Using this app while nursing

roxiesroyaltreatment
roxiesroyaltreatment Posts: 1 Member
edited November 24 in Getting Started
i am new to this app I was just wondering if there was a way to calculate in calories for nursing

Replies

  • ladyzakis
    ladyzakis Posts: 14 Member
    I have set my activity levels on mfp to sedentary, and i use a step counter app on my phone. At the end of each day I add half the calories the app says I've burnt as exercise on here. I can walk 7 miles on a long shift which equates to around 400 cals. I know I probably burn more than that with all the physical work but that's the best you'll get short of wearing a heart rate monitor all day
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    roxiesroyaltreatment wrote: »
    i am new to this app I was just wondering if there was a way to calculate in calories for nursing

    Do you mean nursing as in providing health care (as ladyzakis interpreted it), or do you mean you are breastfeeding a child, which is what I thought you meant?
  • jessiefrancine
    jessiefrancine Posts: 271 Member
    If you are referring to breastfeeding, you might be able to estimate calories if you have an idea of how much milk you are producing. This source estimates that you burn about 26 calories for each ounce of breastmilk you produce, so if you are pumping you will know how much energy your body is using to make your day's output of milk. You could simply enter that as a quick entry of calories. If the baby feeds directly from the breast it will be more complicated to estimate, but perhaps you can take a guess if you know about how many ounces baby consumes at each feeding (if you feed pumped milk from a bottle at daycare, for example).
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited October 2015
    I'm going to assume the latter nursing.

    I'll pass on suggestion I heard from 2 mothers, and has been applied by at 3 others with great success.

    Normally you'd have to account for nursing calories, and then trying to get rest of it right and deficit, ect.

    Instead, set your MFP profile to Lightly Active (you have a kid now, you aren't sedentary) and weight loss to Maintain.

    Do NOT account for nursing - it now creates the deficit for fat loss. Normally estimated to be about 500 daily but with great variance - and then handles it automatically.

    Bigger deficit at the start right now, as nursing becomes less and less, less deficit, as you have less to lose - which is exactly the way it should be.

    Just remember to log your exercise calories, if walking/running or something with specific speed mentioned - it's accurate. If vague (slow or fast) or no intensity mentioned, perhaps machine will give better calorie burn if it knows weight, or only log about 1/2 what is given by default. Lifting should be logged as Strength Training or Circuit Training or Calisthenics depending on what you do.

    Do NOT log increased daily chores, they are accounted for under Lightly Active.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    If nursing as in health care - set Activity level to Active if a moving type nurse, Lightly Active if standing decent amount of the time.

    Follow the program as designed.
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