Yup! You just have to make the decision to not lose quickly (or at all) and BF or quit and lose.

With my older son, I BF'd and pumped as much as possible but mostly supplemented. At 3 months I stopped fighting to save what little supply I had and went to all formula. I started MFP at 2 months postpartum (so a month before we moved 100% to formula), and the weight just fell off, even without exercise. I was doing 1200 calories (of which I'm no longer a fan).

This time I've EBF'd since day one. My baby is six months old and has been STTN for a week and a half, and he gets solids twice a day when I can swing it. Most days it's just once, but I'm aiming to be more consistent with twice a day. I've been eating 1800, and even that took some time to mess with.

In six months I've lost almost 20 lbs after my postpartum weight settled (for a total of 40 lbs). When I was FFing, by this point I had lost almost 55 lbs total. That 15 lbs would mean the difference between having clothes to wear and, well, still not having clothes to wear!

My guess is that once I wean the weight will just fall off, plus I'll have the ability to be gone for longer stretches to get in a run (because the jogging stroller and I don't get along) or a Spin class!

I had the polar opposite experience when I had my daughter.
I starting losing like crazy about a month after giving birth. It had nothing to do with exercise, as I had had a Csection and was being very picky about what I even got off the couch for, walking still hurt. I wasn't counting calories, but was limiting my intake of junk type foods.
I was 29lbs under my prepregnancy weight by the time my daughter was 6 months old. Then, I started moving to solid foods and the weight started creeping back on. I started excericising and watching what I ate more closely and the weight stalled. Then, when I stopped breastfeeding, the weight started creeping on again. I exercised and ate healthy and still gained. I continued gaining for years! It wasn't until I discovered MFP that I started losing.

Summary: I have tried many different 'ways' of losing weight. Besides MFP, the only time I ever had successful and steady weight loss was while breastfeeding and I wasn't even really trying. I am really hoping when I have this next baby, it goes the same.

I'm unsure but I know my weight has remained the same for 6 months and that's not something I'm proud of. I want to lose weight but I'm having a hard time shedding these pounds. It's hard to go on a strict diet being that the babies need those nutrients and that's another area I need advice in. What to cut and what NOT????

I think I'm in the same boat too unfortunately. I gained 70lbs while pregnant, lost about 50, but it has budged very very slowly when I have really tried. I've been stuck lately, but some is my own fault. I'm really hoping when I wean soon it will easier to lose. And I'm really hoping for at least an easy 5-10lbs! Hang in there everyone, our babes are worth it. Hopefully I will have some hope for you guys, I plan to start weaning in a month or so and my guy will be 13months.

Apparently, when bfing, the body produces hormones that make it hard to loose weight but easy to produce milk.
so its all good for the baby.
chin up ladies, I guess we just have to Man up for its not forever. So bfing doesn't make one loose weight in all women.

That's the long and short of it. BFing advocates and celebrities go on and on about how BFing is the best diet ever... A couple of years ago, Jenna Fischer (Pam from the US version of The Office) talked about how it didn't help her lose weight and that she had a tough time losing weight postpartum.

Over Thanksgiving, my MIL, who means well but lacks a brain-to-mouth filter, was talking to me about how I looked "soooo beautiful" when I lost "all that weight," meaning the 82 lbs I lost after my older (FF) son was born (making me about 50 lbs lighter than I am now). It was a rather backhanded comment, and then she asked me if I was still breastfeeding, as if to imply that I should be a lot thinner by now. I said to her, point blank, "For some women, breastfeeding leads to fantastic postpartum weight loss. For some women it means their bodies hold on to weight. I fall in the latter category, so I had to make the conscious decision to either quit breastfeeding and lose weight or continue breastfeeding and not lose weight, compounded by the fact that I can't be too far away and thus can't get to the awesome workouts I used to do." She looked shocked (not at my tone; I was actually quite gentle) and told me she was glad I had made the tough choice to continue nursing.

It's one of those things no one tells you. Everyone I know either didn't EBF or did but lost weight like crazy, so I expected to have lost all my weight by now.

My baby is 6.5 months old, so I've got less than 6 months to go. Presumably as my baby gets closer to age 1, he'll be nursing less and less every day, so maybe I can get to my Saturday morning Spin class once in a while

I was told that for some of us - our bodies hold onto our maternal fat stores until our babies wean. SO not fair. But have hope, it can come off. My ten month old is still nursing and I'm working out like a fiend - but I'm losing about a pound a week for the past two months. I'm hoping after my LO weans at a year - the rest will be easy.

One of the nurses at the hospital told me not to expect to lose weight quickly, that there was a good chance I'd hold onto more body fat than I wanted while nursing. I had no idea about this beforehand. My friends who have never been pregnant are shocked that I am not back to my prepreg size at 3 months pp.

And Chickybuns is right--several of the women I know who lost a ton quickly gained some back after they weaned.

I also wanted to add, I have done a lot of google reading about this to give me hope. It is fairly common. And many of the women that said they lost a lot/easily during bf said they gained it back after weaning. So I guess it's better to be chunky for a year or so than be thin for a year and gain it back. There is hope for all of us.

lol, yes! I would have rathered the other category. I lost weight easily when breastfeeding but it all came back.

My first baby was stillborn (so obviously no milk after the first week or 2) and the weight (3+st) fell off in 4 months. So easy (from that point of view).
Second baby still being BF at 18 months and it's much harder to lose weight. This with carrying and running around after a busy toddler. So I think I'm in this category too ;-)

I don't think that it "sabotages" it, but it certainly presents it's challenges. For example, during the first 6mo while my son was EBF, I was freaking *starving* 24/7! I easily out-ate my husband & because I was not diligent about eating nutritious, balanced foods I regained pregnancy weight I should have lost. Then by the time my son began eating more solids (& I started to lose my caloric "benefit") I ha established bad habits that caused me to continue gaining. However, under the same BFing circumstances I have now been able to lose all of my pregnancy weight & then some simply by eating mindfully & increasing my activity level. For me the hardest thing is overcoming the temptation of a VLCD & ensuring I am still eating enough. My son is now 12mo & even nursing only a few times a day my TDEE-% is around 2,000cal o.O