Calorie intake whilst breastfeeding

lilmiss_sunshine29
lilmiss_sunshine29 Posts: 136 Member
in Getting Started
Hi
I'm not new to MFP, just been off for some months.. I am wondering whether or not I set my goals to same intake as I was prior to breastfeeding? Is there a different way to calculate the intake allowance? My exercise goal remains the same.

Replies

  • getsuna
    getsuna Posts: 5 Member
    Same here. Would appreciate some help!

  • ragenhay1
    ragenhay1 Posts: 158 Member
    No you need around 500 more calories when breastfeeding. Everyone is different but in general you need between 1800 and 2500 calories. Most women will need to be at the higher end until baby starts solids. It really depends on how often baby eats, your size, baby's age. I have a 4.5 month old and I am at 1800/day plus eat back my exercise calories. You should wait until baby is at least 2months old before cutting calories until then just track what you eat to get into the habit and learn what your current intake is. When you do start cutting do it slowly and keep an eye on your supply. If you cut too much or too quickly it can affect your supply. I learned that the hard way but caught the dip in supply right away.
  • lilmiss_sunshine29
    lilmiss_sunshine29 Posts: 136 Member
    Thank you very much. That's very helpful. I have been told that breastfeeding burns about 500cals a day. Baby is nearly a month old. I'm planning to get back into walking incorporated with watching my food choices.
  • Kyrenora
    Kyrenora Posts: 133 Member
    I'm primarily pumping rather than nursing. I have supply issues, so it makes it easier to see that my daughter is actually getting enough. My research turned up that you "burn" roughly 20 calories per ounce, so that's made it very easy for me to calculate.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    there's a 300 calorie negative food item in the database to log for breastfeeding I believe
  • FitShannonNicole
    FitShannonNicole Posts: 6 Member
    I add in breastfeeding as exercise, so it subtracts 395 calories that way.
  • score45609
    score45609 Posts: 36 Member
    You need about 400 additional calories a day to just off set the breastfeeding
  • lilmiss_sunshine29
    lilmiss_sunshine29 Posts: 136 Member
    Thank you for the feedback.
  • mandyrene21
    mandyrene21 Posts: 215 Member
    I required about 750 extra calories while breastfeeding...my daughter nursed a lot lol. I still lost weight, actually dropped lower than pre-pregnancy within a couple months with no exercise.

    I'd play around with it and see how you feel. I was way more hungry then than when I was pregnant!
  • mojisha
    mojisha Posts: 36 Member
    When my girl was bf on demand I manually set my calories to 1850 and then ate back my exercise calories. I lost all my pregnancy weight this way though the mfp calculator didn't understand. I'm still bf at 2.5 yrs but now I don't really get a calorie deficit anymore and have had to lower my calories.

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