I've heard that the pendulum can swing both ways on this one. Some say the weight comes off faster once their child is weaned while others say that breastfeeding helped them lose weight and they began to re-gain once the child weaned.

My son is about a year and I still breastfeed him 2-3x a day. I'm always wondering what's going to happen to my body once I stop, but have no firm timelines on stopping yet. I also wonder if caloric restriction down to the 1200ish that I eat now will affect my supply. It hasn't, so far after several weeks into it.

Hmm. I think too much.

I didn't 'nurse', I exclusively pumped, but I found my weight plateaued and stalled quite badly when I stopped (which was only a few months, not long-term like many girls). So I'm not sure if I can attribute that to initial postpartum losses or nursing. Most women seem to lose more when they are nursing, but there are a few who drop quicker when weaning. "The last 10lbs" seems common when still nursing.

i bf my last baby throughout losing 135ish pounds. upon weaning her i gained back 5 lbs within the month or two after

I was 164 high pregnancy weight with my first baby. I nursed for 11 months. I got down to 125 pounds on JC, but I had a very hard time losing the last 10 pounds while nursing (I never did. Had 115 as a goal weight). I also gained back 5 pounds within 2 months after weaning.

I stopped losing with my first until I stopped BFing, after I stopped I lost about 10 pounds without even trying - guess I'm the opposite of everyone else. With my second I just stayed the same after I stopped BFing, no gain or losses.

I lost a ton of weight during the early months of BFing and then stalled once he went to solids. It was a big issue for me- I was so used to eating more (I was ravenous when he was an infant), so when he started tapering off I was still in the mind set of eating more, snacking often, etc. I gained back the 30 pounds I lost thanks to breastfeeding, and then more, too.

I breastfeed for 18 months and at the beginning it helped me lose weight, but I found it almost impossible to lose the last 15 lbs or so. Basically I just kept losing and gaining the same 4-5 lbs over a 12 month period and then I just realized that I cannot fight that hormonal mechanism that keeps me from losing the last bit of my baby weight. It was then that I stopped trying to lose and tried to maintain instead. It was only after I weaned my baby that I got back to dieting and have lost around 8 lbs so far. It was not pain free weight loss though, it came with an effort, but at least I did manage to lose. Before weaning it seemed that my body just held on to this last bit of extra weight to sustain normal breastfeeding process. Hormones are powerful and I just couldn't beat them no matter how hard I tried. It was frustrating at the time, but a relief came when I realized that it's going to stay that way for as long as I breastfeed, so I stopped beating myself up about it and just enjoyed breastfeeding my little one and tried not to gain any new weight.

The other thing that might have influenced my post partum weight loss is the fact that I didn't gain much during the pregnancy so there was not much true baby weight to lose. My goal was to actually lose the extra weight that I gained right before the pregnancy. Maybe the mechanism is such that breastfeeding will help you lose what you gained during the pregnancy, but the extra pounds you put on before that you will have to do it on your own so to speak. This is just a guess, of course.

I don't know what to think! I only gained 16lbs while pregnant and it was all gone within 3 weeks post partum. I'm now 18lbs below pre-pregnancy weight and, well, I'm carrying a lot of weight so I can't buy the "hanging onto the last few pounds to sustain the breastfeeding argument".

I'm afraid to wean because I'm afraid it might interfere with the groove I've found with my weight loss. I'm lame. I know.

You are not lame, fozentusic. Woman should keep breastfeeding until both of the sides - mum and baby - enjoy it. It sounds that your baby enjoys it as he hasn't weaned himself yet, which he would do if he didn't like it anymore for whatever reason. If you enjoy it, then keep on as it obviously makes you both happy. It's not like you are trying to reach your goal at the expense of your little one. Just the opposite, you are doing him good. And he's only 1 year, he still needs that milk.

I agree completely! I have no intentions of weaning my daughter anytime soon (if at all, I might just let her wean herself) and it's for her, but it's also for me...the weight has come off consistently for the past 7 months (DD is now 12 months). I've also been consistently on my plan, but I am sure the breastfeeding is helping...so it's been great for both of us, sounds like a win-win!