Breastfeeding Moms

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AngelaAlario
AngelaAlario Posts: 46 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What are your calorie goals in order to maintain your supply while still losing weight? What is your weight and your baby's age?

I've heard that 1800 is the magic number while breastfeeding so you don't lose your supply. MFP has my calorie goals calculated around 1300 so I increased it to 1600 and so far (3 days) my supply has been fine. I doubt I'll let myself go below 1500 at any point until I'm done nursing.

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  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
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    I don't know if there's a magic number. It depends on your size, your baby's age, your activity level, etc.

    MFP has me at 1290 a day. I have a 6.5 month old that I'm nursing full time but he did just start solid food so be on the safe side I decreased from 500 extra calories a day to 300 extra a day. I am fairly active so I eat back half of my exercise calories as well. Or all of them if I'm just extra hungry that day, lol. I've been at this for 5.5 months, lost 51 pounds, and have not had trouble with my supply.
  • AngelaAlario
    AngelaAlario Posts: 46 Member
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    victoria_1024 wrote: »
    I don't know if there's a magic number. It depends on your size, your baby's age, your activity level, etc.

    MFP has me at 1290 a day. I have a 6.5 month old that I'm nursing full time but he did just start solid food so be on the safe side I decreased from 500 extra calories a day to 300 extra a day. I am fairly active so I eat back half of my exercise calories as well. Or all of them if I'm just extra hungry that day, lol. I've been at this for 5.5 months, lost 51 pounds, and have not had trouble with my supply.

    Congratulations that is awesome! Great idea with eating back only 1/2 of your exercise calories. I was going to completely ignore any calories burned while exercising, but darn it, I've earned them and 1/2 sounds reasonable (sometimes I really doubt the # of calories it calculates as have being burned)
  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
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    My biggest motivation to work out is the extra calories, lol. I don't have a heart rate monitor so I eat back half to make sure I'm not eating more than I actually burned.
  • Homemaker57
    Homemaker57 Posts: 106 Member
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    I'm 5'7, large frame, currently 193lbs. I just started logging about a week ago. I set my goal to lose 1lb per week, I log nursing as 500 exercise calories, and I eat back all of any other exercise calories. I put my activity level as sedentary and I wear a Vivofit and if it adjusts my calories because I walked a lot, I eat those back too. So far I've lose about two pounds doing this.

    I'm carrying a lot of fat so that makes weight loss easier, but even so I was very pleased to see results. I thought 500 calories for nursing might be too much, or maybe I shouldn't eat back all my exercise calories. But it's working just fine. Key points include weighing everything on a digital scale, logging everything, and wearing a chest strap heart rate monitor to calculate exercise calories.
  • Vanyahiril
    Vanyahiril Posts: 89 Member
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    Homemaker57 wrote: »
    I'm 5'7, large frame, currently 193lbs. I just started logging about a week ago. I set my goal to lose 1lb per week, I log nursing as 500 exercise calories, and I eat back all of any other exercise calories. I put my activity level as sedentary and I wear a Vivofit and if it adjusts my calories because I walked a lot, I eat those back too. So far I've lose about two pounds doing this.

    There is an option for breastfeeding, under the food log, if you'd rather keep your excersizing & breastfeeding separate.
  • WinterSkies
    WinterSkies Posts: 940 Member
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    I'm nursing my 10 month old. She eats a lot of solids, but still nurses 4 times per day, so I'm eating an extra 300 calories per day to account for it. It seems to be working really well for me so far. MFP put me at 1500/day to lose 1.5lb/week, so with the extra 300, I'm eating about 1800/day. No supply issues that I've noticed, and I've been at this for a month, and have lost 8lb so far, going from 200 to 192. I am 5'6".
  • Homemaker57
    Homemaker57 Posts: 106 Member
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    Vanyahiril wrote: »
    Homemaker57 wrote: »
    I'm 5'7, large frame, currently 193lbs. I just started logging about a week ago. I set my goal to lose 1lb per week, I log nursing as 500 exercise calories, and I eat back all of any other exercise calories. I put my activity level as sedentary and I wear a Vivofit and if it adjusts my calories because I walked a lot, I eat those back too. So far I've lose about two pounds doing this.

    There is an option for breastfeeding, under the food log, if you'd rather keep your excersizing & breastfeeding separate.

    Thanks! I know I can do it that way but I like to keep it as calories being burned instead of negative calories coming in. Makes more sense to me :)
  • AngelaAlario
    AngelaAlario Posts: 46 Member
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    Vanyahiril wrote: »
    Homemaker57 wrote: »
    I'm 5'7, large frame, currently 193lbs. I just started logging about a week ago. I set my goal to lose 1lb per week, I log nursing as 500 exercise calories, and I eat back all of any other exercise calories. I put my activity level as sedentary and I wear a Vivofit and if it adjusts my calories because I walked a lot, I eat those back too. So far I've lose about two pounds doing this.

    There is an option for breastfeeding, under the food log, if you'd rather keep your excersizing & breastfeeding separate.

    I didn't know that! Great tip.
  • Kaylee_law_123
    Kaylee_law_123 Posts: 450 Member
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    I'm so glad I've found this ... I was so confused as well. my little man is 7 months now and I have always mixed fed him due to supply issues, I've tried to stick at between 1200 to 1400 calories and that seems to be fine for him, but I've not lost much so far so I thought maybe I was eating too much ... or maybe not quite enough .... ahhhh it's so hard!
  • Elle_Bronwyn15
    Elle_Bronwyn15 Posts: 296 Member
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    I think 1600 plus would be good. I was breastfeeding but as soon as I cut to 1300 cal I started having problems. I've been snacking more and taking some herbs approved by my obgyn and it's helped a little bit.
  • wendalin4
    wendalin4 Posts: 57 Member
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    Is the 500 calories for breastfeeding when its exclusive? I'm so worried about my supply tanking. My lil guy will be 1 on Thursday and we aren't ready to stop BF yet. He still nurses 2-3 a day and i pump twice. Just curious if maybe i should only count maybe 1/2 of the calories allotted since he doesn't nurse as frequently anymore. Thoughts?
  • mommiee3
    mommiee3 Posts: 3 Member
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    I'm so glad I found this post. My little girl is 8 weeks. I'm not sure how much calories I'm supposed to be eating while breastfeeding cause I don't want my supply to tank. Also how can I log breStfeeding calories in ??
  • eshnna
    eshnna Posts: 109 Member
    edited July 2015
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    Hi there! losing my supply stopped me from limiting my calorie intake! I waited until my daughter turned a year and started drinking regular milk. We still have two nursing sessions though.

    I am 5'2.5 and most days I eat around 1550 calories (I am however "active" and log 12k steps daily). If I want to eat more, I throw in a Zumba workout. It has been working great for me and I can still nurse my daughter. I have lost the pounds "slowly" but I rather do it this way than lose my supply.

    Also, I don't log my nursing because we only do it twice a day.
  • Buppybup
    Buppybup Posts: 25 Member
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    I'm so glad I found this!!! Please add me as a friend fellow moms! I'm so worried about losing my supply!

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