Nursing Mom, calories question?

pocoabeja

Hi!! I'm Rachel. I'm new here..I'm a mom to 4 boys, under 6. My youngest is 5 months. I've been working hard, trying to eat better and working out 3-5 days a week, and I currently weigh about 6 lbs more than I did when my son was 3 weeks old.
I weigh 160, my goal is 130.
My BMR is 1525 and my TDEE 2097. 20% of that is 1678.
I'm nursing full time (6-7 times a day). MFP says I should I eat 1450 calories a day and then I add 500 for nursing. I have been doing that and eating 1950 calories and I have not really lost weight...loose 2 or 3 lbs, gain it back.
I've been doing ChaLean Extreme for a month, only 3 days the first two weeks but 5 days the last 2 weeks. I've been burning between 325-600 calories a day on exercise.

My question is: HOW MANY CALORIES A DAY SHOULD I EAT?

I feel like if I upped my calories past 2000 thats a HUGE amount. I'm wondering if I should drop down to 1600? and should I eat my exercise calories or no?

A_nori

My son is almost 7 months old, and we are nursing along with solids. I added in 300 extra calories to account for the nursing and it seems to be working. One thought though, are you a stay at home mom? Because that burns more calories than a desk job. Also, make sure you are drinking a ton of water. My midwife wanted me drinking 3 - 4 liters a day while nursing, and that seems to be really helping with the weight loss as well. I have my account set at "active" to offset the nursing and chasing I do, plus I eat back all my exercise calories. Now is even more important than normal to be getting enough calories, in order to keep your supply up.

kimothy38

I lost weight while nursing my 10 month old son and ate 1500 cal a day. I lost a dramatic amount of weight and it didn't affect nursing. My son was on solids as well though so not solely reliant on me. I didn't do any exercise either. Sounds like you are doing really well, good on you.