BF mamas - do you believe in free negative 500 calories?

Nope. I'm sure its true for some peopple, but I believe your body is doing all it can to NOT lose weight when breast feeding, so if we were to experience a famine we would have some energy stored to be able to continue breast feeding.
I gained a lot of weight in the first year of breast feeding, and have really struggled to lose any in the second year. I'm just thankful I've stopped gaining.

I tried the "free" for a while and tried not counting it for a while. Eventually I just gave up and tried to eat healthy and stay active. Life as a momma is crazy enough without driving ourselves even crazier with stuff like this. My weight came off within about a year (EBF up til 6 months or so, after that mostly BF but she snacked, weaned at 18 months), but I'm still struggling to get rid of the body fat.

I think 500 is a bit generous. Maybe up to 300 in the first couple of months. I found that by about three months my body had adjusted and I could produce the milk without needing extra food. I kept to maintenance calories throughout but allowed myself to go over by up to 300 when I was super hungry (3-4 days a week, especially when bubs was six-ten weeks). I got down to pre pregnancy weight in two weeks and then dropped down another three kilos in the following four months.

I couldn't diet without it effecting my milk supply. I ate 2500 calories a day which is close to or above my current maintenance (but I'm more active now) and still had supply issues.

I was the other way around. It was crazy (all the milk)

I'm 7 wks PP. I don't add anything to my diary for breastfeeding. I have my calorie goal set to 1730 (0.5lb per week deficit) and well so far:


**Calories Out determined by Fitbit

what trendweight has to say:


***Honestly my weight dropping the way it is, is most likely from the fact that I ended my pregnancy with an Obese BMI and still have a lot of fat on my body.

Wouldn't it be more rational to suppose that your weight is dropping the way it is because your calorie deficit is much larger than you think it is, possibly because you're not accounting for the calories your body needs to provide milk for your baby? According to the data you've provided, you've lost over 10 lbs in 2 weeks at a deficit of only 600-odd calories a day (not including a calorie burn for BF), which should only account for a weight loss of about 2 1/3 lbs in 2 weeks.


Edited to fix math, b/c I couldn't see the exact figure in OP's post for calculated average daily deficit while I was typing.

Some woman don't lose weight until AFTER they stop breastfeeding. That may be the case with you.

I'm 7 wks PP. I don't add anything to my diary for breastfeeding. I have my calorie goal set to 1730 (0.5lb per week deficit) and well so far:


**Calories Out determined by Fitbit

what trendweight has to say:


***Honestly my weight dropping the way it is, is most likely from the fact that I ended my pregnancy with an Obese BMI and still have a lot of fat on my body.

Wouldn't it be more rational to suppose that your weight is dropping the way it is because your calorie deficit is much larger than you think it is, possibly because you're not accounting for the calories your body needs to provide milk for your baby? According to the data you've provided, you've lost over 10 lbs in 2 weeks at a deficit of only 600-odd calories a day (not including a calorie burn for BF), which should only account for a weight loss of about 2 1/3 lbs in 2 weeks.


Edited to fix math, b/c I couldn't see the exact figure in OP's post for calculated average daily deficit while I was typing.

I should have probably mentioned that 7/8 was an odd high weight day. My weight had been fluctuating between 192 - 194 from 2wks pp to about 6wks pp (when I started counting calories).
I'm not sure how much larger it could be. I don't exercise atm. I am constantly over my calories (yes I weigh with a scale and log everything that passes my lips). I'm getting less than 3000 steps a day on most days right now.

since I'm set at a 250 calorie deficit and if BF does burn an additional calories and using trendweights estimate of 661 calories more than I eat
661-250 = 411 calories or so burned from BF

I purposely didn't add calories for BF, so that I could try for a 750 (250 from diary + 500 BF) cal deficit. If it started causing issues with milk supply I would of course stop counting calories all together.

Oh and on 7/8 my weight was 195, so I haven't lost over 10lbs in 2 weeks. I'm at 187 now according to scale weight. The trend between fluctuations puts me at 189.9lbs and had me at 192.3 (trend not scale) on 7/8. The difference between the trend (or I guess average) is 2.4lbs.

Some woman don't lose weight until AFTER they stop breastfeeding. That may be the case with you.

This was me. I lost weight easily after my first baby because he was FF due to my serious supply problems. After my second baby I couldn't lose weight to save my life, and if my calories went too low, my supply suffered. (We EBF until adding solids around 5.5 months, and I weaned him at a year. Today he is 14 months old, and I've lost about 12 lbs since weaning.)

Eventually I realized I'd have to make a choice between losing weight and BFing. Believe me, I was miserable enough staying fat that I considered quitting BFing but eventually decided that it was best for both of us to continue BFing, plus it would have been a slap in the face to me during my first postpartum experience when I wanted to BF so badly but couldn't. I finally made peace with it and stopped killing myself trying to lose weight and decided to wait until we weaned.

Point being, it could be that BFing --> no/slow weight loss. For others it means awesome weight loss, but it's frustrating when you're not in that group and annoying people (like my MIL) comment on how you're not thin yet. (That's not exactly what my MIL said, but she wasn't exactly kind about it.)

So for some 500 may be right on, or it even might be too little of a deduction for some. It's about 20 calories/ounce.

The fact that you can eat 1300 calories and keep your supply up and lose weight is great and all, but are you getting appropriate nutrients eating that little? Volume is only one aspect of breast milk. (I'm sure everyone's different in that department, too, but 1300 seems like way too little, IMO.) If you intend to stick to 1300 calories, make those calories as nutritious as possible!

**Disclaimer: I've never breast fed, so this is my opinion with zero personal experience**

I would think that as long as you are meeting your nutritional needs and are not affecting your milk supply, I would go with a calorie limit that gives me a safe amount of weight loss every week. Maybe try to find a level that gives you 0.5 - 1 lbs a week. That way you're still losing, but less likely to affect your supply than a more extreme deficit that would get you 1 - 2 lbs.