How To Lose Post-Pregnancy Weight: ‘Real Housewives’ Star Meghan King Edmonds Credits Breastfeeding To 25-Pound Loss

“Real Housewives of Orange County” star Meghan King Edmonds took to Instagram to show off her 25-pound weight loss. The new mother credited breastfeeding for her slimmer figure, but asked her followers how she could drop the rest of her post-pregnancy weight.

“25lbs down (due to breastfeeding alone), 12 to go!” she wrote to her 526,000 followers Tuesday. “I can work out again in two weeks! But question: Why are my abs so spread apart? I know I have some diastasis recti but maybe it's normal? Should I be using a waist trainer to pull them back together?” The post was liked more than 11,000 times and garnered hundreds of comments.

While breastfeeding can help with weight loss, it’s not the only way to drop extra pounds. “A lot of women say it helps with a lot of the weight up front, but the last 10 pounds, if you’re breast-feeding, are very hard to lose,” Tanya Zuckerbrot, M.S., R.D., author of “The F-Factor Diet,” told Women’s Health Magazine in 2012. In fact, there isn’t any research that says breastfeeding helps new moms lose weight. That’s because breastfeeding mothers are required to take in more calories. So even though new moms burn an extra 300-500 calories a day, they should be consuming those extra calories too.

The best way to not have to worry about post-pregnancy weight is to not gain too much while pregnant. The average woman should gain 25-30 pounds, Women’s Health Magazine wrote. Most lose 15 pounds after childbirth, which is a combination of the baby, placenta, blood and fluids.

Edmonds and her husband, Fox Sports broadcaster Jim Edmonds, welcomed their daughter, Aspen, last month. The 32-year-old regularly posts updates of her newborn on social media. On the same day as her breastfeeding post, she shared a picture of Aspen where she wore a shirt that said, “Best gift ever.” Edmonds joked: “Ain't that the truth! (I may or may not have had a baby just so I can have a real live doll).”

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