can mfp track calories burned while pumping (breastmilk)

mommacuca

any moms know???

tjnow

Hi,

I too am a new mommy. I justed posted a similar question. I have been logging it as 250 calories burned. I was suggested to be at 1220, but have since modified my goal to reflect the new suggested guildelines. Plus I have been feealing weak and famished this week with such a huge reduction and have noticed a change in supply. I have just joined and started using this tool on Monday of this week. I have read several articles online that have suggested that the average expenditure is between 200-500 calories burned. I have also read that reducing caloric intake to less than 1800 can hamper milk supply,

ivyjbres

I don't know if there's exercise listed, I believe there is, but it may not give you a calorie-credit. I believe in the foods sections, there's a negative calorie breastfeeding listing. Also, from googling around, I found a figure for 20 calories an ounce. I haven't found any real reference to back that up, but since you are pumping and know your output, you could just figure out how many calories you're burning that way and enter it as a negative using the quick add calories.

ajbeans

It's an average of 22 calories burned per ounce of breastmilk produced. So if you're pumping, you can just manually add in the calories burned each day when you count up how many ounces you have, or if you know how many ounces you get on average, just add that in each day.

Ruchell

I am not totally positive but I have heard from other mommies on this site that you can add breastfeeding to your food diary (not sure exactly what it's listed under, I've never personally done it) but i think you can select about how much you're nursing/pumping and it will add negative calories to your day to give you a little more to eat. I know I've seen it on quite a few food diaries added to people's breakfast. hope that helps a bit!

chelsifina

I would definitely add back calories (perhaps in the form of an exercise you create?) per ounce of milk produced. With my first child I produced 60 ounces of milk per day for a period of time, and with my second child I never produced any more than 20. Your calories burned really depends on you and your baby, and will change as your baby's needs change. I would imagine that a guesstimate from MFP would be too inaccurate to be of any real use for you.

ElizabethRoad

It's in food, there are several entries for nursing. And you can always create your own if you don't agree with the calorie amounts listed.

carolina_r

I am no expert (talk to your doctor!) but from what I've read, it looks like you burn about 200-500 cals per day (depending on how much you are feeding). I've also read not to go below 1800 cals per day (again - I am no expert - talk to a doctor or nutritionist!)

Here's what I do: the site recommended that I eat 1200 to lose weight. This seems too low for a nursing mother. I enter breastfeeding through my food diary - just type in "breastfeeding" and you will see a bunch of options. It basically minuses a certain amount of calories from your cals eaten that day to make sure that you eat enough. I use the "6 month - 12 month old" option - it minuses 300 cals. I also changed my base calorie intake to around 1400 cals, and I try to burn at least 100 cals a day and eat the cals back. This keeps me at a minimum of 1800 per day. So far - I've been losing weight and my milk production has not been affected!

Hope this helps.

mommacuca

@chelsifina- I dont understand your post "add back calories"?