Losing weight by breastfeeding

Wendy wrote:
In many different places I have read and heard about breastfeeding
helping you to regain your shape and lose weight after having a baby.
Is this really true? Has it worked for anyone?

Worked for me! I have always had trouble losing weight, and was a steady 71
kg (sorry, too lazy to do pounds) before my first pregnancy. Put on 20 kg
(I think - ouch) during pregnancy, lost 10 kg in hospital (fluid etc), lost
another 6 over the following 3 weeks, and then over the course of
breastfeeding, till 14 months when DD weaned immediately I got pregnant, I
lost weight with no effort whatsoever. Got down to 68 kg! I put it down to
breastfeeding and running around after an active baby/toddler.

Cathy

Wendy says:

In many different places I have read and heard about breastfeeding
helping you to regain your shape and lose weight after having a baby.
Is this really true? Has it worked for anyone?

My first son was formula fed; I had gained 30-35 lbs. during my pregnancy
with him and lost all but 10 lbs. Despite a dedicated effort at dieting
and walking 3 miles a day, the 10 lbs. never left. I was very bummed
because my goal had been to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight before
trying for baby #2.

I gained around 30 lbs. with baby #2, and he has been breastfed (he's 15
mos. old now and still nursing quite a bit). I haven't dieted or
exercised postpartum, but I've lost all the pregnancy weight plus the
extra 10 from my first pregnancy, so I'm back down to the weight I was
before we had kids.

BUT... I can't say I've regained my shape; it's definitely different now
than it was then. My pants fit differently, and even though I'm back to
that weight, some of them don't fit at all. That's just the way it is
for some of us, I guess.

AND... I also want to point out that my appetite was *enormous* during
the first year of breastfeeding. I can remember times in the early
months when all I'd think about all day long was eating, and how hungry I
was. I was much, much hungrier in the first 9 months postpartum than at
any time during pregnancy. And my appetite now is still pretty big.
From my experience, I don't know how it would be possible to stick with a
diet while breastfeeding. :-) FWIW, I make a conscious effort every day
to eat nutritious foods, but I do have a dessert habit and I haven't done
thing one to kick it. :-D

-- Alpha
mom to Eamon and Quinn

Thank you for all of your replies! After reading them, it was really
interesting to know what an evenly mixed set of opinions there are on
this topic. I am planning on breastfeeding for about 6 months with this
baby, maybe more, we'll see how it goes. I am just hoping that along
with the obvious benefits to the baby maybe it would help me return to
pre-pregnancy weight, too.

Wendy

Wendy wrote:
In many different places I have read and heard about breastfeeding
helping you to regain your shape and lose weight after having a baby.
Is this really true? Has it worked for anyone?

I hear it all over the place so maybe it is true. I think it helps your
uterus to contract a little better so that might be where the shape comes
from? I gained 55lbs with #1 and 60lbs with #2 but I started out 10lbs
lighter with #2 then I did with #1. I lost it all and then some with #1
and am still 25-30lbs over my prepregnancy weight. I did breastfeed both.
#1 nursed a little more. My diet definitely changed though. I would
sometimes skip meals with #1 just because I was busy. I had a toddler to
feed with #2 so make 3 squares and 2 snacks a day. Eat Eat Eat. I remember
being just famished while nursing #1 but I didn't eat as much - hence
loosing all the weight :-)

It took me 12 months to loose it all though. People expect it to all be
gone by 4 months but that is setting yourself up for disappointment. If you
gain a lot like I did, that is not just baby and fluid. That is a nice
extra layer of flab, just as hard to get rid of as any other.

Oh - my hips didn't return to normal until about 9 months so even though I
was the same pre-preg. weight at 6 months I couldn't wear my old clothes
until 9 mos. They never went fully back to normal after #2.

--
Nikki

"Nikki" wrote in message
...



It took me 12 months to loose it all though. People expect it to all
be
gone by 4 months but that is setting yourself up for disappointment.
If you
gain a lot like I did, that is not just baby and fluid. That is a
nice
extra layer of flab, just as hard to get rid of as any other.

Oh - my hips didn't return to normal until about 9 months so even
though I
was the same pre-preg. weight at 6 months I couldn't wear my old
clothes
until 9 mos. They never went fully back to normal after #2.


I found this same weight/different shape to be very true, though I had
two sections in 18 months which may be a contributing factor. It's like
my stomach just *can't* pull itself back together in the same way. It's
like the muscles are fit & strong enough but they just don't hold my
stomach in like they used to. I feel Like Pooh Bear with this little
belly sticking out in front, greeting people wherever I go.

It took me about 6 months to regain body tone after baby #1 and about 9
months after baby #2. We are going to have one more baby, so I think
I'll be giving myself about a year to get over that one! I doubt my
innards will all return to their proper places without corrective
plastic surgery, which I'm planning to have after section #3, bank
balance willing!

eggs.

(Wendy) wrote in message ...
In many different places I have read and heard about breastfeeding
helping you to regain your shape and lose weight after having a baby. Is
this really true? Has it worked for anyone? I wasn't able to bf Nolan
for long enough to really tell. (only 2 months) I know I did lose quite
a bit of weight during that time but it could have been from all of the
swelling going down and simply from giving birth. I know bf-ing burns a
lot of calories but you have to eat more calories than usual to preserve
the quality of the milk supply. If you are on a "diet" and restricting
your caloric intake isn't that bad for the milk? So are you better off
bf-ing or stopping bf-ing and going on a diet, in terms of losing
weight?

I believe the studies show that the milk of women on horrible diets is
uncompromised until they are quite literally starving, but I haven't
got a link for you.

In my case, breastfeeding caused me to effortlessly drop to 25 pounds
below my prepregnancy weight, but I do not find that nursing makes me
hungry. *Pregnancy* makes me hungry.

--
C, mama to twenty-one month old nursling

Wendy wrote:

In many different places I have read and heard about breastfeeding
helping you to regain your shape and lose weight after having a baby. Is
this really true? Has it worked for anyone? I wasn't able to bf Nolan
for long enough to really tell. (only 2 months) I know I did lose quite
a bit of weight during that time but it could have been from all of the
swelling going down and simply from giving birth. I know bf-ing burns a
lot of calories but you have to eat more calories than usual to preserve
the quality of the milk supply. If you are on a "diet" and restricting
your caloric intake isn't that bad for the milk? So are you better off
bf-ing or stopping bf-ing and going on a diet, in terms of losing
weight?

Wendy
Mom to Nolan 7-11-03 and baby girl due in Nov.

I am pretty sure it is proven that your uterus shrinks back more
quickly, regardless of other weight. Of course, people aren't going to
go around noticing your wonderfully trim uterus!

BF uses around more calories than formula feeding so according to the
first law of thermodynamics, you will lose weight if you using more
calories than your're eating :-)

In my experience it seems to be the slimmer people who get their figures
back more quickly than less slim people. This is probably
a reflection on their body types rather than breastfeeding.

There are ways to diet while BF. You do not need to eat more calories to
preserve the quality of the milk. Unless you are very malnourished your
milk quality will be fine.

Mary Ann

On Sat, 24 Jul 2004 20:43:29 -0500, Wendy wrote:

In many different places I have read and heard about breastfeeding
helping you to regain your shape and lose weight after having a baby. Is
this really true? Has it worked for anyone?

Never worked for me. Rather the opposite, I had to carefully watch my diet
not to gain anything.

--
-- I
mommy to DS (July '02)
mommy to three tiny angels (28 Oct'03, 17 Feb'04 & 20 May'04)
guardian of DH (33)

OSPAM wrote:

Some find it more of a struggle, and it's not at all
uncommon for a woman to find that, after losing MOST of the weight easily,
the
last 5-10 pounds refuse to budge. (Probably nature's way of insuring an
adequate
milk supply in the case of famine.)

In a few cases, I think it's retained water. When I was nursing my twins, I
lost all but four or five pounds very fast (by the six-week checkup!), and then
the rest didn't move. By the time I weaned them at 20 months, they'd been on
just one ritual nursing a day for a while, and weren't really taking much in,
yet after I quit entirely, I had a noticeable "deflation" effect (could fit
into a dress that had previously been too tight on the top) and lost that four
or five pounds in a very short time.

I did *not* have that same effect with my singleton -- I went down past
pre-pregnancy weight with him and "deflated" long before he was done nursing.
Unfortunately I didn't adjust my calorie intake when he started eating lots of
solids, and put on a bunch of weight again, but that was pretty clearly my own
doing, not a hormonal issue.

--Helen

Wendy,
I had heard about breastfeeding helping with weight loss as well, and
since I planned to breastfeed for as long as I could, I was excited
about the added benefit of losing the large amount of weight I had
gained.
Unfortunately, I found that I didn't lose hardly any of my baby weight
until I stopped breastfeeding!
I breastfed for about 4 months and didn't show a significant loss till
about the 5 or 6th month post-partum.
I'd like to be able to tell you that breastfeeding is the cure for
post-pregnancy weight loss but I didn't find that to be true at all.
Lucky those who think otherwise!
Jennifer


(Wendy) wrote in message ...
In many different places I have read and heard about breastfeeding
helping you to regain your shape and lose weight after having a baby. Is
this really true? Has it worked for anyone? I wasn't able to bf Nolan
for long enough to really tell. (only 2 months) I know I did lose quite
a bit of weight during that time but it could have been from all of the
swelling going down and simply from giving birth. I know bf-ing burns a
lot of calories but you have to eat more calories than usual to preserve
the quality of the milk supply. If you are on a "diet" and restricting
your caloric intake isn't that bad for the milk? So are you better off
bf-ing or stopping bf-ing and going on a diet, in terms of losing
weight?

Wendy
Mom to Nolan 7-11-03 and baby girl due in Nov.