Why it’s a myth breastfeeding helps new mums shed weight gained in pregnancy
Studies show babies can’t just suck away the extra kilograms of fat put on during pregnancy; diet, lifestyle and biological factors are all at play. Just ask Serena Williams, elite sportswoman and super healthy eater
Serena Williams has poured cold water – or rather, cold milk – on the idea that breastfeeding causes the excess weight gained while growing a baby to melt away.
The 36-year-old tennis star, speaking to journalists ahead of her continued comeback at Wimbledon this week, joked that it was “a lie” that women shrank while nursing their babies.
“I was vegan, I didn’t eat sugar. I was totally eating completely healthily … and I wasn’t at the weight that I would have been had I not breastfed,” Mail Online quoted Williams as saying.
Breastfeeding is widely touted as a means of weight loss, but even though it’s a hungry business as far as the body is concerned, there are several reasons simply sitting back and letting baby suck away the calories often doesn’t cut it.
On average, women lay down 4kg (9lb) of fat during pregnancy, and to lose each kilogram they will need to create a 7,700-calorie deficit. Exclusive breastfeeding eats up about 595 calories a day during the first two months of a baby’s life, increasing to 695 calories a day as the baby gets bigger.
In theory, then, for every week a woman breastfeeds she should be able to lose about half a kilogram, getting back to her pre-pregnancy weight within two months.