Breastfeeding and weight gain...

With this pregnancy I gained 33 pounds. By 2 weeks postpartum I was just 9 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. But now... 5 weeks postpartum I'm 16 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I've been nursing both babies exclusively and I'm gaining weight. Of course, I pretty much expected it since I gained weight with both of my singletons while I nursed. In fact, after getting to within 4 pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight I ended up gaining 25 more pounds during one year of nursing them making me 14 pounds heavier than I was when I delivered them. With them it didn't seem to matter whether I exercised or dieted I just couldn't stop the weight gain. So... what is it that I do wrong? Is my body just wired wrong and I'm destined to get chunky during the first year of my babies life? I was really hoping with nursing two babies that maybe my body would be burning enough calories that I'd actually see a weight loss... or at least that I could maintain my weight. :unknw:

 

There's nothing wrong with you at all! Our bodies are actually wired to hold onto a little bit of weight while nursing "just in case" - it allows us to still be able to produce milk even if we were to somehow end up starving for a period of time. Do you know aprox how many calories a day you're currently consuming?

 

I don't know how many calories per day I'm eating right now. I'm just 5 weeks postpartum and haven't started paying a lot of attention to it yet. I was kinda hoping it would be different nursing two babies. I know with my last son I got desperate to stop gaining weight so I watched my calories very carefully and gradually cut back. It wasn't until I got under 1500 calories that I stopped the weight gain. I never could lose any weight while nursing, but I was able to stop the gain. I was SO hungry only eating 1500 calories while nursing, but I managed. Tried to fill up with lots of water and cucumbers.

 

The only thought I had was that maybe if it's possible you're restricting calories too much that your body is holding on to everything "just in case". Have you chatted with your doc about this? It's certainly possible there's other stuff going on. I don't know of anything specifically but nursing certainly changes the hormonal balance in your body so I could see how that may affect other metabolism related mechanisms in the body.

 

I guess I just figured it was bad genes. My mom said she always gained weight while she nursed. I talked to my doctor while nursing my second son and she just said, "That's weird, usually people lose weight when they nurse." and I said... yeah, so? And she had no ideas... just told me not to diet because it might decrease my milk supply. I totally ignored that advice because that was at the point I was quite desperate to stop gaining weight. It didn't have any effect on my milk supply. I've been trying to decide when I'll try to start dieting this time. I don't really want to wait until I gain a ton of weight.

 

1,500 calories while nursing sure doesn't seem like enough to me, but I get your frustration at gaining weight. I would ask your doc to check into WHY you are gaining weight nursing (not, oh, that's weird).

 

I was and am the same. I gained less weight while pregnant with the twins than I did with my singltons and went to lower than pre preg weight within a few weeks but since then have gained around 18 pounds. For the first maybe 3 months I kept a steady weight. I was really hoping to see the benifits of feeding 2 babies aas I needed to lose maybe another 20 pounds but it didn't happen.
Admittedly they don't have as many feeds now and it's really hard to make time to exercise but bf has never been the 'magic' potion that it can be portrayed as for me.

 

I just wanted to add that I've heard the same thing from a lot of other women. It seems like before I BF'd all I heard was about how the weight would melt right off...it's not been like that for me at all. All BF'ing helped me with was my stomach. My stomach did stop looking pregnant a whole lot faster this time when I was BF'ing. But as far as overall weight loss I am having a much, much harder time this time. I am a lot hungrier than I am when I'm not nursing or pregnant. I am consistently losing weight, but I'm losing an average of between 0.6 - 1 lb per week. I am doing WW. I have heard a lot of moms say that they didn't even start dieting until they weaned at a year b/c the weight just would not come off while nursing. It's like my body desperately wants to hang on to every last ounce.

 

I was googling this yesterday to try & find some more info & found this article (it's a bit older, but it had some interesting info). It mentions a study that found that aprox 22% of women gain weight while nursing.

I know for myself, I was below my pre-pregnancy weight by my 6 week check up with the girls, but that wasn't because of nursing - that was because I kept forgetting to eat. Once things were a little more stable & the girls were on more of a routine, I gained weight back (and then some! oi). At the start of THIS pregnancy, I was up 15 lbs from where I was at before the girls (and I was already overweight at that time).

 

You might want to investigate nutriticional typing or metabolic typing. It could be that you are eating the wrong sort of foods for your metablism.
Have you tried grazing? It's not like you can really sit down and eat a meal with two babies in the house anyway. It may be that your body wants to pile on a little bit of fat in to get you through lean times, and you might be able to override that message by eating a little something every two hours rather than waiting until the next traditional meal time.

 

The only time I lost weight while BFing was with Spencer (youngest of 6). Now he's down to nursing just twice/day and it's getting harder to lose weight (it's creeping up a tad, so now I really have to work more).

 

I'm one of those who gained tons of weight with pregnancy (75 lbs. WOW). I lost 45lbs. within a few weeks after birthing then held onto 20lbs! through the duration of breastfeeding (7.5 months). As soon as we stopped breastfeeding I almost instantly lost 20lbs. (and now 'just' have 10lbs. to go). Our bodies are just so amazing!

 

The studies show that you are more likely to lose, or have the greatest weight loss when you continue to nurse through babys 2nd 6 months of life (so 6-12 months of age).

 

Jess in my case it's been the third 6th months 12 to 18 months, when I have lost the most weight (apart from that intial two weeks after birth of course) both times I have breastfeed.

 

Unfortunately for me, I've only gained weight while breastfeeding. I breastfed my first until 15 months and my second until 16 months. It wasn't until I cut calories that I was able to stop gaining and not until I stopped breastfeeding that I was able to lose any weight. *big sigh* I guess I just have to try to be alright with the weight gain and know that this is a short period of time.

 

My girls are 15 months and still have 3-4 feeds in 24hrs. Admittedly the actual volume they are taking is less.
I only lost weight in the first 3 months. Especially in the last 2 months, it's steadily creeping back up.
I think the biggest issue for me is lack of time to do any exercise. And like pp said, it's probably going to be like that for a while