Does nursing really effect how many calories I burn a day?

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Ladydrake12
Ladydrake12 Posts: 45 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey everyone. While I was pregnant everyone told me that breastfeeding makes your body burn extra calories naturally so you have to eat a little more than you normally would. A quick Google search, however, tells me nothing conclusively as to how to handle that when you count calories/ macros. I had my son 9 months ago and I got back to my previous weight in under 2 months so I don't doubt that it might help the metabolism and burn a few extra calories but does anyone know a ballpark number?

So far, I have just been ignoring it and basing my eating on standard calculations and I am being SLOWLY successful (about 3lbs in 4 weeks) but just curious if I should be adjusting a bit to see better results.

Thanks!
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Replies

  • shivles
    shivles Posts: 468 Member
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    Milk production does indeed burn calories but its very hard to say how many, I'd allow 200-300 extra calories and if not loosing cut it back.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    If you search breastfeeding under the Food section it will give you a negative calorie value.
    Like anything else, they are estimates. But yes, it does burn calories.

    ETA - 3 lbs in 4 weeks are great results. That almost averaging a pound a week, which is a reasonable goal.
    2 lbs a week is far too high of a goal for many people. It really depends on how much you have to lose.

    Also keep in mind that many things affect scale weight, some extra water retention could mask small losses.
  • soupandcookies
    soupandcookies Posts: 212 Member
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    I have a 9 month old boy, too! What's your baby's birth date? Mine was born on December 9th (so, not quite 9 months). I am still nursing, but my son is heavily supplemented with solids. I found that if I didn't add an extra 300-500 calories to my plan of eating, my supply tanked. I found that with the extra calories, I was still losing, and I don't plan to cut out those calories unless I stop losing weight. That's just me though. If you aren't super hungry or struggling with supply, and you are still losing, then you are probably on the right track. Honestly, I think that when it comes to nursing, you have to play around with calorie amounts, until you find the sweet spot, where you still have milk, and you're still losing weight. Congrats on your baby and good luck!
  • mandyneedtolose
    mandyneedtolose Posts: 398 Member
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    Yes nursing burns calories, but its all an estimate on how much it burns. :)
  • Willbenchforcupcakes
    Willbenchforcupcakes Posts: 4,955 Member
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    It's not so much that milk production burns calories, but that you excrete carbs, protein and fat into the breastmilk to nourish your child. Average value is around 20 cal/ounce. I always counted each full nursing session as 5 ounces, and a snack or comfort session as 2 ounces, for my youngest, that worked out to around 400 calories a day at 9 months. Used the breastfeeding option in the food diary that most closely matched, ate all the calories, and lost all the weight (90% of my weight loss was done while she was still nursing)
  • SarahBeth0625
    SarahBeth0625 Posts: 685 Member
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    YES.

    Exclusively nursing (no solids, supplementing or anything) burns around 500 calories a day.

    I am tandem nursing toddlers and the two of them burn 400 calories a day for me. Months of being on here, I have pretty much confirmed this is the case, as I have been logging calories and allowing for nursing calories (it was 600 and just recently I backed it down to 400) but I have been maintaining (which is my goal) and definitely not gaining.
  • Ladydrake12
    Ladydrake12 Posts: 45 Member
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    He was born on November 22. :) And I did notice that when I eat too little, my supply tanks quite quickly but I was just curious if anyone had any ideas as to what I should shoot for. Sounds like experimentation is the way though.
  • stephysd
    stephysd Posts: 2,410 Member
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    Bump for when I need it in a few months. Thanks for all the great info ladies!
  • BananaCat83
    BananaCat83 Posts: 77 Member
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    I've read on average, it burns 300-500 calories a day. I'm sure the frequency of nursing affects it. My son is 11 weeks, so right now I am ebf and I add the negative value of -400. I am currently stuck with 10lbs left to lose...it won't budge! I walk with him daily, wearing my HRM and burn on average 430cals with exercise and the estimated 400 with the breastfeeding. That's a lot of extra calories to eat!

    Any tips for weight loss without cutting too many calories? My supply is more important than those 10lbs, but I feel gross and jiggly :frown:
  • SarahBeth0625
    SarahBeth0625 Posts: 685 Member
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    He was born on November 22. :) And I did notice that when I eat too little, my supply tanks quite quickly but I was just curious if anyone had any ideas as to what I should shoot for. Sounds like experimentation is the way though.

    Use the Scooby calculator and figure out your calories based on activity. As for me, I workout 6 days a week (alternating days of cardio and strength training with one rest day on Friday). On the calculator, I pick the "moderate" category, as my job is a desk job but I am working out roughly 5 hours per week when I add it all up. It gives me 2105 calories as my TDEE for my goal of "gain muscle, lose fat".

    I net around 1900 - 2000 calories a day and am maintaining my weight. That includes a -400 of breastfeeding calories for the toddlers (so I eat those calories back).
  • BananaCat83
    BananaCat83 Posts: 77 Member
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    It's not so much that milk production burns calories, but that you excrete carbs, protein and fat into the breastmilk to nourish your child. Average value is around 20 cal/ounce. I always counted each full nursing session as 5 ounces, and a snack or comfort session as 2 ounces, for my youngest, that worked out to around 400 calories a day at 9 months. Used the breastfeeding option in the food diary that most closely matched, ate all the calories, and lost all the weight (90% of my weight loss was done while she was still nursing)

    This is great info, thanks!
  • SarahBeth0625
    SarahBeth0625 Posts: 685 Member
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    I've read on average, it burns 300-500 calories a day. I'm sure the frequency of nursing affects it. My son is 11 weeks, so right now I am ebf and I add the negative value of -400. I am currently stuck with 10lbs left to lose...it won't budge! I walk with him daily, wearing my HRM and burn on average 430cals with exercise and the estimated 400 with the breastfeeding. That's a lot of extra calories to eat!

    Any tips for weight loss without cutting too many calories? My supply is more important than those 10lbs, but I feel gross and jiggly :frown:

    If interested, I can share my postpartum pics compared to now. It DOES take time and only 11 weeks out, don't be too hard on yourself. I was not happy with my body at that point yet... but over time I did tone up, and I have three children. :smile: If you wanted to, you could try some core work because I found the biggest difference was when I started doing daily pushups. I started with modified ones (girly ones) because I couldn't do regular ones at first. Once I got stronger, I was able to go to town and throw down 90 pushups like no big deal. That was many months ago and I have since added more lifting, lunges, and squats.

    Good luck, but I am sure you are doing great. Breastfeeding is one of the greatest things you can do, both for yourself and your baby. :smile:
  • Ladydrake12
    Ladydrake12 Posts: 45 Member
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    Great points, everyone. Thank you!
  • bluestarlight19
    bluestarlight19 Posts: 419 Member
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    The estimated amount of calories in breastmilk is ~20 calories per ounce. It does depend on the fat content of your personal supply though, everyone is a little different. Most babies eat between 20-30 oz/day so you can calculate that out to be between 400-600/day depending on how hungry your baby is.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    My wife always estimated around 400-500 calorie per day breast feeding. Keep in mind, you're not only burning the calories, but losing a lot of nutrients to your baby as well...thus you need to make sure you're getting your proper nutrition to make sure you and your baby are being properly nourished.
  • Ladydrake12
    Ladydrake12 Posts: 45 Member
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    If interested, I can share my postpartum pics compared to now. It DOES take time and only 11 weeks out, don't be too hard on yourself. I was not happy with my body at that point yet... but over time I did tone up, and I have three children. :smile: If you wanted to, you could try some core work because I found the biggest difference was when I started doing daily pushups. I started with modified ones (girly ones) because I couldn't do regular ones at first. Once I got stronger, I was able to go to town and throw down 90 pushups like no big deal. That was many months ago and I have since added more lifting, lunges, and squats.

    Good luck, but I am sure you are doing great. Breastfeeding is one of the greatest things you can do, both for yourself and your baby. :smile:

    This...so much this. Plank holds, push-ups, lunges and squats have made my life so much better postpartum. Pregnancy killed my hip to the point where I couldn't sleep without a good layer of Icy Hot on my hip. But doing these exercises really helped bring everything back up to where it was before as well as fix the joints that had loosened. I still have some poundage to lose but at least it is the weight I can't blame my baby for. lol
  • bluestarlight19
    bluestarlight19 Posts: 419 Member
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    I've read on average, it burns 300-500 calories a day. I'm sure the frequency of nursing affects it. My son is 11 weeks, so right now I am ebf and I add the negative value of -400. I am currently stuck with 10lbs left to lose...it won't budge! I walk with him daily, wearing my HRM and burn on average 430cals with exercise and the estimated 400 with the breastfeeding. That's a lot of extra calories to eat!

    Any tips for weight loss without cutting too many calories? My supply is more important than those 10lbs, but I feel gross and jiggly :frown:

    Sometimes hormones won't let you lose that last bit of weight while breastfeeding. Your body holds onto it like a reserve. If you feel jiggly, maybe start some strength training to firm up areas? Everytime I dropped my calories too low, I had an impact on supply. Make sure your getting the right macros to keep supply up as well, that's why I used to enter it as a food from the database.
  • Minks_esposa
    Minks_esposa Posts: 54
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    I breastfed all 3 of my kids for over a year and my nutritionist always had me eat 2000 cals and I managed to lose 1 pound a week but I was obese (still am). If your cals go too low then you will notice your milk supply will go down. When I started eating under 1500 cals my milk supply plummeted but my daughter was about 18 months and I was so ready to wean that I didn't care if my supply went down. Sure enough it just dried up. I wouldn't advise anyone with a child younger than 12 months to eat under 1900 cals a day. Also Weight watchers has a good plan for nursing moms. Supposedly you burn an extra 500 cals when you nurse full time without supplementing. My kids refused bottles.
  • BananaCat83
    BananaCat83 Posts: 77 Member
    Options
    I've read on average, it burns 300-500 calories a day. I'm sure the frequency of nursing affects it. My son is 11 weeks, so right now I am ebf and I add the negative value of -400. I am currently stuck with 10lbs left to lose...it won't budge! I walk with him daily, wearing my HRM and burn on average 430cals with exercise and the estimated 400 with the breastfeeding. That's a lot of extra calories to eat!

    Any tips for weight loss without cutting too many calories? My supply is more important than those 10lbs, but I feel gross and jiggly :frown:

    If interested, I can share my postpartum pics compared to now. It DOES take time and only 11 weeks out, don't be too hard on yourself. I was not happy with my body at that point yet... but over time I did tone up, and I have three children. :smile: If you wanted to, you could try some core work because I found the biggest difference was when I started doing daily pushups. I started with modified ones (girly ones) because I couldn't do regular ones at first. Once I got stronger, I was able to go to town and throw down 90 pushups like no big deal. That was many months ago and I have since added more lifting, lunges, and squats.

    Good luck, but I am sure you are doing great. Breastfeeding is one of the greatest things you can do, both for yourself and your baby. :smile:

    The pushups are a great idea. I've been doing some core work and I do sets of walking lunges when I'm out walking him. I also just started the 30 day squat challenge. Thankfully I work from home full time, so I can do this all at my desk without getting looks from my coworkers :laugh: But I need to add some upper body and pushups are a great place to start. DH and I are joining a new gym next week and I am soooo looking forward to hitting the weights again!
  • BananaCat83
    BananaCat83 Posts: 77 Member
    Options
    I've read on average, it burns 300-500 calories a day. I'm sure the frequency of nursing affects it. My son is 11 weeks, so right now I am ebf and I add the negative value of -400. I am currently stuck with 10lbs left to lose...it won't budge! I walk with him daily, wearing my HRM and burn on average 430cals with exercise and the estimated 400 with the breastfeeding. That's a lot of extra calories to eat!

    Any tips for weight loss without cutting too many calories? My supply is more important than those 10lbs, but I feel gross and jiggly :frown:

    Sometimes hormones won't let you lose that last bit of weight while breastfeeding. Your body holds onto it like a reserve. If you feel jiggly, maybe start some strength training to firm up areas? Everytime I dropped my calories too low, I had an impact on supply. Make sure your getting the right macros to keep supply up as well, that's why I used to enter it as a food from the database.

    I have heard this as well, and heard it is especially true if you have a lower BMI. Right now mine is at 22.6. I'm definitely not overweight, but I have a feeling my body will want to hold on to these 10lbs. On to the toning so it at least looks good :bigsmile:

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