How many calories are you eating if you're breastfeeding?

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ostrichladybug
ostrichladybug Posts: 3
in Food and Nutrition
It has given me 1450, when I add in breastfeeding it gives me another 500. If I burn an average of 200 through exercise each day I'm up to a total of almost 2200, and that's set to lose 1lb/week. that seems like so much to eat and still lose! But, I don't want to eat too little and compromise my supply. How much are you bf moms eating?

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  • jasmineruth
    jasmineruth Posts: 88 Member
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    Following. I JUST started MFP after having my baby 5 weeks ago. When I add in bf calories it gives me 1910, but then after exercise I have even more! Depending on what I do probably close to the same as you. I definitely don't want to compromise my supply, but I'm also curious as to how much I will actually lose.
  • walleyclan1
    walleyclan1 Posts: 2,784 Member
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    When your baby is breastfeeding only I would eat all the exercise calories back. It is critical in that time that your supply stays up. Once your little one starts with some solids and IF AND ONLY IF you are not successfully losing weight eating back all of exercise calories, then I would eat back half of exercise calories. I started when my baby was over a year already so she was eating lots of people food. I would eat back all of my exercise calories every other day. I was consistently losing 1 lb a week. When your baby is under a year I would prioritize having a good supply over weight loss though. You chose to breastfeed for a reason and you don't want to end up having to supplement in order to lose weight.
  • Naomi0504
    Naomi0504 Posts: 964 Member
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    Even when I dieted in the past, my supply wasn't affected. But I ate back around 300 extra calories with my last baby anyway :smile:
  • irunforcookies
    irunforcookies Posts: 111 Member
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    When your baby is breastfeeding only I would eat all the exercise calories back. It is critical in that time that your supply stays up. Once your little one starts with some solids and IF AND ONLY IF you are not successfully losing weight eating back all of exercise calories, then I would eat back half of exercise calories. I started when my baby was over a year already so she was eating lots of people food. I would eat back all of my exercise calories every other day. I was consistently losing 1 lb a week. When your baby is under a year I would prioritize having a good supply over weight loss though. You chose to breastfeed for a reason and you don't want to end up having to supplement in order to lose weight.

    This. I was very careful to keep my calories up the first year, then when she was about 15 months old, I started reducing the amount I ate, down to around 1500 calories (before adding back exercise calories) It's amazing how much weight you can lose breastfeeding - just focus on nutrition, and the rest will fall into place.
  • jcmrax5
    jcmrax5 Posts: 133
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    my cal goal is about 1900. im not adding in extra cals for BFing anymore because my baby is a year old so im not even sure how many cals i burn now but when my little one was still little about 2200 is what i ate. it does seem like a lot. but test it out. make sure you are drinking a ton of water and if you arent getting to 2200 cals a day then just keep an eye on your supply. your baby will let you know what to do! :)
  • angelasweeting
    angelasweeting Posts: 2
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    Can someone tell me where you put in that you were breastfeeding? I can't find it anywhere. Thanks:smile:
  • Aquabird
    Aquabird Posts: 38 Member
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    Can someone tell me where you put in that you were breastfeeding? I can't find it anywhere. Thanks:smile:

    I added it as an exercise.
  • walleyclan1
    walleyclan1 Posts: 2,784 Member
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    I add it under food for breakfast
  • farniente8
    farniente8 Posts: 30 Member
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    When I was breastfeeding and not really exercising much (I would walk for maybe half an hour to 45 minutes a day) or watching my calories I still lost weight. It may seem like 2200 is a lot but you are still basically eating for two!
  • angelasweeting
    angelasweeting Posts: 2
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    Thanks
  • haephestia
    haephestia Posts: 11 Member
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    It entirely depends on if you are trying to lose weight or not. If you're exercising, add back calories. If you're not and you have gained more than ~20lb (depending on your body fat you may have healthily gained more), I wouldn't worry about it. Breastfeeding is an excellent way to get rid of the 'extra' pregnancy gain beyond the weight of the baby, amniotic fluid and associated things. (Currently taking a maternity nursing class.)

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