Expert: ruth kraft - 1/23/2009

Question
Most of the information that I've read about breastfeeding and weight is that you usually lose it. With my first child i breast fed for 14mths and i gain weight (at least 30kg) i reached the weight of 106kg. After 6yrs i had finally got back to a weight of 64kg. I finally plucked up enough courage to have another child and promised my self that i will make sure i watched my weight and try not to gain it again. My new child is now 9mths and i am still breast feeding. I am watching ever so carefully what i am eating and doing more exercise than pre-pregnancy (on average 1hr a day walking) and my weight is continually gaining (reached 78kg already). It's making me sick. I don't know what to do. Where I'm going wrong. Why I'm not losing it. What is wrong with me. Could you explain to me why this could be happening and what i could possibly do to stop the weight gain.

Answer
I will apologize for not knowing what the conversation is in kg to pounds... but I will explain what I know....

the body needs approx 10 pounds of fat weight to help you produce the milk you need to nurse. Nursing also tends to make you want to eat more foods as well because you burn an extra 500 calories a day just by producing milk.  

i would imagine that those are both factors that are going into it , and I also would think that you are a little older as well as you said you waited 6 years to have another one. As you get older, your ability to gain weight is easier and it is harder to work off.  plus your physical body changes wether you want it to or not which makes you not have the same figure as you did perviously. That is all hormonal and comes from being a woman, not because you are nursing. had you never had children, the same thing would have happened.

There are women who never breastfeed and still gain the same weight and still have breasts that sag...  

my suggestion would be to maybe get your thyroid checked and rule out anything that could be medically wrong, and then take some deep breaths, know that you have done something amazing for your children by nursing and bring them into this world. do what you can to maintain  your weight, eat as healthy as you can like you've been, maybe eat for your blood type etc... and try not to be so hard on yourself. Appearance is a hard thing to deal with in this society. I struggle with it myself as I have been a very heavy woman most of my life. Emotionally it can make you a wreck inside because of how you are judged outside... it seems to me there is emotional work that should be done too, or the weight wont go away... Most weight that women put on is emotional weight, even if it seems to happen during marriage, or during pregnancy etc.... hormones play a part, but the rest is what we are going through emotionally.

I wish you well and you are able to find a place where you can become content with who you are and maybe not so much what your size is.... I think there isn't a woman out there who doesn't go through this... and its not easy. ((hugs))