<vacuous> Extended bf-ers: when do the chocolate & cake negating effects of bf-ing cease?

[Penthesileia]

DD is now very nearly 14mo and still bf-ing about 6-7 times a day (morning, before her 2 naps, at bedtime, and twice or 3 times in the night).

I've found that, unless I eat quite substantially more cake and chocolate than I did before she was born, I lose weight. With an extra 500 or so calories each day, I'm a stable weight.

Thing is, this magical effect surely can't go on indefinitely, can it? I'm hoping to bf DD for as long as she likes, but I assume that at some point, she'll markedly reduce the amount of bf-ing she does.

At what point in your bf-ing career did you find that you had to cut back on the cake? I want to prepare myself for that tragic day!

[Essie3]

LOL 13.5 months here, and the weight has been creeping on since around 10 months. (Mine, alas, not his!) But I only feed twice a day.

[Essie3]

p.s. no need to cut back on the cake. You will need to come to terms with massive weight gain though...

[EachPeachPearMum]

Around 18mo I found...

[claireybee]

I suddenly put on a lot of weight when ds hit 18 months, coincided with ds only feeding 2/3 times a day. Before that I was way too skinny so it was a good thing but I am finding the (several) rolls of fat hard to come to terms with

[ZephirineDrouhin]

Lucky you! No magical effect here. Have got fatter and fatter through 3.5 years of breastfeeding. I remember being told in NCT class that some women do burn about 500 extra calories a day while breastfeeding whereas others go into fat conservation mode - unfortunately I unwisely assumed I would be in the former category. Just starting to lose it now by doing weightwatchers.

[whomovedmychocolate]

Well DD is nearly 3 and I'm still troughing for england and losing weight Mind you I'm tandem feeding. I think though the 'madly chasing the fleeing toddler' takes up the excess calories quite well though

[HoppityBunny]

I find I had to cut back on these extra treats when my babies got to the stage of eating 3 meals a day! It was such a shame!

[peppapighastakenovermylife]

Whatever . I am firmly in the fat conservation mode group. Cannot lose a pound and crave sugar constantly. I am really miserable about it now as feel I 'should' be back to prepregnant size but just seem to get larger and larger if anything. Same pattern with both babies - it just creeps on after the birth and will not go away no matter how little I eat and how much exercise I do until they are weaned.

DD has just started sleeping though (touch wood) and I am hoping that at least reduces the sugar cravings a bit

[Grendle]

Both times it was when I got pregnant again and each child dropped loads of feeds (down to 1 per day pretty quickly). This happened each time at 18 months.

[giantkatestacks]

Same as hoppitybunny - when you're down to only 2 or 3 bfs a day...

[curlyredhead]

Has never been here for me - not lost anything despite bfing twins, exclusively for 6 months and at least 6 times / 24 hours now at 14mos. Shurely shome mishtake. Am hoping to be in the fat conservation camp but haven't stopped bfing since I started with dd1. Am thinking I may just be in the fat category

[MiniMarmite]

Lucky you!!! I had to cut back at about 6 months

[MamaGoblin]

I'm conserving fat, too. I did start losing the pregnancy weight but it's sort of plateau'd now, at 17 months. It's the main thing I'm now looking forward to when DS finally weans - losing some weight. But also want to start TTC soon and just hope I can get some weight off first!

[Penthesileia]

OK, so 18mo looks a likely time, then?

4 months of chow-time left. Hurrah!



Commiserations to those of you for whom there was no magic weight-loss effect. T'is quite the most unexpectedly super thing about bf-ing, IMVHE!

[wigglybeezer]

Yeah, I always found this confusing, a lot of my friends didn't loose much weight until they weaned their LO's but i was the skinniest i have ever been when BFing, I even got down to a size 8 with DS2, however this wore off when they were doing well with solids (I started weaning them onto solids at 4 months as was the guidelines at the time). I did Extended BF with DS3 but didn't loose so much weight with him (older I suppose) but it has been creeping on ever since i weaned him two years ago (over forty now ).

[JulesJules]

Am v

I remember seeing Roseanne Barr saying she only weighed 8.5 stone when she was bf, despite living on icecream. Was really looking forward to that... Sadly I was in the fat conservation camp, a shame as bf made me starving hungry and thirsty, unable to merrily skip meals without noticing (as I had done prior to being pg). And I didn't lose it when I stopped bf, either.

[peppapighastakenovermylife]

Am so !! When DD3 was 4 weeks old, I was only half a stone heavier than before I got PG. By the time she was 7 months, I weighed the same as I did the week before she was born

DITTO!!! The sad thing is I had hyperemesis and weighed less after giving hirth and fitted into smaller clothes than before getting pregnant! Then I put on two stone.

Happened with both children in exactly the same way making me kid myself think its not my fault