Need help figuring out calories while breastfeeding

Cloudybe

I'm not really new to MFP but only did it a month or two about a year ago and then got pregnant with my second daughter who is now 10 weeks old. I am breastfeeding her exclusively and she loves to nurse and typically nurses at least every 2 hours. I'm just getting back into MFP and would be happy to lose another 10lbs or so but I'd be fine with just maintaining the weight I'm at for now too. I tend to forget to eat and drink so I just want to do this so I'm more aware of how much I'm eating and drinking. I'm always trying to drink tons of water but forget how much I've drank.

I did a search and read through some threads about breastfeeding but now I'm more confused! What do I do to change everything on the site to show how many calories I should be getting for breastfeeding? It says I should eat 1450 calories a day. Do I need to do a custom option?

junipuni

I don't know! It is totally confusing when breastfeeding. When I was tracking it I would include it as a daily exercise just to add those extra calories that I knew I needed. I would just caution you to really be careful since she is so young! You sound like you are being careful because you said you'd be fine with maintaining and want to drink tons of water. It is just really tricky when you are breastfeeding sometimes - especially when they are 10 weeks because they go through growth spurts and phases where they eat more, less, during the night (ALL night sometimes it seems!)

Anyway, good luck. You sound like you are being really smart about everything. Congrats on your baby!

SammiAnne11

Congrats on the new baby! And kudos to you to trying to stay healthy too!
I am not sure if mfp has built in extra calories if you are breastfeeding. But I know that my DR. always told me to increase my daily calories by 400-500 EVERYDAY while breastfeeding.
I would suggest you use the "maintain my weight" option, and add in 400 calories.

I hope that helps!

(And I have 3 kids under the age of 6! Tyler is 6, Tony is 3.5, and Gracie just turned 2)

birgithooker

When I was breastfeeding my son I upped my calories daily by 500 calories. I then added breastfeeding as an exercise. I estimated that I fed him about 8 times in a 24 hour period for about 15 minutes at a time. So I added breastfeeding as an exercise and put in that every 120 minutes, I would burn 500 calories. Then when he nursed, I chose breastfeeding and changed it to indicate the accurate number of minutes he nursed. It helped out when he started to wean because I didn't want to be consuming a whole bunch of extra calories that I wasn't burning. I would up your calories and then it's up to you if you want to track it. Hope this helps. Oh- I was told never to go below 1800 calories if you breastfeed.

Cloudybe

Thank you! I'm really just wanting to make sure that I am eating and drinking enough. I get busy at times and forget to eat and drink (weird I know, how in the world do I forget to eat? I just don't think about it and lose track of time I guess). So I thought maybe this would be a good way to keep track so I know I'm eating and drinking enough.

So how do I add more calories? And if I add more calories should I also add it in as an exercise?

ETA: Oops now I see you said you did both.

Cloudybe

Do I add the 500 calories to Net Calories Consumed/Day? When I switched it to maintain my current weight it said 1700 Net Calories so do I change that number to 2200 or do I add the extra 500 in somewhere else? I'm confused cause it says Net Calories = Total Calories - calories burned.

Sorry so many questions!

Cloudybe

Ok I think I've got this figured out, let me know if I'm wrong! By adding breastfeeding as an exercise, I am basically adding 500 calories to my Net Calories amount? So if I do that then I don't need to up my calories by 500? I just need to do one or the other, not both right? Cause if I do both then I'm really adding 1000 calories? I think I would explode if I tried to eat that much! :laugh:

Is that right? I think I'm over thinking this! I need to go to bed! :yawn:

junipuni

Ok I think I've got this figured out, let me know if I'm wrong! By adding breastfeeding as an exercise, I am basically adding 500 calories to my Net Calories amount? So if I do that then I don't need to up my calories by 500? I just need to do one or the other, not both right? Cause if I do both then I'm really adding 1000 calories? I think I would explode if I tried to eat that much! :laugh:

Is that right? I think I'm over thinking this! I need to go to bed! :yawn:

I always added it just as exercise but I would make sure (for you) to eat those exercise calories. Now, I add exercise and extra calories but I don't always eat them.