Weaning and Weight Loss

tinkbaby101

My little guy is just a couple months shy of 3 years old and nurses 4-6 times a day. I've already night weaned him, and have been hem-hawing about completely weaning him for months, now. I realized it's become a habit, rather than a necessity. Currently, I don't even add the calories for breastfeeding into my daily allowance; I have no idea how much he's actually getting, and if reduced calories have affected my supply, neither of us has noticed.

My question is... in your experience, was it easier or harder to lose weight after weaning? I've never been a super-weight-dropper while breastfeeding. Weight loss is NOT my reason for weaning, I'm just curious if it might help, or if I should be prepared for slower progress.

pmur

With my first child, post the one year mark, I lost all my pregnancy weight and got to 110 lbs from 150 ish with no issues. She was a big nurser though and I'm sure I expended a lot of cals. I didn't start workouts until she was weaned at 27 months.
Now with my second little one, I was around the 138 lbs mark when he was 9 months old. I held onto it until he weaned at 27 months. I did everything under the sun, counting cals, walking, Zumba everything. After he weaned, I lost the next 8 lbs very quickly but I had to be disciplined about the diet. I then plateaued at 130 for a long time. I rediscovered MFP last December and am now down to 115. I wanted to get back down to 110 but I now look great(even better than before). I fit into the old sizes and still am curvy. I did have to be strict with my diet this time around though. I can't eat whatever and still lose. I'm sure my age and inactivity has caught up with me Only regret is that I injured my shoulder in July and had to give up on strength training. I'm now mostly pain free and am planning on strength training and toning. I also discovered running and running/Zumba helped me drop weight quickly. I'm beginning training for a half marathon and hoping to add in strength to strengthen my muscles for the long runs to come. I also plan on toning my abs a little with the strength exercises.

galprincess

As a mum of 3 breast fed babies I lost 10lbs after weaning each of them as the body holds onto some extra fat to supply baby if you don't eat enough or have the right calories etc . My profile pic is me after having and breastfed 3 babies so don't despair

JensRiot

I was never able to lose weight and keep up my supply while breastfeeding. I actually didn't bother to try to lose weight between baby 1 and 2. I tried to lose after baby #2, but ended up struggling between supply dips and no progress for months. Once I weaned her, the weight came off much more easily. I really didn't even try to cut calories before weaning #3. Every calorie dip brought a supply dip. For me it was either/or. I had to pick, breastfeed or lose weight, not both. Good luck.

tinkbaby101

With my first child, post the one year mark, I lost all my pregnancy weight and got to 110 lbs from 150 ish with no issues. She was a big nurser though and I'm sure I expended a lot of cals. I didn't start workouts until she was weaned at 27 months.
Now with my second little one, I was around the 138 lbs mark when he was 9 months old. I held onto it until he weaned at 27 months. I did everything under the sun, counting cals, walking, Zumba everything. After he weaned, I lost the next 8 lbs very quickly but I had to be disciplined about the diet. I then plateaued at 130 for a long time. I rediscovered MFP last December and am now down to 115. I wanted to get back down to 110 but I now look great(even better than before). I fit into the old sizes and still am curvy. I did have to be strict with my diet this time around though. I can't eat whatever and still lose. I'm sure my age and inactivity has caught up with me Only regret is that I injured my shoulder in July and had to give up on strength training. I'm now mostly pain free and am planning on strength training and toning. I also discovered running and running/Zumba helped me drop weight quickly. I'm beginning training for a half marathon and hoping to add in strength to strengthen my muscles for the long runs to come. I also plan on toning my abs a little with the strength exercises.

I had a much easier time after my first, also. She weaned at 13 months. I never made it back to my prepregnancy weight, though, because I wasn't focused on diet and exercise. With my second, though... whole different story! :laugh:

Thank you for your input!

I3righti3lue24

I am nursing a 10 week old again, ahhh! Anyways on topic, I stopped nursing my daughter at 14.5 months, and I actually loss about 10lbs afterwards without changing my diet or anything..