Breastfeeding and calorie counting help!

Jessie24330

I just started counting calories again a few days ago. I have an (almost) four month old son who is breastfeeding. I'm eating at 1710 goal a day, that's set to 1lb a week loss. I am drinking a lot of water but I'm sure I could drink more. I have seen a drop in my supply. I'm wondering if I should increase to maintenance or if this is temporary and will pick back up if I just keep on? I'm kind of thinking that if I keep nursing him, maybe a bit more often to stimulate production, that it will pick back up and that this is just temporary since my body is adjusting to a new routine. I'm not exercising aside from a lot of walking (we don't have a car). Anyone with experience, I would appreciate your feedback. Thanks.

jmacaroni

I'm in the same boat as you. My baby's almost four months old and since calorie counting my supply has slowed. I know we burn calories when breastfeeding so I usually aim to eat 200 calories over the 1900 I'm allowed to lose 1 lbs per week. That has helped and so has eating foods which boost your supply

Jessie24330

@jmacaroni - Which foods do you eat to help?

jennb2096

I am nursing my 10 month old. I am very overweight and short so I am able to eat 1500 calories to lose one pound a week. I have just started almost two weeks ago and have lost 5 lbs. My diet was very unhealthy before. I thought I noticed a changed in my pump amount at work but the next two nights I got what I normally do. I do drink a Gatorade once or twice a day. One at work and if I take a walk or exercise one then. I found before that Gatorade would increase my supply. Since my son is eating food he doesn't also nurse consistently. Sometimes he nurses every two hours and sometimes he goes 6 hours without nursing.

jmacaroni

Jessie24330 wrote: »

@jmacaroni - Which foods do you eat to help?

Gatorade, oatmeal, hummus, Life cereal, Ovaltine, beer. They sell cookie batter for it or you can make energy balls

My lactation consultant gave me a whole list, but you can google it as well.

Jessie24330

Thanks, ladies. I'm gonna Google about what foods I can eat. I'm in Tunisia so what was readily available in the States (like Gatorade or Kool-aid to make your own) isn't quite as easy here. I do however eat oatmeal and hummus every day so at least I'm doing something right )

jmacaroni

Look up lactation cookie recipes as well

seattlerain

I'm exclusively breastfeeding my son, he's almost 5 months old. I've lost almost 30lbs in 3 months. I eat at least 2,000 calories a day and exercise almost every day. I do 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of heavy weight lifting. My diet consists of breastfeeding support food. Oatmeal, almonds, spinach, protein, over 2 gallons of water.. I see a drop in supply if I eat around 1700 calories.

brekober

I couldn't lose anything while I was breastfeeding. I weight and logged everything never going over and nothing. The 2nd week I stopped I started losing 2 lbs a week like clockwork.

Jessie24330

Thanks everyone for your input. My supply has started to pick back up. I'm been letting him suck for a minute or two even after the tank it fairly well empty lol. I've also been making sure that I'm getting at least the 1710 as I think I was overestimating some of the calories before (like I logged a homemade hummus from the database but when I actually put in my recipe, the calories were half). And I've been eating ice cream that is actually gelato and about 100 calories short of what I was logging it as (I was logging it as a "drumstick" because they don't have much of the Tunisian food on here but after EXTENSIVE searching, I found out it's about 100 less) so with all the little things, I think it's possible that I was only eating around 1400 a day. Thanks for all the support and help

jmacaroni

Glad to hear it's back ip

MissSeven

@brekober what did you stop the second week.

savithny

Four month olds who are exclusively breastfeeding are usually drwaing more than 200 calories per day from you. Run the numbers using formula as a comparison and you can get some idea of intake for babies of different weights/ages. I ran the numbers on my own kid using her birthweight and growth curve and for awhiel she was eating more than 600 calories a day, all of it from me. I ate like a horse and dropped weight really fast.