breast feeding

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kharmsen
kharmsen Posts: 1
in Introduce Yourself
Hi I am new and I breast feed. How do I make proper calorie adjustments?

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  • mishtamesh
    mishtamesh Posts: 5
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    Best Wishes on the Baby!! :flowerforyou: I'm here for about a month and breast feed as well. Read on-line that I should add 200-500 calories daily but did not check with nutritionist yet. Added 200 - no reduction in breast milk yet.
  • kwardklinck
    kwardklinck Posts: 1,601
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    You should be able to get the extra calories just by adding a couple of extra servings of dairy per day.
  • mishtamesh
    mishtamesh Posts: 5
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    Hi, I've been trying to loose some weight while breast feeding for a while now. Lost 6 Ibs pretty quick, but now it seems I'm stuck! I've been on 1200 cal daily for more than a month now... and nothing. Just minor fluctuation due to water consumption differences. Has anyone else out there experienced that? Help!!
  • firegirlred
    firegirlred Posts: 674 Member
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    Kharmsen- go to your food diary, click "add food" and search for breastfeeding. I added it in there as a negative value food to help with this issue. It's in 100 calorie "servings," so decide how many calories you want to add to your diet, divide by 100, then add that as your serving. For example, if you want to add 300 calories, put in 3 servings.

    Mishtamesh-I'm not sure what your total goal is, but a few things come to mind. If a breastfeeding mother needs 300-500 calories to make the milk, then you're asking your body to do everything else on 700-900 calories. Make sure you read the newbies post about 1200 calories a day and not losing. Also, take a look at my diary-I'm losing consistently when it isn't that "time" of month. and I actually wind up eating about 2200-2300 calories a day. I don't actually have a period, but I do retain water for a week. I would suggest bringing your calories up to 1700 to 2000 a day. Breastfeeding will keep you in a higher deficit than what shows on your diary.
  • AHealthierMe
    AHealthierMe Posts: 15 Member
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    I believe if you are trying to lose weight while breastfeeding you may need to make sure you are eating enough calories. If you reduce it too far your body may start to hoard the calories making it difficult to lose weight. It also may affect ability to produce milk.
  • mishtamesh
    mishtamesh Posts: 5
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    Thanks so much, you guys, for your comments. I have to confess - it really scares me to increase the caloric uptake by 500-700 cal as you suggest. With a tendency for weight gain, I'm horrified at the thought of loosing my "old self" completely in terms of appearance. But I guess that this is a part of the adjustments to the new situation, right? And re milk production, I was actually really mindful of that going into this regimen. I started with 2000 cal daily, and reduced gradually to 1200 making sure I maintain proper nutritional content. I was actually surprised to see that I can offer my baby more milk with the 1200 cal, but then I was told that the body prioritizes so that baby gets the caloric intake on the expense of that of the mother.

    In any case, my weight loss is usually slow, but normally I boost it with some exercise. This time, however, I am not allowed due to an orthopedic medical condition. So I'm just sitting on my hands, so to speak, waiting for the treatment to kick in, compensating by reduction of caloric intake. I assume that when I become more physically active I will also need to bring up the caloric intake again, but meanwhile, I have to admit, I am not even getting to the point that I am hungry. Still this doesn't explain the "stuckage" in my weight reduction.

    Anyway, does this make any sense to anyone?

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