Breastfeeding - why do I feel so fat?

[Ivyrose56]

First baby, 5 months old, EBF. I was very slim pre pregnancy, less than 9 stone my whole life pretty much (I’m 5’6) but unfortunately I had a very complicated and high risk pregnancy where I was on modified bed rest for part of it and my exercise routine just went to pot so was very sedentary. I therefore probably started my post partum journey from a less than ideal standpoint! Then had an emergency c section.

I believed ‘everyone’ who told me that I’d lose loads of weight breastfeeding, the weight would drop off etc etc

Here I am, nearly 6 months later and I’m still over 10 stone (although trying not to weigh myself and get obsessed!!) so over a stone heavier than before pregnancy and I just don’t like how I look. It’s mainly my stomach and thighs. My thighs touch when I walk for the first time in my life. My stomach still looks quite round and protruding to my eye.

i don’t think I’m eating too much really but probably grabbing the wrong things that are just easy with a small baby. Lots of walking with the pram. I don’t understand why I’m just stuck at this weight and feel so gross when BF allegedly burns so many calories?

I realise I’m not ‘fat’ really, I’m normal BMI etc but I feel so under confident. I’ve had to buy bigger clothes and I just feel really rubbish.

I plan to carry on bf as long as possible and don’t want to mess up by supply by dieting or anything.

Has anyone else been through this and can offer advice or reassurance? Will I slim down once we are weaning?? I feel incredibly lucky to have my beautiful baby and I’m so proud to have EBF for this long but I’d just love to feel a bit better in myself.

It seems to go either one way or the other. Some people's bodies seem to really cling to calories when they are bf.

Hopefully when you wean, or when you cut down once food is well-established, your hormonal balance will shift and your metabolism will go back to normal

I piled the weight on with breastfeeding. First few weeks post partum yes it dropped but then months of breastfeeding hunger plus being tired and not able to do much I piled it on! I only started losing it when first was 2 then got pregnant again

I started my first pregnancy with DD at beginning of 2022 carrying more weight than I would have liked and then I put on a lot during the pregnancy too. I didn't worry about it for the first few months after she was born as I was also EBF and didn't want to affect my supply but I started a "diet" when she was 3 months. I read that if you've been EBF for 2-3 months, reducing calories (within reason) will not affect your supply because your milk is so well established at that point. I didn't go on a crazy starvation diet or anything. Just cut out any chocolate, crisps etc and made sure I had 3 healthy balanced meals, and snacked on fruit in between. I continued to EBF without any problems and I'm just started to wean her now at 18 months! I think if you were keen to make some changes in your diet to try and lose a bit of weight, it wouldn't affect your supply after 5 months, as long as you're still having a healthy balanced diet. Good luck xx

I found the weight dropped off in big chunks when bf - I gained 3-4 stone each time, lost 2 stone immediately pp, then another stone or so ti 4 months then nothing until 9 months and then suddenly was thinner than ever before. Hang in there and keep up any healthy habits you have.

I didn't drop back to pre-pregnancy weight until after I stopped BF. Also slim, although taller and slightly heavier, I held on to around a stone extra whilst BF which dropped off naturally within a few months of stopping

Thanks all, I think I just need to carry on eating healthily and exercising and hope post weaning things start to feel a bit more normal!!