breastfeeding calorie counting

When I dropped calories, my milk dropped baaaaaad. I would not go any lower. A lot of women plateau when they BF because the body likes a reserve of fat to ensure milk production. Then when they stop, the lose about 10 pounds without really trying. I stopped BF'ing last week and I've already lost 5 pounds.

For now, just enjoy giving your babe the best. Breastfeeding was the hardest thing I ever did, and I wanted to quit every day, but one I got to about 4 months, it was so easy and I loved it.

I'm breastfeeding a 14 month old so I log that I'm breastfeeding an older baby and add 200 calories a day and I'm still losing without any noticeable change to my supply. If you look up breastfeeding in the database you'll find a few different options and you can choose the one that is right for your current breastfeeding situation (usually 500 extra calories while breastfeeding a younger baby). Also, feel free to add me.

When I was breastfeeding my second child I lost weight quickly and easily. I didn't gain nearly as much with my third, but the weight would NOT come off. Like you, I blamed breastfeeding and thought it would "fall off" when I stopped. Really, I think the difference was that I made a big lifestyle change the first time I tried to lose weight, and I didn't have as much to change/eliminate the next time. Plus I'd been watching calories and cutting calories so long, I must have really slowed my metabolism down. I honestly don't think I was eating enough while breastfeeding, but I was scared to try to eat more. If I could do it all over, I'd look into the Eat More to Weigh Less group on here to work on getting my metabolism back up to speed while I had the breastfeeding benefit. To be honest, I'm still struggling to get the scale to move. Of course I don't know your dieting history, so maybe your story is completely different from mine.

That said - I'm so glad I stuck with breastfeeding. I felt that it was important for myself and my baby, and I'm glad I didn't let my desire to lose weight stand in the way of what I really wanted for my child.

Good luck! I hope the scale starts moving for you soon!

trust me weight loss is not the only reason I want to stop. Im exclusively pumping and just really tired of it at this point. It controls my life. As much as I want to give up I know I wont.

Try to hold out for a couple more months. You've either started solid foods or will be starting soon. I simply stopped pumping at 9 months and just fed after work and on weekends, transitioning to formula when I ran out of stored milk. I decided that formula was as healthy as the apple juice they were drinking too and they were still getting the benefits of nursing

At a year, they'll start drinking whole mile anyway, so even if you are nursing, the demand drops a lot. I'm with kgeyser, I haven't notice a big difference in weight loss after weaning.

Hats off to exclusively pumping. I HATED pumping - it's kind of the worst of both worlds - and I only did it at work. But you are doing so much good for both you and your baby. Kudos to you.

Where is the breastfeeding option on myfitnesspal?

I added a cardio exercise called "baby care."

Another woman simply set her calories at maintenance and let the breastfeeding be the deficit, which I thought was a brilliant idea.