Nursing Mums?

_tjejen_

Are there any nursing mums (or should I say Mom's :P) on here?

Im wondering if you log the calories that nursing consumes? Ive been logging 500 a day but Im supposed to eat SO many calories if I do.

Im power walking with the pram (aka stroller) for 5kms a day too.

Any thoughts?

linz1125

I think the general rule is 500 calories. I'm not nursing any longer, but that is what I used.

So glad to see nursing moms on here - Its rare where I live, and people were shocked I did it for a year.

PurplePookie

I don't log the calories because I have no idea how many I'm burning since it depends on how often they nurse. I'm nursing two children (I'm NAKing right now asw a matter of fact) but would hate to find out I say I'm burning a set amount and then discover I'm burning less. I just try to make sur I eat close to my max amount to ensure I'm eating enough calories each day... but I am quite large and get a few hundred over the 1200 calorie minimum set by MFP.

sds76

I'm nursing but I do not log it. I'm nusing an older baby(18months) so she doesn't nurse like a newborn. I see on here they have 200cals for that, but I just don't worry about it. My supply is fine, but if it went down i wouldn't be sad as I'm trying to wean anyway.
With that being said,I have nursed 5 children and I have never ate more to account for nursing. If I was underweight, I might, but I never felt a need to.

wheezybreezy

When my daughter was exclusive breastfed, I added 400 calories. Now that she's nine months and eating solids and a bottle every day, I set my weight loss to 1lb/wk and just eat that. When I didn't add in any calories at first, I was so tired all the time though.

jcraig1980

I have never really kept track of the possible calories that are burned while nursing. I know that it changes quite a bit as they get older and more reliant on other sources of food. But I have seen the 500 calorie number thrown around quite a bit.

weese17

I think it depends on how old your baby is and how much other food he/she is consuming. I was SHOCKED when I first started counting calories while breastfeeding my then 7-month old baby. This is what it looked like for me:

2600-2700 cals/day: VERY rapid weight loss - 30 pounds in 8 weeks!
2800-2900 cals/day: slower but steady weight loss
3000-3200 cals/day: Maintenance


My son is now 13 months old, and he goes through stages where he eats a ton of solids and then others where all he does is nurse. (He's had some intestinal bugs lately, and when he doesn't feel good, he only wants milk.) On the days he doesn't nurse as much, I eat about 2,900 cals a day. On the days when he is exclusively nursing, I can eat up to 3,600. This is for maintenance. If I were trying to lose, it'd be less, obviously.

Oh -- and I'm 5'8" and 145 pounds, and I also work out 6 days a week, doing mostly high intensity interval training but also I also do heavy weight lifting.

Willbenchforcupcakes

I'm nursing my almost 10 month old. I still actually use one of the 500 calorie options, as she still nurses frequently throughout the day (usually at least 8 times), and I eat those calories back. For me personally, I found when I didn't eat enough, not only did my own weight loss stall, but my daughters growth was slowed, and since upping my calories back in Feb, the weight has been falling off of me, and she has been growing beautifully.

BraniBoo82

I'm nursing my almost 14 month old. I don't log the calories burned because like what other moms have said, sometimes he nurses a lot and other times he doesn't. But lately my weightloss will get on track, then stall and it goes back and forth and I've wondered if it's due to not logging nursing into calories burned? It would be nice to know eactly what to do, but I'm sure it's all on an individual basis.

_tjejen_

Thanks everyone. my little man is almost 6 mths so maybe ill keep logging till he gets into solids properly