to put in the milk and to fuel your own activities, so don’t fear it, either. On a low- or zero-carb diet, the fat we eat (and any excess fat we have stored) gets metabolised in place of the carbs we are no longer eating. They will try to tell you eating fat = getting fat, but that’s not true on keto/carnivore, which actually increases our fatty-acid metabolism.
As for the mental symptoms, they may or may not be helped by changing your diet. If you are taking any medications, DO NOT stop taking them without talking to your doctor. People have gotten into serious trouble by unilaterally stopping their meds. However, there is every reasons to expect that keto/carnivore will give you at least some improvement, so you should be prepared to alter dosages and even taper off, if that seems indicated. But enlist your doctor’s help at every stage.
The best elimination diet is beef only. Don’t worry about whether it’s grass-fed or not, buy what you can afford. Going carnivore in your current circumstances is going to involve eating a lot of meat, so you might as well save a few bucks. As long as you are cutting your carbs to less than 20 g/day, or to 0 g/day, you will see a metabolic effect. Once you get over the adaptation period, you can tweak things, but cutting the carbohydrate and replacing it with fat is the key to the diet.
If you are serious about going totally carnivore, be aware that there is an adaptation period, and you might find the symptoms a bit hard to take on top of everything else that’s going on. But give it a try. If you need to eat carbs at a keto level for a while first, there’s no shame in that, so keep it in mind as an alternative.
Another thing to be aware of is that your body is in a hormonally . . . “interesting” place right now. So you might or might not see immediate changes in terms of fat loss. Just be patient, because the metabolic re-arrangements your body needs to make have to come first. Just eat plenty of food and be patient, if the fat loss takes its time to start. In fact, the old-time carnivores’ advice to newcomers in practically every situation the newcomers face is “Eat more meat.” So have at it, and don’t skimp. It’s likely to feel like a terrifyingly large amount of food at first, but as you adapt, your appetite will become a better guide to how much your body needs.
Good luck, and God bless! Please let us know how you’re getting on.
my name is Kiwi. As stated above, I’m a 36 year old new mother to a beautiful baby boy. I’m technically obese, high blood pressure, and have ADD (and I suspect Autism Spectrum Disorder). I do not want to be fat anymore. I’ve lost weight with keto in the past but I didn’t keep it up, and then had two more babies in less than 3 years.
)!! I love all kinds of meat, especially venison, rabbit, lamb, and beef.
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. Lots of great advice in this comment, and I am definitely going to revisit it.
(Except if it’s high-carb, I very much desire carnivore with a burning passion after 2 high-carb days, usually after one. But I went low-carb about 13 years ago and my body LOVED it so promptly burned the bridge…)