Breastfeeding

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turtleohs
turtleohs Posts: 127 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I am curious, my daily caloric intake should be 1500... but I am a breastfeeding mother... Should I increase this amount at all because of breastfeeding? Thanks :)

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  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
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    Yes. You can add it to your food diary or exercise diary. Just search "breastfeeding" and you can choose from several categories depending on how often you nurse.
  • turtleohs
    turtleohs Posts: 127 Member
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    awesome! thank you so much!
  • poisongirl6485
    poisongirl6485 Posts: 1,487 Member
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    Generally BFing moms can increase their cals by 300 per day to maintain a healthy supply and remain well-nourished.
  • rossi02
    rossi02 Posts: 549 Member
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    Yes you should! I forget the exact caloric intake for the varies stages, but you can google that. It's is very important you do not restric your calories. When your baby hits around 7/8 months, breastfeeding can burn up to 500 calories a day! However, be mindfull that when you stop nursing, you will need to cut back on your intake, that side of it is never as fun.
  • turtleohs
    turtleohs Posts: 127 Member
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    I'm definitely not restricting calories... I just joined yesterday to get an idea of how many calories im actually eating and yesterday was about 2000 which seems about right. My son is only 2.5 months so he's still nursing a ton during the day and night and my supply is most important right now... but this site made me much more aware of how much Im actually eating and where I can cut back! :)
  • candb
    candb Posts: 238
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    Yes, you need to have 300-500 extra calories a day. I select Breastfeeding-Exclusively on the food diary since my little guy is only 7 weeks old.
  • Collinsky
    Collinsky Posts: 593 Member
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    Yes, especially at 2.5 mos and if exclusively breastfed. You are probably burning about 500 cals a day. As he gets older and starts taking solids, you'll burn less nursing him.

    If you are logging your meals, each day you can put "Breastfeeding - Mom" as a food choice. Instead of adding cals, it will automatically deduct 500, plus the appropriate protein, fat, and carb amount that you need to replenish. That's what I do, although I've adjusted mine to reflect the fact that my baby is a toddler now and gets a lot of his nourishment from other sources.

    There's a great book called Eat Well, Lose Weight While Breastfeeding that is really helpful for nursing moms who want to make sure they are getting good nutrition and maintaining their supply. If you are eating well and you have excess weight, it will come off without calorie restriction (which is not something you want to do at this stage.)

    2000 cals seems pretty good.
  • turtleohs
    turtleohs Posts: 127 Member
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    Thank you for the book suggestion Colleen!

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