Mom on a Mission

Join

Getting back to a Normal Calorie Intake while Breastfeeding?

Options
nykoeldkahn
nykoeldkahn Posts: 14 Member
in Social Groups
Hi!

I'm a new mom (~15 weeks pp) and I'm still breastfeeding my son. I'm hoping to continue to breastfeed until he's around a year old. That being said, between pregnancy and breastfeeding, I've definitely gotten used to having more calories in my day to day diet (right now I consume between 2000-2500/day - pre-pregnancy I would average 1500-1700/day).

Because I'm breastfeeding, I'm still losing weight slowly, even with the extra calories. But I'm worried that once I'm not breastfeeding anymore that I will have a hard time adjusting back to a lower number of calories and will suddenly start gaining like mad.

Does anyone here have any experience/advice with this? I've been considering cutting 100 calories/month for the next few months until I get closer to what I was eating before - but I'm worried that my supply will drop, etc.

Any suggestions?

Thank you for any help!

Replies

  • sydney138
    sydney138 Posts: 2 Member
    Options
    Hi! My son is now about 6 months old, still breastfeeding, and the same dilemma has been on my mind. I haven’t been carefully tracking my intake, but suspect I probably eat 2000 calories a day as opposed to my pre-pregnancy 1600-1800. I still work out at least 3x a week, as I did during my pregnancy. I have noticed that my supply will drop when I don’t eat as many calories or drink enough water.
    If you are adamant about not supplementing with formula, I recommend you wait until your baby’s eating habits adjust before you start cutting your intake. At 15w, my baby fed 9-10x a day; now, he’s down to 7x. Soon, I’ll introduce him to proteins (he’s only on veggies, fruits, and oat cereal now) and I hope to replace one breastmilk feeding a month until he’s a year old. As he starts drinking less breastmilk, I’ll adjust my intake/exercise accordingly.
  • sydney138
    sydney138 Posts: 2 Member
    Options
    Most importantly, nykoeldkahn, CONGRATULATIONS and good luck! 😊
  • nykoeldkahn
    nykoeldkahn Posts: 14 Member
    Options
    @sydney138 - Thanks for the response and congrats to you as well!
  • DomesticKat
    DomesticKat Posts: 565 Member
    Options
    Your body is responding to the increased calorie demands of breastfeeding by telling you to eat more. I don't recommend trying to cut your calories below maintenance for your current weight if your goal is to continue losing, and if your goal is the maintain your current weight then you should be eating back the calories burned from breastfeeding. Continuing to cut calories will contribute to more weight loss, and possibly decreasing your milk supply. Assume that breastfeeding exclusively burns 500 or more calories a day. If you're eating 1500 calories, that leaves you with a net of 1000 calories. That's not enough food.

    Over time, I've found that my hunger adjusts to how much my baby is nursing. If you're accurately logging your food and tracking your weight, you should have plenty of data by the time your baby weans to make a somewhat accurate guess at what your maintenance calories would be. Once your baby weans, you won't have the extra calorie demands on you and you'll be able to adjust your calories back gradually to maintain. It's really not something you need to worry about now.

    By the time my baby turned one, I was losing a half pound a week at 2300 calories a day. Now that he's 17 months, I'm currently maintaining at 2600 calories a day.

Categories