Breastfeeding mommas

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ChampagneLaughter495
ChampagneLaughter495 Posts: 166 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've read that breastfeeding uses about 500 calories per day. Are you taking that into consideration when you update your food diaries? Or is there a way to add that into calories burned? Are you eating back thos calories or what's the deal?
For me breastfeeding makes me crave like I am pregnant all over again

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  • mathiseasy
    mathiseasy Posts: 165 Member
    edited January 2016
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    Cutting too many calories can lead to supply issues. I just weaned my 6 month old and cutting calories has certainly helped my supply decrease.
    You can manually add 500 calories onto your total in I think the goals section. That was easier for me to see than logging 500 calories burned every day.

    Eta: not nursing is causing the decrease of course, I just meant the calorie cut was helping ;)
  • jss1130
    jss1130 Posts: 5 Member
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    I have a 3 month old and am EBF. I created an exercise for breastfeeding that adds back the 500 to my daily cal goal. I want to lose, but not at the expense of my supply decreasing. This way I know when I'm eating too little. Also, without it, my max cals per day would leave me starving!! I am losing weight though, so I think I've found my magic number of cals to balance weight loss and maintaining supply.
  • owlcake
    owlcake Posts: 27 Member
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    I am in same boat, I have a 2 month old and ebf. So I'm so hungry all the time. I'm trying to figure out what should be my daily calorie to loose is, without going below 1800 so not to mess up milk supply. But I have 40 lbs to loose. :( How did you guys figure it out?
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
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    I have a 10.5 month old so I log 400 calories for nursing per day. I'm quite heavy so I'm typically eating 2200-3000 calories per day including exercise to lose 1 lb per week--I actually lose slightly more than that when I actually stick to my calorie goals.
  • krithsai
    krithsai Posts: 668 Member
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    Sorry to say, I did not lose weight while bfing. I just eventually accepted the fact that my body won't lose weight while nursing. I was constantly hungry and cutting any calories led to an immediate dip in supply. Nursing upto at least a year was more important to me at the time. Once I did wean, I was able to control my caloric intake and the weight has come off.
  • ragenhay1
    ragenhay1 Posts: 158 Member
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    I exclusively breastfeed my five month old son and have been on mfp since he was two months. I eat about 1800 calories a day and eat back most of my exercise calories. I occasionally go over of I'm extra hungry but usually stay within my weekly goal. I've lost 25lbs so far. I go to the gym Monday to Friday for an hour each day. My gym has a daycare and my oldest is in kindergarten so it works well for my schedule. Losing while nursing is possible you just have to be cautious when cutting calories. Cut slowly and keep a close eye on your supply of you notice a dip add some back. This calculator is helpful to get am idea of your individual needs http://www.freedieting.com/tools/breastfeeding_calorie_calculator.htm
  • FitGamerSmoak
    FitGamerSmoak Posts: 224 Member
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    There is actually "food" that is breasfeeding that negates 500 caloires. Personally I would wait until your supply i sfully established which can take a few months, then cut a few caloires but watch your suppolu like a hawk and increase if it takes a hit.

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