Breastfeeding

KatyAverill

I am 25 years old, married and a former first grade teacher (I'm taking time off until my daughter is school aged). I have PCOS and recently gave birth to a baby girl on November 9th, 2015.

I want to set a healthy example for my daughter. I want to make sure that I live a long life and am able to be there for her for as long as possible. I was overweight before pregnancy (209) and gained quite a bit of weight during pregnancy (262 on the day of delivery). Two weeks postpartum I weigh 232. My goal weight is 139. I'm 5'8" tall.

I am exclusively breastfeeding. How many calories should I be eating each day to lose weight but continue to produce milk?

ardentsunshine

On average, you need an additional 500 calories every day to support healthy milk production because of all of the calories burned by the production of said milk. If I'm not mistaken, MFP has a way to choose that you're breastfeeding when they calculate your daily caloric needs.

pixiexribbons

Congrats on your new addition! I gave birth to my daughter on 9/23/15 and am exclusively breastfeeding as well. I haven't seen a tool to calculate breastfeeding specifically - I add it as exercise - I found a resource that says on average we burn about 454 calories just by producing milk. Here is a link to find out how many calories you should consume as a nursing mother: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/breastfeeding_calorie_calculator.htm

Feel free to add me.

amirahfatty

I didn't eat any additional calories and I'm still breast feeding. Stick to 1200. We have enough fat supplies in our body for healthy milk production. Women in 3rd world countries can still breast feed their babies. So don't worry about the need to eat more. Just eat healthy. Plenty of fruit veg and take calcium supplements x