Breast feeding and weight loss?

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HeidiJoLHB
HeidiJoLHB Posts: 88 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a 2 month old daughter, I want to start losing weight but am also building my milk supply. Has anyone lost weight while breast feeding? And if so, did it affect your milk supply at all, either positively or negatively?

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  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
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    You do not need extra calories to build your supply. Breastfeeding burns 300-500 calories per day, and you do not need to eat these extra calories to produce milk. Do not go on a starvation diet with restricting calories too much. Eating as you would pre-baby to maintain your weight, is enough to lose weight at a healthy pace while breastfeeding. So, if normally your maintenance calories were e.g. 1800, eating these will make sure you both lose weight and not affect your supply or your health.
  • gigigee
    gigigee Posts: 26 Member
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    I don't know about your first reply -- I am BFing and am starving all the time. I can't imagine only eating the same amount of calories as before. I eat a LOT more, but still am slowly losing weight. I think it is a result of both BF and exercise (I try to do a little every day. Prob 30 min/day. With time, I'd like to increase to an hour, but I have a newborn! lol). I'd probably do better to only increase my intake by ~300 cal/day, but I am sure I eat at least 500-600 cal/day extra.
    What about others??
  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
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    Um you need extra calories when BFing. I have MFP set to lose 1 pound per week. Then I eat 500 extra calories a day for BFing my 8 week old. And I also eat back half of my exercise calories. I am eating around 2100 calories a day. I'm losing way faster than anticipated so far, it'll be 4 weeks on Sunday since I started using MFP again and I"ve lost 12 pounds. I would prefer not to be losing so quickly because of my milk supply, but so far it seems to be fine. But you really do need those extra calories.
  • amandastock
    amandastock Posts: 53 Member
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    I have a 3 month old. I'm 5' 7" and 158. Supply has been fine with calories at 1700. I usually eat 2000 and exercise 200-300 off. Although some days if truly hungry I'll eat more. I have found its hard to eat only 1700 because of hunger so exercise is key for me. I have lost weight and no supply issues. About a pound a week. I was logging calories burned BFing at first but stopped and just log exercise now.

    I read about it before starting and found moderate exercise does not decrease supply, slight calorie restriction is ok but don't go crazy for long periods of time and make sure you get the nutrients your body requires so you don't do long term damage to your body.

    I recommend ITFYM calculator to find out where you should be eating at.
  • Laviegurl25
    Laviegurl25 Posts: 121 Member
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    I just finished breast feeding and my appetite is finally back to normal. I couldn't lose any weight no matter how hard I tried.
    My body stored the fat instead of burning it. It sucked big time. But ya do what the above has said. I found my best answers researching on google
  • CoconutLucy
    CoconutLucy Posts: 14 Member
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    As long as you feed your baby on demand your body will keep producing milk no matter how many calories you eat. It definitely helps to burn those extra calories by breastfeeding but I don't think you have to eat extra. I am nursing my 4 month old and eat anywhere between 1200-1600 calories depending on the day. I don't feel hungry, have lost all the baby weight and baby is nursing great (have a cute chubby baby to prove it!)

    Listen to your body. Everyone woman is different. This works for me but it may not for you.
  • HeidiJoLHB
    HeidiJoLHB Posts: 88 Member
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    Thank you all for your replies. They were all very helpful, and I'm sure my body will just basically crave or do what it needs like most of you are kind of saying.

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