Breastfeeding And Weight Loss True Or False
The breastfeeding weight loss controversy rears its ugly head again, and no matter how many studies are done and how many researchers are involved, or how many angles they look at it; the results are just the same: it’s a stalemate. The mothers that are breastfeeding and the mothers that are not, are both losing or not losing weight at the same rate.
During the course of a normal pregnancy, a woman will gain approximately 25-35lbs, (some more because of medical conditions); and then nearly 14lbs of that weight gain will be lost entirely during the act of childbirth. Approximately 20lbs will be left for the postpartum mother to lose and this is where the opinions are divided. A lot of mothers say it is the act of breastfeeding that helps them lose the weight, and almost exactly as many on the other side of the fence say that they are losing just as much just as fast without breastfeeding at all—-or the breastfeeding weight loss only occurs after they stop breastfeeding.
There have been lots of studies on the subject, and the latest research interviewed mothers who were breastfeeding and those that were not, and followed their weight loss progress over a period of several months to a year, calculating weight lost over the time period. To no one’s surprise, the results were evenly splayed over the graph showing that women who were breastfeeding lost just as much weight just as quickly as those who were not breastfeeding; and those who were breastfeeding did not lose any weight (or even gained weight) just the same as those mothers who were not. Totally inconclusive results.
One of the biggest questions for new mothers who were worried about breastfeeding and weight loss was how long would it take before they were back to the figure they had before they were pregnant, and would they be able to count on weighing as much as they did before. The researchers gave the usually expected answers that if the women followed a good exercise regimen and watched what they ate, then they could see results in about 8-12mos after giving birth. Some would take a little longer, and some would come in right around the 8mo time frame.
One thing that the researchers in all the studies performed kept emphasizing was that the female body is set up in such a way as to be able to perform the miracle of childbirth on its own time line, and just as importantly, it is designed to shed the gained pounds on its own time line to maintain its health and well being. There are numerous assaults to the body during pregnancy from surges of hormones, to the physical stress that takes place, to the traumatizing effects of childbirth itself; and for new mothers to want to speed up the postpartum recovery period and the breastfeeding weight loss that takes place, would only do damage to the body in the long run.
The final say in the breastfeeding weight loss debate is that for the majority of postpartum women, it doesn’t really matter if you breastfeed or not; the weight loss experience is about evenly divided in results. The women who did breastfeed lost just as much or just as little weight as those who did not. The results varied accordingly within each group, and researchers also found that calcium supplements didn’t have any bearing on weight loss either.
So what this all boils down to is, you can research all you want on blog sites on the Internet and advice sites about breastfeeding as an adjunct to quicker weight loss; but take caution and be sure to read both sides of the controversy. The research does not back up the fact that breastfeeding helps with more rapid weight loss: in fact, it is just the opposite—-the results of all the research is a stalemate and pretty much evenly divided right down the middle.
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