losing weight while breastfeeding?

What are you doing to try to lose weight? Are you exercising? Logging calories? How many cals do you eat per day?
My 4th baby just turned 5 months old yesterday. I lost most of my pregnancy weight within the first month but have stalled out with 10 lbs to go (had been to 5 but gained over Christmas), which is why I started here. After my other pregnancies I remember losing in spurts. I would lose a bunch, then nothing, then all of a sudden start losing again. After my second I weighed less than I did when I got pregnant, but with the others I had a hard time losing the last 5 lbs of pregnancy weight (plus any I had gained between pregnancies). I am hoping the losing starts happening here really soon! Make sure you are eating enough and accounting for breastfeeding calories.

With my twins I didn't lose the weight until they were over a year. The weight came off easily after that and I went on to nurse until they were over 2 and I was 20+ weeks pregnant.

With my 20 month old the weight was gone by 4 months but when she hit a year I gained 5 lbs in a few months. She is still nursing and I am at my goal weight.

IMO I wouldn't stress too much until complimentary foods move to the main part of his diet.

Hi, I found it a little hard to lose weight while breast feeding but it can be done. I have been breast feeding for about 17 months and during that time I have lost about 35lbs and I have about 7 more to go. My little one is almost done with nursing and I hope that I can lose the last little bit of weight that my body has been holding on to.
My advice is, log your calories and try to get some kind of physical activity in every day. Just make sure you are eating enough. I always gave myself an extra 300-500 when my baby was that age. Good luck!

I've found it pretty easy to lose weight while breastfeeding. My daughter is 13 months and I have lost 40lbs. For the most part I do watch what I eat and try to work out as much as I can during the week (which isn't much). I think I saw this in another post too, but my losses came in spurts. I would go a few months with no weight loss and then all of a sudden lose 10lbs easy. Not sure why, but that is what happened. I'm even 25lbs lighter than prepregnancy weight! Your best bet is to keep logging and exercising. If you don't lose weight, I wouldn't worry too much about it because your body is working VERY hard to feed your baby!

I lost all my pregnancy weight while breast feeding and my son is almost 5 months. Everyone is different I guess.

As a fitness professional and breastfeeding mother, I am still trying to get my behavior to match my knowledge, lol! I have read that 70-80% of the weight loss equation is diet, so that is where I should be putting most of my efforts, right? But no….I would rather spend 1.5 hours in the gym or train for a marathon to get the weight off. I am about 4 days away from completing my 1st full marathon and I will have trained 16 weeks for it. Sadly, I didn’t lose 1 pound!!! I have accepted the reality that I have to change my eating habits, especially since I am not 25 anymore . Even with exclusive breastfeeding for 1 year AND consistent exercise, I have never dropped weight easily, and I know the fact that I have not focused on eating better is to blame. My daughter recently stopped nursing at 2.5 and I am sure that my body is still adjusting, and if anything, I probably didn’t adjust my eating to account for the fact that I am no longer breastfeeeding.

http://elosingweightwhilebreastfeeding.com

Anecdotal experience here - I noticed in myself and among all of my friends that during breast feeding it was much more difficult to lose weight - as if the body sort of hangs on to those fat stores because really it's too busy doing other things (like feeding your child) to follow the standard calorie deficit equation. Most of my friends (and myself) immediately lost weight after stopping breast feeding. The little tummy pooch especially finally went away. Even my slimmest friend who never had a weight problem did not return to her pre-pregnancy weight/figure until the breast feeding ended. I think breast feeding moms should focus on being healthy, getting adequate exercise and sleep, taking care of their babies, and giving their bodies a break from the cultural drive to reduce weight during this season of life.

Just my anecdotal two cent though. Other women perhaps have had different experiences with weight loss and breast feeding. I just haven't seen it for myself, despite the infamous "500 extra calories" that our bodies supposedly burn during breast feeding.

I'm finding it extremely difficult to lose weight while breast feeding my daughter. I eat clean most of the time, am working in increasing my protein, maintain a caloric deficit, and try to be active everyday and the scale will not budge. I'm hoping that when I'm done breast feeding my body will gift me with some weight loss

I found weight loss more difficult before my babies turned 1 because I was just so hungry all the time and worried about my milk supply. I tried MFP when my son was around 5 months old and really struggled and then quit. He turned 1 in December and I started using MFP again in January and have quite easily lost weight this time! He's just about 15 months now and still nursing a few times a day. I log an extra 200 calories a day for BFing calories and don't have any desire to wean anytime soon, so I'm glad the weight loss has been so consistent.

Congrats on losing the 5 pounds! I have always struggled to lose weight while BFing and tend to gain weight. I don't start to lose until I wean. I just weaned my 24 month old in Jan and have lost 12 pounds since then. Just Keep trying to eat healthy and the weight will come off.

Having a very hard time loosing weight while breastfeeding. With my son I breastfed him til he was 2 and it wasn't until then I could get the weight off. Now I'm breastfeeding my daughter it took me 6 weeks of diet and exercise to loose 6 pounds I took a break for a month and gained back 9 pounds! So trying to get back to loosing weight . So frustrated. I now have GG 34 boobs and my body is storing fat like a walrus so over this breastfeeding body! If you can figure out a better way to loose let me know.

I lost 48lbs from breastfeeding. She's 7 months now and it has slowed down. I'm happy though because I'm now 21lbs less than my prepregnancy weight. Everyone's different though.