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Breast feeding calculator

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lhayes09
lhayes09 Posts: 1 Member
in Feature Suggestions and Ideas
Alot of the population are breast feeding (which uses over 500+ calories a day!), there is nothing to calculate this into daily calorie amounts on myfitnesspal. This would be a great feature and make the app safer for Mums & babies.
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  • AdahPotatah2024
    AdahPotatah2024 Posts: 1,342 Member
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    So disagree! I don't think calorie counting should ever be encouraged during pregnancy/breastfeeding. I'd just focus on eating healthy foods and walking as much as possible.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,252 Member
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    It also comes perilously close to medical advice. What happens if the MFP estimate is too low and someone sues because they can't make enough milk anymore? I do think a lot of people who breastfeed balance their calories by tracking the feeding as exercise. That's their own determination though.
  • Jean
    Jean Posts: 765 MFP Staff
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    Since breastfeeding varies for each woman, we don't currently offer a specific recommendation for adjusting your calories. However, if you obtain a calorie estimate from your doctor or nutritionist, you can easily change your calorie goal to account for the difference.

    To adjust your calorie goal:

    In the Android, iPad and iPhone app:

    Select "Goals" in the Menu (or "More" page) then "Calories" under Nutrition Goals.

    Selecting the current goal will allow you to change it. Be sure to save your changes.

    ​As an alternative, you may log "breastfeeding" as an exercise. Once you have a calorie estimate, you can add "breastfeeding" as a custom cardiovascular exercise to your exercise database.
  • Wurlitzer1015
    Wurlitzer1015 Posts: 7 Member
    edited June 19
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    What you can do, that might help, in the food diary, click "Quick Tools" under any particular meal and select "Quick Add Calories". Here you can enter a negative value for calories, say -500 for you breast feeding, and it will subtract that amount from the daily total. You could also add a custom meal in the settings TAB and make one called "Breast Feeding", then add negative calories to that as required. It would then appear in your diary each day. Just a note, I only see the "Quick Tools" on the webapp, not the mobile.
    Also in the SETTINGS TAB, make sure you tick the box that allows negative adjustments :)

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