Breastfeeding Moms trying to lose weight

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trin03
trin03 Posts: 12
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone...just wondering if there are other moms who are breastfeeding that are trying to lose weight. It's hard b/c we shouldn't really be dieting, but I am definitely trying to cut out eating as much and cut out the junk food. Just wondering how other mom's out there are doing and if you have been having success. Also...doesn't breastfeeding burn like 500 calories/day? Just wondering b/c I was thinking of putting it in my exercise diary LOL...Thanks!

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  • perrim
    perrim Posts: 117
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    There was a post about this yesterday in the introduce yourself section, you may want to take a look. There are a few of us. My boy is 6 1/2 months old now, so he's not breastfeeding as much, but I eat about 1500-1700 calories a day and workout for about 60 minutes a day usually and it has not affected my breastmilk at all. According to the internet, we burn about 20 calories per ounce of milk we express, so it all depends on how much milk you make.

    Good luck!
  • Songbird146
    Songbird146 Posts: 46 Member
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    Ok so you have an advantage because you actually burn more calories from breast feeding. I dropped a ton of weight when I could breast feed by just eating healthy whole foods and drinking a ton of water. Good luck.
  • mom2cadence
    mom2cadence Posts: 9
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    Congrats on choosing to breastfeed!! On average it burns roughly 500 cal. a day but it also depends on the age of the baby and how many ounces they are taking a day combined with solids.

    **Breastfeeding burns an average of 500 calories a day with the typical range to be from 200 to 600 calories burned a day. It's estimated that the production of one ounce of breast milk burns 20 calories. Babies who are exclusively breastfed consume an average of 25 ounces of breast milk a day, meaning that moms burn 500 calories a day. The normal range of breast milk taken in by one to six month-old babies is 19 to 32 ounces a day. The amount varies after six months depending on how much solid food the baby eats.

    One of the reasons I joined was because once I stopped breastfeeding, at 13 months, I gained about 15-20lbs back due to bad eating habits and not having that nursing baby anymore.

    Good luck on your weight loss journey.
  • mrslantu2020
    mrslantu2020 Posts: 71 Member
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    my daughter is almost 9 months old now and still breastfeeding a bit. The one thing that I am really focusing on is no soda and less eating out. that has helped a lot!
  • mama22girlz
    mama22girlz Posts: 291
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    I'm not logging it because my little one is 16 months and I only nurse in the morning and before bed. But if your little one stll nurses alot you can record it. And that way you can eat those calories back. Just make sure you don't cut your calories too much. Maybe play with it and add 500 cals to your daily for one week and then see if you loose, f you don't try 400 but just keep an eye on your supply, if it starts to drop add back more calories. I would make sure that you do eat some extra.

    Congrats on Bfing :)
  • eliblish
    eliblish Posts: 124 Member
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    I am breastfeeding an 11 month old. She still nurses very frequently so I add 500 calories. There is a lady on here who put "breastfeeding mom" in the food database so you add it to your diary and it subtracts cals, carbs, and fat. I am eating between 2000 and 2500 cals a day and losing slowly. (I only have a few pounds to lose)
  • Junisahn
    Junisahn Posts: 166 Member
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    Hi - I'm breastfeeding my 6.5 month daughter (she's really a 9 month old, but was 12 weeks premature, so she eats like a 6.5 monther). I add in breastfeeding as an exercise, and I calculate it at 400 calories, because she is eating some solid food. I eat around 1800-1900 calories a day, and exercise above and beyond the breastfeeding. I've lost 3 lbs in a week, but now it's slowing down... have 5 more to go to hit my pre-prego weight. I'd like to go even lower, but first thing's first - get to my pre-prego weight.
  • trin03
    trin03 Posts: 12
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    Thanks everyone for all the responses! My son is turning 6 months old and still breastfeeds most the day so I think I may take some of your advice and add it and see if I lose any weight or not. My only concern was eating too little calories b/c of the breastfeeding. I will check out the other post.....big THANKS =)

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