Can someone please help me figure out a good calorie deficit?

CLB1124

I’m a 32yr old female, 5’9, 215lbs. I’m exclusively breastfeeding my 7mo old. She just recently started on solids so, I’m nursing around 4-6 times day and at least 2 times at night. Stressed and a little confused on how much to add/subtract calories for breastfeeding. Thank you in advanced!

Kiwi2mfp

You might want to start by finding your current maintenance. Use the MFP to figure out your maintenance and then test that out for a week or so. If you stay the same weight, then you know exactly what your calorie needs are. But since you are breast feeding, you might actually lose at maintenance. A week or two should tell you if you will maintain or lose .5 pounds or more. Now if you would like to lose a bit more, 500 calories a day deficit will equal about a pound a week loss. I wouldn't get too aggressive though or you might lose some of your supply. Maybe gradually take your calories down week by week until you are losing at a pace that's healthy for you and you can keep up with. So it might take some testing the waters on your part to figure out weightloss calories for your specific situation.

Edit to add, I'm currently breast feeding too. My daughter is 10 months old now so I know the struggle to lose weight and breast feed.

CLB1124

Thank you! This was very helpful.