Book: choose F-feeding if you want to lose weight faster than is healthy.

[hypatia]

It takes a lot more to shock me than it used to, but for some reason this really threw me through a loop. I checked a book out of the library entitled Pregnancy Weight Management by Theresa Francis-Cheung. It turned out to be a book written for uber-weight-conscious people who spend their pregnancies "looking pregnant, feeling fat" and planning their post-partum weight loss regime.

The author compares weight loss while breastfeeding and formula feeding, complaining that:

"Weight loss during breastfeeding must be slow and gradual -- otherwise, the quality of milk will be affected adversely. . . . If you want to lose weight when you are nursing, you have to resign yourself to the fact that it will be a slow process. You cannot lose weight rapidly. A weight loss of about one or two pounds a month is safe. . . . Losing weight at this rate may seem painfully slow, but ten months of nursing means ten to fifteen pounds of weight loss. You may find that weight loss plateaus after a few months. This is a common expereience and has something to do with how your body stores fat. Weight loss will have to wait until you have weaned. Just make sure you don't start putting on weight."

On the other hand, she observes that:

Bottle-feeding moms and moms who have weaned find it easier to diet and exercise. Your body chemistry returns to normal. You may be able to control your appetite better.

In most cases, bottle-feeding moms can get to their prepregnancy weight faster than breast-feeding moms. . . . Weight loss is easier because you don't need to be quite so careful about what you do and do not eat. . . . In general, if you bottle-feed, you can start losing weight faster than if you breastfeed, when weight loss must be slow and gradual to ensure a nutritious milk supply.

I am speechless that someone would advocate formula feeding because it permits you to diet unhealthily after pregnancy.

[NYCVeg]

Quote:
"This is a common expereience and has something to do with how your body stores fat."

I'm sorry...this just made me laugh. It has "something to do with how your body stores fat"? VERY scientific.

[Calidris]

Hmm at my 6 week pp visit I had lost over 30 lb (and that was without trying at all). I think bfing is a GREAT diet plan

[Mrs Dimples]

Yeah, I hate to quibble, but I lost all my pg weight + 20 pounds (that I needed to lose : ) by 4 months pp. That's 60 pounds. In 16 weeks. Without trying, dieting, or excercising (on purpose anyway, not counting slinging fat breastfed baby EVERYWHERE!) Plus my baby and I are healthier for life because of it. But you guys knew that...

Tell me this book is not a recent publication...????....

ETA: OMG, Carol, your baby is freakin' GORGEOUS!

[annettemarie]

What a load of

[BlueStateMama]

Utter BS...I was back in a size 4 (pretty much from BFing alone...I worked out, but I always have...all through the pg too) by 6 weeks post partum. I was eating like a pig, and just doing my normal thing...plus I had put on over 40 pounds with DS.

[*Milk-Fairy*]

what a load!!!

I always flaunt my breastfeeding self by ordering dessert when noone else does "Hey, I'm nursing! I can eat as much as I want!". I get some soulful looks from other mommas, the majority of whom ff and then say "What? BFing helps you lose weight?"

I like being a poster child for those that are exercise challenged, yet manage to drop baby weight while eating desserts and huge portions

[Bleu]

Well, personally, I had a rough recovery from my c-section, and a terribly rough start to breastfeeding. I therefore spent the entire first 12 months of Bleuet's life doing virtually nothing but laying around nursing. Through this spectacular inactivity, I lost half my pregnancy weight immediately and then stopped cold. It's nice that all of you lost weight, but that's not how it is for everyone, and frankly, that doesn't take away from the worthiness of breastfeeding.

What is sad, and what deserves critique, IMO, is that there is such spectacular social pressure for women to lose weight and conform to an idealized body size / shape regardless of their health needs and their baby's mothering requirements.

[annettemarie]

Add me to the exceptions to the rule- I lose more weight pregnant than breastfeeding! That said, statistically, breastfeeding women do generally lose their pregnancy weight gain faster.

[stafl]

I dunno, it took me two years to lose all the weight I gained during my first pregnancy. But then again, I most certainly was not weight-conscious, and had gained twice the average amount of weight during my pregnancy.

[Mrs Dimples]

Originally Posted by Bleu

Well, personally, I had a rough recovery from my c-section, and a terribly rough start to breastfeeding. I therefore spent the entire first 12 months of Bleuet's life doing virtually nothing but laying around nursing. Through this spectacular inactivity, I lost half my pregnancy weight immediately and then stopped cold. It's nice that all of you lost weight, but that's not how it is for everyone, and frankly, that doesn't take away from the worthiness of breastfeeding.

What is sad, and what deserves critique, IMO, is that there is such spectacular social pressure for women to lose weight and conform to an idealized body size / shape regardless of their health needs and their baby's mothering requirements.

ITA agree with this. I was just using my experience to contradict her "statistics", which are based in nothing resembling reality. Th true point, however, is exactly what you said.

[chersolly]

Gee? What's more important: weight loss or the mother/child bond and the development of your child's brain? I think myelination is way more important than a skinny ass, but hey, that's just me.

[Still_Snarky]

Originally Posted by chersolly

Gee? What's more important: weight loss or the mother/child bond and the development of your child's brain? I think myelination is way more important than a skinny ass, but hey, that's just me.

:LOL

[Gidget]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

Add me to the exceptions to the rule- I lose more weight pregnant than breastfeeding! That said, statistically, breastfeeding women do generally lose their pregnancy weight gain faster.

Ditto. I was 20 lbs. lighter at my 6 week than I was right before I got pg with my last two. I don't know how to calculate it, but that's a large weight loss. My ob nurses started nagging about it. Finally I told her, I dont know what to tell you, I am not limiting what or how much I eat. I eat like a pig.


But I had gained it all back by 5 months with both. Sure, I would LOOOOOOVE to lose weight, but this is a temporary stage in my sons life, I have all the time after that to satisfy my vanity.

[kavamamakava]

Where does she get her information? I thought it was safe to lose 1-2 lbs per WEEK (after the initial weight loss directly after the birth), not per month.
I gain huge amounts of weight while pregnant and lose most of it by 6 months post partum. Then I hold onto about 10-15 lbs. I can't tell you what happens when I'm no longer breastfeeding because I've been breastfeeding since my first was born and am still tandem nursing my younger two.
I also eat piles of food and don't exercise except for chasing my kids around. I think that it's important to eat enough food to support your body's needs or the body is quicker to slow the metabolism for fear that there won't be enough to continue making milk. Aside from not eating enough to lose weight, many women seem to develop thyroid issues affected by hormones and this also affects the body's capability to lose weight.
I gained 70 with my first, 50 with my second and 65 with my third. By 2 weeks pp I had lost 20 lbs. By 3 weeks post partum I had lost 30 lbs. By 4 weeks pp, I had lost 35 pounds total. It's just disappearing and I'm not doing a thing about it.

Of course every woman's body is different but her basic information just goes against everything I've ever read. Plus, losing weight drastically because you're formula feeding and can afford to starve yourself or eat some crazy fad weight loss diet to get super fast results is so unhealthy. I prefer to do it the least complicated way - watch nature do her thing.

[soccerchic21]

I think I will take a slow weight loss over a higher chance of getting breast cancer and my children getting diabetes. Thanks!

BTW at my 6 week visit I had also lost almost 30 pounds and I was within 5 pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight by a year afterward. Sorry my child is more important than dropping 20 pounds in a month. :

[Firemom]

Statistically it is breastfeeding moms who gain their pre pregancy bodies back faster without even trying.

I had gained 30 lbs with my firstborn and lost of that weight except for 2 lbs within 1 week of having my baby. I wasn't trying to lose that way, thats what my body did.

[KKmama]

I don't believe that this is accurate:

In most cases, bottle-feeding moms can get to their prepregnancy weight faster than breast-feeding moms. (quote from author of the book).

Honestly, I'd want to see some good, hard data about that one. I thought that I'd read in about a zillion places that bf'ing gets you back to the pre-pg weight (for *good*) faster, better, etc. than not bf'ing.

And I know it's anecdotal... but man, the weight *flies* off me when I'm bf'ing. With both kids, I've been to pre-pg weight by ~5 mos. pp. With ds1, I ebf, and I got below my pre-pg weight (and ate like a horse). I am seeing the same trajectory with ds2. Honestly, I don't see how it would happen that way if I weren't bf'ing.

But yeah, what chersolly said is right. I do it for my kids, first and foremost.

[KKmama]

I clicked on the author's name to take a look at the book, and how's this for a warm fuzzy (not!) toward all pg women everywhere:

Quote on title page for Part One: The more pregnant I get, the more people smile at me. Why? 'Cause you're fatter than they are.--Anon

[kavamamakava]

ewwww!