We already know that breastfeeding is superb for babies, fantastic for toddlers, and a total fetish for some men. Nursing your baby helps contract your uterus faster after you give birth. It also helps you lose the baby weight sooner. But that theory often gets some eye rolls because the making you skinny thing doesn't work for all women. And now the latest statistic says that women who breastfeed end up being thinner later in life.
So let’s get this straight. Not only do breastfeeding women not have to worry about the annoyance of making formula and washing those 397 bottle parts, but they get to be thinner for life? What in the world?!?
The deal is this: Researchers at the University of Oxford say that the benefits of breastfeeding for mom last even 30 years after she’s given birth. The hard truth is that most women who had kids have higher body mass indexes later in life than women who never had any babies. But breastfeeding women stayed slimmer – a one percent drop in BMI with every six months of breastfeeding. So those who nursed their babes into toddlerhood are probably still fitting into their skinny jeans 30 years later.
I can just feel all the women who didn’t breastfeed getting annoyed along with the women who did and aren’t at a weight they are comfortable with. This is what the study says … but why is this so? Well, making breastmilk takes energy and that can burn up to 500 calories a day. So if you aren’t eating more than what you typically did before you were pregnant, you should lose about a pound a week. Then you magically stay thinner longer. They make it sound so easy. I don’t know about other breastfeeding moms, but for me, nursing my twins just made me more hungry.
Still, this is a study, and based on statistics and so it’s not always the case for everyone. Should a woman breastfeed just to be thinner? Definitely not for the vanity part. But being at a healthy weight can reduce doctor visits and major health problems. So it could be argued that breastfeeding your baby is not only good for the little one, but for you in the short and long term as well -- health-wise.
So tell me, do you believe this study or not? So far, have you lost weight faster from breastfeeding?
Image via Caitlinator/Flickr
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Comments 17
The key point of this study being: "if you aren’t eating more than what you typically did before you were pregnant, you should lose about a pound a week.
It goes back to a healthy weight is maintained through 70% diet and 30% exercise. Breastfeeding is not a magical weight loss process, it's just good for the baby.
"Then you magically stay thinner longer." Are you nuts? I'm really beginning to wonder about you?
@mama.leigh... "breastapo"... HAHAHAHA. I love that.
Weight loss has everything to do with an individual's body, and how it reacts to certain foods and activity. Some people can't gain weight if they ate sugar straight from the tin 24/7, and others can't lose weight on a steady diet of carrot sticks. Breastfeeding links are incidental, at best.
True, Betsy, it is a most unscientific study if it just uses correlation as evidence. I haven't seen the study, so I cannot say if correlation was the only thing studied.
My body reacted differently after both pregnancies. When my first was born, I dropped all the weight and was in my pre-pregnancy size clothes in 3 months. With my second, I'm still at the same weight I was a month after he was born (he is 12.5 months). I am eating no differently and I do work out. So, who knows!!!