Breastfeeding- calories burned/ calories needed?

blueyeb

My question is, how do you balance/calculate for calories burned vs. calories needed from breastfeeding while also factoring in exercise calories?

Thanks for any helpful advice :-)

mehaugen

You can also enter calorie goals manually, so you could just set it to 1300 or so.

becca473

My sister found it as a food. She enters it in as a negative calorie snack. She's nursing twins so it gives her an extra 600 calories a day.

buffalogal1979

Hi!
I started MFP when my baby was @ 5mo. I found the combination of BFing and MFP to be REALLY helpful.

My doctor told me to go NO lower than 2000 cal/day.

What I did when I first started was made my goal 2000cal/day and then used a "breastfeeding mom" FOOD that is worth negative 100 cal for 3 of my meals. So I was accounting for 300 cal/day being burned by breastfeeding in addition to giving myself 2000 cal/day over all. So really I was eating 2300 cal/day PLUS my exercise calories.

HTH.
Enjoy your baby!
J

Edited to say that: Yes, even eating ALL those calories I dropped weight like crazy! It's since I have stopped nursing, that I have struggled.

blueyeb

Thanks everyone, I did find it as a negative food calorie. Still a little concerned about the correct amount, so I will estimate on the low end.