Breastfeeding...

LovelySammi

I am currently nursing my two month old daughter.

A few weeks ago, I decided to start eating right & exercising to lose weight. My daily BMR is 1,500 calories but mfp suggests eating 1,200 calories a day. Has anyone ever done a diet or tried losing weight while breast feeding? I could really use some insight, should I be eating more than what mfp suggests?

shaxnax

Your body will make the milk regardless of if you're eating 1200 or 1500 it takes anywhere from 300-500 calories a day to produce milk. So you're already at a deficit eating your typical BMR. If you don't eat enough your body might slow/stall milk production so just be aware of that. You can eat oatmeal to help boost supply, drink non alcoholic beer to boost supply, pump some of the milk and freeze it, if you don't already. Eating broccoli and asparagus can cause baby to have gross smelling gas or poop so you might want to research other foods that might affect babe's tummy. And congratulations on your new darling, and awesome job breastfeeding. I know how difficult it can be at times. Ps my information comes from the lactation consultant I visited when my daughter was newborn. Talking to your doctor or the hospital's lactation consultant are always options if you're concerned.

shaxnax

Oh and if you try eating at the 1200 mark and find yourself exhausted, then you should increase your intake... But I guess that's kind of common sense.

brandysparksW

I would stay at 1500 cal. Focus on eating things like avocados, 2% fat Greek yogurts, and ot3er fruits and veggies. If you exercise you may need to eat a little Moore! And with most babies you can eat whatever you like! My 4 year olds favorite food is broccoli, maybe because I ate it so much when she was a baby! Congrats on the baby! I think being nursed is the best gift a baby can get!

NovemberJune

Your body will make the milk regardless of if you're eating 1200 or 1500 i..... If you don't eat enough your body might slow/stall milk production so just be aware of that.

those 2 seem to contradict each other??

You can add breastfeeding to your diary by adding it to your exercise or by adding it as a meal. Either way it will give you an additional 500 calories. Kellymom.com is a great resource for all things breastfeeding. Good luck Also be sure to eat even more if you exercise.

Emily_fitat30

I am on 1360, it did put me down to 1200 & I changed it back as I found I was constantly hungry, still loosing weight so we will see if I need to drop it down at a later date! Baby is doing really well, weight gain is fantastic & content inbetween feeds (3hrly during the day) & goes 8-10 hours at night & has done from 6wks, I started this 'diet' when he was 7 days old, I also started taking a multi-vitamin with extra iron just to make sure im covered, also new advice to breastfeeding mums is to take a vitamin D supplement & this has it in anyway.
Best of luck to you X

shaxnax

I meant her body will slow or stall if she gets too crazy low, but for most people it would be fine at 1200. That's what I was told when I was nursing my bubs, anyways.

devil_in_a_blue_dress

You can add breast feeding in as exercise.

You need to eat 200-500 calories beyond 1,200 if you are breast feeding to maintain proper milk supply. If you only eat 1,200 the calories you burn breast feeding, you'll dip below 1,200 and while that's not worst thing EVER occasionally but long term that's not good for your body.

NoAdditives

I am currently nursing my two month old daughter.

A few weeks ago, I decided to start eating right & exercising to lose weight. My daily BMR is 1,500 calories but mfp suggests eating 1,200 calories a day. Has anyone ever done a diet or tried losing weight while breast feeding? I could really use some insight, should I be eating more than what mfp suggests?

My pediatrician advised me not to cut calories until my baby was at least 6 months old and well established eating solids. Not because it would necessarily have a negative impact on my milk supply (although that can happen), but because a mother's body needs all the nutrition and energy it can get.

Your body doesn't technically burn calories making milk. It basically transfers nutrients from food you eat and converts it into breast milk. So, you definitely want to eat those extra 500 calories that your baby is consuming. After all, you ate more to feed your bay during pregnancy, it makes just as much sense to do the same while breastfeeding.

Really, you shouldn't be in any rush to lose weight. Your primary focus should be on taking care of your baby and yourself. There will be plenty of time to focus on losing weight later on.

devil_in_a_blue_dress

I am currently nursing my two month old daughter.

A few weeks ago, I decided to start eating right & exercising to lose weight. My daily BMR is 1,500 calories but mfp suggests eating 1,200 calories a day. Has anyone ever done a diet or tried losing weight while breast feeding? I could really use some insight, should I be eating more than what mfp suggests?

My pediatrician advised me not to cut calories until my baby was at least 6 months old and well established eating solids. Not because it would necessarily have a negative impact on my milk supply (although that can happen), but because a mother's body needs all the nutrition and energy it can get.

Your body doesn't technically burn calories making milk. It basically transfers nutrients from food you eat and converts it into breast milk. So, you definitely want to eat those extra 500 calories that your baby is consuming. After all, you ate more to feed your bay during pregnancy, it makes just as much sense to do the same while breastfeeding.

Really, you shouldn't be in any rush to lose weight. Your primary focus should be on taking care of your baby and yourself. There will be plenty of time to focus on losing weight later on.

Actually breast feeding DOES burn calories because it requires extra energy for your body to produce milk. You're not giving the baby your calories, you're fueling your body's milk production. If you don't believe me, just google "Does breastfeeding burn calories?".

NoAdditives

I am currently nursing my two month old daughter.

A few weeks ago, I decided to start eating right & exercising to lose weight. My daily BMR is 1,500 calories but mfp suggests eating 1,200 calories a day. Has anyone ever done a diet or tried losing weight while breast feeding? I could really use some insight, should I be eating more than what mfp suggests?

My pediatrician advised me not to cut calories until my baby was at least 6 months old and well established eating solids. Not because it would necessarily have a negative impact on my milk supply (although that can happen), but because a mother's body needs all the nutrition and energy it can get.

Your body doesn't technically burn calories making milk. It basically transfers nutrients from food you eat and converts it into breast milk. So, you definitely want to eat those extra 500 calories that your baby is consuming. After all, you ate more to feed your bay during pregnancy, it makes just as much sense to do the same while breastfeeding.

Really, you shouldn't be in any rush to lose weight. Your primary focus should be on taking care of your baby and yourself. There will be plenty of time to focus on losing weight later on.

Actually breast feeding DOES burn calories because it requires extra energy for your body to produce milk. You're not giving the baby your calories, you're fueling your body's milk production. If you don't believe me, just google "Does breastfeeding burn calories?".

Yeah, but it doesn't burn the 500 calories that your baby consumes. It burns some, which is why a lot of women do lose weight. Just not as many as a woman should actually be consuming in order to maintain the milk supply.

ETA: I did just Google it. It only burns about 150 calories to produce 25 ounces of milk. Those calories are drawn from the fat stores accumulated during pregnancy. So yeah, it burns some, but not enough to be ultra concerned about. Just eat the extra 500 that your baby will consume, or, 20 calories per ounce pumped.

PayneAS

You should add 500 calories per day for breastfeeding. I've heard people can log it in their food diary and it will add 500 calories to your day. Just make sure you eat them back. Or add 500 to the 1200 manually so that your daily is 1700.

nxd10

Both times I was nursing I wound up 20 pounds lighter than when I got pregnant. But it takes time. Don't try to lose all your pregnancy weight back before 6 months.

Eat well. Make sure you get your vitamins. Exercise - even if it is walking your baby in a stroller. That's good for you and your little one.

You can log your breastfeeding as an exercise - typically at your baby's age it's around 500-700 calories a day. Make sure you eat them or you will get grumpy and tired. The weight will come off anyway.

nxd10

Yeah, but it doesn't burn the 500 calories that your baby consumes. It burns some, which is why a lot of women do lose weight. Just not as many as a woman should actually be consuming in order to maintain the milk supply.

ETA: I did just Google it. It only burns about 150 calories to produce 25 ounces of milk. Those calories are drawn from the fat stores accumulated during pregnancy. So yeah, it burns some, but not enough to be ultra concerned about. Just eat the extra 500 that your baby will consume, or, 20 calories per ounce pumped.

Babies that age eat around 40-50 ozs of milk a day if they are only nursing.

danibrnshug

I started on MFP when my baby was 6 weeks, I started the wrong way by only eating 1200 I felt HORRIBLE and I felt that I needed more nutrients, anyway I changed my calories for the day to 1600 so I added 400 for breastfeeding to be safe and I eat my workout calories, I feel SO much better and stronger and I have lost 28 lbs doing it the safe way my baby is almost 6 mo old now and he's very healthy and chunky, you have to be careful, exercise, take your vitamins, drink LOTS of water, and listen to your body! Good Luck!

oJulia

I am eating around 2000 calories a day and still losing weight. Really, just eat healthy and you can pretty much eat as much as you want.

NoAdditives

Yeah, but it doesn't burn the 500 calories that your baby consumes. It burns some, which is why a lot of women do lose weight. Just not as many as a woman should actually be consuming in order to maintain the milk supply.

ETA: I did just Google it. It only burns about 150 calories to produce 25 ounces of milk. Those calories are drawn from the fat stores accumulated during pregnancy. So yeah, it burns some, but not enough to be ultra concerned about. Just eat the extra 500 that your baby will consume, or, 20 calories per ounce pumped.

Babies that age eat around 40-50 ozs of milk a day if they are only nursing.

No they don't. The average baby only drinks 25 ounces a day. That amount drops slightly once they start eating solid foods.

My current baby has never had more than 30 ounces of milk in one day. My first was the same. My son, who grew extremely fast, did drink about 36-48 ounces a day during growth spurts, and that was only after he was 6 months old.

LovelySammi

Wow thank you all very much for your replies... I decided I am going to log 300 exercise cals and eat them back. But what is strange is that most days I felt fine eating 1,100-1,300 calories. Most of the time I'd be under the recommended amount anyway but I was just worried I'd be affecting my milk supply and/or nutrients.


Always looking for more friends to have in my support system in mfp, so feel free to add if you'd like :flowerforyou:

devil_in_a_blue_dress

Yeah, but it doesn't burn the 500 calories that your baby consumes. It burns some, which is why a lot of women do lose weight. Just not as many as a woman should actually be consuming in order to maintain the milk supply.

ETA: I did just Google it. It only burns about 150 calories to produce 25 ounces of milk. Those calories are drawn from the fat stores accumulated during pregnancy. So yeah, it burns some, but not enough to be ultra concerned about. Just eat the extra 500 that your baby will consume, or, 20 calories per ounce pumped.

Babies that age eat around 40-50 ozs of milk a day if they are only nursing.

No they don't. The average baby only drinks 25 ounces a day. That amount drops slightly once they start eating solid foods.

My current baby has never had more than 30 ounces of milk in one day. My first was the same. My son, who grew extremely fast, did drink about 36-48 ounces a day during growth spurts, and that was only after he was 6 months old.

How many calories you burn, like any 'exercise' would be based on your personal statistics like height and weight. That is why there I gave a calorie range of 200-500. It doesn't matter how many calories the actual milk is since the volume is being replaced. According to the Handbook of Paediatric Nutrition, 25 - 40 oz. is what a child that age should be eating -- so I am not sure where you 25 ounces a day statistic comes from, but 25 ounces is light. My daughter, who was bottle fed, ate closer to 40 and she is in the 50% percentile height, weight wise - just depends on the baby. Also, you'd have to be assuming the OP isn't expressing milk for storage. My recently nursing sister in law was just here, she tells me at this point she was expressing 12-24 ounces per day, in addition to what her baby was eating -- so there is just lots to take into consideration. But milk production definitely burns a real number of calories and should definitely be eaten back if somebody is eating 1,200 calories.

OP, I am glad you're eating some of those calories back. After I had my daughter, I focused on losing the weight (I was sick during my pregnancy, so I didn't gain much -- but I still felt horrible). People frequently told me not to worry about losing the weight, blah blah. While I know it was meant in a very positive way, it ticked me off -- it's entirely ok to want to shed the baby weight, and have your own goals outside taking care of your baby.

NoAdditives

Yeah, but it doesn't burn the 500 calories that your baby consumes. It burns some, which is why a lot of women do lose weight. Just not as many as a woman should actually be consuming in order to maintain the milk supply.

ETA: I did just Google it. It only burns about 150 calories to produce 25 ounces of milk. Those calories are drawn from the fat stores accumulated during pregnancy. So yeah, it burns some, but not enough to be ultra concerned about. Just eat the extra 500 that your baby will consume, or, 20 calories per ounce pumped.

Babies that age eat around 40-50 ozs of milk a day if they are only nursing.

No they don't. The average baby only drinks 25 ounces a day. That amount drops slightly once they start eating solid foods.

My current baby has never had more than 30 ounces of milk in one day. My first was the same. My son, who grew extremely fast, did drink about 36-48 ounces a day during growth spurts, and that was only after he was 6 months old.

How many calories you burn, like any 'exercise' would be based on your personal statistics like height and weight. That is why there I gave a calorie range of 200-500. It doesn't matter how many calories the actual milk is since the volume is being replaced. According to the Handbook of Paediatric Nutrition, 25 - 40 oz. is what a child that age should be eating -- so I am not sure where you 25 ounces a day statistic comes from, but 25 ounces is light. My daughter, who was bottle fed, ate closer to 40 and she is in the 50% percentile height, weight wise - just depends on the baby. Also, you'd have to be assuming the OP isn't expressing milk for storage. My recently nursing sister in law was just here, she tells me at this point she was expressing 12-24 ounces per day, in addition to what her baby was eating -- so there is just lots to take into consideration. But milk production definitely burns a real number of calories and should definitely be eaten back if somebody is eating 1,200 calories.

OP, I am glad you're eating some of those calories back. After I had my daughter, I focused on losing the weight (I was sick during my pregnancy, so I didn't gain much -- but I still felt horrible). People frequently told me not to worry about losing the weight, blah blah. While I know it was meant in a very positive way, it ticked me off -- it's entirely ok to want to shed the baby weight, and have your own goals outside taking care of your baby.

I don't understand what you mean when you say "the calories of the milk don't matter because the volume is being replaced". That doesn't make any sense. You have to eat enough calories to actually put them into the milk. Otherwise, they would just be taken from the mother's body. So, whatever amount the baby is taking, whether it's 25 ounces (which, do some research, it's what just about every source says is average-from ob's to pediatricians, to any number of websites about breastfeeding) or whether it's 50 ounces, those calories need to be consumed (again, 20 calories per ounce of milk). The actual amount of calories burned to produce the milk is negligible, just like the calories burned to produce a pint of blood after blood donation.

So yeah, the 500 calorie estimate is assuming her baby takes 25 ounces and that she is not pumping. I'm very familiar with how this all works. I've got three kids. I pumped for 6 months (60 ounces a day, 25-30 of which my baby drank, the rest got frozen). I'm not an idiot. Stop arguing with me just for the sake of arguing.

NeekoM03

I am currently nursing my 3 month old and had the same questions. I suggest this video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDhu8OASy-0

It's only four minutes and Jillian has some great advice about breastfeeding and weight loss.

devil_in_a_blue_dress

Yeah, but it doesn't burn the 500 calories that your baby consumes. It burns some, which is why a lot of women do lose weight. Just not as many as a woman should actually be consuming in order to maintain the milk supply.

ETA: I did just Google it. It only burns about 150 calories to produce 25 ounces of milk. Those calories are drawn from the fat stores accumulated during pregnancy. So yeah, it burns some, but not enough to be ultra concerned about. Just eat the extra 500 that your baby will consume, or, 20 calories per ounce pumped.

Babies that age eat around 40-50 ozs of milk a day if they are only nursing.

No they don't. The average baby only drinks 25 ounces a day. That amount drops slightly once they start eating solid foods.

My current baby has never had more than 30 ounces of milk in one day. My first was the same. My son, who grew extremely fast, did drink about 36-48 ounces a day during growth spurts, and that was only after he was 6 months old.

How many calories you burn, like any 'exercise' would be based on your personal statistics like height and weight. That is why there I gave a calorie range of 200-500. It doesn't matter how many calories the actual milk is since the volume is being replaced. According to the Handbook of Paediatric Nutrition, 25 - 40 oz. is what a child that age should be eating -- so I am not sure where you 25 ounces a day statistic comes from, but 25 ounces is light. My daughter, who was bottle fed, ate closer to 40 and she is in the 50% percentile height, weight wise - just depends on the baby. Also, you'd have to be assuming the OP isn't expressing milk for storage. My recently nursing sister in law was just here, she tells me at this point she was expressing 12-24 ounces per day, in addition to what her baby was eating -- so there is just lots to take into consideration. But milk production definitely burns a real number of calories and should definitely be eaten back if somebody is eating 1,200 calories.

OP, I am glad you're eating some of those calories back. After I had my daughter, I focused on losing the weight (I was sick during my pregnancy, so I didn't gain much -- but I still felt horrible). People frequently told me not to worry about losing the weight, blah blah. While I know it was meant in a very positive way, it ticked me off -- it's entirely ok to want to shed the baby weight, and have your own goals outside taking care of your baby.

I don't understand what you mean when you say "the calories of the milk don't matter because the volume is being replaced". That doesn't make any sense. You have to eat enough calories to actually put them into the milk. Otherwise, they would just be taken from the mother's body. So, whatever amount the baby is taking, whether it's 25 ounces (which, do some research, it's what just about every source says is average-from ob's to pediatricians, to any number of websites about breastfeeding) or whether it's 50 ounces, those calories need to be consumed (again, 20 calories per ounce of milk). The actual amount of calories burned to produce the milk is negligible, just like the calories burned to produce a pint of blood after blood donation.

So yeah, the 500 calorie estimate is assuming her baby takes 25 ounces and that she is not pumping. I'm very familiar with how this all works. I've got three kids. I pumped for 6 months (60 ounces a day, 25-30 of which my baby drank, the rest got frozen). I'm not an idiot. Stop arguing with me just for the sake of arguing.

I'm not arguing you with for the sake of arguing, the calories burned producing milk are not negligible, on the low end you burn 1,400 per week producing milk -- they count and should be consumed. Suggesting otherwise is contrary to just about every reliable medical source. Period. Your body needs extra calories to actually produce the milk, not just to provide nutrients for the milk (or as you say "put them into milk"). When you are lactating, you're body is taking on another basic function and you raise your total daily energy expenditure (your TDEE). That's where the volume comment came it -- you seem to be totally ignoring the fact that your body is CONSTANTLY producing milk- similar to say breathing, not donating blood. You might lose 20 calories to "give" to the milk, but you still burned 100-400 to get the milk to put nutrients into in the first place. And that's for just what the baby need for food -- if she's storing up a 6 month supply like you, she's burning WAY more.

It's great you have children and pumped all that milk -- I really do hope you feel some sense of achievement from that, but that doesn't mean you are providing accurate information. Also, you're initial post's message was basically "don't worry about losing weight now, you're a mom and that all that matters". While I'm sure that's well intentioned because women are under so much pressure to bounce back, it's still smug and it's not helpful. She has every right to want to lose weight or have her body back for herself without people saying boo about it -- advise like that has NOTHING to do with her original post and yet you added it because you have three kids and seem to think that makes you an expert on anything aside from your own experience.

As to how many ounces a 2 month old should eat -- every piece of literature I still have from when I had my daughter indicates a range of 25-40 ounces for 2-3 months. So, consider that research done.

LovelySammi

Thank you for taking the time to answer & do the research you did, I appreciate it. Sorry it seemed to have fueled up something there. I've learned that some people are very confident in their opinions, and sometimes mistake them with facts. I did see the line about not worrying to lose weight, and although I did have a smart remark to respond I decided against it because it wouldn't have been worth arguing over. I want to lose weight so I am going to do what I can and that will not affect my baby or my mothering skills... Thanks for "sticking up for me" lol ;-)