Tandem Breastfeeding—How many calories?

brittneyalley

How many calories should I be eating to maintain weight while tandem breastfeeding? I have a 1 week old that’s exclusively breastfed and I also nurse my 2 year old 2-4 times per day.

I’m currently 5’1” and 143 lbs, and sedentary. My goal is to get down to ~110, but I don’t want to lose my milk supply in the beginning since it’s getting re-established since having a newborn.

L1zardQueen

Could you ask the pediatrician for answers or a lactation consultant?

DomesticKat

Congratulations on your baby!

Since you're only a week post-partum, I don't advise attempting to implement intentional weight loss until at least 6-8 weeks post-partum. The big reason being that you still have a lot of fluid retention and fluctuating hormones that will balance out over the coming weeks, and by that point you will have a better idea of what your starting weight will be. It could very well be lower than what your weight is currently without you doing much of anything.

If your goal is to maintain, you'll need to eat maintenance calories for your current weight plus whatever you burn from breastfeeding. Nobody can tell you how many calories breastfeeding will burn, but if you do some data collection of your own and keep track of your weight with a trending app and how many calories you're eating, you'll have a good idea of how many extra calories you'll need. At this point, eating intuitively and paying attention to your hunger cues is a good idea.

I started losing weight intentionally around 3 months post-partum. I ate at maintenance and tracked my weight with a trending app to determine how many calories a day I was burning via breastfeeding. I ate back exercise calories and adjusted my calories as I went along to lose no more than one pound a week, which is the recommendation for nursing mothers.

PrincessVamp666

Congratulations!!! How amazing! I am still breastfeeding my toddler also.

Honestly, I believe I read somewhere you need to have 500 calories over your BMR to allow for milk production during breastfeeding. But one of my health visitors said something to me that I will never forget.

Your baby isn't on a diet, so if you're eating less or eating low fat, your baby is too.

So with that being said, I literally ate whatever I fancied whenever I fancied it for the first 6 - 9 months, I still lost almost 20lbs between my baby being born in the August and returning to work in the March. So my advice, just enjoy it for a few months while you can, worry about losing the weight once the time comes to begin weaning and supplementing with solids.

missysippy930

Congratulations on the addition to your family.
This is a question you should be asking your physician. What is right for one person, may not be right for someone else. You want to provide your babies and yourself with the best possible healthy options.
Good luck and congratulations again.

Asher_Ethan

Congratulations!
For me personally, I added in 500 extra calories for breastfeeding.