can sleep deprivation and breast feeding stop you losing weight?

[muppety]

I put on 4 stone with both my pregnanies and sadly never lost it all inbetween so am now bigger than ever. Ds2 is 9 weeks but I have lost no weight since week 1 and still look pregnant. I am breast feeding ++ at night and hardly getting any sleep.

My mum said she had read that lack of sleep can make our bodies store more fat has anyone heard this?

Also everyone promotes breast feeding as helping you lose weight but is it always true? I didn't really start to lose weight at all first time till stopped feeding at 5 1/2 months.

I am being really careful and no chocolate/sweets etc. Am I clutching at straws or is formula and a good nights kip the answer?

I don't have an answer to your question but can tell you that I gave birth 11 days ago and still look 6 months pregnant.

For some women, breastfeeding helps them lose weight, but for others the water retention stays until they stop breastfeeding ..... wish i was one of the former!!

I have read that breastfeeding does not help you lose weight at the beginning but it does if you carry on past about 6 months. It certainly didn't help me lose weight with my two, but I did lose some later down the line although diet and exercise helped a lot too.

Message withdrawn

I lost my pre preg weight after about 8 weeks then another stone on top of that (I know) don't know if mine was BFing but think it was more to do with a change on lifestyle ie before I worked in the food industry and would sit at my desk all day grazing but with a baby I would only eat when hungry.

IMO the more tired I am, the more I eat.

If I'm feeling really sleepy in the afternoons I automatically start craving carbohydratey type things like cake, biscuits, toast etc, and being tired = no willpower.

Probably meant IME!

I fed both my children for more than a year - and didn't begin to wean them until 6/7 months (they were sleeping through, happy, not feeding excessively, putting on weight). In other words, I think it's true to say that I couldn't have done any more breastfeeding if I'd wanted to.

Each time, I put on about 3.5 stone. With my 1st, when I was 25, the weight fell off without me really noticing, but with my 2nd, when I was 38, apart from the first few weeks when I was in such a tizz that I literally "forgot" to eat, the extra weight stayed resolutely where it was, much to my upset. Basically, I had to make an effort to shift it - and, unfortunately, am still making that effort !!

Am obviously no expert, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I think that I too have read something about the body storing energy reserves if you're excessively tired, but don't quote me on it ! 9 weeks is still very early to be worrying about baby-weight loss. In the real world inhabited by the likes of us mere mortals - as opposed to people like Posh, Jordan and Anna Friel, you'll probably find that a large majority of new mums don't find the weight that fast to go.