breastfeeding and losing weight

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shedit2
shedit2 Posts: 1 Member
in Introduce Yourself
hi there,
looking for others who are in the same situation.....how many calories are you entering for breastfeeding.....I have a 5 mo. old and am down to nursing him 1/2 of the time......worried about losing too much and it affecting that, but also reallllllyyyyy wanna lose some weight to fit into old clothes:)

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  • stargazer008
    stargazer008 Posts: 531
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    Many women lose a lot of weight just breast feeding, it burns many calories. So I would say to maintain your weight and you'll see the pounds drop.
  • kensky
    kensky Posts: 472 Member
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    At this stage of the game, I wouldn't worry so much about adjusting numbers. As you gradually add more table food to his diet this will cause the amount of energy you burn breastfeeding to taper off on its own.

    I didn't MFP when I was nursing my littles (into toddlerhood and finally weaning at 3+ years) but I remember many of the moms in my social circle losing various amounts of weight. Some women couldn't keep weight on until their toddlers were completely totally weaned, and others had the opposite happen: their bodies hung on to the last few lbs. of baby weight until their munchkins were done nursing.
  • young1726
    young1726 Posts: 347 Member
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    I have a 9 month old and am still counting 500 cals burned from feeding her. A lot of women drop down to about 300 when they start feeding less. Do you have an estimate on how many oz you're feeding? I've heard you burn about 25 cals per oz. You can acct for it in a couple different ways. You can add it to your food diary - search for breastfeeding mom. You can enter it as an exercise - I think you might have to create it as a personal exercise. Or you can manually adjust your daily calorie allowance to 300-500 cals more than this site sets up for you. I've lost 55 pounds since my baby was born by using this site. Follow the suggestions of this site and you will lose weight. You may see an affect on your supply if you're drastically changing your calorie intake, but it will only last a handful of days until your body adjusts. Drink LOTS of water. I drink about a gallon per day. Eat all your exercise calories. My baseline is 1200 cals and "they" say don't eat less than 1200 so I actually target going over by anywhere from 1-100 cals on a daily basis. Slow and steady wins the race. I've been losing anywhere from 0.2-2 lbs per week. Train yourself to be happy with ANY loss! :) You can do it!!
  • JennieMaeK
    JennieMaeK Posts: 474 Member
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    Train yourself to be happy with ANY loss! :) You can do it!!

    I think that's great advice for anyone!

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