New here and breastfeeding?

kimberleygimson

Hi there, I'm new here. I'm a 23 year old mother of two boys, ones 6 months and the others a month shy of two years. I put on some serious weight while pregnant with my second son (complicated pregnancy required bed rest). I have managed to get down from 230 (right after having baby) to 208 without much work. I have been exercizing and eating right on my own for awhile and got down to 189. And I have been plateauing here for a little over a month. I joined MFP last week after a friend recommended it. I love it! Being able to track everything is awesome. Well its good and bad really, nobody wants to look at the bad stuff they have been eating.
So I am currently breastfeeding (almost exclusively, hes refusing food) my 6 month old and from what I understand that burns an average of 300-600 calories per day. How can I track that on here? I really need the extra calories as I'm having a hard time sticking to the restrictions I set to meet my goals. Thanks!

momku

Hi! I am nursing an 8 month old :-) If you go to 'add a food' and type in breastfeeding a whole list pops up. I use the one for 6-12 month olds. Then, when you add it to your food diary it adds 300 calories. Hope that helps!

mirandam1076

What I did is set my "daily activity" under "My Goals" a step above what I really do and didn't log it as an exercise. I have researched endlessly it seems on this and the best thing i have heard is an oz. of breast milk equals 20 calories your body burns to produce it.

kimberleygimson

Thanks I found it! Hopefully this will keep me from bingeing..

lmcornejo

When I started MFP I was breastfeeding too. You need to take in adequate calories to produce milk and you shouldn't go below 1500-1800 a day. I created an exercise for "Breastfeeding", and put in 60 minutes at 500 calories burned, this should help you gain "exercise" calories that are burned from breastfeeding. Hope that helps, feel free to send me a message or add as a friend Good luck!

WildcatMom82

Hi! I am nursing an 8 month old :-) If you go to 'add a food' and type in breastfeeding a whole list pops up. I use the one for 6-12 month olds. Then, when you add it to your food diary it adds 300 calories. Hope that helps!

This is what I do, even though I'm pretty sure she still nurses more than an average 8 month old. You can also enter by oz - kellymom says the average intake for a 0-6 month old it 25 oz. I think entering that gives you roughly 550 extra cals.

Flacachica

What I did is set my "daily activity" under "My Goals" a step above what I really do and didn't log it as an exercise. I have researched endlessly it seems on this and the best thing i have heard is an oz. of breast milk equals 20 calories your body burns to produce it.

Thank you.. this is very helpful! I always wondered how to factor in my breastfeeding.

mandypizzle

I am breast feeding an 8 month old. I just added 300 calories to my daily intake. I would add 500 if she was not eating other foods. That seems to be working well for me.