Breastfeeding

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hesn92
hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am breastfeeding my 1 month old. Haven't been counting calories since I found out I was pregnant and would like to start losing the weight. I have googled how much I'm supposed to eat while breastfeeding but I'm still a little confused and wanted to hear from people who have had success with it. I've read you need an extra 500 calories a day while breastfeeding. Should I try eating at maintenance for a while? Above maintenance? Should I set my goal to lose 1 lb a week and then log the breastfeeding as exercise? (I think you can do that?)

Any advice?

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  • Dreysander
    Dreysander Posts: 294 Member
    edited December 2015
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    I used to eat at least 500 over maintenance when I was breastfeeding. I found that especially in the early days I needed more due to excercise though.

    If you want to lose weight it should be 500 over maint because breastfeeding uses at least 1000 calories a day.
  • ragenhay1
    ragenhay1 Posts: 158 Member
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    Wait until you are at least two months postpartum before you cut calories as it takes that long to establish your milk supply. Most women need at least 1800 to 2500 calories while breastfeeding. Some can go as low as 1500 but unless you are short I wouldn't try it. I'm 5'7 and started at 220lbs when my baby was 2months old. I tried 1500 but my supply dipped so I went up to 2000 them settled at 1800 plus eat back my exercise calories. I'm down 25lbs and have not had issues with my supply since settling on 1800. One thing I would suggest would be to slowly cut don't do a big cut. I think that's what caused my supply dip along with going to low.

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