Breastfeeding mums - how many calories do you eat?

purdieang

Help! I thought I'd try and eat 1400 calories total without eating back any exercise and breastfeeding calories. The weight loss is great, but My milk supply has now dropped drastically (baby 9 months). I now realise My and my baby's health is more important to me than my figure therefore:

mums -

How much do you exercise
eat/net
what rate are you losing
milk supply?


me : 20 min strength 30 min cardio/day
1400 net 1000
1kg/week
terrible

Thanks in advance

nightlark

I aim for 1600 net, and I do eat back the bf calories (my baby is 12 months now, and feeds far less, so I allow myself 200 cals a day for bf).

I usually eat around 1700-1800 cals in total, so don't always hit my net goal. I always eat over my BMR.

I'm loosing at about 1lb a week, so slow and steady. My milk supply is still good, and I do virtually no exercise bar brisk walking and chasing around after 3 children!

Are you sure your milk supply is so poor? It's notoriously difficult to estimate, and your babys feeding patterns will be changing anyway.

shivles

What makes you say your supply has dropped?

tadpole242

If you put breasdfeeding into the food log, it will tell you how many calories it costs you. baby up to 9months old is something like -400, so if your breast feeding every three hours you should add 400 cal per time.

stephm112

Your supply may have dropped because as bub gets older they will eat more solids and not need as much milk.I'm not BFing anymore but did feed my daughter until she was 1. My supply dropped and dropped until there was nothing left and that was all her doing. I never ate back my BF cals but did eat about 1500 a day x

purdieang

I dont think so, he's my 3rd baby, I know my milk well and its definately supply. This is the only time i've encountered a problem and its the only time i've restricted calories. I've added in my breastfeeding calories today and will eat those for a week and see if I still lose - thanks for your answers everyone :-)

Willbenchforcupcakes

My little one is almost 10 months old. I`m 5`7.5, and currently 179.6. My base is 2020 to lose .5lb a week, I use one of the -500 options for breastfeeding because my girl has 8+ nursing sessions a day. I do a lot of walking, train with my trainer twice a week (lots of weight training), do weights on my own 2 a week, and try to do Insanity (never ending nap issues in this house with my older one), so all told I eat 2500 on my rest day, and up to 3500 on busy workout days.

Like you, I noticed when I was eating around 1800 calories a day, while my supply was good in the amount of milk was good, the quality of the milk wasn`t great. Since upping my calories, my daughter has been gaining weight beautifully. For those who say you need less as they get older, 1)They just get more efficient at extracting milk. 2)The older your child, the higher caloric value per ounce your milk has.

purdieang

My little one is almost 10 months old. I`m 5`7.5, and currently 179.6. My base is 2020 to lose .5lb a week, I use one of the -500 options for breastfeeding because my girl has 8+ nursing sessions a day. I do a lot of walking, train with my trainer twice a week (lots of weight training), do weights on my own 2 a week, and try to do Insanity (never ending nap issues in this house with my older one), so all told I eat 2500 on my rest day, and up to 3500 on busy workout days.

Like you, I noticed when I was eating around 1800 calories a day, while my supply was good in the amount of milk was good, the quality of the milk wasn`t great. Since upping my calories, my daughter has been gaining weight beautifully. For those who say you need less as they get older, 1)They just get more efficient at extracting milk. 2)The older your child, the higher caloric value per ounce your milk has.

This is just what I needed - would you say that 1900 is enough then for me? I'm not quite doing as much exercise as you, am on day 4 of 30 day shred but not finding that very challenging, usually a half hour run or eliptical. As you say, i've just noticed he's not as satisfied with what hes getting - thanks heaps for your reply!

Willbenchforcupcakes

My little one is almost 10 months old. I`m 5`7.5, and currently 179.6. My base is 2020 to lose .5lb a week, I use one of the -500 options for breastfeeding because my girl has 8+ nursing sessions a day. I do a lot of walking, train with my trainer twice a week (lots of weight training), do weights on my own 2 a week, and try to do Insanity (never ending nap issues in this house with my older one), so all told I eat 2500 on my rest day, and up to 3500 on busy workout days.

Like you, I noticed when I was eating around 1800 calories a day, while my supply was good in the amount of milk was good, the quality of the milk wasn`t great. Since upping my calories, my daughter has been gaining weight beautifully. For those who say you need less as they get older, 1)They just get more efficient at extracting milk. 2)The older your child, the higher caloric value per ounce your milk has.

This is just what I needed - would you say that 1900 is enough then for me? I'm not quite doing as much exercise as you, am on day 4 of 30 day shred but not finding that very challenging, usually a half hour run or eliptical. As you say, i've just noticed he's not as satisfied with what hes getting - thanks heaps for your reply!

I would set yourself to one pound per week, add in the breastfeeding, and eat it. If that is 1900 for you, then eat that. Also eat back a portion of your exercise calories - I use a hrm for my vigorous stuff and endomodo (smartphone app) for the walking, and usually eat back a large portion of mine, but if you're estimating and just using mfp values, maybe try half your exercise calories.

Purplebunnysarah

I've had supply issues (due to medical complications during delivery) so I'm scared to regularly eat at a deficit. I'm eating maintenance right now plus most exercise calories. So far I've only had my supply increase, so it seems to be working. My goal is to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by the time I go back to work in April, so that's a long time to lose 33 lbs. I'll increase deficit after my boy is a year old.

purdieang

I've had supply issues (due to medical complications during delivery) so I'm scared to regularly eat at a deficit. I'm eating maintenance right now plus most exercise calories. So far I've only had my supply increase, so it seems to be working. My goal is to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by the time I go back to work in April, so that's a long time to lose 33 lbs. I'll increase deficit after my boy is a year old.

slowly but surely seems to be the way to go - how old is your bubba?

ladytapp

I didn't know you could do this! Awesome. Thanks for the info. I had been trying to simply not restrict too much but this will help make it clearer.

ladytapp

I didn't know you could do this! Awesome. Thanks for the info. I had been trying to simply not restrict too much but this will help make it clearer.

Sorry, I was referring to being able to add your breastfeeding calories into the food log.

Purplebunnysarah

I've had supply issues (due to medical complications during delivery) so I'm scared to regularly eat at a deficit. I'm eating maintenance right now plus most exercise calories. So far I've only had my supply increase, so it seems to be working. My goal is to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by the time I go back to work in April, so that's a long time to lose 33 lbs. I'll increase deficit after my boy is a year old.

slowly but surely seems to be the way to go - how old is your bubba?

He's almost 12 weeks... He'll be 3 months old next week! Time is flying by so quickly!

The advantage to losing at that rate is that all my cute skinnier summer clothes I bought last year will fit again just in time for summer .