Breastfeeding and fitness

nomorefitnesspizza

I am a exclusively breast feeding mom and trying to lose about 50 lbs. I want to know if anyone knows how much I should be eating extra because my fitness pal doesn't ask if a woman is breastfeeding or not. I don't want to lose milk supply if I'm not eating enough as I am working out.

Thanks

37lbs_to_go

It's been a few years for me but off the top of my head I'd say around 300 calories. It's not as much as you'd think. If you really want to know call a lactation consultant. They should be able to answer that one over the phone.

I had great success with light exercise and whole foods or home cooked meals (no fast food). But no intentional calories restrictions or massive amounts of cardio. Dropped the pregnancy weight pretty quick. The problem was my pre pregnancy weight was still overweight. That I'm still working on

lauramom2

What is working for me is to set my goal for maintenance and then let breastfeeding make up my calorie deficit. This works better than trying to guess how much extra I’m burning, I think it is like 300-500 calories a day. All I know is if I restrict too much while sleep deprived and breastfeeding I will eventually eat the whole house in a hangry rage My baby is six months and as he starts solids I’ll switch to a bigger deficit but for now I’m losing at a good rate and eating so many calories! Win win!!

nomorefitnesspizza

Lauramom2 can you go into more depth on what you mean with the deficit?

37lbs_to_go I am also try to drop my extra weight from before pregnancy but not all my pregnancy weight came off either. Ugh.

DomesticKat

I replied to your other thread but posting it again here:

I eat at maintenance or above on some days. I eat back exercise calories. If I eat at maintenance every day I tend to lose too rapidly so I have a few days a week where I eat a few hundred calories more. I'm also on my feet most of the day so that may have something to do with it. I lose about a pound per week on average but it fluctuates. Try maintenance for a few weeks and make sure you're weighing and measuring your food and see how it goes.

There's really no way of knowing how much of a deficit your baby is creating. Every mother and baby pair is different. Breastfeeding is a constantly evolving thing and babies nurse more or less for various reasons. I'm nursing a 10 month old who eats solids, eats my food, eats his sibling's food. He's basically a giant in 2T clothing. I'm down 50 pounds now. You can do it mama!

lauramom2

nomorefitnesspizza wrote: »

Lauramom2 can you go into more depth on what you mean with the deficit?

37lbs_to_go I am also try to drop my extra weight from before pregnancy but not all my pregnancy weight came off either. Ugh.

I just mean that I set my weight loss goal at maintaining and don’t worry about entering any calories for breastfeeding. I don’t enter it as exercise calories and I don’t eat any more calories than I am given for maintaining. Yet because I am nursing I am still losing weight this way. The calories I’m burning by breastfeeding creates the calorie deficit necessary to lose weight.If it starts to slow down as my baby eats other foods I will increase my weight loss goal to a half pound or a pound a week. This is my fourth baby and I tried all sorts of ways to factor in breastfeeding. This is just the way I’ve found that works best for me. It consistently gives me plenty of calories (2000+) so I don’t worry about damaging my supply or feeling hungry. I have found that once I am done breastfeeding I lose weight easier but I think it’s simply that I am hungrier while nursing. It’s just a season of life. Nourish your body and your little one and you’ll get where you want to be eventually. I hope that helped clarify!