Adding back breastfeeding calories- thoughts?

hpound

Nursing moms or just moms in general....do you or would you add back the breastfeeding calories to your diet? In theory, I burn 500 calories from nursing/pumping and have been adding them but not sure if I should? Should I be making sure I eat the 500 extra and the workout calories?

My son is 6 months old and just starting baby food. I've got a pretty solid supply so I'm wondering do I risk losing it if I don't give myself that extra 500? (I pump and save what he doesn't eat).

( I'd rather be able to nurse without losing weight than lose weight and lose the ability to nurse)

Thanks!

Megmiranda23

No answer but hopefully others will weigh in on the subject. I am nursing a 2 month old and adding 500 calories into my daily intake. Seems like it defeats the purpose of weight loss, yet that is what everything on here says to do!

kristinL16

Yes, you should add the calories. I have read different info on how many calories to eat when nursing, but generally most resources say to add 300-500 calories or eat around 1800 calories for weight loss while maintaining supply. MFP gave me a goal of 1200 a day but I add the 500 to make my goal 1700. If I am hungry I will eat a bit more but don't stress if I am under my 1700-1800 goals once in awhile if I am not hungry.

Also wanted to add that if your MFP calorie goal is determined based on calories needed for weight loss. So, you would already be at a calorie deficit if you were not breastfeeding. Adding the 500 calories you burn through breastfeeding ensures that you are still eating enough to maintain supply while still being at a calorie deficit. Hope that makes sense. There is lots of info on the boards about eating at or above your BMR, etc, which gets a bit confusing. But, basically, you don't want to eat too few calories that your metabolism starts to slow down, which defeats the purpose in the long run.

Edited again to add that I don't usually eat back my exercise calories. I don't do strenuous exercise, though (just your usual gym workout for now). IMO, MFP overestimates the calories burned through exercise. Again, if I was super hungry and had no more calories left I would eat something healthy, but in general I don't eat those calories back.

hpound

Thanks! That does help. I think i'll continue to eat back the BF calories but try to keep off the exercise ones unless i'm really hungry.

sar123bear

For simplicity, if you do the math, the average female needs let's say 2000-2100 cals/day to survive/maintain - if you have roughly a 20-30% deficit (which BTW you should not dip below very often) of 400-600 cals/day lets say, multiply that by 7 it's roughly a pound a week (2800-4200 less cals/week). think about it... the typical 1200 cals is 8-900 cals less/day - almost half of what you should be eating... your body will likely think you're starving if u keep that high of a deficit regularly and furthermore if you're breastfeeding and exercising and not adding that back??? OMG!!. To start, what I did was go to http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm and figured out how many calories I need: for example: 34 years old, 5'4" @ 188 w/ little exercise (I don't add the exercise to the calculator since the calories burned vary) it says I need the following: for Maintenance 1847 CALORIES/DAY, for Fat Loss :1504 CALORIES/DAY and for Extreme Fat Loss it says it's TOO LOW. Taking that into consideration, I have set up MyFitnessPal to match that 1500 goal and try my hardest to get 1500 net calories per day. BUT... I am breastfeeding... typically if your little one gets most or all of their calories from you, it's roughly 500 cals / day burned (20 cals per ounce x 24-30 oz on average- plus if I pump and store, I add those calories back too- say 3 oz x 20= 60 extra), so..... normally I add 500 calories / day via the food section for a whopping 2000 calories to eat and then if I get exercise, say 200 calories burned, then I eat those back for a whopping 2200 /day... bottom line is I aim to get at least 1300-1500 net calories/day so I don't go into starvation mode. It's hard because I'm "satisfied" with 1000-1200 calories/day with how much healthier I'm eating, so I have to remember to eat enough. My typical day consists of 400 cals for breakfast, 400 cals for lunch, 4-600 cals for snacks, 5-800 for dinner. I aim to get protein in at every meal... goal for the meals is to have protein, a starchy carb, and a veggie or a fruit at every meal and I try to get enough water and healthy liquid fats so my milk supply doesn't dip too. I'm limiting packaged foods... hardly adding any salt or sugar to my meals I make (when I do, it's morton's light salt along w/ some Mrs. Dash salt free seasoning or honey for sugar- and I've replaced butter w olive oil/italian dressing. Oh, and I try to eat every 3 hours. If you want to look at my food diary on MyFitnessPal, it's open to my friends, just add me. Exercise is minimal right now, but as much as I can, usually 3x a week for 20-30 mins is my goal- some crunches, leg lifts, arm workouts, walking, dancing... nothin too heavy. :-) I'm losing anywhere from 1-3.5 lbs/week and have lost 62 lbs since 12/14 (and only 25-30 of that was baby). Hope this helps! I run a free post pregnancy weight loss group on FB - if you'd like to join, it's a really great group & we'd love more active/supportive members - let me know!

kristinL16

I am 5' tall, 150 lbs. Very sedentary job. BMR is roughly 1350-1400 depending on which method is used. Freedieting.com has me at 1620 for maintenance plus BF cals, 1320 for fat loss. Adding the BF calories would put me at about 1800, which is roughly what I shoot for. I have the goal in my diary listed at 1700 but some days I am over, some days under. The first two weeks I workd out 3 times each week and lost 2.5 and 1.5. The last two weeks I haven't worked out at all (although I have gone for some walks around the neighborhood with the kids) and have lost .5 over the two weeks. When I work out the machines at the gym say I have burned between 100-200 calories for a 45 minute workout, but MFP gives me over 250-300 when I enter it, which is why I think it is too high.

Sondras09

Great explination! Im at a standstill and i HAVE to lose weight. Im military and have my fitness test in 2 months. Im having a hard time figuring out how many calories I really actually need daily. Id love to be added to your group!

For simplicity, if you do the math, the average female needs let's say 2000-2100 cals/day to survive/maintain - if you have roughly a 20-30% deficit (which BTW you should not dip below very often) of 400-600 cals/day lets say, multiply that by 7 it's roughly a pound a week (2800-4200 less cals/week). think about it... the typical 1200 cals is 8-900 cals less/day - almost half of what you should be eating... your body will likely think you're starving if u keep that high of a deficit regularly and furthermore if you're breastfeeding and exercising and not adding that back??? OMG!!. To start, what I did was go to http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm and figured out how many calories I need: for example: 34 years old, 5'4" @ 188 w/ little exercise (I don't add the exercise to the calculator since the calories burned vary) it says I need the following: for Maintenance 1847 CALORIES/DAY, for Fat Loss :1504 CALORIES/DAY and for Extreme Fat Loss it says it's TOO LOW. Taking that into consideration, I have set up MyFitnessPal to match that 1500 goal and try my hardest to get 1500 net calories per day. BUT... I am breastfeeding... typically if your little one gets most or all of their calories from you, it's roughly 500 cals / day burned (20 cals per ounce x 24-30 oz on average- plus if I pump and store, I add those calories back too- say 3 oz x 20= 60 extra), so..... normally I add 500 calories / day via the food section for a whopping 2000 calories to eat and then if I get exercise, say 200 calories burned, then I eat those back for a whopping 2200 /day... bottom line is I aim to get at least 1300-1500 net calories/day so I don't go into starvation mode. It's hard because I'm "satisfied" with 1000-1200 calories/day with how much healthier I'm eating, so I have to remember to eat enough. My typical day consists of 400 cals for breakfast, 400 cals for lunch, 4-600 cals for snacks, 5-800 for dinner. I aim to get protein in at every meal... goal for the meals is to have protein, a starchy carb, and a veggie or a fruit at every meal and I try to get enough water and healthy liquid fats so my milk supply doesn't dip too. I'm limiting packaged foods... hardly adding any salt or sugar to my meals I make (when I do, it's morton's light salt along w/ some Mrs. Dash salt free seasoning or honey for sugar- and I've replaced butter w olive oil/italian dressing. Oh, and I try to eat every 3 hours. If you want to look at my food diary on MyFitnessPal, it's open to my friends, just add me. Exercise is minimal right now, but as much as I can, usually 3x a week for 20-30 mins is my goal- some crunches, leg lifts, arm workouts, walking, dancing... nothin too heavy. :-) I'm losing anywhere from 1-3.5 lbs/week and have lost 62 lbs since 12/14 (and only 25-30 of that was baby). Hope this helps! I run a free post pregnancy weight loss group on FB - if you'd like to join, it's a really great group & we'd love more active/supportive members - let me know!

zukkiz

All of these explanations are wonderful and just what I have needed. I have lost 27.5 pounds since joining and a total of 30 since %December. I know I must be doing something right, I just stress that lil man won't get enough. He is 10 months, eats with us at the table, and still nurses up a storm.

So this what I have been doing:

1750 for regular calories
1250 net calories

I was going off the lightly active recommendation. I made a change though and put in 1750 for my base. I tried to get their recommended 1250 with adding in breastfeeding and exercise. I also have diverticulitis, so I eat a high fiber diet, which also helps. I get at least 35 grams a day, and I eat every 3 hours also. I also work out M-F, doing the 10 minute trainer by Tony Horton. I still added in my bf and exercise.

Sometimes though I get stagnant so I thought maybe I haven't been doing it right. So this week I switched to sedentary and put my goal to 1580. I will be Adding in all my exercising and bf and making sure my net is 1580. Does that seem right? Or should it be 1200?

kristinL16

zukkiz--have you figured out your BMR or TDEE? If so, what are those numbers?

zukkiz

I had to look up what TDEE is 1822. I got that from 2 different sites.
Freedieting: TDEE 1761 (little or no exercise)
Then I found a basic formula that shows my TDEE to be 2625.

My BMR from here is 1461
My BMR from freedieting for BF is 1552

I dion't know why I am letting these numbers stress me out. I have already lost 28 pounds in three months. I believe it is my OCD that is just stressing me.

I bought a HRM and used that today and for my 33 min workout I burned 419 calories.

I think what I am getting hung up on, is what to set my goal as. I want to get enough calories for feeding lil man, but also to lose about 1.5 pounds a week.

Any help is appreciated.

Before I forget here are my stats.

Age: 43
Height: 65.5 inches
Weight: 175

rextcat

i added mine back for the longest time, then i stoped and just set my daily goal to 1644(my tdee), i have read that if bfing full time you prolly should keep your cal goal around 2000 daily.

kristinL16

Everything that I have read says that when breastfeeding you should stay around 1700-1800 (at least) calories per day. I have also read that you should add 300 or 500 (have read different things) calories to what you would normally need to eat to lose weight. I agree that the info on the boards can be crazy-making. MFP had me at 1200 calories. My BMR is either 1214 or 1416 depending on the method used to calculate it. The breastfeeding calculator at freedieting.com. It says only in the 1500's (don't remember exactly). I think that took into account activity (sedentary), not just BMR. Anyway, I took the 1200 and added 500 to put me at 1700 cals per day. If I exercise I may or may not eat some of those calories. I have been really inconsistent with my workouts but have lost more when I got to the gym 3 times per week.

How long have you been at a plateau? If you are doing well, I would just stick with what you are doing. I am confused about your question regarding 1750 total calories but 1200 net. Do you mean that you would eat 1750 but burn 550 through exercise?

My understanding from reading threads is that you should take your TDEE (make sure you add breastfeeding calories to that) and then subtract by 10-20% to get your daily calorie goal.

Another thing to be aware of is that as baby gets older your calorie needs will go down. After each of my pregnancies I started gaining weight again between 10-12 months. Even though I was still breastfeeding baby was not getting/needing as much milk and I was apparently eating more than I needed to. So you may need to only add 300 calories instead of 500. Or maybe even less as he gets closer to a year old.

zukkiz

To be honest my plateau wasn't very long at all. I just wanted to stop it before it got too bad.

I only count 300 calories for breastfeeding, since he is 10 months. Though he still nurses just as much as before and eats regular food like a champ.

I would eat 1750 and burn 200 for exercise and 300 for breastfeeding. I was doing it all wrong.

So I put my MFP goal at 1565 and didn't count my bf as exercise I put it in my food diary instead. Then I exercised and ate back those calories. My net eating was 1565 yesterday. I still think I have this wrong.

I have seen your 40/30/30 thread and I am going to do some more research. You see this time around I want to make a definite
lifestyle change.

Thanks for all your help.

kristinL16

I do know that after my other children I would lose for awhile, then nothing, then all of a sudden lose again. I wasn't doing anything to lose weight it just happened. I wish I would have been paying more attention to what I was doing so I knew what to do this time!

I think as baby gets older something changes in the amount of calories that we need to keep breastfeeding, even if the number of times nursing remains the same. I nursed my second and third children until they were 3 and 2 1/2 and still had the weight gain happen around 10-12 months of age. But, I know that when I tried to pump a few times after they were a year old I didn't get nearly as much milk as I had before.

Why do you think there is such a difference in the two TDEE's that you calculated? Have you used the calculator on fat2fitradio? You should at least be netting your BMR plus 300 for BF, I believe.

sar123bear

Think of it this way - the average woman needs 2000 cals to survive/maintain their current weight, average breastfeeding burns 500 cals for the first 6 months of life. 500 cals x 7 days = 3500 cals = 1 lb / week. You really could do nothing more than breastfeed and lose plenty of weight. I am losing anywhere from 1-2 lbs/week consistently, not plateauing since I started this way of eating, and I've recently even bumped my calories up even further, and I started losing FASTER still after slowing down a tad!!

The thing to keep in mind is your body adapts and adjusts / catches up to what you're doing- it's job is to keep you alive. You need to re-evaluate your goals if you're stuck. Sometimes that means UPPING your calories, not decreasing them... and lightening up on your exercise unless you've eaten a ton more than you should have. I'm not saying exercise is bad... I'm just saying don't get too much of a deficit. 1200 cals net is far too low and will VERY likely result in damage to your metabolism and possibly even your milk supply.

Yes, you will lose weight on 1200 calories a day, but it'll stop and you'll be confused and frustrated and then likely give up because nothing is working anymore... then when you give up, the weight comes pouring back on because your body has "ramped down" it's metabolism because you "told it" for so long that you needed less to survive.

Exercise will cause you to lose inches more-so than pounds, but strength training boosts your metabolism... as long as you're getting proper fuel to sustain that activity. If you are exercising, I can't stress enough that you should take before pics and measurements to gauge your success vs. the scale so that you remain motivated to stick with it. But please, get enough to eat... a double deficit doesn't help you in the long run unless you plan to keep that way of life up for the rest of your life. You'll see even better results by giving your body the calories it needs to build muscle.

Moderation is the key most times with everything in life. Keep that in mind. :bigsmile:

Best of luck in your weight loss journey!!

PS - don't be discouraged if you gain at first by increasing your cals... you may want to slowly ramp up to allow your metabolism time to adjust, or just go for the gusto and understand this very likely will happen but only at first then the pounds start melting away.

zukkiz

You both are wonderful thanks!!!

Let me give you the numbers I have figured out and see if I have gotten this straight.

First, Kristin, I think I found this site that had me multiply something against a certain number and that is why the TDEE was so high. Trust me I checked out other sites and wont be using that one.

So I went to fat2fitradio and this is what I got.

Entered information: 43 year old female, 65.5 inches tall, weighing 174.5 pounds.

From the information that you entered, you'd like to weigh 150 lbs.

Katch-McArdle Forumla
The numbers above are fairly accurate, however they don't take into account your lean body mass. A more accurate formula that does take your lean body mass into account is the Katch-McArdle formula. Since many of us have scales that will tell us our current body fat, this formula may yield more accurate results. Based on the information you provided, body fat percentage of 33.1%, you have a lean body mass of 117 lbs., and your BMR is 1519 calories.

Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1696

My TDEE 1696 x .20 it is 2035 then add in my 300 it is 2335. So I won't go over that ever.

So I put my MFP goal as 1650, put my bf in foods added at -300, and will be eating all my exercise calories. I did something similar yesterday, but I had my calories at 1565, my net came to 1563, but I ate 2089.

Do I have the idea down correctly or am I way off base?

I do have to say that I have used the Mobile app the most and it doesn't automatically up your totals at the end like on the site. On this site it adds my exercise calories in.

kristinL16

I;'m confused about why you are taking your TDEE x .20 and adding it to your TDEE. You should subtract 10-20% from your TDEE, not add to it. Then add your 300 breastfeeding calories. If you aren't accounting for your exercise when you calculated your TDEE then eat back some of your exercise cals if you want. If you already accounted for them then you probably shouldn't eat them back.

zukkiz

I got it from this post:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/542144-40-30-30?hl=kristinL16#posts-7618847

The 20% added is for maintainence mode. According to sar123bear on that post.

I haven"t accounted for my exercise calories, I used the sedentary mode.

Aside from the confusion do you think I am doing it right?

kristinL16

I'm not sure why sar13bear is adding 20% to her TDEE. Maybe she can clarify that. I haven't seen that anywhere and it doesn't make sense to me. If your TDEE is the amount of calories that you need to maintain your current weight, adding 20% to it would mean a weight gain, not a loss.

sar123bear

zukkiz - you have it exactly correct - good job!

sar123bear

I'm not sure why sar13bear is adding 20% to her TDEE. Maybe she can clarify that. I haven't seen that anywhere and it doesn't make sense to me. If your TDEE is the amount of calories that you need to maintain your current weight, adding 20% to it would mean a weight gain, not a loss.

I'm adding 20% to the recommended calorie deficit, which is equivalent to your "FUTURE" TDEE, not your current one.... It's important to understand the distinction between your current TDEE and your recommended TDEE at your GOAL WEIGHT. These are two very different things. Does that help?

kristinL16

Yes and no. It makes sense when you explain that you worded it wrong the first time (that you were not actually adding to your current TDEE) but it seems that it would be easier and probably more accurate to figure out what your current TDEE and subtract 20% to get your deficit. If I added 20% to my goal weight TDEE it would be too high. My current TDEE is calculated at about 1688 and my goal weight TDEE is about 1560 (can't remember the exact numbers). So, there is less than a 10% difference between the two. That isn't accounting for breastfeeding calories.

sar123bear

Yes and no. It makes sense when you explain that you worded it wrong the first time (that you were not actually adding to your current TDEE) but it seems that it would be easier and probably more accurate to figure out what your current TDEE and subtract 20% to get your deficit. If I added 20% to my goal weight TDEE it would be too high. My current TDEE is calculated at about 1688 and my goal weight TDEE is about 1560 (can't remember the exact numbers). So, there is less than a 10% difference between the two. That isn't accounting for breastfeeding calories.

I see what you're saying... Let me work through this... The purpose of finding out your TDEE is to know what not to exceed in order to lose weight, so yes, finding out what your maintenance calories are for your "current weight" and then subtracting a 20-30% deficit sounds like it should work out to be the same... but... it doesn't seem to work out that way. The problem is, which I'm sure you're running into, every "calculator" suggests something different for your maintenance calories - so what do you go by?

Your TDEE's seem very low, but maybe I'm not understanding your stats? I think this is because you're calculating based upon your method instead of the described 20% extra from recommended deficit on F2F. I'm certainly not saying eat at your "current weight" TDEE... that number is just helpful to understand - say for instance you want to have a "cheat day" but don't want to overdo it... then just eat at your TDEE instead of your deficit. It's just helpful so you're not undoing all of your hard work you've put in all week.

From what I can gather, I see that you are 36, 150 lbs, 60 inches tall, goal weight of 115?? I'm not sure of your body fat percentage, so I can't get the proper Katch-McArdle BMR of "what not to eat below" unless that's entered into the equation, but even so... Here's the calculations that I come up with based on this info:

Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1522 *this should be your caloric intake before exercise or breastfeeding
Your TDEE based upon this info at your current weight, calculating a 20% increase would be 1826... and your TDEE at your goal weight would be 1522. Now, 1826 is just a helpful number to know what not to exceed in a day so you're eating at a deficit or at least at maintenance levels for your current weight... as you lose weight, this higher TDEE will shrink down to 1522, so it's constantly changing.

So, we're back to right around 2000 calories to consume while breastfeeding, even without exercise... add a 200 calorie workout and you need to then eat 2200... I assume you're calculating your current TDEE based upon the maintenance minus 20% method... is that right?? I'm going by the method that was described in that initial post on the 40/30/30 thread - the road map link.

Have you calculated your body fat with the military calculator on fat2fit? If so, what was that number?

Now, I do see with freedieting.com's calculator the following info:

Entering 150 lbs, 5 ft, 36 yrs, sedentary:
Maintenance 1552 CALORIES/DAY
Fat Loss 1242 CALORIES/DAY
Extreme Fat Loss 1200 CALORIES/DAY

Now, this I do not agree with at all... more because it seems way too low. I may have to stop recommending that website if this is the recommendation that's coming out. :-(

Bottom line, if we're comparing apples to apples for methods of calculation, I'm still coming up with 1500ish plus 500 for breastfeeding for you for around 2000 calories to consume on the F2F website, regardless of what your TDEE is. I'm interested to see your body fat % and enter that to see if it changes anything, but it shouldn't by much. This formula has been incredibly successful for me, so I'm going to stick with it until I see that it's not working. This way of calculating has also worked very well for a friend that is extremely close to her goal weight, down in the 120's, so it's not just because I'm bigger right now that it's working.

I do see what you're saying Kristin - in theory, your way sounds correct, but the numbers are far different than the original poster's recommendation on how to figure all of this out. I suppose if your way is working for you, keep on doing what you're doing, but if it's not, maybe entertain the idea of calculating it as the original poster indicated.

Does this help??

kristinL16

Sorry to keep hashing this over and over again....

I haven't seen anywhere on either of those sites that you should add 20%? Fat2fit just says to eat the given calories based on your goal weight maintenance (or a few hundred less). I could see adding 20% if you are working off of your BMR, though.

When I enter my info into the fat2fit calculator with my current weight as my goal weight I get my TDEE as 1688. Fitnessfrog.com says 1681. When I enter my goal weight, TDEE is 1542/1535. So, there is only about 150 calories difference.

Maybe my height has something to do with it? Doesn't give much wiggle room with cals.
.



.

kristinL16

I went back and read the post from helloitsdan and what I understand is that he is adding 20% to your BMR, not to the amount that fat2fit gives as your goal weight TDEE. If I do this the number is closer to what I get when I calculate my TDEE in other ways but is a bit low, even being sedentary. I wrote to him to ask about it. Either way, if it is working I would stick with it! I just want to figure it out. If I could eat more and lose I would, but I don't want to go too high. I gain pretty easily.

kristinL16

Ok. so the way you are calculating is the way he does it. Still doesn't make sense to me. I just calculated my TDEE on about 10 websites and most were 1688. None higher than that. He said that fat2fit already calculates a deficit, which is why he adds the 20%. But, that isn't necessarily true. They give you the TDEE of your goal weight but if you enter in your current weight as your goal then you are getting your current TDEE. I don't agree that adding 20% gets you to your TDEE. But, if it is working I would stick with it.

sar123bear

Ok. so the way you are calculating is the way he does it. Still doesn't make sense to me. I just calculated my TDEE on about 10 websites and most were 1688. None higher than that. He said that fat2fit already calculates a deficit, which is why he adds the 20%. But, that isn't necessarily true. They give you the TDEE of your goal weight but if you enter in your current weight as your goal then you are getting your current TDEE. I don't agree that adding 20% gets you to your TDEE. But, if it is working I would stick with it.

I hear ya - it doesn't make complete sense the way he's saying to do it, however, that's just to arrive at a number not to exceed... not what to eat at.

I guess why it makes sense to me is because the numbers match more readily the "averages" - Typical "healthy deficits" are calculated at either 20 or 30% from maintenance levels (averages is what I'm going by). If I went by what freedieting.com says, it recommends my maintenance calories at around 1820 (30% deficit from this would be 1274) - If I plug my current weight into F2F as my goal to figure out maintenance, it says Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1913 (30% deficit from that would be 1339) If I figure out TDEE via the 20% added to suggested deficit (now 1686) to arrive at goal weight method, then it says my maintenance cals / TDEE is: 2023 (30% deficit from this would be 1416). I'd rather error on the side of caution and go with the bigger number out of these 3 methods, not the lesser one.... why, you may ask? Because I want to be able to eat more and still lose weight. I don't want to have to rely on a slow metabolism because I've underfed myself... I don't want my milk supply to suffer in any way shape or form... I don't want to lose weight too fast that I have loose skin... I want proper levels of nutrition entering my body so I don't risk losing weight the unhealthy way. I don't want to be anywhere close to 1200 calories net / day. I also want to have room to experiment if it's not working, up or down in calories.

There's a few reasons why I lean toward his method he described in his thread- here are a couple:

#1: excerpt from article by Tom Venuto on this article: http://www.burnthefat.com/stop_dieting.html
3. Decrease your calorie intake slightly.

Small calorie cuts don't trigger the starvation response as much. Use a conservative calorie deficit - just 20% below your maintenance level at first. For example, a typical female needs about 2150 calories a day to maintain. A 20% deficit is 1720 calories per day. NOTE: if you are very overweight, your body can handle larger calorie deficits without negative side effects (because you have so much reserve energy in storage).

#2: From Livestrong:

Recommendations

The number of calories a woman needs daily varies according to age. Younger women generally need more calories than older women, as they tend to have more muscle mass and be more active. A woman aged 19 to 30 years needs between 2,000 and 2,400 calories daily. A woman aged 31 to 50 years needs 1,800 to 2,200 calories daily. Women over age 51 need 1,600 to 2,200 calories daily.

Activity Level

If you are inactive, you should consume less than the recommended daily calorie consumption. Active women, defined as those that perform physical activity equivalent to 1.5 to 3 miles of brisk walking per day, should aim for the middle of the calorie range. Very active women, those who move the equivalent of 3 miles or more daily, should aim for the highest end of the range.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/360444-daily-recommended-caloric-intake-for-women/#ixzz1sqDMQeLP

My body responded more favorably to more calories... I started out with a goal of 1 lb/week loss per MFP's recommendation (1490)... then I got a little greedy and I tried the low end (1200) and it didn't work well - my weight loss slowed, so I figured I'd go back to what was working better and again tried 1490 as MFP suggested for 1 lb weight loss - I did fairly well, but then started to stagnate a little... so I then upped my goal to 1600, and things started moving again, faster. If I run into another stall, the first thing I'll try is upping my calories, not reducing them as I would have in the past... especially if I start working out more!! F2F suggests around 1700 cals, but 2-300 less is ok to start. My Katch-McArdle BMR is 1489 so I want to avoid going that low.... UGH... so many numbers! But I understand them now. I don't think there's any one "right" way to do this.

Do what works for you... experiment with changes if things aren't moving steadily in a downward direction either on the scale or w/ measurements more-so if you're working out a lot. I remember the following from all of my research so far: 90% of weight loss is via foods you eat (quality and quantity)... and inches are lost by exercise... and heavier weight lifting helps build muscle / retain the ones you've got while you're losing weight to keep your metabolism higher. Exercise fools with the scale numbers greatly, causing large swings due to glycogen stores (repairing muscles). Guess what I'm trying to say here is try changing one thing at a time to really gauge if something is working or not... Keep as many variables constant as you can to properly experiment. Lastly, give each experiment ample time to work - sometimes even up to a month.

chamcmillan

I added 300 calories to my caloric intake. I workout 4 days a week usually about 1400 calories burned a week. I don't include breast feeding as an exercise on here. I pump most of the time since I work a full time job.