Did you gain weight after weaning?

[lkmiscnet]

After you stopped BF, and if you didn't change your calorie intake, how much weight did you gain back and did it come back quickly or over many months?

I am currently 10 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight, which I think is due to BF. A lot of my friends seemed to be at that same magic number when they BF.

I think I'm over eating, justifying it by BF due to the added calorie burn, and am thinking that once I stop BF, unless I adjust my calories downward, I'm going to gain quite a bit of weight.

So, just curious if you gained weight or if you had to eat fewer calories once you weaned...

[sparklett]

DS is not weaned yet (he's 33 months) but I noticed that I started gaining weight back when he really started eating solids and nursing less. This must have been around 16 mos. or so. Talk about a rude awakening! I developed a lot of eating habits that I had to stop when he started tapering off, like having a quick snack after nursing him down at night. I lost about 25 pounds thanks to BF and gained it allllllll back, and then some!

[chlaal]

Yes, I have had this problem both times. I don't typically weigh myself, but when none of your pants fit any more, you know something's going on!

I actually started gaining weight before DS had weaned, around 18 months or so, which was when he started eating a lot of solids and decreased nursing frequency and, like you say, I continued eating as if he were still nursing exclusively. I wasn't ready to admit that I needed to eat less, so I ended up buying a bunch of new pants. Then the following year I got pg again and couldn't wear any of the new pants anymore. D'oh!

DD is almost 4yo now and has drastically reduced her nursing frequency over the past few months. And I'm definitely starting to notice it on my waistline. I've also noticed that when I'm eating large amounts, it really is out of habit, not hunger; so I'm trying to be more conscious of it. I've been really surprised by how NOT hungry I feel at the end of the day, even when I eat very sparingly. After 7+ years of being either pg or nursing or both, it's hard to adjust to only eating for one again!

[Lineymom]

When both of mine started to mostly rely on solids I gained some, like 5lbs or so somewhere around the 14-24 month time I had to really rein in the eating. Enjoy eating all you want and being under your normal weight now, but just be ready to put yourself in check once the time comes they are not nursing as much. I would always have to ask myself am I really really hungry or just thinking its time to eat again. I was able to loss the little I would gain, but it was no fun having to watch it again!

[Ruthla]

When DS weaned, it was so gradual that I didn't notice any real changes. My breasts stablized at my "non nursing size" when he was a year old and nursing plenty. By the time he weaned 3 years later, he'd already been down to a few sips of breastmilk twice every 3 days.

I didn't notice any difference in my caloric intake when he cut down on nursing, or when he finally, completely weaned. When my daughters weaned, it was more abrupt (over 2 months, I went from nursing 2 kids quite a bit, to full weaning) but I still didn't see any changes with my appetite or weight. Of course, my marriage was falling apart and I was clinically depressed at the time, so it's hard to isolate what was due to weaning and what was due to other factors, but I didn't gain any weight at the time.

[columbusmomma]

I didn't gain any weight when my DS weaned. Still nursing DD a bit but I doubt I'll gain after she weans either. My calorie intake won't increase and my exercising will stay the same so that's my thought on it.

[sanguine_speed]

I actually lost weight when I stopped breastfeeding because while I was breastfeeding I was ravenously hungry and overate. Once I stopped breastfeeding, I wasn't so hungry and stopped overeating. I was also taking a large dose of domperidone, so my hunger was exaggerated by the fast emptying of my stomach.

[LadyCatherine185]

I think I have had the opposite issue. I did lose a lot of weight in the beginning (lost all of the pregnancy weight in 2 weeks!) but started gaining it back and ended up gaining about 20 lbs. Now at 17 months DS is nursing less (only every 2 hours or so... but if we are out he will go a lot longer) I have lost about 5 lbs over the last month. I think for me, I am so hungry when BF'ing a lot and I overeat.

[Louisep]

Down to only 2 feeds-can I keep it up?

Oops! Sorry I meant to start a new thread not reply to this one! Please ignore!