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Breastfeeding
MaggieF516
member
Random BF/Weight loss question
MaggieF516
member
I have lost 50 lbs since I had my little one and actually weigh 10 lbs less than when I got pregnant. I can't help but think that this must be related to BFing. I've been eating somewhat better, but nothing substantial and previously weight loss was always a decent amount of effort. Unfortunately I've been considering stopping BF because it is really having an impact on my productivity at work when I have to take breaks 3x a day for half an hour. I'm just curious if anyone else who had success losing weight while BFing put weight back on or gained weight when they stopped? I'm assuming that BF is burning 500 calories a day and I might need to burn an additional 500 a day to maintain the weight loss.
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Re: Random BF/Weight loss question
I also ended up 10 lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight after BFing for 6 months. When I started to introduce solids to DS and he started nursing less, I found my appetite started to decline in proportion to the reduction in milk I was making. I didn't need to consume so many calories anymore. Depending on the source, I've read that BFing burns 500-750 calories daily.
If you don't want to put the weight back on when you reduce or stop BFing, just listen to what your body is telling you!
Congrats on the weight-loss and keeping up the pumping this long! I've lost 55 pounds- mostly from BF so I have the same concern for when we wean and I don't have an answer on that.
But I just wanted to share my pumping at work experience. I started to get really burnt-out/frustrated with pumping around 5-6 months and felt like I wasn't getting as much done either. I was pumping twice at work and sometimes on the way home, but I started spacing out my pumps a little bit and then dropped one. Now I pump once at lunch time and on the way home, but I still get as much as I did before. Also, I stopped rinsing my parts after the lunch pump. (I looked around online and read that many work-pumpers do the same. Makes sense to me, since milk can be at room temp. for up to 6 hours.) That helped a lot too because now I can just pump, put my milk in my little cooler, stuff everything back in my pump bag, and get back to work. I don't have to disassemble everything, run to the bathroom, rinse, lay it out to dry, or reassemble for the next pump and that saves so much time.
Also, do you have a pumping bra? I would go nuts real quick if I didn't have that so I could have my hands-free while I pump. I usually answer emails while I pump.
Sorry to not answer your question at all and give you advice on something you didn't ask for (and if you have already decided to stop pumping, you still deserve a big round of applause because six months is a great accomplishment) but I was really ready to quit a month ago and after making those changes, I've gotten a second wind.