Will I Gain Weight When I Stop Breastfeeding?

One of the main benefits of breastfeeding is that it increases your body’s calorie burn and metabolism. Once you stop breastfeeding that benefit goes away. That doesn’t necessarily mean you will gain weight, but you are at risk of packing on some pounds because your number of calories burned will decrease.

Experts say that your body burns approximately 20 calories for every one ounce of breast milk. The average mom burns around 500 calories per day from breastfeeding alone. That is a significant amount.

For example, let’s say you’re burning 500 calories per day breastfeeding, and that has caused a calorie deficit of 200 calories per day. That means your body is burning 200 calories more than it is consuming. The result of that slight deficit is a nice gradual weight loss.

Now let’s assume you stop breastfeeding so you’re no longer burning the 500 extra calories. You would now be running a surplus of 300 calories per day. The result would be gradual weight gain unless you were to make up for the calories you were burning breastfeeding by doing something else such as diet and exercise.

So it is entirely possible to gain weight when you stop breastfeeding, but it depends on a variety of factors such as diet, activity level and calorie consumption. If you notice you are starting to gain weight after you stop breastfeeding you should speak to your doctor before starting any exercise or diet program.