Weight loss while breastfeeding

Ambrosia29
Ambrosia29 Posts: 40 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How do I balance my/baby's calorie intake needs to maintain milk supply with losing weight and exercise? I've read a bunch of times how breastfeeding can help shed baby-weight but to breastfeed you need at least 2,800 or 2,400 calories per day. Breastfeeding on average burns 500 calories per day with about 170 coming from stored fat in the body. Some light exercise is good but according to the math on MFP I'll still be gaining. What gives? How do I balance all of this? I'm confused, frustrated and I'll admit, terribly overwhelmed by most things involving numbers. Help!

Replies

  • PinkCoconut
    PinkCoconut Posts: 655 Member
    A friend of mine did just fine with breastfeeding AND losing weight on an average of about 2,000 calories per day and she was exercising. That being said, definitely talk to your doctor first but it CAN be done - she lost 50 lbs before she stopped breastfeeding!

    Feel free to friend me! :)
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
    Eat your MFP goal plus 300-500 calories for breastfeeding. There's even a food diary entry for breastfeeding that will adjust your calories for you. Monitor your baby's intake and adjust as needed.
  • tippett610
    tippett610 Posts: 67 Member
    How do you put in the food diary that you are breastfeeding?
  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
    How old is your baby? I add 200 calories a day for nursing my toddler 4 times a day. If you look up breastfeeding in the food database, it'll actually decrease calories from your total so you can eat more. I did 500 calories a day extra when my baby was nursing full time with no solid food.
  • DrJenO
    DrJenO Posts: 404 Member
    I personally couldn't lose weight while breastfeeding, b/c I was starving if I ate less than 2200 or so calories per day, and I wasn't exercising.

    I think you'll have to add in some exercise, then you can lose with that level of food intake.

    The poster above noted how you account for breast feeding - you can log it through MFP, or you can just quick add 300-500 calories worth of exercise per day.
  • KimberlyHeintz
    KimberlyHeintz Posts: 6 Member
    Thank you for this post! I`m exclusively breastfeeding my 7 week old and trying to lose weight or at least maintain. With my first child, I actually gained weight while breastfeeding. I want to avoid that, so I am going to keep track of my calorie intake and see what works. I definitely do not want to lose my supply though. Ugh, my sugar cravings are terrible right now! I appreciate all of the information here!
  • ahelgers10
    ahelgers10 Posts: 376 Member
    I haven't really had any luck with losing weight while breastfeeding my 6 month old son. I actually have gained weight. My guess is I am just not eating the right stuff or snacking too much while he is eating. I am now just trying to eat as best as I can while trying to add a little bit of exercise to start working on slowly shedding the 50 pounds I want to lose which is mainly weight from my first pregnancy and that child is going to be 10 later this year.
  • Rocketgirlie
    Rocketgirlie Posts: 3 Member
    This may not be helpful at all but when I was nursing my kids, I just followed the lead of my body. When I was hungry, I ate. I didn't even necessarily eat healthy but the pounds just fell off with the extra 500 calories/day burned by my body making milk. In the beginning when they nursed frequently, I felt so hungry all the time and just figured that was my body's way of telling me I needed nourishment. So I ate and drank a lot of water and within 4 months of my first child, I was back to pre-pregnancy weight and with my second, it only took 2 weeks. Good luck to you!
  • Kst76
    Kst76 Posts: 935 Member
    So, my daughter is almost 4 month old. Breastfeeding hasn't done anything for my weight. Not until I started to log my foods and excising did I start losing weight. And my baby eats ALL THE TIME. lol
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,178 Member
    Needing more calories to breastfeed is a myth. If you eat like you normally would, you will have a good supply and lose weight. If you do not want to lose weight, then you need to eat about 300 calories more for your baby's age, around 500 when the baby is closer to a year, if you are still nursing on demand. Even creating a reasonable deficit of 10-15% or so will not affect your supply, as long as you do not decide on some very unbalanced diet. Just do not literally starve yourself.
  • tippett610
    tippett610 Posts: 67 Member
    My twin girls are 14 weeks now. I have gained weigh while breastfeeding and I'm trying to figure out how to produce more milk so I have enough to exclusively bf...
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    How do you put in the food diary that you are breastfeeding?

    Type in breastfeeding in the food diary, it will come up with a list of options.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Needing more calories to breastfeed is a myth. If you eat like you normally would, you will have a good supply and lose weight. If you do not want to lose weight, then you need to eat about 300 calories more for your baby's age, around 500 when the baby is closer to a year, if you are still nursing on demand. Even creating a reasonable deficit of 10-15% or so will not affect your supply, as long as you do not decide on some very unbalanced diet. Just do not literally starve yourself.

    Your first sentence says needing more calories is a myth. Your third sentence says to eat more than you need if you do not want to lose weight. :huh:
  • erellube09
    erellube09 Posts: 16 Member
    I am breastfeeding my 6 month old and I add 500 calories to my food diary by searching breastfeeding. As long as I eat all my calories for the day (1700) and drink lots of water, my milk supply is fine! I have lost about 20lbs so far with counting cals and exercise.

    ETA: My calories are so low because I am 4'10. I have my weight loss goal set to .5lbs a week.
  • _KitKat_
    _KitKat_ Posts: 1,066 Member
    From what I remember just eating at maintenance with a well balanced diet should be right, the breast feeding will create the deficient your body needs to return to normal weight. I breast fed both of my girls and just ate normal, I returned to pre-pregnancy weight within 6 months.

    Maintenance of your normal body weight and this applies more for if the weight you gained was the average amount.

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