Any other breastfeeding mamas??

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  • chunkypunkin
    chunkypunkin Posts: 1
    I'm still nursing my one year old daughter. I lost about 20 lbs after she was born (just baby and fluid) then NOTHING to this day. I wasn't slim to begin with, then I gained 80 lbs while pregnant. I really put a lot of faith in the whole "breastfeeding makes you skinny" thing. It does for some people but not for me. Oh well, my baby is chunky and super healthy. Now its time to focus on Mama and get my own health in check.
  • Fassero
    Fassero Posts: 2
    Anyone trying lower carbs, higher fat and protein ratios while breastfeeding? I'm nursing my 13 month old 6-8 times a day, have calorie goal of 2000, put 500 calories as an exercise each day....and have lost only 5 pounds in the last few months. When I've lost weight before, I've been most successful if I keep my carbs to about 20% of what I eat. Thinking about doing that again, but a little nervous about supply.
  • mteague277
    mteague277 Posts: 145 Member
    Still nursing my 14 month old. I noticed when she hit about 9-10 months and the nursing started to slow down, my body started letting go of some of that extra fat it was holding onto. Nursing I've noticed goes one of two ways, the fat/baby weight melts off of you because of the extra calorie burn and you end up smaller than pre-pregnancy, or you hold onto fat stores in case of famine. I wish I could send the message to my body that there is NO famine occurring here any time soon :P

    I am finally losing at a more acceptable rate now that she isn't nursing all of the time. What/how much I ate before definitely made a difference in my supply, but now it doesn't seem to make as much of a difference since she nurses much less often.

    So as far as calories, I am eating around 1200-1500 but I think you should be eating close to 1700 at least while nursing a baby under 1. You really need to eat enough or it does seem to hurt your supply.
  • Care76
    Care76 Posts: 556 Member
    Hi Ladies! I'm breastfeeding my one year old son. He used to nurse 4-5 times a day, but lately he has been nursing more often but not as long each time.

    After I had him sometime in that first month I lost 35 pounds. I wasn't weighing myself so I'm not sure wheni lost the weight. It seemed overnight my jeans were too big on me (I lost a bit more than I gained in IVF and pregnancy). I had supply issues right away and if my supply dropped I would eat a ton of calories, like extremely overboard as I was paranoid. I also stated a medication to increase my supply that made me feel starving all the time. Within 4-5 months of starting this medication I gained 20 pounds back!

    When my son was getting close to a year I decided to start MFP again. At first I was only eating 1200 calories a day. I wasn't losing at all. I had some help here and started eating a goal of 2,000 that included my breastfeeding and 20 mins of exercise. I also started weighing all my food instead of using cups. It took about 6 weeks for my body to get used to the exercise and extra food and I finally started losing.

    I tried to work my macros for heavy lifting that was recommended by a member here as I am trying to buy equipment so I can start the 5x5 program. It is not a percentage. I don't airways hit my protein, but I'm trying. You can see from my diary I eat everything. I don't want to cut foods out as then someday when I start eating them again I will just gain the weight back. So I eat whatever I want as long as I have the calories left. I do try to not eat fried foods because I don't like the way they make me feel after, but when I go out I just eat whatever.
  • Prove31
    Prove31 Posts: 2
    Thanks for this suggestion! I just changed my activity level and think this will work perfectly for me. I was doing it manually (custom) and was hardly losing.
  • coraann23
    coraann23 Posts: 6
    Im I'm breastfeeding my 9 month old and the weight will not come off lol but I added some of you ladies and please feel free to add me I have about 80 lbs to lose
  • buffykaz
    buffykaz Posts: 50 Member
    Hello other breastfeeding moms! I have a 3 month old and exclusively breastfeed. I also was wondering what to do as I can't find an option on MFP for taking breastfeeding into consideration. I now weigh 225lbs which was my starting weight when I got pregnant, and have a goal of losing 1.5lbs a week until I'm at 175lb which I haven't been in years. MFP has a calorie goal of 1550 a day for me but I'm going to start adding 300-500 a day under additional exercise and see how that goes.

    You can go into your food diary and add 'breastfeeding' through the search function. It will deduct 250 to 500 calories depending on which you chose.

    What she said. Search for it like its a food.

    This is the way I do mine too. I add mine under breakfast so I know how many calories I have left for the rest of the day.

    I went into my Settings and created a separate meal name called "Breastfeeding" and add my BF calories in there so that they are completely separate from all my other meals. That way I can still see how many cals I am having each meal, and the BF calories stay in their own section.
  • lisalsd1
    lisalsd1 Posts: 1,519 Member
    I bf-ed 2 kids for 14 months each. I ate 500 cals extra at first; and then around 6 months, when I started introducing solids, I went from 500-300 cals extra. I lost all of my baby weight (35-37 lbs) plus a bit extra at 1 year postpartum.
  • jennicole4
    jennicole4 Posts: 90 Member
    I am a breastfeeding mom too. I did some research on breastfeeding calories because I thought 500 was pushing it as well. I found that it takes 20 calories to produce an ounce of milk in this article: http://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/perks-and-health-benefits-breastfeeding. As babies grow, they drink more per feed, but the number of feeds go down. I found the averages for weight/age in this article: http://www.parents.com/baby/feeding/bottlefeeding/how-to-bottlefeed/. The article focuses on bottle feeding, but the amount of intake applies to breastfed babies as well. You can do the math based on your baby and the 20 cal/oz. rule to get a close estimate to how many calories you are actually burning per day by breastfeeding. You could either change your daily calorie goals to reflect that or create your own recipe/exercise that reflects YOUR breastfeeding calories. I supplement some formula every day, so I account for that in my calories. If I notice the scale isn't moving or is moving in the wrong direction, I adjust my calories down by 50-100 per day for a week and usually that sets things right.

    You are very close to goal and may not lose more until you wean. I have heard many women say their body holds onto a few pounds as "insurance" until they wean. Gotta love Mother Nature - lol. Anyway, HTH!

    Anyone is welcome to add me. It's always good to have friends in the same boat!
  • ntftnm
    ntftnm Posts: 55 Member
    I sometimes pump or nurse depending....i multiply the number of ounces i pump by 26 (which is the number of calories burned making milk). So....if i pump 4 oz i figure it to be 104 calories burned. I then log it in my food diary as a negative amount...and that seems to be working pretty accurately for my scale. Hope that helps and is understandable....

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