breastfeeding mom

glorimarguadalupe9
glorimarguadalupe9 Posts: 4
edited January 21 in Food and Nutrition
Hi,
My sister joined this app but she has a 1 month old baby who she is breastfeeding all day/night. I dont think a 1,200 calorie intake is appropiate for her.

She did some research and found out her ideal intake should be 1,500, but this app cant add this feature, so her profile states she must take no more than 1,200, therefore, it will show that she is way over her ideal intake...

Replies

  • RachelFrost1
    RachelFrost1 Posts: 46 Member
    She should definitely talk to her doctor about an ideal calorie goal. I would say 1500-1600 sounds reasonable to me. Breastfeeding can burn 500 calories a day. Just make sure she is eating non-processed balanced meals so she can be sure she is giving the baby the best.
  • glorimarguadalupe9
    glorimarguadalupe9 Posts: 4
    thank you so much for your response!!! It was helpful :)
  • JenniCali1000
    JenniCali1000 Posts: 646 Member
    I, too, am a breastfeeding mom, but my daughter is 17 mo and only nurses 2-3 times a day. I agree that 1200 cal a day is too low. To be honest, even 1500 cal sounds too low for someone who is constantly nursing a one month old. The pp is correct in saying that she will need to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, since she will 1) only be consuming 1500 calories, and 2) the milk a mama produces for her baby provides complete nutrition to the baby no matter what the mother's diet is, BUT the mother's health will suffer if she's not eating a super healthy diet.
    In order to log in breastfeeding correctly on this app, I enter it under cardio, but only as 1 minute. I enter that I burned 250 calories, but your sister would want to enter 500. That way, it doesn't really count as cardio but you still account for calories burned while bf.
  • Motria
    Motria Posts: 54 Member
    Breastfeeding burns about 600 calories per day and these are calories that you MUST eat back to maintain your health and milk production. When I was BF-ing I would log 600 calories of exercise per day to account for those burned - I recorded it as swimming "breaststroke" ha ha! Actual exercise should also be tracked separately. So, I was eating 1350 base calories, plus 600 for breastfeeding, plus a couple hundred if I took the baby for a long walk or other exercise. The baby weight came off and I didn't have to suffer in the process.
  • 5n0wbal1
    5n0wbal1 Posts: 429 Member
    Hey, I'm nursing too (my son is three months old, and he's exclusively breastfed), and I've modified the calorie intake on MFP to 1800 to account for breastfeeding. Under My Home, go to Goals, then click the green button labeled Change Goals. In there, you can change your daily calorie goals.
  • GeorgieLove708
    GeorgieLove708 Posts: 442 Member
    She should be eating a minimum of 17-1800 calories to maintain milk production. She can change her MFP settings so it's to lose less weight per week. She should also add breastfeeding in her food journal every day and it will add negative 500 calories to her day. There's also the option of just going into goals, choosing "custom" and entering 1800 calories as her daily calorie goal.
  • glorimarguadalupe9
    glorimarguadalupe9 Posts: 4
    thank you everyone for your helpul tips. I will share them all with her.

    Thanks again!
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