The Day After

I was covered in rashes!  Yeeks!  I must be allergic to the ointments she applied on me.  Well, that gave me one more reason to say no.  As a matter of courtesy, I did call her back to give her my reply (which I had already told her the day before).

Did I get back in shape?

In terms of weight, yes.  By the time Dominic was about 6 months old (i.e. about 3 - 4 months after the slimming centre episode), I was down to even lighter and skinnier than pre-pregnancy, without slimming treatment, and without dieting.  Just total breastfeeding and plenty of housework.  I was about 45kg and had to get a new pair of Giordano (24").

Later on, I did gain back some weight.  Now I am more or less at my pre-pregnancy size.

However, in terms of muscle tone, no, I did not recover back to normal.  My stomach is still flabby, so even though I may be skinnier, sometimes, depending on what I wear, I do have a small bulge at the tummy area, which makes me look fat there.

Does Breastfeeding Help You to Lose Weight?

Well, yes and no.  A lot of other factors come into play, you see:  Are you binging with no discretion?  How often do you breastfeed?  Are you supplementing?  Are you doing enough exercises or physical activities?  And I believe it's genetics as well.

Some people do get back in shape easily through breastfeeding while others don't.  Some even put on more weight despite breastfeeding.  Some take 3 months, 6 months or longer.  I think I can safely say that if you are seriously breastfeeding (i.e. total breastfeeding and no supplement, etc), you should be losing more weight, or losing weight faster, than if you were not breastfeeding.  In other words, if you find yourself still putting on some weight, you would be faring much worse if you were not breastfeeding.  Hence, the reason why you are not losing weight is not so much of a breastfeeding issue but your lifestyle or eating habit problem.