In fact, a study at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center found that non-breastfeeding
women actually lost more body fat than
lactating women in the six - month
postpartum period, possibly because prolactin can act like an appetite stimulant in nursing moms, causing them to overeat.
In an approach consistent with that used to develop the estimated energy requirement for
lactating women (35), we weighted full breastfeeding as twice partial breastfeeding during the first 12 mo
postpartum in our score.