Breast-feeding Mamas, do you allow for the milk you make?

MaryPoppinsIAint

Many studies show that a breastfeeding mother burns an additional 3-500 calories a day while exclusively breastfeeding. My doctor's said that 2-300 is a fair estimate given my son's age (almost 15 months) and how much he is still nursing (5-6x solid feeds in 24 hours, in addition to a normal solids diet for his age).

Like many fitness websites, MFP has no set formula for accounting for breastfeeding. Understandable, since it can be awfully hard to pin down as the calorie burn for individuals, that's why I asked my doctor!

So I'm curious, mamas, do you account for the breastfeeding calories, and if so, how much and how do you enter it?

rockerbabyy

Im not currently breastfeeding, but will be soon :-)
Theres entries in the food data base that will add calories to your diary for nursing, just search for breastfeeding and pick the one for an older child

MaryPoppinsIAint

Oh, that's awesome, I didn't know!

RandiLandCHANGED

I enter breastfeeding as a cardio exercise and manually put in that I burned 300 calories. My girl is 13 months, eats solids, and sleeps through the night.

herlysgirly

Yes, you can either enter it in as an exercise and eat back your calories... or enter it under foods, and it takes away negative calories.

MaryPoppinsIAint

Thank you for the comparison. My son hasn't dropped any actual feedings since he started really being interested in food... it's still upon waking in the morning, naptime, getting up, bedtime, and once/twice during the night. All the solid diet really did was cut down on the snack/boredom nursing. If he's cutting a tooth or otherwise feeling unwell, of course, he's velcro-baby and nursing constantly.

I think I like entering it as cardio rather than a negative food entry...

srrose15

As breastfeeding momma how many calories should we be taking in if we are trying to keep up milk production and lose weight? I feel my weight is coming over VERY slowly even though I eat clean and exercise. My milk looks great too when I pump but I am only taking in about 1500-1600 calories a day.

MaryPoppinsIAint

Oh my! That's the same problem I'm having because I forgot about the breastfeeding calories... a 1640 calorie limit that just feels too darned low! How old is your baby, still just breastmilk or eating solids too? Depending on your baby's age and how often they're nursing, you could be losing as much as 500 calories a day to breast milk, leaving you with a very low intake, especially with exercise as well.

ncl1313

I recently stopped breastfeeding, but I was crediting myself 50 cal per feeding/pumping session, entered under foods.

My son was on solids for 3 meals per day and feeding 4 times per day. On weekdays I'd feed in the morning and at bedtime, and then pump one time midday, and he would get bottles mid-morning and mid-afternoon. On weekends I'd do all 4 feedings.

sustalbott

I'm finally jumping back on MFP and found this discussion when I googled the issue. While I was pregnant I created a cardio exercise (ha!) to allow me to adjust for the extra calories I needed to be pregnant (as well as changing my goals to "maintain."). I was about to do the same for breastfeeding, create a cardio exercise.

But it's interesting that people have added custom foods with negative calories! One of them, called "Generic - exclusively breastfeeding," also adjusts the fat and protein with negative values. I like that idea... I like the recognition that I "need" extra protein, or that I can have a little "free" fat in my diet! ;-) I'm not sure how accurate those values are, I hope to research it a bit later.

You know, with all my free time with toddler + infant!

jmcreynolds91

I am breastfeeding my 7 month old and she gets solids once a day. I allow myself 400 for breastfeeding calories. I set MFP settings to lose 1/2 pound per week so i eat 1600-1800 cals a day.

AlongCame_Molly

I never entered mine, I just figured it was bonus extra calories burned.

vim_n_vigor

At 15 months, I probably wouldn't be worried about accounting for it anymore, unless I found myself getting very hungry. By the time my oldest was done nursing at 12 months, I wasn't counting that anymore. You better believe in a few months when this one is born, I will be taking that need into account. I found I needed more calories with a newborn than I ever did while pregnant and I was still losing weight.

AllonsYtotheTardis

Honestly, if it was me, I would set MFP to maintenance, and not track the BF. This should give you a loss of 0.5 - 1 lb per week while breast feeding.

(oh, and eat back exercise calories, so you're not starving yourself or the baby)

MaryPoppinsIAint

Okay... based on the nutritional information here: http://drtummy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=75:headers&id=537:nutritional-quality-of-breast-milk&Itemid=55

And starting from 300 calories per day, I'm building a Food entry for negative values as follows:

Calories - 300 (based on 20 calories per ounce of breast milk, 2.5 oz per feed, 6 feeds/24 hours = 15 oz/day)
Fat - 18g (1.2g per ounce x 15 oz/day)
Carbs - 31.05g (2.07g per oz x 15oz/day)
Protein - 3.99g (.266g per oz x 15oz/day)

I feel like I need to account for the calorie expenditure because on 1640 cals, there just doesn't seem to be enough for the whole day, I'm constantly hungry, even gearing toward protein and a little extra fat. Doing the math to account for the fat/carb/protein loss will help keep everything else balanced, I think.

herlysgirly

Okay... based on the nutritional information here: http://drtummy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=75:headers&id=537:nutritional-quality-of-breast-milk&Itemid=55

And starting from 300 calories per day, I'm building a Food entry for negative values as follows:

Calories - 300 (based on 20 calories per ounce of breast milk, 2.5 oz per feed, 6 feeds/24 hours = 15 oz/day)
Fat - 18g (1.2g per ounce x 15 oz/day)
Carbs - 31.05g (2.07g per oz x 15oz/day)
Protein - 3.99g (.266g per oz x 15oz/day)

I feel like I need to account for the calorie expenditure because on 1640 cals, there just doesn't seem to be enough for the whole day, I'm constantly hungry, even gearing toward protein and a little extra fat. Doing the math to account for the fat/carb/protein loss will help keep everything else balanced, I think.

Nice job! I am going to do one now for 500 EBF!

E.T.A. Here's the 500 cal. one I made if anyone is interested! Mommy's Milk - Exclusively Breastfeeding - 500 Cals, 34 oz.

-500 calories
-40.8 fat
-70.38 carbs
-9.044 protein

I just estimated on the 34oz. I have no idea how many ounces he's taking in, so I just divided the 500 calories I've been accommodating for by 20 calories per ounce.