Is it really true that your body "hangs on" to extra fat when breastfeeding

[aardfark]

I've got another two stone to lose and have lost at least one stone since I had my DD seven months ago. But everyone I speak to says: oooh well once you give up breastfeeding the weight will drop off because your body hangs onto it while you are feeding.

Is this true? I'm thinking that women in the third world manage to do it without being overly fat. Also surely andipoise tissue doesn't randomly know it's needed and if you use up more calories through eating less and exercising more, it'll go regardless right?

I'm not planning on giving up bfing for a while but I'm v. confused. I'm losing weight quite steadily btw (so far) but I just wondered if anyone could set the record straight?

I put on four stone as well.

Mostly on my chin(s).

Thanks too mears.

I meant I can mange the adding up the units btw, not the bottle. Dd has never had one. She'd go beserk if someone even tried.

Oh I'm so excited about having a drink.
I will be sozzled on a couple deffo!

usually I just say 'no I can't I'm bf' and then I get lectures from everyone who's out, about why I should stop bf dd. She's talikng, nearly 2 etc blah blah blah,

I was told that the body breaks down the harder fat reserves which are stored in the buttocks and thighs for bfing, so that it is easier to lose weight from those areas when bfing than at any other time.

I have certainly put weight on all over since stopping feeding. But I did have two milk monsters who just dysoned the calories out of me.

Ok one more question

Mezzer - I think your friend is wrong, my stomach is really toned. My arse has it's own postcode though

I have fed DD after wine, and she has never shown any ill effects. I don't do it often though.

Princessmel I don't think it's the end of the world, no

this is a very occasional thing, right?

LOL I bet you think I have red or dark brown wild curly hair, am I right?

LOL about the arsecode. If I could only find a way to make my belly stop swaying in the wind...

Mezzer - I had a section and they sewed my stomach muscles together....it was flat a week later.

Not sure on this one - dd2 almost 14weeks and I'm about half a stone lighter than pre preg. Hope its true and I lose more when I stop feeding - mind you I'll need to remmber to stop eating like a horse.

Chuffed to hear about the alcohol - I have this fear that if the kids stay over at my parents for the night and I get sloshed then my milk will dry up? Someone tell me that it definately won't.

Yelnats - if you have a night off you will wake up with plenty of milk, believe me.

My DH had to clean the sprayed milk off the ceiling the other morning, I was lying in bed and the baby cried after six hours straight sleep and I just sort of 'fountained'

aardfark - ah, so that's your secret. I was imagining you doing 100 sit-ups every morning. Was amazed at the self-motivation. I can't get off my arse and do one!

i've had 2 nights off already but not had a drink - gone straight to bed but getting to the stage where I fancy a drink and it's my birthday this weekend so might manage another night off and even have a wee drink. Was just worried that for some reason the alcohol might dry it up?

Nope, one sit up, take cup of tea off DH and lie back down again to drink it

Go on, get preggy and encourage your baby to be breech....

yelnats - pretty sure that you have to drink loads all the time for it to have a drying up effect on your milk, and not sure that this effect has ever been definitely proved anyway. You'll be reet!

Hi F+Z
Yes not a regular thing. Just want to go out for my birthday.

Yes I picture you as being slim, young ish, floaty and earthy. Brown hair. Long and wavy. Calm and quiet speaking. Polite.

Ha Ha, that's hilariuos F and Z, EVERYONE thinks you look like Kate Bush or something well, bushy with rocketdogs anyway!! You'll have to post a pic here...

I'm not sure there's any pattern to my weight loss. I also put on four stone with ds1 but had lost it all within six months. Left me with shocking stretch marks though. DD was three and a half stone, took me AGES to lose that in fact never quite lost the last one even after a year of feeding. This time I put on one and a half, he's four months and I still have a stone to lose which by my calculations means I've put weight on since LO!

I'd gone off choc during pregnancy this time so maybe made up for it after? It's the evening where I slip up, glass of wine, maya gold, macaroon and so on...

I put on 3 stone when preg, and then another 1 stone bf even though my lo (born at 7lb 9oz) doubled his birth weight at 10 weeks.

HV said that some times birth slows the metabolism!

Also, DS was soooooo hungry, that being permenantly attached meant that I ate in quick snacks rather than proper meals!

Like FrannyandZooey (good Salinger reference!) the weight fell off me. I am usually a size 12, currently a size 8. Not bfing as much now so weight starting to plateau out but I lost loads after my LO's birth.

F&Z - is there such a thing as a middle class example of getting slightly trolleyed?

Message withdrawn

I expressed, didn't breastfeed, but this was true for me. I had an extra 10 pounds while I was expressing, and stayed at a steady weight for months. Then within 2 weeks of stopping expressing, that 10 pounds just seemed to go. I didn't eat less or do more exercise.

Well, I'm slimmer and lighter than I've ever been (since being an adult!)and am still breastfeeding dd2 (2.2).

still bf dd, 21 weeks, and now have only 4 pounds left to lose before reaching pre-pregnancy weight . 5 times a week at the gym has worked wonders, as I am eating all I want.

I'm the skinniest I've ever been too, and exhausted. DS2 is only 6 months old. I am in the process of giving it up. I look at photos of myself and I do look really haggard....and I am not starving myself!