should i even log this?

Options
Belle_Fille
Belle_Fille Posts: 469
in Health and Weight Loss
im nursing my 13 month old. he nurses for 1-2 hours first thing in the morning, then randomly throughout the day. they say you can burn 300-600 calories from breastfeeding but im not sure if that applies to nursing older babies as well.
I have my daily calories set 300 high (my daily goal is 1800), and i log breastfeeding everyday (i claim that it burned 300cals).

im just starting to wonder if i should? is he too old to be burning 300 calories? hes not ready to wean yet, and im not going to encourage him to either. so i wont lower my daily calories as i want to keep up my milk supply for him. im just debating on whether to claim that i burned those 300 or not?

I had like 600 and something calories left for the day (after eating all my meals) before i did wii fit and logged the breastfeeding. now i have 1000 and something that i "need" to eat. clearly i cant eat that many calories back tonight. i guess im just worried because it seems like i always have so many calories left over and i worry that adding in 300 is making things inaccurate or something.

Replies

  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
    Options
    Your daily goal sounds right to me. If you already have your goal set high to accommodate the nursing, you don't need to log it then on top of that because it's already accounted for in your calorie goal.
  • Belle_Fille
    Belle_Fille Posts: 469
    Options
    Your daily goal sounds right to me. If you already have your goal set high to accommodate the nursing, you don't need to log it then on top of that because it's already accounted for in your calorie goal.
    i log it because i have it set high so ill eat the calories that i end up burning from him
  • SaraTonin
    SaraTonin Posts: 551 Member
    Options
    Agreed, if you already added 300 onto your daily goal then you don't need to log the breastfeeding.
  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
    Options
    But basically what you're doing is counting it twice. You have it set 300 high so you have those calories to nurse, and then you count it again. So you're basically giving yourself 600 calories to nurse. You see what I mean? If you didn't set your calorie goal high to account for it, then yes, you would log it. But since you did set your goal higher, it's already included and you're already eating those calories.

    If you weren't nursing, what would your calorie goal be set to? If you would have it set to 1600 WITHOUT nursing, then yes, you need to log it. If you would set it lower, then you don't need to log it because you've already included it.
  • Belle_Fille
    Belle_Fille Posts: 469
    Options
    But basically what you're doing is counting it twice. You have it set 300 high so you have those calories to nurse, and then you count it again. So you're basically giving yourself 600 calories to nurse. You see what I mean? If you didn't set your calorie goal high to account for it, then yes, you would log it. But since you did set your goal higher, it's already included and you're already eating those calories.

    ok that makes sense now. kinda one of those DUH things...
    lol thanks
  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
    Options
    :) No problem.
  • lesliemk
    lesliemk Posts: 382 Member
    Options
    I went in and did the custom setting and just upped my calories to 1900 per day for nursing a 7m old full-time. I calculated that I should be about 1400 cals/day, so I just tacked on an extra 500 cals for full time nursing to come up with the 1900. I set it up that way, b/c honestly it just seemed easier than remembering to log in breastfeeding calories each day. 1800-2200 is the minimum requirement for a full-time nursing mama.

    Now with a baby that's 12+ months who is eating quite a bit of table food... I think adding in 200-300 cals per day is a great number especially if he is still nursing that much during the day. Just watch what you're doing... if you stop losing play with your calories a bit. Good luck!!
  • AngiePantz
    AngiePantz Posts: 4
    Options
    I'm nursing but i wasn't adding this in...how do you do this?
  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
    Options
    I'm nursing but i wasn't adding this in...how do you do this?

    You can either manually increase your calorie goals (My Home>Goals>Custom) to reflect how many calories you're using nursing (200-500 depending on how much you're nursing), or you can add it into your food diary by searching "breastfeeding" and it'll add calories to your goal for the day.

Categories