I gained 35 pounds, went from 130 to 165. My son is now 1, but about 3-4 weeks after he was born i was back to pre pregnancy weight, all but five pounds. I now weigh about 136, but thats a little heavy for me. Anyway, i know that i lost the weight so rapidly because i breast fed. Your body burns about 500 calories a day making the milk and expelling it when you nurse. Also when your a new mom your so busy feeding and caring for your baby, you tend to not eat nearly as much as you did, and that also aids in weight loss. Before my son, i would eat when i was bored, now especially since he is walking, i hardly have time for anything. So breastfeeding is how i did it, and now im maintaining my weight by eating healthier and chasing after my son, thats my exercise. Also i drinks tons of water, my problem is i cant resist certain junk foods, so i just cant lose anymore weight, im just maintaining.

Im only 2 1/2 weeks pp but I am not nearly back to my before pregnancy weight... I was a 130 about.. and gained 51lbs due to bedrest in my pregnancy... Now I'm back from 181 to a 162, but thats not nearly what I was..

I look like a kangaroo with that flab hanging called my bellyfat...

I breastfeed too, but to me it seems its not doing anything...

Well congrats to you though, that you made it down that far!!

__________________

That flab isn't belly fat; it's stretched out skin that hasn't recovered yet. I gained about 50 pounds (from 145 to 195) during an uncomplicated pregnancy, and was back down to prepregnancy weight by my 6-week postpartum check. Your body just grew an entire human being, and then pushed it out of you. Give it some time to adjust back to normal.

__________________

i knew that i'd have some extra skin, but really, that WHOLE flab being skin? cause i mean.. it is not like there is just skintissue on me.. there is acutally stuff underneath the skin, which feels like fat lol

did you have stretchmarks? did they go back after you lost your weight or your skin got back to normal?? i dont ask for having no stretch marks at all, but i hope i dont have the red lines for the rest of my life?!

__________________

Your uterus is still going down so right now what your feeling under that skin is all the organs and everything that have to go back into place. I had a c-section and when I looked at my belly [a week after I had the baby] it was horrible! I still looked 8/9 months pregnant and my skin was hanging [I guess they call it the mother apron? lol] I couldn't workout [as hard as I wanted to] until my 6wk mark and once my doctor told me OKAY, I started running right away. I have been running 3-4 times a week [with a 10lb weighted vest] and doing very vigorous workouts at the track/stadium bleachers. I have been eating lots of lean meats, protein rich foods, veggies, fruits... and drinking lots of water. My belly is so much more smaller than the week after I had him. Its not as saggy anymore and I don't have to lift the skin up to see my c-section inscision [ya it was that bad]. Trust me... once you start working out and eating SUPER healthy you will see progress every month. Your belly won't stay that way. My sister always told me the only thing that would fix my belly was surgery. Its only been 4months since I had my baby and im already proving her wrong. I have already lost 55lbs [I gained 80 while pregnant] and my stomach is shrinking.... Its really not that hard. You just have to be dedicated [VERY dedicated] and motivated!

For the OP- BFeeding doesn't always "garantee" weight loss. I have a friend who BFed for 6months and none of the weight was coming off. When she stopped BFeeding the weight just dropped right off. I never BFed [I tried but I wasn't producing anything... no matter what I did] and I still managed to drop 55 of the 80lbs I gained while pregnant in about 3months time. [First month I didn't workout due to recovery].

I've read that about breast feeding. Cool
I didn't breastfeed and I had no trouble losing the baby weight. I gained 40 pounds with each pregnancy. At the 6 week checkup ( with both children) I weighed 124 pounds. It took me about 2 or 3 months to get down to my fighting weight of 112 pounds after that. Now my kids are 12 and 8 and No more walks in the stroller.. no picking them up .. no 3 am feeding.. rats! I long for the calorie burning days of infancy and toddler years... I should adopt a child so I can lose 10 pounds... lol You new mommies are so lucky to have your own little personal trainers.

I got all my stretch marks at the very, very end. They aren't affected in any way by weight loss (or anything else, other than genetics). They do fade out to silver after a while.

__________________

For me breastfeeing didn't make much difference. I was SO hungry all the time, that I just replaced what I was burning. I only started to lose my 60 pound weight gain after I started exercising at 6 weeks and watching my diet.

Give your body a chance to recover from your 9.5 month journey. Someone told me 9 months up and 9 months down and they were right in my case.

Good luck and keep us updated!

When I gave birth to claryss around 5 years ago, I keep on complaining about the extra pounds (40 lbs to be exact) i gain, the stretch marks and the stress of being a mother. My mom gave some cool tips and here are some: breastfeed and eat green veggies and fruits (lost nearly 20 lbs in 3 wks), take vitamin e capsule to minimize the marks and smile a lot. Being a single mother is hard but its all worth it.

__________________
SPAM DELETED

After I gave birth to my wonderful son, I had to lose 35 lbs ..seemed hard at the beginning, then I started some jogging after the third month..I lost about 20 pounds after 8 months, but there were 15 more to go..and this seemed impossible. So I started also diet pills... Used to take proactol. They really helped me a lot , and now I see they even have great campaigns for new mothers...here is one of them w8loss-tips.com/weight-loss-after-pregnancy.html

I gained 20 pounds. But I am breast feeding now and get up at 1am, 5am every morning and take care of the baby by myself. I still have obvious tummy.

The answer is the 3E: Exercise, exercise, exercise...