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Remember Beyonce Knowles, high profile breastfeeding mom and fantastic example for lactating mamas everywhere? Consider that stage of her life over. Blue Ivy's mama showed up as promised at a Memorial Day weekend concert series looking pretty bootylicious.
And as she told the crowd, the mother of a 5-month-old worked her tail off to get there. But her weight loss secret doesn't exactly jive with the super breastfeeding rep she's gotten since her daughter was born.
Beyonce told the crowd at her second of four shows that she dropped 60 pounds with constant work on the treadmill and a diet that consisted of lettuce, lettuce, and more lettuce. Brave. Maybe even inspirational. But not a diet plan that any breastfeeding mom should follow, you hear?
I don't know how many times I see this happen. A mom decides she is going to breastfeed, but she still wants to lose the baby weight. She thinks she can do them both because hey, don'tcha know, breastfeeding burns calories?
It's true. BUT, and this is the big ol' BUT, it doesn't burn that many calories. And while it does, a breastfeeding mom's intake should remain somewhere between 1,500 to 1,800 calories at least: much more than a whole lot of lettuce will give you. That poor kid needs something to eat too! In fact, following the type of healthy weight loss recommended for a lactating mother, Beyonce would have only shed about half of the weight -- about 30 pounds.
I should make it clear that Beyonce may have given up breastfeeding a long time ago. She hasn't been caught nursing in public in awhile. If that's true, that's her choice, and I support a mom's ability to make the choices that best fit her own lifestyle. But that leaves us only two conclusions here. Either she didn't even make it to the six-month mark the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends for nursing, or she nursed Blue Ivy while following a dangerous diet.
She's still a fabulous singer, and probably a pretty great mom. But for moms who are looking to the singer as some sort of fantastic postpartum breastfeeding role model, I think we can safely say that ship has sailed. Just look at her:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
How do you balance weight loss against the need to provide your baby with nutrients? What do you think of Beyonce's post-baby transformation?
Image via AtlanticCityBeats/YouTube
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