Breastfeeding, caloric intake and my macros

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speckles99
speckles99 Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Just wondering if anyone here has experience using myfitnesspal while breastfeeding. I know I'm supposed to have roughly 500 extra calories a day because I'm breastfeeding, but how can I incorporate that into the program? Does anyone know how this would impact my macros? Thanks!

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  • anewday23
    anewday23 Posts: 16 Member
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    It is so variable. Do you exclusively breastfeed? How much does your baby eat/weigh? I'm breastfeeding too, but I don't log it. If you are indeed burning up 500 extra calories a day (awesome) then you could set it for maintenance and lose a pound a week or set it for a pound a week and lose two. I urge you to see what your body is doing.
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
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    Keep carbs on low side....120 grams a day. Moderate proteins and hlthy fats (kerrygold butter, olive oil, MCT oil).
  • speckles99
    speckles99 Posts: 10 Member
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    I mainly breastfeed, but also pump. Thus he sometimes gets expressed breast milk, but also sometimes gets formula (it varies from day to day). He weighs 11lb 5oz as of yesterday, and I swear sometimes all he wants to do is eat. I thought that if you were breastfeeding, you were supposed to take in more calories a day to help make sure you and babe were getting enough...but I very well could be wrong.
  • rtp_slg52181
    rtp_slg52181 Posts: 73 Member
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    I believe there is a diary entry for breastfeeding that adds negative cals
  • janjunie
    janjunie Posts: 1,200 Member
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    speckles99 wrote: »
    . I thought that if you were breastfeeding, you were supposed to take in more calories a day to help make sure you and babe were getting enough...but I very well could be wrong.

    No, you are right!

    For me When my baby was really little and I was trying to lose weight i set my goal to lose .5 lb/ week and added 500 calories to that by entering breastfeeding as a cardio exercise. This will increase how many fats, protein and carbs you should eat. I successfully lost the baby weight doing this and am now maintaining.

    Baby is 12 months now so I still add 300-400 cal to my daily goal and so far this has worked fine for me.

    Since you are supplementing with formula you might not want to add 500 calories, maybe start with a little less and adjust as needed.
  • JaiDessaT
    JaiDessaT Posts: 74 Member
    edited October 2015
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    Generally speaking, 1800 calories is the recommendation regarding exclusive breastfeeding. If you go too far below that, you run the risk of slashing your milk supply. So you are likely burning 300 - 500 calories each day just nursing. So exercise with an aim to burn 250 calories and you should easily lose 1.5 lbs each week. Good luck :smile:
  • ajones421
    ajones421 Posts: 7 Member
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    I'm a breastfeeding momma as well. Could use the encouragement all of yall's wisdom!! LoL please add me!
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    rtp_slg52181 wrote: »
    I believe there is a diary entry for breastfeeding that adds negative cals

    There is but it doesn't work on some versions. It works on the web version but not on my iPhone app. I contacted MFP and was told it was accidently removed as a feature but hasn't returned.

    OP - you can try using the negative calorie feature if it works on whatever version you use. If not, I set my goal to maintain and let my breastfeeding create the deficit. So around 500 would put you at a 1lb a week lose. Later, when we introduced solids, I changed my goal to a half a pound a week, so -250, plus breast feeding kept me around 1 lb a week.
  • joverw50
    joverw50 Posts: 94 Member
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    I am currently breastfeeding my two month old and would love insight from other moms. I still have a good 25-30 lbs to loss to be back to pre-baby weight. Feel free to friend me. I don't want to over eat but I worry about the impact to milk supply as I've struggle to nurse past 8 months due to supply issues with my other children.
  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
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    If you are breastfeeding exclusively, I would add 500 extra calories a day. I used the negative food entry in the MFP database. I've used it from both my phone and computer so not sure why others have had problems? If you are supplementing at all with formula or feeding solid food, I would decrease to 300. I'm not sure how it will affect your macros... I do know that when I wasn't focused on getting enough protein, it really affected my body negatively. I don't know if that had to do with breastfeeding or not, but once I started eating more protein things improved.

    Personally I think eating back your breastfeeding calories is VERY important. Breastfeeding takes a big toll on your body and you need to nourish it. You can lose weight eating those extra calories, I assure you. But keep in mind you need to be accurate with your logging! I've lost 75 pounds while nursing my 10 month old. I ate 500 extra calories a day until he started solid food, then moved down to 300 extra a day. I also weigh my food and log everything, and eat back 50% of my (estimated) exercise calories. I didn't intend to lose weight so quickly (I have MFP set to lose 1 pound a week) but my milk supply has been fine and I was never hungry!
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
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    I have an 8.5 month old. I'm currently set to lose 1 lb/week and eat an additional 500 calories per day to account for breastfeeding. My baby is eating solids but hasn't dropped any nursing sessions yet--when he does, I'll reduce to 300 calories. Although I've basically plateaued for the last month it's due to not following my plan. Prior to that I was actually losing 3 lbs/week when set to lose 1...
  • notafatmommy
    notafatmommy Posts: 29 Member
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    I entered my calories amount and didn't let MFP do it for me. My little on is 13 weeks today. I added the 500 for EBF, but I don't eat my exercise calories back. Feel free to add me!
  • IdLikeToLoseItLoseIt
    IdLikeToLoseItLoseIt Posts: 695 Member
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    Are you ladies adding 500 to your TDEE or is the 500 from ebf being treated as the deficit, such that you're eating at your TDEE? (So if your TDEE is 2000, are you eating 2000 or 2500?)
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,952 Member
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    JaiDessaT wrote: »
    Generally speaking, 1800 calories is the recommendation regarding exclusive breastfeeding. If you go too far below that, you run the risk of slashing your milk supply. So you are likely burning 300 - 500 calories each day just nursing. So exercise with an aim to burn 250 calories and you should easily lose 1.5 lbs each week. Good luck :smile:

    1800 is the recommended minimum. You should try higher first.

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