Newbie!! Hello-question on Breastfeeding Calories

oliveoil87

Hello everyone! I am new on this site and I am loving it so far!. Anyway, I am a mother of an 8 week old and three year old. Currently, I am nursing my 8 week old and have a question about the calorie intake.

Pre-pregnancy- to maintain my weight I needed to consume 1900 calories and 1500 to lose weight.

Since breastfeeding burns 500 cal, do I add the 500 on top of the 1900 calories which would give me 2400 in total?

I am also exercising 30min daily burning 250-300 calories. Anyway when I subtract the 2400-300(exercise)- 500(breastfeeding) I am down at 1600. Is that ok? I believe it's a 300 calorie deficit so I will be losing less than one pound a week? --Help. Thanks.

NightOwl1

Your math is a little confusing to me, but I don't think it's entirely right.

The site is saying you need to eat 1900 calories a day to maintain your weight without factoring exercise or breast feeding. Adding breastfeeding and exercise would be 1900+500+(250 or 300), so that means your actually maintenance calories when you factor in breastfeeding and exercise is 2650-2700 calories. Anything you eat less than that is a deficit. So if you want to lose one pound a week, you would need a 500 calorie a day deficit. That means on days that you breastfed and exercised, you would lose 1 pound a week if you ate 2150-2200 calories a day.

That make sense?

oliveoil87

Sorry, my mind is a bit out of place! Anyway, I understood in a way up until you added my exercise calories. To maintain my weight pre-pregnancy it was 1900 . Now that I am breastfeeding it's 2400. Since 500 is burned already from breastfeeding, I am down to 1900, and since I exercise burning 300 calories, I am down to 1600.


But how am I losing one pound a week on your strategy when eating 2200 calories a day. Because look--pre-preggo 1900 now I must eat 2400--since I am burning the 500 anyway it will bring me back to 1900---same thing. Therefore, with exercise I will be making a deficit. I hope I am making sense, lol. Sorry.

NightOwl1

How many calories are you planning on eating a day? I am getting a little confused. If you tell me that I can help you figure out what your deficit will be, and how much you will lose per week based on your currently lifestyle.

oliveoil87

I am eating 2400 and exercising everyday for 30min burning 300 calories. Sorry for the confusion! I think I am making it more complicated then it is!

NightOwl1

Okay, if you are eating 2400 and burning 300 through exercise, then your daily deficit is 300 calories per day. This means that you should burn 2100 calories a week, which means that you will lose 0.6 pounds a week at that pace.

oliveoil87

I guess I will go for 2200 calories a day then for a a 500 deficit, which brings me down to 1400 calories. I wonder if that is OK since I am breastfeeding?

NightOwl1

I'd say a 500 calorie deficit is safe. You are already eating extra calories because you are breastfeeding, so you are taking that into account.

marber

The calories you need to stay the same is 1900 + any extra from exercise and breast feeding.

1900 + 500 + 300 = 2700

To lose weight you need a 500 deficit so

2700 - 500 = 2200

It might be easier to just put everything in your profile and let mfp do the working out

oliveoil87

Never mind, i got it now!!! lol. Thanks.