Breast feeding Momma

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jennaciszewski
jennaciszewski Posts: 2
in Introduce Yourself
Hello, my name is Jenna and I am new to MyFitnessPal. I am a breast feeding Momma; my beautiful baby boy is 6mos old. =] My Fitness Pal is a great app, I love it! It helps me log my foods/exercises and stay on track to getting healthier, BUT breast feeding isn't an option under exercises, nor is it an option in the initial goals document. Breast feeding burns up to 500 calories a day and BF Mommas are supposed to take in an extra amount of calories (about 300)-- healthy calories that is. .... Any suggestions as to accurately document my caloric intake & exercising? Is there any way to add parameters?

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  • Ailorn
    Ailorn Posts: 79 Member
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    I'm also breast feeding and this was a concern of mine too. Just giving this a bump to see if anyone else has a thought.
  • Pandorian
    Pandorian Posts: 2,055 MFP Moderator
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    seems you've looked under exercise (where you COULD add it as a custom exercise) there ARE food entries for "breast feeding" and "breastfeeding" have a look and see if one of those fit.

    Or my home > settings > update diet/ fitness profile
    and decrease the rate of loss you have set, every 0.5 decrease is an extra 250 calories a day.

    the food or exercise routes need to be done daily, the decreased rate of loss in your settings or even bumping to gain to get the calories you're after would be a set it and forget it option unless / until you lose 10 lbs and are prompted to update.

    see also
    my home > goals > change goals > custom
    increase the calories by what you want from the activity, this will credit you the calories AND make sure they are applied across your macros in the ratio you have set.
  • Kimi0371
    Kimi0371 Posts: 19 Member
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    The first time I used a weight-loss app I was breastfeeding. You can tweak all of the goals from the ones it automatically sets for you. I just went in and increased my calories by 500 from what they suggested. All the nutrients self-adjust to the new calorie level. I also bumped up the calcium, because it was set too low at the time. Then you just see how it works. If you are sticking to it and lose too much or too little, adjust your calories up or down to compensate. As he nursed less, I would reduce my calories by 100 whenever my weight loss would plateau.

    An interesting side-note: after he weaned completely I forgot to change the calcium setting, and I was in such a habit of eating like that I kept eating a lot of calcium. I was having awful foot cramps whenever I'd exercise and couldn't figure it out until a friend mentioned that I might be getting too much calcuim. When I reduced my dairy the cramps went away.

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