Weight Loss - Overweight & Post Partum
Women
Weight Loss Survey Background
The retention of weight gained during pregnancy may contribute to obesity.
Lactation should promote weight loss, but weight loss is highly variable
among lactating women. The risks associated with the restriction of energy
intake during lactation have not been adequately evaluated. The purpose
of this study was to determine whether weight loss by women during lactation
affects the growth of their infants.
Weight Loss Survey Methods
40 breast-feeding women who were overweight (defined as a body-mass index
at 4 weeks post partum either to restrict their energy intake by 500 kcal
per day and to exercise for 45 minutes per day for 4 days per week (the
diet-and-exercise group) or to maintain their usual dietary intake and
not exercise more than once per week for 10 weeks (the control group).
We measured the weight and fat mass of the women and the weight and length
of the infants before, during, and at the end of the study period.
Weight Loss Survey Results
The mean energy intake decreased by 544±471 kcal per day in the
diet-and-exercise group. As compared with the control group, the women
in the diet-and-exercise group lost more weight and fat mass. The gains
in weight and length of the infants whose mothers were in the diet-and-exercise
group were not significantly different from those of the infants whose
mothers were in the control group.
Weight Loss Survey Conclusion
Weight loss of approximately 0.5 kg per week between 4 and 14 weeks post
partum in overweight women who are exclusively breast-feeding does not
affect the growth of their infants.
Source: New England Journal of Medicine
2000
Cheryl A. Lovelady, Ph.D., Kimberly E. Garner, M.S., Kerri L. Moreno,
M.S., and John P. Williams, M.S.
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