With my first baby, I really took to heart all the advice about "don't even try to diet in the first six weeks," and "eat as much as you need to, your body is healing and you are producing milk," and that kind of thing. And at six weeks postpartum I'd only lost like five pounds. I had an almost seven pound baby! And the weight came off slowly and never got all of it off, really, but after a year and a half decided to try again for a 2nd because waiting to lose the weight from the first was taking so long.

Anyway, I talk to other women who gained 40+ pounds in their pregnancies and by 6 weeks postpartum had lost 30 or more!

Do certain people's bodies hang on to weight, making it harder to lose, while other people's bodies will just let it go? Or were they retaining a lot of water?

I don't want to lose five pounds a week like that, but it would be nice to be somewhere near prepregnancy weight at the end of the postpartum period.

Eh, I don't really know, to be honest. I started exercising pretty soon after having Linda, but just little stuff since I'd had a c-section. I started being careful about what I ate, but not so much how much, since I've also always worked by the 'six weeks to establish supply' rule. For me the exercise was the big thing, since I'm naturally a pretty active person.

I don't think there's anything wrong with losing only five pounds in six weeks. That's a little less than a pound a week, and it's perfectly normal.

Now, when it comes to gaining 40 pounds during pregnancy & then losing 30 in six weeks...Well, I think they say on average you've got about 15 pounds between baby baby, amniotic fluid, placenta & whatnot. But for such a dramatic weight loss, I'd bet you're right to guess it's fluid retention. I had pre-E with my first daughter, she weighed six pounds, and within a week of having her I had lost 23 pounds, and I'm pretty sure most of that was water!

thanks for the reply.

this time, i am going to be more conscientious about what i eat. i know your body is healing, but i think i took that advice as a get-out-of-eating-healthy-free card, you know? people brought over meals and half of them were really nice healthy things, like with fresh fruit salads and whatnot, and the other half were like fried chicken, weird chowder stuff (weird, weird stuff! ), etc. my husband is thin as a rail so he can put away the junk stuff.

I think it is differnt for everyone. I have no idea how much I lost, but I didn't care until I was six weeks. It was about 20 pounds of my 40 by then. Like Sabra said, I paid attention to what I ate, but not how much. In fact, nursing made me very hungry and thirsty. I had a granola bar or banana and a glass of tea at almost every nursing session.

It is the same with nursing, some people drop weight quickly and easily by nursing alone. Some bodies hold on to the last 10 pounds or so until the babe is weaned.

Just don't expect too much or be hard on yourself if you are one of those people that the weight doesn't just fall off of. Everybody is different. You have pleny of time after the baby is six weeks old to exercise and pay closer attention to your diet.

In my case I gained around 30-35 lbs from my pregnancy. I couldn't do the diet they tell you to do if your bf. It was way too much food to eat in one day so I just stuck to eating normal. So far I've lost all my preg weight plus some. I agree that you should wait till after the baby is about 4-6 months to start losing great amounts of weight b/c your baby is primarily getting his nutrition from you. My son is 14 months now and he is getting more then enough breastmilk with all my weight lose.

Rakkoon, I just realized your sig line says you believe in brastfeeding. Me personally, I don't have any brasts. (sorry couldn't resist)

We're having our baby's blessing at church probably 2-3 weeks after his birth. My MIL is flying out to help and I know they want to be here for that before they go back out west, so I do feel pressure to at least somewhat nonpregnant by that point. I can't remember how fast my belly went down last time. I know it was down by 6 weeks, but can't remember when it happened exactly. I know people should think, well she just had a baby... but I know so many women who I see a week or so after giving birth, and they look like they were never even pregnant!

I've seen a lot more mamas who looked just postparturm a couple of years after having a baby than who looked like they never had a baby just postpartum. Just remember that it's not totally a matter of losing weight. Your uterus takes a while to shrink back to its normal size, and your pelvis loosens and widens for birth too. If your church is one where you dress up, check out the clearance racks at Sears for something that fits you well. I've gotten some great buys that way in the past. Ashley Stewart's clearance is another favorite of mine (I don't pay full price unless I just have to).

i gained about 30 lbs with my daughter and did not really make the effort to lose it...till DH was coming home from his Iraq deployment last summer...so last april (just after she turned two, i started to make a real effort to look good and lose the weight before he came home. and i have just got back into my old navy jeans and back to my weight i was when we got married (may 2002) when he got home from iraq. the next day-bam -i was preg. my son was born 7 weeks ago...i was 179 (appx) the day i went in for the c-section (he was breech) and i weighed in monday (almost 7 wks pp) at 152. but i had a 9 lb 1 oz baby boy (born at 39wks)...so most of that was him and the water...i drank lots of water while preg and am just geting back to it. it there's something else in the house to drink besides water...i tend to drink that till it runs out then sstart back on water. my hubby is in LA for training to prepare to go back to iraq again and i plan to not buy any sodas today when i get groceries....he wont be home till about 3 weeks from now...so i'll get him some sodas when he gets home...
good luck!
--mandey

I usually lose a few pounds the first few weeks after the birth-but I believe that it is mainly the uterus shrinking back down, my body fluids and such returning to their normal pre-pregancy state, and so on.

I have to exercise to get the gained fat back off.

I think a lot of it depends on how active you are. If you use the baby as an excuse to lay around all day, then it is going to be harder. Put the baby in a sling or stroller and get walking. Get out-go to the store, the mall, around the block-whatever. I learned that the hard way with my first. I went from doing something regularly, to sitting around the house in my sweatpants-and I didn't lose until I started moving-even if it was only 10 minutes at a time.