breast feeding

smilliner

Anyone know how to adjust calorie intakes for breastfeeding and still reach target weight?

Leigh_b

add it in your food journal, it gives you the appropriate additional calories

mlpaint

You should be eating 500 more calories. Do not burn these calories off! They will burn off naturally. Yay boobie calorie burns! Breastfeeding is the BEST way to burn off those extra baby lbs, keep it up!

cjwolfjen

depending on how often you breast feed or how much the baby is eating... you may only burn 300 calories a day which isn't much, so be careful. i actually gained weight while breast feeding my daughter because I thought it would just "fall off" the way it did with breast feeding my son. Doesn't always work that way. Drink plenty of water its good for milk supply as well. What I did was search under foods for "nursing" and added it to my dairy each day it just takes the calories right back off... yay

nikip6454

You can add it as if it were food in your diary-it will add -500 calories.

My calorie goal is 1200, I log what I eat, say 1500 total calories, then I add in "Breastfeeding" or "Nursing Mother", MFP puts negative 500 calories in the calorie column and I am now at 1000 calories for the day.

I have also heard 300 calories--you could start with adding 300 calories to your goal and keep an eye on your supply. I am worried about my supply so I just use the 500.

nikip6454

wow when I started my reply it was the first one-sorry about repeating things!

Valechka

Depends on where you at your lactation. Fist 4-6 months when babies only eat breastmilk, you can use up to 600 c per day making milk. I would produce 40-42 oz per day! ( I know for sure, since had to pump to go back to school...) I lost 15 lb in first 6 months of my son's life, just by breast feeding and going on the stroller walks for like 2-3 hrs ( he would not sleep good nap at home.... I did not count what I ate, but it was normal no more then 2K diet, but I do remember craving bread and pasta and watermelon and strawberries and ice cream. Once you child start eating other food, then you can see that you getting 200-300 c per day to make milk.

Valechka

The most important is to get your nutrients, since it will come out of you. Genetically, we build that way: first baby, then mom.

lalalazzz

I didn't really start dieting until my son was 6 months. At that point he was still nursing a lot an taking few solids. I was eating 1600-2000 cals a day making sure to always eat a min of 1550 and eating ALL my exercise cals. I started losing right away and really really fast while on MFP and was never hubgry, and my milk supply was always good. I lost 19 lbs while doig this and I am now just toning. My son is 9 mos now and I'm eating even more bc I'm exercising more.

To answer your question, you can go under any meal say breakfast and type in "breastfeeding" and all different options come up. If you're nursing exclusively you would add ~500 cals, if you're nursing an older child there's an option for that and it's ~300 cals. You can even add by ounces. In my opinion, never go under 1500 or you'll see a decrease in your milk supply.

smilliner

Thanks for all of the great advice for breast feeding. I am definately not taking in enough calories to keep my milk supply up. I can tell when I don't eat enough and it starts to decrease.