[erinella]

Did breast feeding really help you lose weight?

[twinzplus3]

No way. . .my sweet tooth is waaaaayyyy to strong for the likes of breastfeeding! But nursing a singleton from 0 to 6 months (before any solids), takes an extra 500 calories. . .so I figured that was license for Haagen Dazs. However, nursing twins definitely got rid of the baby weight. ( Now there's still the baby before the twins weight, and the baby before that weight, and the baby before that weight. . .)

[pattiewrites]

I really think this one is a myth. Breastfeeding will help you in the beginning and get your uterus back down to its normal size, but I don't know about losing all the baby weight. I can never seem to lose until I get AF back. My son turned 1 the other day and I got AF for the first time 2 weeks ago, so I'm hoping for more weight loss now. This is my 4th baby and its been the same each time.

[twinzplus3]

I don't think it's a myth entirely. If in theory you eat exactly like you were pre-pregnancy, burning the extra calories per day would certainly help you lose weight. But breastfeeding makes you hungrier and I never think--I'm really hungry--hand over that big plate of broccoli!

I've also found that one thing that helped me make more milk was lots of good-for-you-fattening foods like avocados and nuts. Not exactly diet food. With the twins I've found it easier to lose weight but that could be too because I'm trying. This is the longest I've made it in the last 8 years without getting pg again!

[siageah]

I'll go against the grain and say "oh heck yes!" Before I gave birth I walked all of the time. After I gave birth, I did not, but I breastfed. I dropped the baby weight, ate what I wanted, when I wanted, and stayed the same, pre-pregnancy, weight. After about a year and a half, when the breastfeeding started to slow the weight crept back up. When I stopped bf-ing at 25 months, I womped on a good 20 lbs til I said, "WHOA!" and cut back on the calories.

Now I need to walk to drop the weight, though I have stopped gaining.

Breastfeeding is just awesome. I tell people I would have continued to breastfeed til she was 6 if I knew that I was going to gain all of this weight!

[twinzplus3]

SHHHH! Now you're telling people my secret as to why I bf so long!

You're not against the grain at all. My bf says that she totally eats whatever she wants when she's bfing. I have another close friend who says the same thing. I just eat way too much junk food. I suspect that if I hadn't been breastfeeding all these years, I would likely have gained a lot more than I actually did. And of course there's no studies on that: if you hadn't have breastfed would you lose weight faster or gained it faster than if you did.

[mama2riley]

For me I BF my son for 8 months and didn't feel like it helped lose much at all! In fact I had a really hard time losing that last 10-15 lbs and still was stuck with it when I got preg with dd 9 months after my ds was born. This time, however, I have been nursing for almost 5 months and I have to say ALL the 25 lbs I gained with this 2nd pregnancy were gone after the first 6 weeks! I have no idea whether either situation were tied to BF or not, but I don't think it helped or hurt my weight at all. I think it is more related to how active you are and what you are eating more than anything.

[twinzplus3]

Did you say somewhere that your this time around the c/s was much easier to recover from? That would have something to do with it too--being able to be active more quickly. Plus you have a toddler to chase.

[mcmama]

My experience was somewhat like siageahs. Understand, I NEVER lose weight. But I didn't have to watch myself quite so carefully when nursing, and I think it is because of the extra calories used to produce the milk, and my body said oh, here is a good place for that fat!

It also helped a lot in recovery from the csec.

[erinella]

Thank you all so much for all your posts.