Moms: anyone lost weight after weaning (from breastfeeding)

Septimusbean

I have 6 children. The youngest are my twins, born when I was 42 years old. They are 18 months now and I just weaned. I have NEVER been able to lose much weight while breastfeeding. I always felt guilty because everyone goes on about how it’s easy to lose weight while bf, but I was always the opposite. My naturopath doc says some women just work that way...that’s it’s your body’s way of making sure you have some reserves. When I wean, I can slowly lose the weight, but it takes longer the older I get. Coming from a mom of six, I know it’s frustrating, but such a sweet time that goes too fast. I finally decided to let go this time and quit stressing about it. As an interesting point, I always held onto 10 or so pounds with each single baby...but it’s been 20 with the twins. Makes sense, I guess!

kraisner

@ohrtorah can you give me an update on what happened while slowly weaning? I’m starting the process now, dropping one feed every 3 days and I’m hopeful to start losing but so far I’m just gaining. 😫😫😫. I’m a fanatic exerciser, clean eater. I’m 5’7 128 pre pregnancy. Gained about 20lbs then dropped it all the first couple weeks postpartum- down to 124. Then with no control myself I gained back up to 130ish, going up and down a few lbs with no ryhme or reason. My baby is 7 months and I’m ready to be done breastfeeding and have my hormones back under control.
Can all the previous posters give updates? 😀

OblasMummy

I’m currently nursing my third and have lost 17lbs since January very slowly. I have about 12lbs to go and then maybe some vanity weight. What works for me is eating at maintence calories and letting breastfeeding create my deficit. I use MFP and weigh everything that I eat and measure liquids. Forgive me, but I see a lot of mention of eating clean and not eating much but no reference to how many calories are being consumed and accurately tracked? I’ve just this week channged my goal to lose 1/5lb a week as she is 13 months and not nursing too much. Even with this I get to eat 1800-2000 calories a day as I ensure I get 10,000 steps outside of my exercise.

Beeingthin

Yes for me. I actually never lose any weight until I wean completely. My body holds on to the extra fat every time.

sardelsa

@kraisner what is your goal? Are you wanting to maintain your weight after weaning? You just have to adjust your calories as you go. I found my weight fluctuated more when breastfeeding because of the water retention, ex. how much baby ate before weighing. I weaned really slowly while I was losing, we were down to 1-2 feeds for a few months.. then eventually none. I just dropped about 200cals or so from my intake (basically a snack) and kept losing as usual.

kraisner

I guess my end goal is probably to maintain once I’m down to 125. I’m finding as I drop feedings, my body feels super weird and gross and bloated. I’m wondering if anyone tracked their weight AS they were dropping feedings and how dropping feeds affected body weight as the body adjusted for producing less and less milk. It’s more of a curiosity thing I’m so fascinated by how the body does its job.

VioletRojo

I couldn't lose at all until I stopped nursing. But as soon as I stopped, the weight just came off, practically by itself. I think for some women, the hormones involved in breastfeeding make it really hard to lose weight.

youngmomtaz

I did not lose weight until I was done breastfeeding each time. I breastfed three children. The first 6 months, the second nine months and the third a year and three months. Each time I was JUST SO HUNGRY. I could workout, I hiked, biked, ran, lifted, boot camp type stuff, etc at least 4 times a week aside from our daily walks. The second I reduced food intake even a little with the first two kids my supply would tank, honestly when I think back on it that is probably why they started “refusing” and fighting when they did and we weaned. With the third child it was the same. I was a student, renovating a new home, 3 kids, and starting a small business, with a husband who works 80 hour weeks. The second I cut food a little bit my milk supply tanked and I was ravenous. When I was not careful about calories(intake) my baby did not sleep well either. So I maintained my 210lbs throughout breastfeeding. The month after he weaned I was down 20lbs without trying. And the month after that. Unfortunatly then I had to start working, and have been ever since. Lol!!

Every mother is different, and every baby is different. You are still early on in breastfeeding and may find once babe is taking in more you lose a bit, or you may find you just have to work on fitness until babe is weaned and then worry about lowering calories. Some trial and error will tell you fairly qiuckly.

LKArgh

pink_mint wrote: »

I am not going to wean any time soon since my baby is only 2 and 1/2 months old. I just want some kind of hope. Has anyone had a substantial weight loss after weaning? I don't mean "those last 5 lbs". Anyone lose a significant amount after weaning?

Breastfeeding just adds such a huge complication to weight loss for me. I am absolutely not one of those women who lose weight easily while breastfeeding. Whatever it is; hormones, body type, insatiable hunger etc. breastfeeding just makes me fat and painfully hungry. This is my 3rd baby, 3rd time breastfeeding. First baby I got pregnant before I weaned him. Second baby I did lose a lot of weight after she weaned but it also coincided with me starting Wellbutrin and I'm positive it was the medication that made me lose weight, so I don't know what my body will do after weaning this time with no meds and no pregnancy.

I'm feeling depressed and angry about this. Restricting calories compromises my milk supply, so it's like I am trapped. Seems like the only way I can lose weight is by losing milk supply too.

Everytime I breastfed, I lost an insane amount of weight by breastfeeding alone and the big struggle was not to gain when weaning. Restricting calories, as in eating e.g. 1000 calories will affect your supply. But eating just at maintenance will not affect your supply at all and not counting in the 300-500 calories of breastfeeding will create a nice deficit to lose weight.

sardelsa

kraisner wrote: »

I guess my end goal is probably to maintain once I’m down to 125. I’m finding as I drop feedings, my body feels super weird and gross and bloated. I’m wondering if anyone tracked their weight AS they were dropping feedings and how dropping feeds affected body weight as the body adjusted for producing less and less milk. It’s more of a curiosity thing I’m so fascinated by how the body does its job.

I wish I could provide data but I did not track my weaning, plus I was bulking from 7-15 months pp so my weight was all over the place!

lbride

Haven't read the other replies, but here is my experience. I started counting calories when my little one was 9 months - kept it at 1800-2000, no decrease in supply and weight fell off. At 2.5 months - I would not even consider thinking about weight--just for sanity! I needed those M&Ms to keep my up at night!

TinaC2310

I've been struggling to lose weight since I breastfed. I've not breastfed in almost a year & I'm still lactating. Does anyone think I'm working against the lactation & my body still hanging onto that fat?

Teabythesea_

TinaC2310 wrote: »

I've been struggling to lose weight since I breastfed. I've not breastfed in almost a year & I'm still lactating. Does anyone think I'm working against the lactation & my body still hanging onto that fat?

Youd have better luck finding answers by creating your own thread rather than responding to a 5 year old one.