A Parenting & kids forum. ParentingBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » ParentingBanter.com forum » misc.kids » Pregnancy
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Losing weight by breastfeeding



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old July 25th 04, 02:43 AM
Wendy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Losing weight by breastfeeding

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.

  #2  
Old July 25th 04, 02:59 AM
newfy.1
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Losing weight by breastfeeding


"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 wasn't one of those who lost a bunch of weight while breastfeeding
unfortunately. However, there is no reason that you can't diet while
breastfeeding. Weight Watchers has an excellent program that myself and many
others here have had good success with. Just don't start too early, make
sure bf is well established and keep hydrated. Chances are, your supply will
be just fine.

JennP.


  #3  
Old July 25th 04, 03:00 AM
cloud nine
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Losing weight by breastfeeding

It really was true for me! I gained 48 pounds, and on my pre-pregnancy body
of 110 lbs., that was a lot. I did not *one* thing, other than bf my baby,
and lost every bit of it and more by the time he was 7 months old. I can
not say that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't nursing and I guess I'll
never know. But I definitely credit it to bf.

As always, it varies from person to person.

Good luck!

--
Sue & Benton, 3 yrs. old!



  #4  
Old July 25th 04, 03:39 AM
A&G&K
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Losing weight by breastfeeding


"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.


It might not work for everyone, but it sure worked for me and most of my
friends who have bf.
As for calorific intake - so long as the calories are coming from healthy
foods then there isn't a problem. I know Weight Watchers have a program for
bf mothers where you add on a certain number of points per day whilst you
are exclusively bf, and reduce them as baby starts solids.
I bf for 18 mo (but had started putting on weight with this pg), and it sure
helped me fit back into my jeans quickly (all pg weight gone in 2 weeks plus
a further 10 kg dropped over the course of the next 12 months). The only
time my milk seriously dipped in supply was when I had a stomach bug and
couldn't eat for a day or two ... other than that my supply was just fine on
what I would normally eat plus perhaps an extra tub of yoghurt and maybe I
had morning tea more often than I would normally.

I personally wouldn't compromise the health and wellbeing of my baby in
order to lose my weight by strict dieting, but then for me, breastfeeding
was the easiest weight loss method I've ever tried

HTH
Amanda

--
DD 15th August 2002
1 tiny angel Nov 2003
EDD 19th August 2004


  #5  
Old July 25th 04, 04:28 AM
Phoebe & Allyson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default 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?


Caterpillar didn't start eating an appreciable amount of solids until she
was 10 months old or so. Until she was a year old, I ate constantly, never
exercised, and still lost a pound a month. (She also reacted to dairy and
wheat in my diet, and a restricted diet generally will have fewer calories
than an unrestricted diet, but I saw that same weight loss pattern before
identifying her allergens.)

She nurses much less now (almost 14 months), and I seem to have plateaued at
11-12 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. I was right at the top end of
"normal" BMI before getting pregnant, and gained about 30 pounds, all of
which was gone by my 6 week check.

Phoebe
--
yahoo address is unread; substitute mailbolt


  #6  
Old July 25th 04, 04:52 AM
Carol Ann
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Losing weight by breastfeeding

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.


Unfortunately, after the intial 30lb loss (one week after delivery)....I
haven't lost a pound. I have gained 5lbs.

I eat allot of sweets and carbs. I feel horrible about myself. I believe
it is causing depression.

~Carol Ann
http://tinyurl.com/33uk7 ---Recent Pictures of Morgan born 3.24.04




  #7  
Old July 25th 04, 05:42 AM
Angela Schepers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Losing weight by breastfeeding

I haven't lost any weight and am still 20 lbs above my pre-pregnancy
weight and I gained 35 pounds while pregnant. I'm also still Bfing my
son. I'm still waiting for the weight to come off because I really
can't fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes still. How depressing.

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.


  #8  
Old July 25th 04, 05:49 AM
Not My Real Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Losing weight by breastfeeding

So are you better off
bf-ing or stopping bf-ing and going on a diet, in terms of losing
weight?


I think it depends on the mom. In my case, I dropped quite a bit of weight
very shortly after having the baby. I'm thin and had only gained about 23
pounds total during my pregnancy; I was eating plenty, but apparently my
body is pretty efficient, so despite the fairly low weight gain, the baby
was nearly 9 pounds and perfectly healthy. Within about a month of having
her, I had lost all of that 23 pounds, plus about 9 or 10 more, mostly from
bf'ing. I had to work a bit at eating calorically-dense foods (okay, so I
allowed for a fair amount of junk food like ice cream, lol) to put on a few
more pounds, but even 12 weeks into my second pregnancy and still bf'ing
(not that I make much milk anymore at all), I'm still a pound or two below
where I was when I first got pg with DD. I've never been one to gain weight
particularly quickly though, so ymmv. I rarely watch my fat intake at all
(I eat lots of olives, avocadoes, cheese, etc.), and especially when
pregnant, I eat a fair amount of whole-grain carbs, and I don't really
exercise much (beyond normal SAHM/toddler-chasing activity) so I think it's
just that my body has been very efficient thus far. (I'm pretty young still
too, 27, so that may make a difference.) I may be in trouble when I'm
finally done being pg and bf'ing, because then I may have to watch what I
eat a bit more. I've never noticed a problem with quality of my milk; DD
was exclusively bf'ed for nearly 8 months and gained weight beautifully, and
then she was still receiving a lot of her calories from breastmilk until
close to age 2. She's always been very healthy and has always looked
appropriate for her size (ie she doesn't look too thin or underfed) and has
met developmental milestones on time or early, etc., so I figure the milk
must be pretty good stuff. As for supply, I had an oversupply for a
while, and then I didn't notice any kind of decrease in supply after it
leveled out until sometime after DD was a year, when my body started to
cycle again. I did notice a small decrease then, but not enough that it
affected DD, just more that at that point I stopped feeling engorged except
on rare occasions. My supply did take a big hit when I got pregnant, but
that's to be expected.

Otoh, I know moms who say that their bodies hang on to a certain amount of
weight until they wean, so ymmv. Weight Watchers is safe to do while
nursing, and I know several people who have really found WW helpful.


--
-Sara
Mommy to DD, 28 months
And Someone Due in February 2005


  #9  
Old July 25th 04, 03:35 PM
Naomi Pardue
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Losing weight by breastfeeding

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?


You have to eat NUTRITIOUSLY to make milk. (Not so much for the sake of the
milk, which will contain the necessary nutrients in any case [barring really
severe malnutrition in the mother], but for the sake of the mother, who will
find HERSELF short on said nutrients, if she doesn't eat well. (Since her body
will take care of the milk first, leaving whatever is left for the use of the
mother.)

But there is no reason a mother has to eat a lot, or take in excessive If she
eats a well balanced, reasonable diet, she is likely to lose weight simply
because she is using (in the form of the mlk she is making) more calories than
she is taking in. It's kinda like adding more exercise while not changing your
eating habits. You'll lose weight because you burn more calories. Making milk
uses around 500 calories a day!

Now, different women DO have different metabolisms. Some women lose weight
very rapidly while bfing. (And some, of course, easily lose the babyweight
while formula feeding.) 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
lat 5-10 pounds refuse to budge. (Probably nature's way of insuring an adequate
milk supply in the case of famine.)


SInce it's never really healthy to go on a very strict or extreme diet, I think
it is best, for mother and baby, for mother to breastfeed, eat healthily, and
let the weight come off as it will.


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Breastfeeding news from Sweden (also: Pediatrician 'responds' to Gastaldo) Todd Gastaldo Pregnancy 40 May 24th 04 02:18 AM
MDs causing breast cancer? (also: Breastfeeding 'kickers') Todd Gastaldo Pregnancy 0 January 29th 04 06:38 AM
Losing weight again, argh! Jill Pregnancy 7 January 2nd 04 09:35 PM
Losing weight during first trimester.... Jill Pregnancy 55 December 10th 03 11:51 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 04:21 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 ParentingBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.