To the breastfeeding moms!

heatherisadork wrote: »

Hey, I'm just starting out again after having my baby 4 months ago. I am breastfeeding and I think he eats around 30oz a day.

I'm just wondering if I should count the Calories burned from breast-feeding?

Yes!! At 30 oz that is roughly 400 calories. There was a time I pumped and that's the extra I gave myself and still lost weight

Congratulations on the baby! There are two ways I am aware of...you can either enter the your breastfeeding time under exercise and it will give you the equivalent of calories burned or you can enter it through the dairy as food (the option I use often ) when you search through this option it will give you numerous choices such as breastfeeding infant, toddler, newborn, etc. Hope this helps, good luck!

Well, there are two ways to go about this.

I did what above poster mentioned - I set MFP to a 1.5lb/week loss, then used the food diary to add calories back in. I used 500/day when my daughter was nursing exclusively, bumped it back to 300 when she started solids, dropped it to 200 as she dropped to nursing twice per day, and now I don't account for it at all, as she only nurses a few minutes in the morning (almost 15 months old).

Alternatively, you could set MFP at maintenance, and see how much you lose per week. That will give you some idea of how many calories are going to feeding your baby (if you eat your exercise calories back). It's probably the simpler option to start, but I did like "gaining" extra calories to eat every day when I added the negative calories for breastfeeding into my food diary

I'm on 1300 calories a day, plus 500 for breastfeeding, so I'm eating 1800 cal. In the 8 weeks since bub has been born I've lost 10kg (20ish pounds) , and my milk supply is still in oversupply. I think as long as you make sure your net calories are above 1300/1400 you should still be losing at the maximum safe rate while securing your supply.

You should eat, at minimum 1800 calories when you're breastfeeding. Any lower and your supply will most likely suffer. So yes, you should account for your breast-feeding in your calories, absolutely.

Helpful info you've all given about tracking, as I am nursing, as well. For your calculation purposes, I wanted to add in that the amount you pump is not necessarily indicative of the amount you produce or what your baby is eating. You are likely burning more calories when he nurses, because babies are more efficient than the pump. I hope that helps when it comes to estimating.

The best thing to do is watch your supply. Many people will have a supply drop if they cut calories. That can be good or bad, depending on where your supply is at now. Many women also cannot lose those last few pounds until they stop nursing, as your body is pretty good at making sure you have enough fat to feed baby in an emergency.