#Anna #dont #lose #weight
Question: I gained quite a lot of weight during my pregnancy and among other things received treatment for high blood pressure. Now it’s been eight months since the birth and I can’t get rid of the extra kilos. I have friends where the pounds just fell off when they were breastfeeding. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to breastfeed and it feels like that is also affecting me. I don’t feel comfortable in my body and it also affects my everyday life with my partner. How quickly does one usually reach normal weight after a pregnancy? What is normal?
/Anna, 34
Susanna Ericsson is a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology.
Susanna Ericsson: For some it takes longer
It sounds like you had a difficult pregnancy with both high blood pressure and a lot of weight gain, so I understand that you long to get back to “yourself”. In the first week after giving birth, many women usually lose a couple of kilos and after six weeks the uterus has returned to its normal size and the blood volume has decreased. This often leads to weight loss at the same time. Most women usually have returned to their “normal” weight between 6 and 12 months after giving birth. Of course, some things take longer and that can be due to many things.
How much weight you gained during pregnancy can have an effect. Maybe you don’t make it to the gym as often, maybe you don’t have time to cook in the same way as before children and fall into eating fast food. Lack of sleep is another factor that has a clear connection with overweight and obesity.
You may experience symptoms such as palpitations, sweating and fatigue.
It is very different what happens to the weight when women breastfeed. In some women, the kilos “run off”, literally. They may even weigh less than before pregnancy. Partly it can be due to breastfeeding and the hormones around it, but some don’t always have time to eat themselves either. Other women breastfeed and keep all their kilos during the breastfeeding period, only to lose weight quickly when they stop breastfeeding six months later.
Around 5–7 percent of women who have been pregnant also suffer from something called postpartum thyroiditis. During pregnancy, the immune system changes – it does not get worse, but some mechanisms become stronger and others weaker. Among other things, it can be seen that pregnant women with autoimmune diseases feel better during pregnancy. After childbirth, however, there is an increase in various autoimmune conditions and one such is inflammation of the thyroid gland – thyroiditis. The thyroid gland sits on the neck and produces hormones that help control metabolism. If too many hormones are formed, you can, for example, experience symptoms such as palpitations, sweating and fatigue.
The first phase of the inflammation is usually an overfunction. After a couple of weeks, it often goes into an underfunctioning phase. Symptoms such as weight gain (or not losing weight despite exercise and diet changes), dry skin and hair, fatigue and difficulty remembering things are common. As you can hear, it sounds a bit like most new mothers – you often lose hair in the months after giving birth, and fatigue and weight problems are also common. If you recognize yourself in any of that, the reason why you are not losing weight may be precisely an inflammation of the thyroid gland.
The ultimate path to weight loss (if you’ve ruled out thyroiditis) is to try to get enough sleep and recovery, exercise, and eat healthy. At the same time, you should not feel pressure or stress about this, but do it in a sustainable and long-term way.
Do you have a question for Susanna Ericsson?
Susanna Ericsson is a specialist in gynecology and obstetrics. She answers questions about everything related to women’s health. Email your question to [email protected] and write “Ask the doctor” in the subject line.
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