to worry that breastfeeding is making me fat?

[womblesofwestminster]

I'm a huge advocate of breastfeeding, so slagging it off feels dirty, but that's exactly what I'm about to do.

I'm bfing my 2 year old twice a day (morning and night). Despite me being religious with my diet and exercising hardcore at least 4 x a week, I've got this bastard tyre around my middle. I'm talking about the 'mummy tummy' and the love handles, maybe even a gunt. The rest of my body looks in decent shape - expect for the sodding middrift.

Now, I've read on MN many times before that women have found it hard to shift the last few pounds of baby weight until they stopped bf. Is there any scientific proof in this? I'm, quite literally, working my ass off, but my apple-shaped physique just keeps getting more applely.

[BeQuicksieorBeDead]

I have been ebf for three months, absolutely love it and no intention to stop, but my word, my belly is huge! A few weeks after birth my stomach had shrunk considerably, now seems to be inflating again! My bum and thighs are slimmer, but arms, belly and boobs are wobbly mountains. What a pretty picture eh!

I used to use cerazette, and it caused me to put on lots of weight and have a constant blocked nose.

[Piscivorus]

I bf my children for about 6 months, with each of them I went up around 3 stones in that 6 months.

[Estrellita]

Still feeding DD 3x a day and really struggling to lose. I work out 5x a week and est low carb, high protein diet, usually around 1400-1500 calories per day. I am losing, but only 1-2 pounds per month. Need to keep feeding though due to DD's allergies.

[Crowler]

In my limited experience (2 kids), BFing helps you to lose dramatic amounts of weight just after the baby is born, but likewise ensures you'll keep a few on - but I lost about 5 pounds after weaning both times (without particularly trying).

[MrsMook]

I've. returned to the pre preg weight zone in about 8 or 9m while BFing both times. I've aimed to eat normally, so there is a small calorie gap for weigh loss (using the gap of extra BFing calories). I've avoided sweet nibbles, and keep nuts, babybels and yoghurts that fill more of a hunger gap and avoid sugar highs and crashes. I don't know whether I'm luckier with tricksome hormones, or have gently been more disciplined with myself, as it is easy to mentally justify spare calories, especially, when you are hungrier than normal. Being too skimpy with calorie intake won't help either as the body will then hoard in starvation mode. It's a hard balance to find, expecially when feeding demands change and it's hard to quantify what intake your body needs rather than desires.

I've had the 1.5st left over from each pregnancy because I have no resistance to high energy carbs when I feel so drained throughout pregnancy, and become very inactive through SPD. I tried to mitigate it a bit this time, and had 1st less weight in the final week of pregnancy, but that all seemed to be fluid based and made no difference to the "me" weight left over. I have been on a mission to gently loose the spare and return to fitness as I hate feeling slow and heavy, and my joints struggle with spare weight.

[MrsMook]

Drat, I've got night munchies now. If this baby ever stops, I think a trip to the fridge is in the cards. ..

[HugoTheHippo]

I really hope it's breastfeeding keeping me fat. I've been bf'ing DD for six months and although the first stone dropped off it has now completely stalled and the last one is just not going anywhere.

I'd heard about the 'cake and breastfeeding' diet on MN, but it just hasn't worked for me even though I've been eating cake almost every day so I'm a little disappointed to say the least.

[Silvercatowner]

Nothing apart from complete starvation leads to weight loss for me. I think I could just sniff a cake shop and I'd gain a couple of pounds (and I'm gluten free so don't really eat cakes and biscuits.....). I put weight on when I bf'd and when I stopped bf'ing. Bloody frustrating.

[Tailtwister]

Everyone reacts differently and I think we're conditioned to expect breastfeeding to help with getting rid of any weight gained during pregnancy. For a lot of people it does, but for some it doesn't. I have heard that the body tries to maintain it's reserves as you're feeding and of course there's the increase in appetite too.