The results show the importance of encouraging women to start pregnancy with a healthy BMI as well as to have GWG within recommendations for the benefit of successful breastfeeding. The interactions with medical conditions further highlight the complexity of the associations.

Background/Objectives: Alcohol and dietary fat have high energy densities and may therefore be related to body weight and fat deposition. We studied associations between alcohol and macronutrient intake patterns and general and central adiposity. Subjects/Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study of 524 men and 611 women. The participants answered a dietary questionnaire describing habitual food consumption including intake of alcoholic beverages. Macronutrient intake was analysed in relation to anthropometric measures and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry determined body fat. Results: In women, total alcohol intake was negatively associated with body fat percentage (b:À0.67, Po0.01). In men, total alcohol intake was positively associated with sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) (b: 0.28, P ¼ 0.01). In addition, positive associations were found between intake of alcohol from spirits and body fat percentage Conclusions: Alcohol intake was inversely associated to relative body fat in women whereas spirits consumption was positively related to central and general obesity in men. Macronutrient intakes, particularly protein and fat, were differently associated with obesity indicators in men versus women. This may reflect a differential effect by gender, or differential obesity related reporting errors in men and women.

Objective: We investigated the association between full breast-feeding up to 6 months as well as partial breast-feeding after 6 months and maternal weight retention at 6, 18 and 36 months after delivery in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Design: Cohort study. Information on exposure and outcome was collected by questionnaire. Setting: Norway. Subjects: Women at 6 months (n 49 676), 18 months (n 27 187) and 36 months (n 17 343) postpartum. Results: Longer duration of full breast-feeding as well as partial breast-feeding was significantly related to lower weight retention at 6 months. At 18 months full breast-feeding (0-6 months) and partial breast-feeding for 12-18 months were significantly related to lower weight retention. At 36 months only full breastfeeding (0-6 months) was significantly related to lower weight retention. For each additional month of full breast-feeding, maternal weight was lowered by 0?50 kg/month at 6 months, 0?10 kg/month at 18 months and 0?14 kg/month at 36 months (adjusted for pre-pregnant BMI, pregnancy weight gain, age and parity). Partial breast-feeding resulted in 0?25 kg/month lower maternal weight at 6 months. Interactions were found between household income and full breastfeeding in relation to weight retention at 6, 18 and 36 months, indicating most benefit among women with low income. Conclusions: The present study supports the hypothesis that full breast-feeding contributes to lower postpartum weight retention and shows that the effect is maintained for as long as 3 years postpartum.