To give up breastfeeding as I can't lose weight

[mustardmustard]

Baby is 11 weeks old and I have been breastfeeding, I originally wanted to BF until baby turned 6 months but I feel like my body is retaining all my fat and not letting me lose any weight whilst I BF. I am 2 and a half stone overweight and despite healthy eating and exercise (walking) the scales will not go down, only up if I have the odd day where I have some biscuits or chocolate.
Has anyone else experienced this? I keep hearing that people who BF lose all their pregnancy weight really quickly, this couldn't be further from the truth for me

[Happycat1212]

No one told me it was a myth 🤷‍♀️ It was my first and I was 21 and it was in the hospital book you get given after birth. That it was rare to get pregnant if breastfeeding.

[zazzyzaz]

Your baby is 11 WEEKS old. Cut yourself some slack xxx

[MaskingForIt]

YABU to want to FF purely for the sake of vanity.

[MumW]

11 weeks is no time at all. A wise person told me that it took my body 9 months to get to this point so it's going to take that time to settle back.

BF is usually the best way to lose weight long-term. I'd say it took me a year before I was back in my pre-baby jeans.

It's hard with a baby but try and eat sensibly. Remember, if you swap to formula, you are still going to be absolutely knackered and the temptation to grab those quick sugar/fat filled snacks wine will still be there but without the breastfeeding to counter it.

Be kind to yourself and give your body a chance to readjust before putting the pressure of a formal diet into the mix. Try and have plenty of healthy options available to nibble on as well as the biscuit/sweet tin.

[twinkletoesfairynose]

I'm 2.5 years bf and 3st heavier 🤦‍♀️

I lost all my baby weight within 4 weeks then it's gone down hill from there

[Dishwashersaurous]

Its the sleep deprivation rather than anything else.

A good rule of thumb is nine months to put it on, nine months to take it off. So don't worry about the weight loss for a while. Your baby is so absolutely tiny.

[Dishwashersaurous]

And long term breastfeeding will help you get back to your more normal weight but not in 11 weeks, on nine months to a year.

Your expectations about quickly you were going to go back to normal. 11 weeks was never realistic

[Dishwashersaurous]

And if you only wanted to feed for six months anyway then you are only talking about three months.

[Twizbe]

I was like you. I didn't lose weight due to breastfeeding and my periods came back at 6 and 10 weeks!

However, I did do slimming world while pregnant and it worked to get the worst of the weight off while I breastfed.

The first summer was hard as I was wearing things in massive sizes and maternity stuff. I got some cheaper things from primark to keep me going.

They say it takes 9 months to put on and 9
Months to lose and that was true for me. I was closer to my pre pregnancy weight by 9 months old.

[Iggly]

11weeks is no time at all. Your body is still recovering from having a baby.

I lost a lot of weight but only a few months in, and I walked everywhere- barely drove. And it wasn’t good - I ended up ill as I wasn’t eating properly.

Take care of yourself and be kind. Super fast weight loss comes at a price.

[Sugarcube84]

I’ve put on weight since stopping bfing in November last year, I think part of it was to do with carrying on eating as if I was still bfing. Now I’m struggling to shift it, it was like this with my first as well, it took 18-24months to get back to feeling like me.

[Everyday21]

With dd1 my weight stuck to me while I breasted, I stopped at 1yr and even then it didnt really budge. Maybe dropped a little

With dd1 I lost losts of weight at about the 6m point and again as she turned one. Stopped breastfeeding at 1 again and weight loss plateaued

[Everyday21]

I dont know anyone who lost all their baby weight by 11 weeks, breast or formula. Enjoy your baby

[Jent13c]

I've fed both my boys (one for 18m, one for 11). Both times I was 2 stone over weight and lost the 2 stone as soon as I stopped breastfeeding. Probably within about a month or 2. There are obviously benefits to breastmilk for the baby but also for you if you feed until a year (reducing risk of breast cancer) but honestly if I was to have a 3rd I would probably feed and pump for 6 months to have enough milk till baby 1 and work on getting back to a healthy weight a bit sooner.

[Isadora2007]

Isn’t the question will she think those extra three months were so important in a decade? We all know the answer is no.

Actually in two decades or three she might- breastfeeding helps protect the baby as both a baby and an adult from a whole host of illnesses. Also when she’s older she may choose to BF and speak about it and her/your BF journey. I know my daughter who has BF despite many real difficulties would actually be a bit disappointed in me retrospectively if I’d given up after a few months to lose weight. Especially when the health advice is to BF to age 2...

[Floobydo]

If you stop and the weight still doesn’t fall off, how will you feel? Because there is no hard or fast way of knowing how your body will respond. Your baby is still tiny; be kind to yourself.

[drpet49]

I think it is a crap excuse to stop breast feeding just because you want to lose weight. You only gave birth 11 weeks ago. What if the weight doesn’t come off when you stop. What will you do then?

[Sciurus83]

11 weeks is so so early, your body is still recovering, you're exhausted, try not to worry about losing weight yet. Someone upthread said 9 months on 9 months off and this is true at the very least! Breastfeeding I think did help me lose weight and by 9 months I was much more like my old shape after putting on 3 stone in pregnancy. But it was a combination of lots of things that just come with time, feeling less tired so doing more exercise, with that eating healthier. Breastfeeding also sort of settles down and you don't feel as hungry. Don't rush things and be kind to yourself, you're doing an amazing thing looking after your baby, it is early days. The best thing I did that I think helped mentally and physically was joining post natal fitness classes, buggyfit etc.

[linerforlife]

11 weeks is such early days!!! Your body is still settling in terms of hormones etc!! Give it at least 9 months to lose baby weight not 11 weeks. Breastfeeding is a great thing for your baby, and if it's going smoothly don't rock the boat for some weight loss that will likely happen a bit further down the line!!

[ShowOfHands]

I was annoyed that I didn't lose weight breastfeeding my first and at 9 months, I examined my diet and activity levels and realised I was eating far too much as I was tired and constantly hungry. I overhauled my diet (I didn't diet, just stopped the tired snacking and the empty calories which wasn't my natural way of eating) and the weight disappeared rapidly. After my second when I was much busier and less frazzled as the baby actually slept for more than 60 minutes, breastfeeding did its job and I was the smallest I've ever been.

[Identitytheftisnotajoke]

With my first I didn't lose the weight until after I stopped breastfeeding when she was just over 1 and then I was still a stone over what I was when I got pregnant with her. I tried to eat healthily mostly and walked a lot but it didn't shift. I really thought breastfeeding would help me lose it but it just didn't.

This time round I've used MyFitnessPal (which is free) to count calories set up to lose a lb a week and then added 'breastfeeding baby' under snacks, which takes away 500 calories from what you've eaten. I've been able to eat loads but am now back to my pre kids weight at 8 months. Maybe try tracking your food for a couple of weeks and see if it makes any difference. I must consume so many calories when not tracking without really realising as my weight goes up straight away when I take my eye off the ball, so I think it's easily done for example by not weighing pasta or rice.

[Maray1967]

Are you worried about how other people will see you or maybe comment? If so, I wouldn’t have thought most people would expect someone who has recently given birth to have lost the weight already, and who cares if they do? If you have ‘friends’ who do the competitive thing about how they gave birth with no pain relief etc and how they were slim again after a month, then either practise some useful responses or avoid them - but not everyone.
Most of us who had C sections struggle to lose the flab above the scar but it does go in time - but expecting to look as you did before pregnancy at a few months after birth is unrealistic - well, it certainly was for me!
I wish I could have bf as you are doing - you’re doing great.

[TheKeatingFive]

For all those suggesting diets or tracking calories, these didn’t work for me at all.

I followed a calorie controlled diet for a while, lost about 3/4 pounds, then put 6 back on virtually overnight. I was spitting.

Some bodies just hold on to weight while feeding. Mine was one of them. Then it came off when I stopped without even trying. Hormones play a huge part here.

[CeeceeBloomingdale]

I felt like that when my baby was 3 months old. By 5 or 6 months I started to lose the weight without doing anything (which coincided with doctor recommended early weaning for reflux) , by 9 months I was well under my pre pregnancy weight.

[mustardmustard]

I am not expecting to lose significant amounts, but it is really disheartening when I have cut my calorie allowance down to 1800 per day and have been going to bed hungry every night, and have been doing around 10,000 steps a day. And literally not even .01 of a pound has dropped on the scales.
My BMI is currently now on the borderline of obese, so it's not just vanity but also health reasons.
And then you hear of other BF'ing mothers who lose all the weight without even trying and it really does make me down about it