Breastfeeding

Kyliemcfarlane

I am currently breastfeeding, any ideas on how many extra calories we are allowed & can this be recorded in our daily calculations?

Thanks

YummyLife

I was wondering the same thing..

Le_Joy

Enter breastfeeding in the food section and there are a lot of options based on age of child and exclusive bfing or not. Most are about 500 cals.

yogamom16

You can add breast feeding just like you add a food to your daily log. I always add it under snacks. When my baby was really young and eating every 2-3 hours I allowed myself an extra 500 calories and as my baby got older and was eating some foods I gave myself an extra 300 calories. Right now my baby is 15months old and only nursing at bedtime and first thing in the morning so I only give myself an extra 150 cals.

piebird79

You can enter breastfeeding in the search criteria for food. It'll bring up a number of options. All it does is add calories to your daily allowance. I breastfeed exclusively and I've been on MFP since my son was 6 weeks old (he's 5 months old now - he'll start solids next month). Personally I don't bother adding the breastfeeding calories every day, but I don't try super hard to stay at or under my alloted calories each day because I am breastfeeding. I haven't had any problems with milk production, though some women do report problems with milk production if they restrict their calories too much.

Sp1nGoddess

Breastfeeding burns about 400 calories per day - really the longer you can do it the faster and more weight you will lose. I ate back those calories in chocolate... = ) My son was born late January and in February all the candy was on sale... It would be nice if they gave a calories burned for breastfeeding.

Kyliemcfarlane

Thank you!! I have the same problem with controlling my sweet tooth while feeding, so the extra calories do reduce the guilt factor!!