Is it true that breastfeeding makes you fat?

[vanillacremebrulee]

The NCT postnatal course leader says that breastfeeding mums have trouble slimming down because nature tells your body to hold on to all the extra layers of fat - just in case, you know...
It sounds a bit bollocks to me! If anything shouldn't breastfeeding help to slim down because you're burning more calories? I've put on an enormous amount of weight with the pregnancy and it's a bit depressing to know that I've got no chance of losing any for the mean time!

I was reed thin when bf my first. He got fatter and fatter and I got thinner and thinner - to the point where the health visitor had a very stern word with me!

But he was a whopper that wanted feeding all the time.

Nope, FF DD1, BF DD2 for a very long time.

Doesn't make any difference what so ever.

I weigh more than I'd like because I eat to much tasty full fat food and live in the sticks and drive everywhere.

Muslin, admitting you are happy to be in bunfight mode does not excuse you being divisive, snarky and talking a load of rot, too.

Of course mothers can 'focus on weight loss' when the main focus is the nutrition of the baby....what are you on about? Mothers who are ff have that as their main focus as well, surely? I mean - we all care about the baby having sufficient to eat, feeding in comfort, making time to ensure it happens etc etc. I don't see any difference between bf and ff.

You are under the mistaken impression that women who bf have to pay close attention to what they eat in order to bf happily. This is not true.

The research shows quite clearly that if you bf for 6 mths, you are more likely to return to your pre-preg weight than if you ff. Not true for everyone, of course, but overall, the evidence is that if you bf long enough, you are likely to be slimmer than if you ff.

So enough with the smugness already, eh? Thanks :)

FWIW, as someone who is pro-bf and who bf my DD for a year (she would never take a bottle and so I was stuck with it), I can totally see the many advantages for the mother of bottle feeding. There were many times at 3am when I was up with DD thinking, 'if only DH could do a night and I could get some sleep'. Also I missed various social events because I couldn't take DD with me (child-free weddings, Xmas parties etc) and wished I could just leave her with a bottle and go out and enjoy myself. If I have another baby I will be making sure that I offer a bottle of expressed milk every day to maximise the chances of having a bit of freedom.

But I do struggle to see the logic that vanity is a ff benefit tbh. The experience of bf mums is clearly very varied - many women find it helps them lose baby weight quickly. I lost mine as soon as I stopped feeding, so it only temporarily affected my weight in any event. It is also perfectly possible to diet and exercise whilst bf if you want to. I'm sure I read somewhere on here (on another thread) that studies have been conducted into the content and nutritional value of overfed western mums' breast milk and that of undernourished women in the third world and there was no difference in the quality of milk - the women who were unable to access sufficient food instead suffered the deficiencies themselves, their bodies prioritised the baby's milk.

A calorie controlled diet and regular exercise are compatible with breastfeeding. I have no idea if a low carb diet has any effect on quality and/or quantity of breastmilk.

The only published research that I have read found no difference between post-natal weight-loss when breastfeeding compared to not breast feeding. I guess that finding could also fit with the idea that for some people breastfeeding aids weight loss and for some it hinders it.

I breastfed and was back to pre-pregnancy size 6 months after birth without making any effort to control what I ate, but have spoken to others who said they stayed a bit over their original until they stopped breastfeeding and then the weight fell off.

Everybody I know who breastfed past 6 months had trouble keeping weight on! Of my closest group of 3, one stopped feeding at 7 months partly because despite eating lots, she was struggling not to become too thin. The other two (of which i am one) breastfed for 13 and 23 months respectively and both lost the 17-18 kgs gained in pregnancy by the time the babies were one. None of us went to the gym, though we all did Pilates/yoga with baby once a week. If it makes a difference, we were all thin before pregnancy, so perhaps we just went back to our natural shapes. No dieting either.
I think perhaps it partly depends on what you like to eat and your food habits. I can see that if I liked chips and sausages or cream or shop-bought cakes it would have been easier to keep the weight on for longer. Also, if we'd Met in cafes rather than the park or each other's houses we might have eaten more/differently...

I dieted (and lost 18lbs) while breastfeeding. And I went to aerobics classes. Didn't impact on breastfeeding at all

My babies sucked the fat right off me. When I was breastfeeding I would have knocked down old ladies to get to food, I was ravenous! My babies looked like <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=michelin+man&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1745&bih=889&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=vG_w0TdpGeRjMM:&imgrefurl=www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/motorsport-gifts/michelin-man-running-sticker-8cm-x-7cm-.asp&docid=7yR3zNUuPJdwUM&imgurl=www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/mi/michelin-man-running-sticker-8cm-x-7cm-.jpg&w=500&h=432&ei=JmJsT_CKAam00QWc0-nuBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=741&vpy=279&dur=1764&hovh=209&hovw=242&tx=135&ty=116&sig=116100145881553304265&page=1&tbnh=104&tbnw=120&start=0&ndsp=58&ved=1t:429,r:18,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this

Stopping breastfeeding made me fat, as I was far too used to eating as much cake and buttered toast as I wanted.

It's the lack of sleep that causes me to overeat which means the weight isn't coming off.... of course the feeding hourly or 2 hourly at nights is causing the lack of sleep, but I don't think it's the actual bfing that is the problem....

Regards the OP, I don't think it's true.

It's all wildly variable. I fed ds2 for 4 and a half years and I weigh about half to a stone less than I did before.

And my boobs have plumped up again after a month or two of no feeding...which frankly amazed me. So don't worry about that either.

With dd i was 'puffy' until i stopped bfing and weight dropped off, so i actually gave up a bit early with ds (about 18 months) as i was fed up with being fat......the weight did not drop off that time

Same here MrsTittleMouse.

I lost weight when feeding my DS1..he was a very hungry boy, infact it was the first time my body had ever worn size 8 clothes! when feeding my DD2 my weight did not budge but then she was a grazer never fed for longer than 10 mins.

BF keeps me fat, I seem to put on vast amounts of weight when pregnant and keep it on while I am BF, no cake or biscuits often either. I low carbed for a month when DD was about 7 months and didn't lose a lb. In that month I had no bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, cake, biscuits,chocolate or crisps . But I have to work really hard to lose or even maintain weight normally anyway.

My best friend however couldn't ear her pre pregnancy skinny jeans in a size 4by the time her DD was a few weeks old as they hung off her despite scoffing cake and eating takeaways (it is a good job I love the very bones of the woman, or that may just have made me hate her!).

My babies have inherited my sluggish metabolism and both slept for England though, and my skinny friends all have screamy wakers for months and months. So, horses for courses in my very anecdotal experience.

this has some interesting links.

I have reported it MrsMicawber - and I have to say, I don't really know who your beef is with or what has been said on this thread to trigger such a vile post.

"people who preach bf as the holy grail and if you ff you are a failure" = a tiny number of insensitive idiots whose views can be ignored

nazis = a large number of violent extremists who dominated Germany in the 1930s and WW2 and who caused the death of many millions of people

HTH :)

I didn't hear that on the thread at all. I got the feeling it's different for each individual mother. And people who doesn't struggle with weight pre-baby are likely to not struggle with weight while breastfeeding. It sounds all common sense to me.

Um, no, you were using an offensive term that has been deemed unacceptable to be used on this forum. You can't just say nasty things like that and then justify it by saying you are 'expressing your feelings'. I hope you can understand that.

well, breastfeeding uses lots of calories. unfortunately it also makes many women really hungry.

Re OP

Not true for me. Best diet ever IMHO. I bf DD to 18mo and at 9mo people started asking me what the secret was as I was thinner than I've ever been in my life. Some crept back on when I stopped but not more than my pre-pregnancy weight.

Now feeding DS at 9mo and its worked a treat again even though he feeds less often than DD. I also carry him in a sling a lot and walk everywhere and I think that helps but I have never done any kind of formal diet or exercise regime since I had the DC.