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Breast feeding calculator

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: 2,225 Member
    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: 1,349 Member
    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: 842 MFP Staff
    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
    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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