Baby weight: how long did it take YOU?

I am just curious, for the moms out there who have had success getting to their postpartum goal weight or close to it...how long did it take?

I delivered 4 weeks ago today. I was a good weight when I started and then packed on 60 pounds. In the first 2 weeks I seriously lost 30 pounds and since then the scale will not budge. I am exclusively breastfeeding, FYI.

Stats: 5'6" / pre-preg: 137 lbs. / weight at delivery 197 lbs./ current weight: 166 lbs.

Original Post by bier:

I added approx. 300 calories/day to my intake after both pregnancies and still did not/have not lost weight while breastfeeding (granted, I haven't weighed myself in 3 weeks at this point). I just don't think my body is programmed to lose weight while breastfeeding which is okay by me.

Yeah, I might be the same...the scale hasn't moved in 3 weeks now, maybe 4. My body seems to be refusing to let go of these 25 pounds while I am nursing. We'll see what happens when I wean, this is my first time doing this.

Original Post by bier:

 

jazzygal, do you feel like all you here about your son from strangers is "Oh my goodness, look at his HAIR!"? My son was born with and still has a ton of reddish blonde hair and that's all I feel like I hear.

 Julia was also born with an amazing head of hair.  If i have to answer one more time "Did you have heartburn?"  I think I'll just tatoo a sign on my forheard that says "Nope-  no heartburn!"  I've never seen so much hair on a baby than Julia.  Even the nurses!!!  Everywhere I go; all I hear is about her hair.  And sometimes; they are ask me if she's like an alien baby and I get mad!!

and, the weight thing....yeah-  still not off.  I'm embracing it but working out for 1.5 hours 6 days a week and barely eating carbs-  and just taking one day at a time.

Original Post by vanessa1031:

Julia was also born with an amazing head of hair.  If i have to answer one more time "Did you have heartburn?"  I think I'll just tatoo a sign on my forheard that says "Nope-  no heartburn!"  I've never seen so much hair on a baby than Julia.  Even the nurses!!!  Everywhere I go; all I hear is about her hair.  And sometimes; they are ask me if she's like an alien baby and I get mad!!

 Oh, my! The heartburn question! I haven't heard it as often as you but it definitely comes up more often than not.

My daughter spent one night this weekend with the in-laws so my husband and I were at dinner with John (the baby). The people at the table next to us had a conversation about John within earshot of us.

"Well, I'm a nurse and seeing babies with lots of blonde hair is just so unusual,"

"Yes, you see babies with a lot of hair all the time but not that blonde,"

"He certainly looks older than he is with all that hair. He probably never looked like a newborn," (Seriously!)

I finally turned around and gave them my best look-of-death. They got the hint.

seriously!!

Yes, my daughter had and has a full head of hair.  Yes, she is getting her first trim today at four months.  Yes, she has blond and red highlights people pay $$$$ for.  OMG!!

glad to know i'm not alone!

and i bet it really was a good death-stare!!  i've been perfecting mine for 31 years myself...

I had my third child back in April.  I also gained 60 lbs while pregnant.  Went from 160 up to 220 on delivery day.  I lost thirty pounds within the first month.  Which left me at around 190 pounds.  I was really bothered to be that big, but everytime I tried to restrict my calories and excercise more my milk supply went down and baby was very unhappy.  I checked out a book from the library called "losing weight while breastfeeding" and was mortified to read that while breastfeeding it is only "safe" to lose .5 pounds a week or two pounds per month!!! 

For the last three months I recommitted to a twelve step program to deal with my food issues and I've been focusing on healthy eating, not weighing myself and of course building a spiritual program which sustains me through food cravings...etc...  Anyway, I figured I've lost approx another 15 lbs in that last several months without restricting or crazy excercise.  I feel 100% better.  On the days when I get down about still being a size 16, I try to focus on all of the things that I have in my life that are in no way related to my pant size, like my children, my career, my hubby.  Usually when I start to obsess about food there is something else going on for me.  Some other thing I'm not dealing with.

Good luck on your journey.  It's nice to know I'm not alone in this post pregnancy body issue thing.

I think it varies.  I have 3 children the oldest being 8.  With him I gained alot of weight 65 pounds.  Coming home from the hospital I lost about 20 pounds in 7 days.  The the rest came off about 6 months later.  My second son I gain 20 pounds and that immediatley came off like in 2 weeks.  With my last son I gained 30 pounds and have only lost 20 pounds and he is now 2.5 years old.  With him for some reason the last 10 pounds are taking me forever and I can't seem to lose any weight. 

Original Post by jazzygal:

Original Post by bier:

I added approx. 300 calories/day to my intake after both pregnancies and still did not/have not lost weight while breastfeeding (granted, I haven't weighed myself in 3 weeks at this point). I just don't think my body is programmed to lose weight while breastfeeding which is okay by me.

Yeah, I might be the same...the scale hasn't moved in 3 weeks now, maybe 4. My body seems to be refusing to let go of these 25 pounds while I am nursing. We'll see what happens when I wean, this is my first time doing this.

 I just found out that I have probably not been eating enough. On an unrelated post, I received some interesting information from nigerianboriqua who just finished her Maternal-Newborn rotation. She told me that while breastfeeding, women should be eating 300-500 calories over their PREGNANCY CALORIES. I had been eating 300 over my maintenance calories so I've been getting about 300 too few calories. That probably explains why I'm not making enough milk and not losing weight. My deficit is too great.

ajtimes24u: Those last several pounds are always the hardest, eh? The weight came off with the other pregnancies, it will come off with this one. Maybe you need to switch up your calorie intake to confuse your body and get your metabolism revved up again.

Thanks I have just recently tried that and have been doing it for about a week now so lets see if that works.

My youngest will be 1 on Jan 28th.. I was working on losing extra weight before I became pregnant and then put on 42.5 lbs with her to be 282.5 lbs at delivery. I lost that pregnancy weight by sometime in May/June so she was about 4-5 months old.  That was the fastest I've ever lost it, btw. She's my 6th child!

 I lost an additional 15 lbs or so but put it back on over Nov-Dec Holidays! So here I am working That back off plus all the rest from my other 5 babies :) I was thin with a flat stomach before my 1st child! Now I'm a size 16-18 *sigh*. At least I'm not at 24W which was my largest at one time!!

So...I lost 3.7 pounds last week! In seven days! I had been cramming myself into my non-maternity pants for about a month now. I put them on this morning and I had no trouble buttoning them.

I have been taking Fenugreek seed for about 10 days now to increase my milk supply. I also stopped "dieting." I was eating healthy food but had reduced the amount I was eating to about 1700 calories. Well, I stopped the portion control and just ate when I was hungry. I'm eating 2000-2100 calories a day and losing weight like crazy! I've also started making twice as much milk.

Boy, was I doing things totally wrong! And I've done this before so you'd think I would know what I was doing! I think the Fenugreek kicked in which made me start burning more calories since I was making more milk. All I had to do was eat more. Sheesh!

With my 1st baby I lost NO weight (actually gained some) until I weaned at 15 months and then it came off without effort (although I'd been walking and eating sensibly for 6 months), except for 5lb.

I had a baby June 1, 08.  I weighed 140lb at my 6 week post c-section check up.  I'm breastfeeding still and even though I eat 1,800 cal, go to the gym 6 days a week and have a personal trainer I still weigh 140lb!  I've been going crazy exercising for 4.5 months and I think even my trainer is stumped.  I work really really hard.  I have muscles under my fat, I have strength and vitality which is good but I'm still wearing maternity clothes and feel embarrassed when next to my skinny mom friends.  Might I add that I've studied Nutrition and eat extremely well.   I thoroughly believe I'm one of the unlucky woman that suffer from a hormonal hold on the fat whilst breastfeeding.     I love Bf-ing and feel it's the best for bub but as he is now turning ten months old I started weaning today because I'm getting so upset about feeling like a fat frumpy cow that has nothing nice to wear :(    

I would love to see some studies which look at why some bf-ing moms can't lose weight or see if there's some fix that I'm missing?   My trainer has suggested eating a lot more.  I did that at xmas and gained 3lb!  I lost it again and my body seemed to reset at the 140lb mark.  I add that I'm usually a petite 110lb and I would love to wear my old wardrobe of clothes for that size again.    Can't wait to see if the weaning does it's magic again. 

Before I got pregnant with my first baby when I was 21 I had weighed 110 5'4... I gained about 60 pounds with that pregnancy.. and could never get under 125.  Though I never did the calorie counting back then. 

With my second pregnancy I was 28 years old and gained 51 pounds and now my son is 16 months old and I am down to 118 with the help of calorie counting!!!!!!  I breastfed exclusively till around 6 months and continued breastfeeding till last week :D   

Good luck all :)

I'm down a ton of weight but my inches are still changing.  I think even if I got back down to pre-pregnancy weight I still wouldn't look "the same".  I have about 10-15 more pounds to go, which isn't a lot; but it's getting back to the SHAPE i once was.

my abs are basically flat again; amazing obliques (actually better then they were pre-pregnancy; but my muscle pack in my tummy sticks out on top then goes back in -  it's strange-  I'm not complaining, since my buddha gut is no longer-  at least I have my waist back!!!  but the puff on the top just looks a little strange.

My biggest problem with my first pregnancy was expecting my body to go back to the way it was pre-pregnancy. That never happened. I never got back to my pre-pregnancy weight yet I looked as thin as I had been before even though I weighed 15 pounds more.

Pregnancy definitely does a number on a woman's body but it's well worth it, IMO :)

You guys are making me feel horrible. xD I've gained 65 with my pregnancy and only 33 weeks. Lol. Hopefully I can get rid of it before the end of summer, with baby due May 3rd, but hearing the stories or anywhere from a month to six months doesn't sound so awesome. Lol.

Your body will normally plateau when loosing weight above like thirty pounds, I was told. My diet does it very often, just give yourself a week or two more, and if you don't loose anything, then maybe you should look at what you are eating and doing. :) Don't worry if you can't loose sixty pounds in five or six weeks, hon.

escalina-  we didn't mean to make you feel bad.  If it's any constallation; the day I found out I was pregnant, I was 118.  The day before I went into the hospital I was 180.  there are really cute summer dresses that act very well as a camoflauge to areas we want to cover up; and with you sporting a beautiful new baby this summer; everyone will see you as a glowing new momma.

I gained 70 pounds with my first pregnancy. We expect the weight to just drop right off after a baby but that rarely happens! With all the baby care, we really don't have much time for ourselves the first few months. The best we can do is try to eat healthy things and bask in the glow of our new little bundle :)

The weight will come off! I just keep telling myself this!

It does take some time, but you have to work at it!  I had my first back in '06 and it seriously took me 18 months until I started losing weight and I still never got back down to my pre-preg weight (135lbs).    I always complained about how I looked and it wasn't until after my 2nd and the CC website to realize that I didn't do a single thing to help me lose the weight!  I had my 2nd daughter last June and I was pretty motivated to get this weight off ASAP.  I unfortunately wasn't one of the lucky ones who dropped weight as a result from BF.   It really amazes me how "easy" it is to lose weight if you know what your doing :)  I said easy, not fast!  Ok, enough rambling, lol!  This time around it probably took me a good 6 months and now at 9 months pp I am where I was pre-pregnancy with my 1st born.  Best of luck and just remember it takes time.  You will have no problems whatsoever with losing all of the weight :)

well, with baby #1, i don't know.

with baby #2, i started at 157, was up 35 pounds 3 months in and stopped weighing myself (my midwives were keeping track & just not telling me, i was really stressed out).  i was at 186 6 weeks after delivery with him.  breastfed him 2 1/2 years, got down to 153 right before getting pregnant with this one... 

who's now 13 months old.  didn't weigh myself at all while pregnant with her (again, my midwives kept track & just didn't tell me).  i was at 176 6 weeks after her delivery. 

and i'm almost there-  i'm at 157.75 today.  it does not come off fast for me.  at all.  and i really, really pack it on!

I am another person who did not lose any baby weight while b/f'ing. Sucks!! I reakon I was eating far too much or the other theory about how you actually hold onto fat stores while b/f'ing. 

Pre preg I was 142 pounds, full term 183. Two weeks after giving birth I was about 157 but when bubs was 6 months old I had climbed back up to 164! I was so depressed about it all the time, I started reading up about low carb, weight watchers, calorie counting etc and got motivated to lose it.

I started using weight watchers point system while still b/f'ing (albeit I had started weaning bubs) as they cater to new mums and add extra points on for women b/f'ing. I started a diary and logged all the food I was eating, cut back on bad carbs, limited sugar and managed to lose 5 kgs (9 pounds) in 7 weeks!

I only dropped about 5 pounds over the next five months down to 151, but I pretty much did this without even thinking about dieting, just keeped away from sugar and avoided overeating heavy carb loaded meals.

Over the next 3 months I still didn't pay too much attention of my diet and lost another 7 pounds down to 144 pounds. Finally, after a serious 3 months of watching my diet I have lost another 10 pounds down to 134! So...It took me 16 months to get back to pre-pregnancy weight, and now I'm actually lighter given my preoccupation with everything I eat.  I'm aiming for 127-130 as I still have some belly (most of it's gone) but mostly love handles to lose (I had these pre preggos anyway).

So yeah, anyone can do it! I'm sure I could have lost it earlier and/or lost it faster (given the 8 months I basically did nothing special and still lost it) but I decided when losing weight was getting me depressed, that it didn't matter how long it took me to lose it, so long as the scale kept going down and not up I was happy. Steady and slow is also a good way to lose weight as it is harder to put on again. Losing it fast can mean gaining it back fast etc.

Anyway, try not to worry about it, and have fun enjoying your bubs! We are entitled to carry around that extra weight given all the hard work we did carrying them and b/f'ing them! Be patient and you will lose it in no time I'm sure. All the best :)