Effect of infant feeding on mothers weight

During pregnancy women gain weight and fat. Breast feeding is suggested as a way for women to lose weight after birth because of its high energy cost.

Twenty four mothers aged 19-42 years participated in a study looking at maternal weight and percent body fat changes during the first 12 weeeks after birth. They were divided into 2 groups - those exclusively breast feeding and those using mixed feeding. In those mixed feeding the pregnancy weight was higher than those breast feeding (68.4kg vs61.4kg) but the difference was not statistically significant.  At 12 weeks, postpartum exclusively breast feeding mothers had lost more weight than mixed feeding mothers (4.41+/-4.10kg vs 2.79+/-3.09kg) but there was no significant difference in fat weight between the two groups. Exclusively breast feeding mothers consumed more calories than mixed feeding mothers but physical activity levels were higher in the mixed feeding group. In exclusively breast feeding mothers the trend in percent body fat loss was significant.

The study shows that exclusive breast feeding promotes greater weight loss than mixed feeding in the 12 week after birth and can therefore help to prevent overweight and obesity.

Reference

Hatsu I, McDougald DM, Anderson AK. Effect of infant feeding on maternal body composition. Internation Breast Feeding Journal 2008;3:18 doi 10.1186/1746-4358-3-18