When you talk about Breastfeeding It is often explained that one of the benefits of breastfeeding, in this case for the mother, is that Easily recover your usual weight, both because of the calorie expenditure produced by breastfeeding and because the fat in breast milk comes from the fats deposited in the hip and legs of the woman.
However, there are women who realize that not only do they not lose weight while breastfeeding, not only do they not lose weight, but they gain it. And they see that they gain weight, feeling strange when they hear others explain how quickly they lost weight with breastfeeding and, in a certain way, deceived, when someone tells them "of course, if breastfeeding is fattening." Let's talk about this today: when breastfeeding makes you fat instead of losing weight.
Producing milk generates a caloric expenditure of about 550 kcal per day
Let's start by knowing how milk production works for gross mode. As we explained in his day, the fat that women accumulate in the hip and thighs is destined to be part of breast milk. Come on, that milk is formed with these deposits, and only that already makes them begin to reduce a little. Further, the mere fact of producing milk causes the body to consume about 550 kcal per day, which are the equivalent of running for almost an hour (at a leisurely pace).
In Babies and more Women who breastfeed lose twice as much weight in the first year after birth as those who do not breastfeed, according to a studyThese two factors suggest that breastfeeding slims, and in many cases, the majority (so it is generalized when talking about weight and breastfeeding), it is so. That high calorie intake, along with a diet that does not vary much from what was taken before delivery (or a little more), makes the woman lose weight little by little.
However, there are women who do not lose weight (or gain weight)
I am an amateur runner. I go running four times a week and do 30-40 kilometers a week, and I don't lose weight. I have a belly. Not much, but I have it, and some people don't understand how I might not lose it if I go running four days. But I do: my nutrition is better because I often consume more sugars than I should, or refined foods, and why my rest is also improvable. Rest badly, or little, and consequently feeling tired for the day causes stores to consume more foods rich in carbohydrates of rapid absorption, and this is a problem for the weight, because this type of hydrates fatten more.
The fact is that when you spend a little with the sugar, the body causes an increase in insulin production to take from the blood all the glucose that you have put in it and that produces a kind of low sensation, which leads you to need again more glucose, entering a vicious circle quite dangerous for weight (more sugar, more insulin, more insulin, more feeling hungry, more feeling hungry, more sugar ...).
A mother doesn't usually rest well, so one way to fool fatigue is by eating things that bring energy. If in addition to this you are breastfeeding, the demand for calories is higher, and many feel they have a ravenous hunger, which in some cases would come to be called "absolute anxiety." In a situation of hunger, and little rest, when he realizes that it is four o'clock and has not yet eaten, what do you think a woman ends up eating? Well, just like me when I feel tired because I have gone for a run and I have not rested well at night: energy bars, chocolate, snacks, juices ... everything that starves you as soon as possible, but that can make you fat.
In other words: breastfeeding thins if the calories lost are not compensated through food. If instead hunger is voracious and we add fatigue, you can fall into the solution of eat hypercaloric foods and then in the period of breastfeeding it does not get thinner, but it gets fatter.
In this case, if it is your situation, the ideal is to eat about five times a day to not let hunger increase greatly (with 3 meals you will arrive at each meal so hungry that you will destroy everything), controlling the consumption of fast-absorbing hydrates (better those of slow absorption, such as those of unrefined foods) and having very clear the recommendation to try to consume 5 daily servings of fruits and vegetables, or what is the same, trying to eat a healthy diet.
In Babies and more Slimming after pregnancy: seven things you need to know to lose weight after childbirthBut ... I don't eat so badly and gain weight
Perhaps you tell me that at the beginning you were one of these women tired with a terrible hunger who ate the first thing they caught but then stopped being it, you started eating better and the weight continued to increase, or did not go down. So then we will have to think about an endocrine issue, of hormones.
Menopause, get fat? Well, there are women who do, who get fat from menopause. And there are others that do not, that do not gain weight despite having the rule. The lactation period is a period in which there is no menstruation because estrogen levels are very low ... this means that it's like a "temporary menopause", and there are women who retain more fluids, who suffer more markedly the slowing down of the metabolism (the lack of estrogen causes the metabolism to go a little more slowly and at rest less calories are consumed) and who notice when they return the period they begin To lose those retained fluids.
On the other hand, have you had a control analysis after delivery? Because pregnancy is one of the times that causes more hormonal changes and after childbirth, when everything should return to its place, it does not always do so. There is a situation of malfunction of the hormonal balance of the thyroid which is called "postpartum thyroiditis", an inflammation of the thyroid gland.
This, which you probably have never heard, happens 3-16% of women (as you see, it is very frequent), and causes two states ... initially a phase in which some weight could be lost, because a transient hyperthyroidism occurs and then a second phase in which everything can be normalized or produced a hypothyroidism with its associated symptoms, among which we find tiredness, weight gain and depression (often considered postpartum depression), among others.
In Babies and more Postpartum thyroiditis, a disease that alters your weight and mood after delivery: symptoms and treatment Postpartum thyroiditis it is solved only 12-18 months after delivery (when many stop breastfeeding and associate weight loss at weaning), although in 20% of women hypothyroidism remains.
But this is not all. Many women have hypothyroidism already before pregnancy and before delivery, without being diagnosed, or because the controls have not been made, or because they are being considered as normal results that should be taken into account. According to current guidelines, the maximum value of TSH is 4.0 mlU / L, but for a time these values were much higher, and were considered normal hypothyroidism that could have been controlled. In this situation, a pregnancy can unbalance the thyroid and make the woman suffer more hypothyroidism that is neither diagnosed, medicated nor controlled.
In Babies and more Slimming after pregnancy: a very healthy biweekly menu while breastfeeding (or not)And also, add genetics
And to all these factors, add the genetics of each woman. There are those who eat everything and do not get fat, there are those who only get fat if they eat everything and they have to get fat eat what they eat (although this must be seen if it is genetic or if there are endocrine problems). The fact is that no two women are the same, and although in normal conditions breastfeeding thins, because the calorie expenditure is very high, there are situations, as you see, in which not only does it not happen, but it also increases in weight.
Why? Well, because of any of the causes we have described, or because more than one is brought together. In any case, and as I often say (it is my opinion and my recommendation), Ideally, all women should be tested after birth.. I cannot understand that during pregnancy you look at them with a magnifying glass and once they give birth to healing, forget about them. And not for a matter of gaining more or less weight, but because hormonal disorders affect the vitality, energy, mood with which you get up and, consequently, the way you are going to take care of your child. Oh, and breastfeeding, which major hypothyroidism can cause poor milk production, and this is easily fixed by regulating thyroid hormone levels.
Photos | iStock
In Babies and more | Postpartum thyroiditis, Foods rich in iodine, an essential nutrient, Do not breastfeed for aesthetic reasons
