Breastfeeding why am i not losing weight

Now I just want to preface and say that you just created a human being! We have a lot to focus on, including our mental health. Give yourself grace! The typical weight gain recommendation for someone with a BMI of So where does this pound weight gain get distributed? Remember this weight gain during pregnancy is a guideline.

Check out this video I made on weight gain during pregnancy. During pregnancy, your body begins to store fat around the stomach, hip, and thigh areas for 9 months, in preparation for breastfeeding. After you deliver the baby, many women lose about half that weight gain within the first 6 weeks, then the rest may slowly come off over the next months postpartum 2. Exclusively breastfeeding mothers produce an average of oz per day and the energy required to produce that milk is about calories.

Many moms, however, are able to have an abundant milk production with calories 3. It is NOT recommended to go below calories, as this can affect your supply. Your body utilizes fat stores for the production of breastmilk. If women do not consume the extra calories, then body stores are used to maintain lactation 4.

As I explained above, the body will generally hold on to pounds to protect your supply in case of illness or calorie restriction. Breastfeeding requires more energy than the brain! Breastfeeding is very demanding on your body. Are you choosing cookies, pastries, soda, white bread etc or are you eating fruits, vegetables, and whole grains? In saying this, more and more women are reaching for heavy laden lactation cookies, Starbucks Pink drinks, Body Armor, sugar filled treats etc to help with milk supply, however this can easily pack on the calories and weight.

How many of these cookies and drinks do you need to actually boost your supply? Supply and demand is the driving force of milk production.

Sure there are herbs and foods that can help with milk production, but the driving force is milk removal. Ensure either baby is efficiently draining the breast, or your pump is efficiently removing your milk.

If this continues and you are going below calories, you might notice your supply dipping as well. I continually ask myself, why?

Why am I allowing myself to do this!!!?? With my son, breast feeding let me lose the weight so fast! Not this time! Thank you for this!! You are absolutely not alone and in good company. Be kind to yourself and remember that this is temporary. If you want to lose weight, you can go for that at some point. This is the best article i have read about my struggle. I am 9 months PP and i have tried almost everything to loose the pregnancy weight.

I tried the calorie restriction, extreme workout, intermittent fasting, eating clean still on it but i am not loosing anything. I just decided to not focus anymore on that. I will continue to work out, to eat well, give the best to my baby and i know when i will stop the breastfeeding i will have nice muscles.

Thank you very much for those words. This is temporary. Reading this while pumping at 6am helped me remember what truly matters in life and genuinely helped me let go of my weight related worries. I love being a new mother. It is a more rewarding and beautiful feeling than I have ever felt in the past from my workouts, being in great physical shape, having a body I thought I liked better. Now I think I can love my body at this stage of life also, and for much better reasons.

Thank you so much for writing all of this so beautifully and to all the other mommas for sharing their struggles openly! Best of luck to all and your babies, too. Thank you for your beautiful comment, Shreya! This is exactly what I needed to hear! I have been stressing myself so much to lose the weight. Prior to my pregnancy, I lost pounds naturally. I also have a thyroid condition from years before pregnancy.

But I feel disgusting. I just want the weight gone now. You are not alone, Chloe. And we can be so hard on ourselves and the expectations we put on our bodies — and that society puts on our bodies — is awful and cruel punishment. I hope these help:. This made me feel so much better to read. I just weaned my daughter after 22 months of breastfeeding. I tried weaning at 18 months but became very depressed.

I have been stuck! I am now 3 weeks post breastfeeding and I feel as though I might be regaining energy and my metabolism may be catching up. For those women who aren't able to produce significant amounts of breast milk, weight loss can actually happen when the nursing cycle ends, rather than during the breastfeeding process. For those women, weaning signals to the body that you no longer need to produce breast milk -- and store the associated fat.

We know, weight loss postpartum is a struggle. But try not to let it influence your desire to breastfeed Do whatever is best for you. How exactly does this relate to weight loss?