Calories and breastfeeding

mkline1985
mkline1985 Posts: 10
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello, I'm new to this site and have a few question some may know. I have an 8 month old son who is fully breastfed. I will be honest I gorged my whole pregnancy and up until Monday when I started counting calories and eating more fruits and vegetables. Does anyone know if there is a spot in the exercise spot that I could put down how many calories a day I burn alone just producing breastmilk? I want my readings to be as accurate as I can get them. Thanks

Replies

  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    Bumping up because I know there is a place to log breastfeeding but since my baby is 17 I've never actually done it - hopefully someone else will chime in with the answer. :smile:
  • mkline1985
    mkline1985 Posts: 10
    Thank you so much:)
  • sassy1314
    sassy1314 Posts: 4
    according to all the posts i have looked at there is not a way, other than to make it a "cardio" exercise and log it that way. but you have to come up iwth an amount of calories you think it burns per day.
  • oiseau17
    oiseau17 Posts: 142 Member
    Hi there,
    You actually can enter it as a food and it will add negative calories for the day. Just type in "breastfeeding" and it'll come up. Until baby is a year old you'll probably want to stick with 500 extra cals per day. Once solid food is no longer "just for fun" you can take it down to 300 cals per day. Just watch that you don't notice a decrease in your supply and you should be good to go.
  • michaelsontag
    michaelsontag Posts: 12
    My wife is in the same boat. Since the calories used varies greatly based on age of baby and weight of mother, it is unlikely that MFP can ever (without serious legal complications) address this.

    My personal rec is this: Whatever your personal weight loss goal is, reduce it by half a pound (so if you want to lose a pound, make it say your goal is to only lose half a pound). The research I have seen shows breastfeeding takes anywhere from 250 cals to 600 cals.

    Otherwise, as long as you dont have your goal be lose 2 lbs/week (or more), nature should take its course. In truth, if you are eating right, your body will sacrifice itself (like the mother you are) to ASSURE your baby is getting proper cals and nutrients.

    PS - big fan of natural feedings. Too many people JUMP to buying crap in a can.
  • mkline1985
    mkline1985 Posts: 10
    Thank you. I sure enjoy it. Thanks for all the advice:)
  • tremendousdeb
    tremendousdeb Posts: 7 Member
    I make mine a cardio exercise. And I went into settings to change my daily goal to 1800, as it was telling me I only needed 1200 or so to lose weight! Not enough when you are breastfeeding.

    Freedieting.com has one of the best calculators I've seen online that is specifically for breastfeeding. Lots of info on there as well about how many calories your body uses to feed another human (studies as well). They use the Mifflin-St Jeor method to determine how many calories you need to lose weight (and later to maintain it). Here is a link: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/breastfeeding_calorie_calculator.htm
  • hstoblish
    hstoblish Posts: 234 Member
    I've entered mine in as food (-300 calories until 1 year and now I'm trying at -200 calories because she's just turned a year), trying to overestimate the calories and making sure that my breast milk supply doesn't get impacted by my weight loss.

    One caveat - estimating your breastmilk supply by how satisfied your baby is is more effective than trying to measure it by pumping (babies are better at getting breastmilk out than a pump is, unless your kid has a latch issue). My understanding is that you'll know if you're not producing enough because your kid will want more milk and get upset at the breast.

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