What if you're breastfeeding?

Ilovepeppers

I was wondering if anyonee here is breastfeeding in addition to calorie counting? Im just wondering how many calories you consume, your height and your weight.. and how much weight youre losong. Im worried about diminishing the milk supply...

ecp2698

Hi! I started here when my baby was 3 months old, and I gave myself an additional 500 calories a day. You can search it under foods and add it to your diary. MFP gave me 1200 calories a day. I also ate most of my exercise calories, too. So really I never felt like I was dieting, I ate a lot (still do!) and the weight came off, slowly, but that is the best way when you are breastfeeding. My supply was never affected. Now I give myself 300 extra calories because she is 7 months old and having solids. Good luck!

Oh and when I started MFP in Aug, I weighed 170lbs, I am 5’6” and now I am at 149lbs.

catcrazy

between 200 and 500 a day depending on babies age and feeds. Once weaning has started reduce to around 60 calories per proper feed (don't count the none feed sucklings)

flems629

So I found breastfeeding under the food and there was a generic one by onces and just a plain breastfeeding by ml. The same amount of breast milk gave very different negative calories.....the generic one said 18 oz of breastmilk is -396 calories or something while 480 ml which is about the same amount of as 18 oz says only -80 calories, which one should I use?? Sorry to hijack this thread

catcrazy

all of those entries are user added so none are guaranteed accurate. How old is your little one, have you started weaning, how many full feeds do they have...its going to be different for every user, a 1 week old baby feeds the most but is taking little, a 6 month old unweaned is going to be taking less feeds but the most milk and a baby where solids are being used is often only having a drink not a full feed.

The only thing that I am sure of is if your milk suffers then UP YOUR CALORIES, weight loss can wait

stellcorb

I am breastfeeding but only for comfort ( my son is on solids and cows milk) so I don't deduct any calories. I started on Aug 2nd 2010 at 201 lbs and have lost 44lbs. I had a pretty inconsistent milk supply to begin with so I don't believe it effected it negatively. I set myself to loose a pound a week so that put me at about 1700 calories to start and I ate my work-out calories. If you are exclusively breastfeeding, I would set around 1800 (depending on your current weight) and eat work-out calories but probably wouldn't deduct the BF calories in addition. Everyone's different though and if you're starving, you probably need to up your intake little by little until you're comfortable.

flems629

I am actually pumping, I pump 2-3 oz per breast every 5 hours for a total of 4-6 oz every pump, so I get 4 pumps in day.

So the oz I pump is quite accurate as it never changes.

Anyone have an suggestions

Ilovepeppers

Hey guys. Thanks for the info. Heres a little background information. I am 5'9" and weighed 245 when i began 4 days ago. Im now 140 and it seems im making a little less milk. The plan has me at 1840 per day and i exercise away between 140 and 290 depending on how long i work out.. and i try to eat the exercise caloroes. I am set to.lose 1 1/2 PPW so how much should i up the calories? I used a calculator that just if i were to lay in bed and do nothing all day but lay there my body would use 1950... Im lost! Haha. Oh and please excuse any typos, i mainly use MFP through my phone and this darn keyboaed is a.pain in the butt.

PS. Baby is 4 months today and eats every 4 hours or so during the day and every 6 hours at night. No solids yet.

ecp2698

Allison- I would definitely give yourself 500 extra calories if you are still exclusively BF and your baby is that young. I would make sure you drink a lot of water, too, that always helped with my production. It really doesn't even seem like you are "dieting" when you BF and try to lose weight because you burn those extra calories BF. Sometimes I even had trouble eating as much as I was supposed to.

It's definitely nerve wracking, you want to be sure you are eating enough, or not eating too much, and not lose your supply, but want to lose the baby weight, too. It will come off, it just takes time!

HTH!

Alisha28

Hey I am breastfeeding and calorie counting. Just had my baby in July so he is almost 6 months. I make sure to add 300 extra cals to my diet of 1200 ao 1500 I do it seems to be working great. I am also a personal trainer and aerobics instructor so the days I work out extra hard and feel I need more I eat more. Our body does tell us what we need:)

Alisha

mommy to 4 fabulous children:)