Do all breastfeeding women lose the baby weight? NO. Breastfeeding can make you lose weight may be a lie. What if this was told to make women breastfeed without making excuses. Well. That sounds like someone stabbed you from the back twice. Doesn’t it?
There are a lot of women who have fallen for this myth. They have breastfed their infants until a dragging 14 to 18 months. Later they realized that their body might never bounce back again. So how does this happen? Why is it that some women lose weight and get back to their shape? Why is it that others have to sweat in gallons to lose their weight?
The answer does not lie in breastfeeding.
What Are the Factors Affecting Your Weight after Pregnancy?
There are various factors that determine your body’s ability to lose weight. They are your sleeping habits, postpartum depression, diet and how active you are. Frequent hormonal changes put the body under stress and make gain weight. Other important factors include your weight before pregnancy and weight gain during pregnancy. Breastfeeding helps your uterus shrink back. But it does only a little for your body’s weight loss compared to the whole list of other factors.
How Your Body Works during Breastfeeding Years?
So what happens in your body when you breastfeed? You burn calories like any other physical activity. It turns, you get quite hungry often. Then you eat food rich in essential nutrients to feed your baby. This is your food cycle during breastfeeding years. There is no way that you can lose weight through your diet during this period.
Let’s have a look at your hormone cycle. You breastfeed, which leads to the production of hormones Prolactin. It does the following things.
Functions of Prolactin in Breastfeeding
- It prompts the refilling of milk in your breasts for the baby to feed.
- It slows down the body’s fat metabolism. In other words, the fats get stored in the body instead of burning as a fuel.
- Like it’s not enough, it works as an appetite stimulant. In other words, it makes you want food more!
With all due respect to nature’s creation of women’s body breastfeeding cannot make you lose weight.
Maybe some women have it in their genes to lose weight after pregnancy. Maybe some women have a supportive family that helps to ease off her postpartum depression. Maybe for some women, her hormones are in line with her thinking. It could be any of these reasons or all.
But for other women out there don’t worry and become stressed that you are not able to shed the baby weight. You are the creator of a new life and you should be proud. At the end of the day what matters is not whether you get back your shape. But, that you have been in an incredible phase of your life that you will be proud forever. Be a happy mommy no matter how you look!
