Breastfeeding and worried about supply/exercise balance

AliciaIManiotis
AliciaIManiotis Posts: 8 Member
edited November 2024 in Social Groups
Hello Everyone,

I have been exclusively breastfeeding my LO for the past 6.5 months. My goal is to make it to a year if not longer. I would like to add a workout routine into my day once again but I would be lying if I said I wasn't absolutely petrified of it harming my supply.

So here is my plan: I have a list of foods/drinks that are suppose to help increase supply. I am going to begin to add them to my diet. I am then going to track what I am eating and look at my calorie count and make adjustments as I need to. I am going to keep drinking tons of water as well. I am going to do this for 2 weeks and then add in exercise every other day.

Now for my question: Does anyone have any advice or experience or wisdom they would like to share with me? Is there anything else I could do to make sure my supply doesn't decrease before I start exercising again?

Replies

  • her4g63
    her4g63 Posts: 284 Member
    Hi,

    First, congratulations on successfully breastfeeding for 6.5 months and looking to go even longer. You're doing a great job!

    I was in your shoes not that long ago and I was absolutely TERRIFIED of losing my supply or having it decrease so I incorporated exercise VERY slowly. I began my journey by weighing and logging everything as is and writing down how much I was pumping on top of bf'ing straight from the tap (lol). I always pump after feeding sessions so I figured that would be a great way to see whether or not my milk was staying constant or going down. I figured out what my "maintenance" was with bf'ing and made sure I ate back all of my exercise calories in the beginning. I went slow and didn't do rigorous workouts or anything and took it week by week. I would add a little bit more every 1-2 weeks and adjust my calories by that. I also significantly increased my water intake with each week of added exercise too.

    Hope that all made sense. I've been up all night with a sick bb so my head isn't all that awake yet!

    Good luck, momma. Hope you find your balance (:
  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
    I am exclusively nursing my 8 week old, and started exercising/trying to lose weight 3 and a half weeks ago. I eat back half of my exercise calories (according to what MFP tells me I burned) and 500 extra calories a day for BFing. My plan was to lose slowly (1 pound a week) but that is not happening. I've lost 10 pounds in the past 3 weeks. I am often under my calories for the day, but only because my calorie allotment is just so high that sometimes by evening I still have 600 calories left for the day. I feel satisfied all day long, I eat when I'm hungry. I have not seen any problem with my supply though. I pump once a day to build a freezer stash and it's been the same. Some days are less than others, but still around the same every day.
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