Should I Count Breastfeeding Calories?

00Angela00

So I keep getting mixed messages on whether or not to count breastfeeding calories! Breastfeeding supposedly burns 500 calories a day, however a few people have mentioned they didn't lose any weight breastfeeding and that your body may not necessarily use 500 calories a day. BUT then there's also a big push to eat your exercise calories so your body has the energy it needs to properly burn fat. SO do I count the calories or not? Do I count some or not? What do I do?!

briteyes

when i was doing weight watchers while breastfeeding, they give you an extra 10 points. I still lost a ton of weight. I would at the least, give yourself more calories than someone not bfing.

dlcam61

Add em in to your daily total, if you don't eat enough your bf efforts will suffer. No sour milk for that baby :flowerforyou:

I lost some weight breastfeeding, but it was gradual. I was starving all the time so I had to eat or my flow was lighter. Best thing you can do is ask advice of your pediatrician, they usually are a wealth of information. And so are their nurses

dhayter28

I count breastfeeding, no doubt about that! It gives you calories back the same as exercise. For every 1 ounce you breastfeed or pump is worth 20 calories back to your total. Also, don't forget about the fat, protein and sugar that goes into that.

TaraMaria

My friend did and she lost all of her baby weight and then some. I think you should definitely count it!

Alleghany

Hey, Mama! I counted mine and I lost my weight so it worked for me. I was eating between 1600 - 2200 cals per day depending on how much my little guy ate plus any exercise cals I accrued. I always ate my exercise cals since I seemed to need them. You can always try eating your extra breastfeeding cals for a few wks and see if you lose. If not, you could then reduce your cals.

Good luck, Mama! :flowerforyou:

00Angela00

alright, thanks everyone! I guess I'll start counting them and see where that takes me :-)

theresnoeggs

definitely count them but do not go by the 20 cal by oz method. If you are BFing, you don't know how many oz you are producing 1st of all. 2nd, making milk is burning much more calories than is in each oz of breastmilk. It burns calories just to produce the milk, then when your little one is actually nursing you are burning calories, and the cal in the milk.

If you are nursing 8-12x a day, I would add an exercise in, I add "breastfeeding mother" every day 1st thing, I put the numbers in as "1 min, 200 calories" After reading those only nursing a couple times a day still burn 200 cals. My daughter is 13 months old and nurses 1-4x a day.

Before joining here I have gained 25 lbs AFTER I had my daughter.
Since joining I have lost 13lbs (1 month, 11 days)

Best of luck!

acmiranda7

Im breastfeeding my 6 month old son and Im wondering the same. Do I give extra cals for bf? Im doing (starting today) 1500 calories, thats giving myself 300 bf extras since I do supplement w/ formula. I am also excercising to burn 300 cals. So I will keep u posted to see if it works.