Did you hold onto weight while BFing?

[penstamon]

I'm a little frustrated because I weighed myself for the first time since DS was 6 weeks (he is 9 mo now) and I am still up 6 lbs from pp weight. I gained 29 lbs during pg, started out at a healthy weight/BMI (albeit 10 lbs more than ideal). I workout 5 days a week-intense cardio and weight training- and I walk and hike many miles daily. My diet has always been good and I don't overeat. Despite all these achievements, the fat doesn't budge. My pp clothes still don't quite fit . My dr. said I am holding onto BFing weight, but when oh when will it go?

Did you lose only when you stopped altogether, or was there a magic time that your body decided that it didn't need so much stored?

[PoppyMama]

I can do you one up...I gain weight. I weigh more at 9 months post than I did a couple of days after. Sucks. Really sucks.

[candelaria80]

I am still about 8 pounds out from my pp weight, it is such a bummer. To top it off I am bombarded with people raving about how the weight just "melts off" when breastfeeding! I'm like, what am I doing wrong!

[limette]

I loose the numbers on the scale pretty much straight away but I remain chunkier until around 18 months after giving birth.

[Kristine233]

I gained weight while breastfeeding. About 20-30 pounds total in the 13 months I breastfed... on top of pregnancy weight. Fun fun. After talking to a nutritionist and my Dr they said it wasn't unusual and wasn't my diet. Some women simply gain instead of lose. So, IMO, I'd be totally stoked if I lost any weight while breastfeeding, lol.

[Lineymom]

I lose weight verrrrry slowly while bfeeding. Well, with my first it "melted" off and then I struggled to keep weight and not starve while pigging out constantly. With my middle child and current nursling it has gone sooo slowly. She is 5m and I have about 3-4lbs to go but am losing at a rate of about .5lb ever 2wks. With my middle child, he was 8-9months before it was all gone. I am one of those obsessive types that weighs most every morning. After the immediate weight loss, I didn't start to loss anything until 8wk/2m, that was when I could feel the shift that my body was like "ok, safe to let it go."

I always gain a few when they start to relay more on solids, though....
Maybe your body will let you lose it when that happens. Gosh, I can't believe you are that active AND bfed!!!! I do strength exercise, but find that I can't handle much cardio... I get too hungry and am prone to mastitis.

[Aufilia]

Originally Posted by penstamon

My pp clothes still don't quite fit . My dr. said I am holding onto BFing weight, but when oh when will it go?

With #1 I lost weight like crazy for the first year, then plateaued until I weaned, at which point I gained 5lb or so. With this one, well, he's 6 months old and I've lost very little.

But what I wanted to say -- even when I was back to my original weight after my DD, my clothes still didn't fit because I was a different shape: bigger boobs followed by saggier boobs, and I always had a bit of a belly pooch even when I shrank down to a size 2. For the first year or 18 months I looked good in different styles of clothes than I'd normally buy just because my proportions were so different. Your postpartum body is maybe just different, regardless of what you weigh now.

[lunarlady]

I wasn't back to my pre preg weight until 12 months PP, and didn't fit into my pre preg clothing until about 18 months PP, and my pre preg jeans to until about 2 years PP (sorry to tell you!)

[TXmom2]

Mine melted off quickly by 9wks PP but my supply tanked so I ate like crazy and put back on about 6-8lbs. It helped my supply (even if not my self esteem)
Now, I can fit into some of my pre-preggo clothes but not all, just depends on the style. I'm still carrying a bit of belly flab

[Surfacing]

I have a friend who is extremely lean and she held on to 7 lbs. while bfing. When she was done bfing, the 7 lbs just disappeared.

I am one of those women who packs on the pounds while bfing. Like I seriously look PG again. Takes me about two years to get back to normal.

Sucks! But it's just a brief blip in the history of our lives...

[akind1]

I don't know if it is quite right, but my friends who were quite thin - or just slender - pre-baby - have a hard time losing weight while BF. once they wean, no problem losing weight. For me, as I have plenty of extra "cushion" I lost 20 of the 25 lbs I gained while pregnant in the first 6 weeks. at 5 months PP I have one more pound to go, although since my boobs are bigger and heavier than pre-pregnancy (I went from a DD to a G) I am probably really less than my pre pregnancy weight.

my theory is, if your body knows that you don't have much extra stored up in fat or whatever, it kind of holds on to it. In my case, I have plenty of "extra" so my body is like, well, we can afford to lose some of this! FWIW I try to be just naturally active, lots of walking, carrying DS, etc, not back to the gym just yet, and while I haven't cut calories, I try to eat healthier. I don't want to go to gung-ho on weightloss and my supply tank. I don't know that it will, but I don't want to chance it either.

[blessedwithboys]

with ds1 i started at a healthy size but gained an inhuman amount of weight, maybe close to 80 or 100 lbs. i lost about 30 or so immediately after the birth, but the rest stuck around until ds slowed way down in his nursing. he was done despite my encouragement at 24 mos and that is when the rest came off on its own.

yrs later i developed some health issues and gained back a ton of weight. ]with ds2 i was about 100lbs overweight when i got pg (miracle of miracles!) but had hyperemesis and lost weight all through the pg. i weighed less the day i lef tthe hospital thatn i did the day i conceived, but i was still majorly fat and didnt lose any weight at all while nursing.

[physmom]

I was at a healthy weight when I got pregnant and gained 60lbs (ugh!) I dropped 30 immediately but gained back about 10 a few months after DD was born do to a very stressful situation. I'm now 15 months PP and that extra 40 lbs won't budge!!!! I eat well and have been exercising almost every day and still nothing. I'm going to test for cysts just to be sure that's not going on (I had problems in the past) and if that's ok, I might try and see a doc and check. I've heard holding on to 10 lbs or less is pretty normal but I'm thinking 40 is not! Especially with the amount that I'm working out.

[akind1]

debunks my theory! I am the only really overweight one in our circle of friends; everyone else is slim, and they all had major trouble losing baby weight until they weaned. Granted, they all wean between 6 mos and 1 year.

[mamadelbosque]

I'm still up 10-15#s from pp, and 20-25#s from pp with DS1 So, yeah, I've more-or-less permanently gained weight since getting pregnant the first time. I keep hoping to at least drop the 10-15#s I had before getting pregnant the second time, but so far, no go. OH, DS2 is 8 months and DS1 is 3 now...

[HappyFox05]

Didn't lose it either time unless I actively watched what I ate & tried to exercise at least 30 minutes a day. So, no bf-caused free ride to weight loss for me, lol.

[mambera]

I was super-stable at 123 lb for years pre-preg, without any particular attention to diet or exercise. Gained 29 lb while preg, lost 14 immediately and then another 10 lb slowly over 2 mo. Then I bounced *back* and have been hovering around 130 ever since. Now 10 mo postpartum and still bfing, weight is not budging. I have fit in most of my prepreg clothes since 6 weeks pp for the most part but they definitely do not fit the same way - can you say muffin top, bleh!

I am crossing my fingers those 7 lb will magically drop when DD weans. Although honestly I still am not paying any particular attention to diet or exercise so I realize it's not so realistic to expect this. Especially since I have heard a lot of people say that 30 y/o is the milestone where they started to have to watch their weight (I got preg at 30, I'm now 32.)

Sigh.

[AlishaLukesMom]

I can't loose the last 10lbs and I am 14months post baby. Ugh. I hope it comes off soon, it is driving me crazy!

[Mama Khi]

Well, at least it's not just me!

[boobs4milk]

i've gained 25 lbs since i gave birth. sigh. i only gained 11 the whole pg, the lost 15 at birth. i. am. fat.