Expert: ruth kraft - 7/8/2009

Question
I have been breastfeeding for 12 weeks now and I have heard that the weight just comes off with breastfeeding, but that is not true for me.  I was wondering why I have not been able to lose any weight with breastfeeding.  I also heard that if I start to exercise too much, my milk supply could decrease, but I really want to start to lose my pregnancy weight.  Is it okay to do atleast 10 to 20 minutes on an eliptical machine?

Answer
well, with breastfeeding it takes an extra 500 calories to nurse. so if you eat much more than that, you may not lose weight. Breastfeeding also  helps reduce the size of your uterus  which gives the impression you lost weight but really just going back to more prepregnancy size . Depending on how much weight you gained while pregnant will also mean you might have to work harder to lose it. You absolutaly can work out like you noted without your milk going down. too much working out to effect your milk would be like 3 hours a day kind of thing. not an hour a day . If you are dehydrated it can make it harder ot make milk so make  sure you stay hydrated.  I hope that helped :)