Breastfeeding and calories

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loxoli
loxoli Posts: 10 Member
in Getting Started
I'm breastfeeding my 5 month old baby. I tried calorie tracking a few months ago, but my milk supply started to dwindle and I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong, so I stopped tracking.

I'm trying again but I'm not sure if I've got it right. So I have a calorie goal of 1490 (automatically generated), then in the exercise part I put in 520 calories for breastfeeding and I usually do about 100-300 calories from exercise a day. So I'm eating around 2100-2300 calories. How does this sound? It sounds like a lot to me.

Any input would be appreciated, and I would love to add some friends who are on a similar journey. Also, I would love to be adopted!

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  • brilliantwords
    brilliantwords Posts: 97 Member
    edited June 2015
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    I'm not sure what to tell you as far as exact amount your body needs, but I have always read never to go below 1800 while breastfeeding. Usually at LEAST 1800 is recommended. I have an almost 3 month old and now that my supply is established, I recently set my goal to 1800 net.. so I do eat back my exercise calories in addition to that. If I find it causes a dip in supply, I'll slowly increase it to find a good balance.

    2100-2300 really does not seem bad at all considering 1800 is supposed to be the minimum. Some women may need a lot more than that to keep milk supply up though! I'd give that goal a try and see if you lose weight after a few weeks. If you find you aren't losing weight, I'd suggest very gradually cutting back until you find the balance where you're seeing a slow but steady weight loss without any negative affect on your supply!

    Good luck!
  • loxoli
    loxoli Posts: 10 Member
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    Thanks Brilliantwords, that's really helpful! I guess it's a matter of trial and error.
  • leleti01
    leleti01 Posts: 24 Member
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    I am breastfeeding too but I waited to diet (calorie count) until my son was 19 months. When I was super anxious about my weight (when he was 9 months old), I noticed that my milk supply dropped considerably. I gave up and concentrated on nourishing and feeding my son. I would wait till he/she starts solids.
  • Aguilar910
    Aguilar910 Posts: 4 Member
    edited June 2015
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    How do you adjust your calories on here so it knows your breastfeeding? My calorie intake is 1200 that's not gonna happen while breastfeeding AND working out haha please help!
  • brilliantwords
    brilliantwords Posts: 97 Member
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    There's an option when you're logging exercise for breastfeeding. No, it's not exercise, but what it does is shows that you that you have an additional 500 left for the day in your diary. OR instead, you can also customize your calorie goal to any amount that you want when you go to "Goals -> Change Goals -> Custom". I just manually set mine to 1800, as this is the recommended minimum for breastfeeding, then log my exercise as normal, and eat those back so I'm getting a NET intake of 1800. I just dont log breastfeeding since I already customized my calorie goal to account for that.

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