Breastfeeding question
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gibbsgirl
Posts: 72 Member
I am still breastfeeding my 9 month old daughter but I'm not sure how many calories to give myself. She does eat 3 solid meals a day, but still nurses pretty frequently. So I'm not sure if I still need the whole 500 extra calories, or of I should lower it to 300. I don't want to give myself extra calories but I definitely don't want to hurt my milk supply! Any advice?
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Replies
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I looked at your profile and for the amount of weight you want to lose, I would suggest you keep the 500 calories and not jeopardize your milk supply. Drink lots of water and maybe up your exercise a little if you're concerned the extra calories. Your baby is only going to need you in that way for a very short time so keep up the great benefit to your precious little one.
Good luck0 -
^^^^Agree!0
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I definitely agree with the post above. You are only going to be nursing for a short amount of time, I know when my daughter turned one she decided to wean herself
I am currently nursing a newborn and have the extra 500 cals, but am not too worried about getting the weight off too fast. good luck! before you know it nursing will be a past time, enjoy it now
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Are you losing weight at your current number of calories or are you maintaining? Are you currently exercising? How many calories I eating now?0
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I also agree. :flowerforyou:0
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I haven't added any extra calories for breastfeeding and my milk supply has still been good, however we are all different. I'd try only doing 300 and see how that goes if you notice a drop in supply at all you can just up your calories. I've also noticed that taking a multivitamin helps a lot! Good Luck!0
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That's kind of what I was thinking too. I started insanity yesterday so as long as I keep that up, I won't have any problems burning calories! I absolutely love breastfeeding and don't plan to stop anytime soon so I don't want to jeopardize it in any way.0
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I have a 6 month old I'm still nursing and I quit giving myself a 500 calorie defecit each day and instead just stick between 1800-2000 calories a day regardless of exercise. My milk supply is fine and I lost all my baby weight and then a couple pounds where I have been hovering for about a month or so now. I would say find a number you're comfortable at and stick with it! Good luck.0
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You wont jeapordise your milk supply, you body will look after baby before you! The more she feeds the more you'll make.0
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Agreed stick w/ the 500!0
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I just started tracking calories again. I gained 62 pounds while pregnant and lost all but 10 without exercising or counting calories. These last 10 have been stubborn!0
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as a midwife i'd just like to say well done for breastfeeding this long in the first place
... i think it would better for you and your body... the extra calories are not just for your milk supply... breastfeeding burns up a lot of energy.. hence the weight loss in that period... if you reduce your intake you will burn more than you take in and find yourself run down or burned out if you are not lucky...
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I think if you just track the calories & workout you'll drop it. It took 9 mo. to gain it they say it takes that long to loss it. When I was breastfeeding if I didn't eat or drink enough I didn't make much milk. But as someone else said we are all different so you need to find what works for you!0
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I looked at your profile and for the amount of weight you want to lose, I would suggest you keep the 500 calories and not jeopardize your milk supply. Drink lots of water and maybe up your exercise a little if you're concerned the extra calories. Your baby is only going to need you in that way for a very short time so keep up the great benefit to your precious little one.
Good luck
^^Best advice! I only got to breastfeed for 3 months. When I went back to work I barely had enough time during my breaks to pump or feed her, so I never was able to eat anything until dinner and my supply dwindled. Went on vacation for Christmas, ate everything I wanted and ended up with extra milk. So I think the amount of food you eat has a lot to do with it.0 -
I breastfed all 4 of my children for 1 1/2 years. I always found that if I tried lower my calories too much, I just wouldn't lose anymore while breastfeeding. My milk supply didn't really suffer but my body did. Keep the calories until baby is only nursing like once a day, then cut them back. My kids nursed around 3 times a day all the way up until I weaned them so I kept the extra calories.
Great job on nursing so long! Don't see as many women nursing anymore. I am so glad that I did. My kids are never sick.0 -
Thank you for all the replies! Since I'm just starting out and really have no clue how many calories I've been taking in, I may go with the extra 500 for a week and see how it goes. That still puts me at less than 2000 calories a day. If that doesn't work then I can lower it to maybe 400 and see what happens.0
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I dropped to 400, then 300 or so cal as I cut back on nursing and my kiddo started eating more solids, and I just stopped adding nursing calories at all. He's also 9 months and is nursing about 2-3 times a day still, but eats a ton of solids and is getting formula bottles during the day at daycare (I stopped pumping a week or two ago). I'm still losing pretty slowly and still seem to have a fine supply for the amount I'm nursing. (That said, I eat all my calories, plus exercise calories, and often go a bit over that, even.)0
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I looked at your profile and for the amount of weight you want to lose, I would suggest you keep the 500 calories and not jeopardize your milk supply. Drink lots of water and maybe up your exercise a little if you're concerned the extra calories. Your baby is only going to need you in that way for a very short time so keep up the great benefit to your precious little one.
Good luck
this is the best advice ever!!!!. . . i never breastfed so i wouldnt know. . . i formula fed because my eating habits after birth were BAD and my immune system couldnt support it. . .:/0 -
I am still breastfeeding my 9 month old daughter but I'm not sure how many calories to give myself. She does eat 3 solid meals a day, but still nurses pretty frequently. So I'm not sure if I still need the whole 500 extra calories, or of I should lower it to 300. I don't want to give myself extra calories but I definitely don't want to hurt my milk supply! Any advice?
Go with 500. If you find that it's too much, lower by 100 at a time for a couple of weeks at a time until you find what works.
As long as you're not eating over your TDEE, which you probably won't be even with adding 500, you're not going to gain weight. "Extra calories" means extra nutrition, and that's important, ESPECIALLY while you're nursing. Remember, when you're producing milk, any nutrition you consume (calcium and other minerals, vitamins, etc.) will go into your milk FIRST and then be distributed to your body. Your body's first priority is the baby right now, so your nutritional needs will come second. So unless the 500-calorie allotment makes you gain weight, which I doubt, use all the calories you can get. Your health needs to be your priority, so while it's perfectly ok to lose weight right now, you certainly don't want to over-restrict your calories. Just restrict enough to see a downward trend on the scale, but don't go looking for huge numbers.
ETA: I just saw that you started Insanity. Please eat your exercise calories. I would suggest getting a heart rate monitor if you're afraid of overestimating your burns. For nursing moms, it's important to keep your deficit small, for the reasons I stated above, and Insanity burns a LOT of calories. If you don't eat all of what you burn through exercise, at least eat a significant portion of them.0 -
Nursing your baby will be over in the blink of an eye. I thought it was a long period, but now that my "babies" are 6 & 12. . . well, it really is just a short season of life. The extra cardio you're going to do should make a dent in those stubborn 10 lbs. You'll make your goal without any trouble!!0
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