Eating workout calories and breastfeeding

pkksmama

I am breastfeeding a 9 month old and have had no problems with supply but I am just now really introducing regular exercise into my diet and need advice. I add in 300 extra breastfeeding calories a day and I pump about 20 ounces at work and she eats throughout the afternoon and night from me so no clue on how much I am producing than.

I am working out now to the point where I am set at 1320 calories (2 lbs a week) and I eat those plus the 300 breastfeeding I add in as food to ensure that I eat them back but when I work out I am burning on average 400-700 a day so far and it brings me down to a net of 500 sometimes.

Should I be eating those back? I do not want my milk to suffer but so far I have been blessed with a very large supply. I am worried that the calories in the milk will not be as high for her. She is 23 lbs at 9 months old which is like 98 percentile so I know she is getting what she needs so far but like I said before I am jus now adding working out in and this is my first week.

Sorry kind of a rant still and not very structured. Help me if you can understand what I am looking for!

Sagetheplace

I would eat back your exercise calories, or at least half. I am breastfeeding my son still, although he is much older. I found when I wasnt eating any of them back my milk supply was decreasing and I stopped losing. I am finding right now eating back at least half is working best for me. So I would try maybe eating back half and then adjust if you need to. Good luck!

surfagirl1

I read an a couple of really good articles on the net about it and one of them talked about listening to your body and making sure you eat when your hungry (I guess rather than counting the calories)... I also read some contradicting advise one saying you should be eating 2000-2500 cal per day when breastfeeding for 3 months or even 2800 if you plan feeding longer than 3 months - then somewhere else they were saying to eat no less than between 1500-1800 when breastfeeding. They also compared our bodies to marathon runners and said that we may be tempted to use that calorie allowance on sweets and chocolate but we should be choosing healthy options (which is pretty obvious aye - but still I often am tempted ...)

JnJJsMommy

I am nursing a 10 month old, yay us! :happy:

Anyway, I haven't noticed a drop in anything, but he only nurses really at night and 2 times during the day. I do eat back some of my calories, so that may be why I'm not noticing a drop.