Breast feeding and calorie intake?

lolita79
lolita79 Posts: 2
in Health and Weight Loss
Trying to lose about 2 lbs a week, I know 1200 calories are not enough when I'm also breast feeding my newborn. How much calories I should add, 500?

Replies

  • Trilby16
    Trilby16 Posts: 707 Member
    I lost weight breast-feeding my babies while eating more than I normally did, quite a bit more. Why don't you eat what you need to feel satisfied and see if you lose weight? I always found that breast-feeding melted the baby weight right off me, without the need to diet. QUite the opposite in fact!
  • lolita79
    lolita79 Posts: 2
    Thanks for your reply. This is my third baby and I've learned bfing don't help me lose weight unfortunately. I have to cut some calories and exercise. In fact I gained 5 lbs after I lost almost 20 right after birth.
  • bfbooty
    bfbooty Posts: 189 Member
    when you are exclussively breastfeeding as in your baby is only feeding from you, the standard is 500 cals burned per day that you need on top of what mfp gives you, also i would recommend you only try to aim for 1lb loss a week if you lose too much too quickly it can effect your milk supply, be kind to your body right now, you have just had a baby and your baby is now also relying on your to continue to nourish them, you need the right amount of calories and proper nutrition.

    Congratulations by the way x
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    when you are exclussively breastfeeding as in your baby is only feeding from you, the standard is 500 cals burned per day that you need on top of what mfp gives you, also i would recommend you only try to aim for 1lb loss a week if you lose too much too quickly it can effect your milk supply, be kind to your body right now, you have just had a baby and your baby is now also relying on your to continue to nourish them, you need the right amount of calories and proper nutrition.

    Congratulations by the way x

    ^^^ all of this

    and it's really difficult to know exactly how many calories to add as the baby doesn't have the same amount of milk each day. if you have days when baby's constantly feeding and you're feeling really hungry, don't be afraid to eat extra calories because you're probably making more milk on those days as the baby's more hungry.
  • RAEQ127
    RAEQ127 Posts: 106 Member
    If you lower your calories too much you will lose your supply. I gained 10 lbs after my daughter was born because I was more worried about not putting her on formula than I was about losing the weight, but what a friend was told is bfing can burn 300-500 calories so I would cut 300-500 calories a day then if you burn 300-500 through bfing then it would make a good weight loss.
  • chandanista
    chandanista Posts: 986 Member
    Good luck, I have very little success in losing weight while breastfeeding. I was, however, able to reach certain fitness goals; I ignored my calories (dieting at all made me crave the "bad stuff" and I'd gorge whenever I was too tired to stop myself--quite often, as I was up at nights with Baby!) and just focused on doing fun cardio a couple times a week. I breastfed my son for 20 months, after I weaned him I came here and started the diet. During the 20 months I discovered Zumba and 5ks, ran 4 5Ks and did Zumba twice a week until I injured myself. On the plus side, when I started to diet too, I found I could make fairly mild changes to my eating style and the weight has been coming off quite healthily, I assume because my body was fit enough it was ready for the next step.

    Again, good luck!

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