Breastfeeding Calorie Count?

Kerr323

Hi Everyone
I am new to this, so I am wondering how many extra calories should I account for if I am breastfeeding? Internet brings up various answers between 300-500?? Any tips?

purple_tux1

Depends. I would think 500 is too much. Maybe try 300 and see how it goes. When I was breastfeeding, the weight just melted off. After weaning, it crept back on unfortunately.

Nicolee_2014

If you go to the track food you can enter breastfeeding in there & the general consensus I found was that for every 30ml of milk (which is hard to track when you are breastfeeding & not expressing) it was 20 calories. I guess you just have to guesstimate how many mls you think you give your baby in any given feed.

I tried not to eat my breastfeeding cals back. Good luck

prettybub

I believe breastfeeding is in the food section if you search it...gives you back 500. Depends how old your child is. But I would not eat less then that if Bub is little.

BunniPage

I believe breastfeeding is in the food section if you search it...gives you back 500. Depends how old your child is. But I would not eat less then that if Bub is little.

Thanks for this!

I've only been on here for 2 weeks and I originally increased my goal calories to 1700. This seems like a better way to do it though

Pandorian

Adding it as a food "does" add back 500 calories but it may not add back any macros depending on which entry you pick, and if you pick one it may not add back calories in your macro percentages if you have something other than the MFP default of 65% carbs 15% protein 20% fat.
Adding it as an exercise would at least add the extra calories and add them across your macros as any other "cardio exercise" does
Both food and exercise routes of adding it require you to add it every day.

My home > goals > change goals > custom
increasing your daily calories "forces" it to be across your macros, and has another advantage of being set it and forget it unless and until you lose 10lbs and get prompted to update your fitness goals / profile.

Kerr323

Thanks Everyone!

BelindaDuvessa

I'm not BF, but I am pregnant. I manually increased my calories, so I would be sure to eat enough. I'll up them again in probably a month. For me, it's just easier to change my caloric needs, as opposed to logging it as fitness. In the end, it's the same, except this way, I know I have those carbs, proteins, and fats to distribute.