new here

JulySadowski

Hello Ladies,

I'm new here and am a first time mom. My worry is eating enough calories to make good milk for my pretty girl. I added 500 calories to what MFP recommended- is that enough? I'd like to loose the weight I put on during pregnancy, and maybe even a bit more, but not to the detriment of her nutritional needs. I'm trying to find that balance. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

RBXChas

Hi there, and congratulations! I'm a second-timer, but I had a horrible supply with my first, which means he was mostly formula-fed and then 100% FF'd when I quit nursing/pumping altogether at 3 months postpartum. This time I have EBF'd from Day One and have been successful so far (my son will be 7 weeks old tomorrow).

Kellymom suggests actually consuming no less than 1800 calories/day. Unless you are exclusively pumping, you don't know exactly how much you are producing. As such, we EBFing moms, whether we pump occasionally or not at all, just have to estimate. For a baby who's EBF'd and does not eat solids, 25 oz a day is a best guess. At 20 calories per ounce, the estimated burn is 500 calories.

So what I do is count it as a negative calorie food and then actually consume 1800-1900 calories a day, which means I net 1300-1400. Most days I eat between 1800 and 1900, and occasionally I go over by less than 50 calories. Any exercise calories burned get eaten back so that my net ends up between 1300 and 1400.

I hope that makes sense! At this rate I am losing about a pound to a pound and a half per week while still maintaining my supply. I pump once a day probably 4-5 days/week. (Right now my little guy doesn't often let me put him down long enough to pump.) I intend to make and eat some lactation cookies to increase my supply so that I can pump more during that pumping session and any more that I add.

Best wishes to you!

ETA that I have a lot of pregnancy weight to lose. Last time I lost 82 lbs in a year (102 if you count from my pre-delivery weight), but I did that eating 1200/day. Of course I could do that because I wasn't nursing, but I also didn't have the BFing burn. Netting between 1300 and 1400 isn't that far off, but I think we need to take care not to lose too much, too fast, or our supplies will suffer. Unfortunately we just have to be patient.

Also, be prepared to hang onto 5-10 lbs until you wean... Not sure if that holds if you were overweight to start, but that seems to be the trend per the ladies on the "Breastfeeding Support" board.

JulySadowski

Hi, RBXChas,

First, thank you.

I am EBF my daughter and I pump at least once a day when I'm not at work and up to three times when I do work. I pump about 70mL per pumping session.

A few questions- what is a negative calorie food and how do I log it? I've already put my count at 1800 and I get that and as high as 1900-2000 per day- when I'm not working- on the days I do work I've been under as much as 300. I don't eat as much when I work (I'm a server in a restaurant and my appetite is suppressed seeing all the food all day, takes me an hour or two to remember I'm hungry). My supply seems consistent either way, I pump the same.

Lactation cookies? I'd be interested in knowing more about that.

Thank you again!

RBXChas

Hey!

Since I posted last I realized a couple of things.

(1) I *was* losing consistently but had only lost about 1/2 lb in the last two weeks! I looked at IPOARM (just search the forums for "In Place of a Roadmap") and calculated my BMR (basal metabolic rate, or the number of calories is burn in a day if I sat completely still) at a little over 1700. Since you should never net below your BMR, I wondered if I'd lose more by eating more. So on Friday I upped my calories to 2200/day (net of 1700 once you deduct BFing). Yesterday (Saturday) I posted a loss of 0.6! I'm not sure if that was a coincidence or not, but this morning my weight hasn't changed, which leads me to believe that the increase in calories at least wasn't hurting me! Today is day three of eating 2200/day, so we'll see how it goes! A few ladies on my friends list who EBF say they eat over 2000 and still lose and maintain supply (they eat back exercise calories, too), and one or two said they stopped losing until they increased calories to over 2000! When I said I would increase to 2200, a few said I should go higher, but I'll see if this works.

(2) My supply is actually a bit of a problem. My son's poops were turning greenish, and he was often gassy. I looked on kellymom and figured that I was giving him a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance that was causing both issues. I also have a bit of a hyperactive letdown, so right now I'm block feeding, and for the past three days it has helped a LOT! I have been eating steel cut oats for breakfast, and since that is a supply booster plus with oversupply issues, I figured I'd hold back on the lactation cookies. I haven't pumped, either, since that increases supply but will pick it up again once my supply regulates a little better. However for lactation cookie recipes, I had planned to just Google it and find one I thought looked good. There are a ton out there! Oatmeal, brewer's yeast, and flax seed seem to be the key ingredients to look for, since they help increase your supply.

If you look up breastfeeding in the food diary, you'll see a bunch of entries that say 0 calories but might be noted in the description as -500. If you add it to your diary, it should deduct 500, and, when you go back to your main page, you should see an increase of 500 calories in what you have left for the day. If it doesn't work, delete it from your diary, search again, and try again with a different entry.

I know what you mean about being a server and not eating! I used to wait tables and would never eat the food there. It's not that it was bad, but (1) it wasn't free, and (2) when you're around it for hours on end, the last thing you want to do is eat it! Plus you're too busy to eat, and my manager always wanted you busy working, so I'd always be running everyone else's food (most of my co-workers were lazy). There was no time to stop and eat!

Anyway, I hope that helps! If you want to add me, go ahead

JulySadowski

Hi,

In the forum I found a suggestion to add BFing to the exercise count. I did and it has adjusted for the increased intake.

I don't weigh myself daily- only once a week. I get paranoid about the number and tend to fixate on it. I didn't weigh myself today- since the scale I use it at my parent's home and I didn't go over today. So, I'll weigh myself next week. I did however fit into my jeans this week- tight but wearable. In the past my clothes have been my best guess of weight gain or loss.

I've added oatmeal to my breakfasts, three times a week. I'd like to increase that to daily, I haven't yet. I've been using quick oats but want to change to steel cut soon. There is a way to cook them over night in a crock pot that will work for my lifestyle.

I worry that by going over my calorie count on days off then under when I work will be problematic. I do take snacks to work, but often don't have time to even eat them. I figure as long as my girl is eating and gaining weight then it I shouldn't worry. Her 2mo appointment is in two weeks, her Dr. will be able to help me assess if she's eating enough or not.

As for another way to increase supply a girlfriend said beer was a good way- the darker the better. St. Pauly Girl has a good Non-Alc beer. I haven't tried it yet, but will.

RBXChas

I was going to do steel cut oats in the slow cooker, but someone on here told me an easy way to do it without cooking (at least until you nuke them just prior to eating). For every half cup of oats that you use, mix them with one cup of water or milk or some combination. Mix it well, cover it, and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning just put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, keeping a good eye on it to make sure that it doesn't boil over in the microwave, which is a huge mess! If, when you take them out of the fridge, there is no water or very little water, you might just want to add a bit more before you microwave it. I did this this morning and didn't need to add water at all. It came out just fine, after I nuked it for two and a half minutes while keeping an eye on it. If I had let it go any longer it would have boiled over in the microwave