In response to the interesting string on maternal obesity and its effect on
bfg, I dug around in my files and found a paper I remembered.  Quandt,S:
Changes in Maternal Postpartum Adiposity and Infant Feeding Patterns,
American J of Physical Anthropology 1983,60:455-461.  The paper won a prize
(the Juan Comas Prize) in 1981.

In the abstract she states:  "Declining fat area [by weight, triceps,
subscapular skinfolds, and midarm circum.] occurred in 17 cases and was
associated with a breastfeeding pattern of short frequent feeds.  In the
remaining 29 cases, increasing fat area was associated with significantly
longer and less frequent feeds...The assumtion that all women lose body fat
while breast feeding is not confirmed [by her data]."

She identified differences in feeding style between women who gain or those
who lose weight during lactation:  "The set of factors which seems to fit
best with these changes in fatness is that relating to breastfeeding style.
Short, frequent feedings are correlated with decreasing adiposity, and long,
less frequent feedings with increasing adiposity.  Since one of the most
direct effects of nursing frequency is on serum prolactin levels the results
of this study suggest that the concordant variation of maternal fat with
nursing styles may be a function of the same hormonal system...Serum
prolactin levels in nursing mothers are inversely proportional to levels of
estrogen and progesterone.  The level of progesterone, in turn, has been
found to be positively related to fat deposition in human females.  Thus,
women who nurse frequently should be subject to greater suppression of
ovarian hormone production and less disposed to deposit fat in body stores
than women who nurse infrequently."

She goes on to link a second pathway to freq. nursing as a mediator of
adiposity:  lipoprotein lipase, "which is responsible for the hydrolysis and
uptake pf plasma triglycerides into various kinds of tissue.''

There is new, interesting info on the role of leptin during bfg and in
breast milk that may clarify or amplify the phenomenon Quandt discribes. And
of course, the interaction between bfg and weight has implications regarding
fecundity.  It is way beyond my expertise to evaluate this study in light of
all the work on adiposity and obesity that has followed, but I found it
interesting that Quandt linked postpartum weight fluctuations to feeding
patterns. I am wondering if any of the people on this list who are more
expert in nutrition issues could comment on whether Quandt's observation
still stands.   Western women are so weight obsessed and so sched. obsessed.
It would be the irony of fate if the trick to using bfg for weight control
depended on throwing out the widely spaced feeds so beloved of Whispering
Ezzos.

Barbara Wilson-Clay BSEd, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
http://www.lactnews.com

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