I have a love/hate relationship with breastfeeding.
Sometimes I hate it. Like when I sit down to nurse and inevitably, the doorbell will ring, or Mya will have to go potty, or the girls will start tearing each other’s hair. Or when I’m in a public place and Jacob refuses to nurse, effectively ensuring a spray of milk across the room when he pulls himself off. Or the fact that my life occurs in two hour spurts, racing to get everything done before he needs to eat again.
And sometimes I love it. Like that time right before bed, when he is all clean and fresh, and that little hair patch on the top of his head is sticking straight up, and it’s just me and my boy, gazing into each other’s eyes, rocking softly in the gentle breeze of the fan as the day fades around us. Or knowing that I am all he needs, 100%-I am his world right now, in every sense of the way. And the fact that all of those benefits that you hear touted all of the time-I am providing that to him.
He’s not actually eating in this picture, but it looks like it, doesn’t it? Gotcha.
But the one thing that I really don’t get about breastfeeding is this:
Why people claim it makes you lose weight.
Because it doesn’t.
It totally doesn’t.
I went to the doctor’s yesterday, and lo and behold, I haven’t lost a single pound since my three week check-up. Not one. Even after I starved myself all morning in a vain attempt to budge that stupid scale. Now, while I am not blaming my lack of weight loss on breastfeeding, after two kids, I really have found that my body does not lose weight while I’m nursing.
Call me crazy, but biologically, it makes sense, right? Wouldn’t your body hold on to a little extra fuel in order to feed your baby, say through, a famine or some other natural disaster I’m sure our ancestors were used to encountering?
With both kids, I didn’t lose any weight until after I stopped breastfeeding. Although with Ada, I was still nursing her when I got pregnant again (that’s always fun, right, ladies?), but by that time she was only nursing at night anyways.
And I’m not the only one who has said that. I’ve heard from a few moms now that they have experienced the same thing. My aunt described it as feeling like she had an “extra layer” on when she was nursing. Granted, I have a few “extra layers” on at the moment, but I definitely feel like it’s harder to lose weight while nursing. For one thing, I’m always starving, and for another, I feel like my body just won’t give it up. That baby might be hungry!
Your thoughts? Anyone else feel like that whole breastfeeding-makes-you-lose-weight-soo-fast thing is a complete and total myth?
For me it definitely has. I gained about 35 and by 6 weeks had lost 25 and by 10-12 weeks had 5 to go. 4.5 months out and I still have those 5 so I think they are staying with me till I’m done nursing. I eat Sooo much though- were talking probably 2500 calories a day at least so if I was eating like that and not BFing I think I’d have gained weight by now. My annoying myth- breast feeding doesn’t keep your period away. My came at 10 weeks!!
Wow that sucks! I never got mine until 8 months out. Bummer!
I think to write it off completely as a myth would be a serious over-generalization. Everyone’s body is different, and the way you lose weight and how easy or hard it is for any given person is related heavily to genetics. Diet is also something that comes into play when considering all the variables that could be responsible. You’re right that it does make a lot of sense to have a “layer” to be able to substantially feed baby though. After T was born I breasted LITERALLY constantly and was back down to my pre-pregnancy weight within 3 weeks. Whether that can be fully attributed to breast feeding or not I really can’t say (it may have also had to do with the fact that I never had time to eat because I was nursing so much!). I think everyone’s experiences are different and some things that help some people lose weight may not help others BUT don’t give up! You can lose that weight! Maybe you just haven’t found the right formula for it yet, but you totally can. Remember that time you were a bad ass and did that race? When you were a mom of 2?? You can do anything! Don’t get discouraged. 🙂
Bah humbug. 🙂 You’re absolutely right, everyone is different and some women literally have the fat sucked right off of them. I’m just not one of them!
Shortly after my son was born he started having tummy issues and the doctor told me to abstain from all dairy and soy. And since dairy and soy are in like, everything, I got really, really skinny. Because of this, I think a lot of my friends just assumed that breastfeeding makes you lose a ton of weight and when it didn’t work that way for them they looked at me like I was the devil. LOL! We eventually found out the issue wasn’t dairy or soy after all, but an antibiotic he’d been on that had changed the constitution of his little tummy, so I was able to go back to eating whatever I wanted. (And now my muffin top is back in full swing.) I say try not to worry too much about losing the weight; you need extra calories now anyway since your body is providing so much nourishment to your itty bitty. Keep up the good work! 😉
Im pretty sure it depends on the person. Everyone is different. Although in one of your recent blogposts I thought I heard you say you lost 34 pounds already. WHAT? That’s awesome- I am never that lucky. I am still only about 23 pounds down and that number hasn’t moved in a few weeks. Anyways- just give it more time. As for the breastfeeding thing- I have never tried NOT breast feeding- so I can’t say for sure but I am pretty sure it really helps me out a lot. Usually at 6 months I’m down to prep regnant weight without dieting.
True, true, I can’t speak to what it’s like to NOT breastfeed. Maybe I’d be even worse off, gah!
I was slightly embarrassed to admit my own explanation for the “breastfeeding = birth control myth” until I read Darlene’s comment. My cycles came back at FIVE weeks postpartum with BOTH. My OB thought I was crazy until it happened again four weeks later and every month until I was pregnant again. Seriously! I’m jealous of all you women who don’t have your cycles back for 6 months to a year postpartum!
That being said, I also get really annoyed when women insist that breastfeeding = weight loss because it most certainly does NOT for me and somehow, when I hear that, I feel like I’m some weirdo odd-ball, because, not only do I struggle even more to lose weight while breastfeeding, but I also have my regular cycles back at 5 weeks postpartum. But then I have to remember that God made my body uniquely…and perfectly…just the way He meant to. But, seriously, this post is refreshing - because it’s proof that I’m not as weird as I thought! 😉
Teems says
Although weight loss isn’t my motivation I had unrealistic expectations based on the way people talk about its effect. I loss all but the last 8bs of 43. However that was true at 1 month post postpartum. Not a lb less since then. I really thought that my 4 month old would nurse me thin by now. Hahaha
Same here!! I never budge after that initial big weight loss! I’m dreading losing the rest of this weight, it’s going to be a challenge!