After giving birth, all mothers want to have their body back in shape. Breastfeeding will help bring their previous body shape. I’ll show you the relationship between breastfeeding and weight loss.
When woman is pregnant she will eat more nutritious food so she can support her baby. They will gain weight more than their baby weight. If you gain 25 pounds and your baby is only 6 pounds, after giving birth you need to lose more than 10 pounds. Many new moms complain their belly look terrible. It has stretch marks and look like you are still pregnant. Don’t worry, that is normal. You will look like pregnant for the next few weeks. This is because the uterus contracts slowly during six weeks and your stomach muscles are so stretched. Things will improve over time and breastfeeding will fasten the process. Your uterus will usually be its original condition after 5-6 weeks. To fix the belly muscle you need to do some exercise, but wait until you have stopped the bleeding. Give your body time to recover.
Breastfeeding and weight loss
When you are breastfeeding your breast will become bigger. For some women this is the worst part because it will be heavier. The only way to solve that is by breastfeeding. If you do not breastfeed, your milk will be stuck and could cause issues to your health like headache or fever.
Breastfeeding is also the best way to lose weight for moms. When you are breastfeeding you are burning calories. It’s a natural way to lose weight. Some women even become skinny because breastfeeding. To produce the milk you need an extra 500 – 800 calories per day. If you ate less than usual and there are no sufficient calories your body will burn fat. That’s why you will lose weight.
On some woman breastfeeding will increase weight. The main reason for this is because while you breastfeed, you will feel very hungry. If you don’t control what you ate, you will end up having more calories than you lose. When this happen you will need to control what you eat. You should eat low carb food. Try our nutrition tool to find low carb food. It’s better to control what you eat, because when you are breastfeeding it’s hard to do exercise and take diet pills. You will have less time and the pills can be dangerous for your baby. So there’s no other way, you need to choose what you eat. You should also drink a lot of water, fruits and vegetable.
While creating milk your body creates the same hormone as birth control pill and some women gain weight when taking the pill. This can also be the case when you gain weight while breastfeeding. Just continue breastfeeding, when it is over and the hormone goes back to normal you will lose weight easier.
Breastfeeding tips
- Use padded nursing bra. By using this bra, you don’t need to remove the whole bra when you want to breast feed.
- Ensure the food you eat have at least 1,800 calories to give you the energy to breastfeed and produce milk.
- If you are having trouble getting your milk out, try compress it with warm water, massage it, and use an electric breast pump to help get the milk.
So now you know breastfeeding and weight loss are related.
