Anyone on here breastfeeding and trying to lose weight??

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lstauffer12
lstauffer12 Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm trying to figure out the right amount of calories to be consuming while breastfeeding and trying to lose weight. Anyone else on here doing the same? I'd love to know what you're doing and how it's working out for you

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  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Hello there. I am not breastfeeding now but I did when my daughter was a baby. If you go to your food diary and search "breastfeeding" you'll find several -500 calorie entries for exclusive bfers and then other entries for non-exclusive or older children. These entries will up your calories to account for energy burned while breastfeeding.
  • determined_14
    determined_14 Posts: 258 Member
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    I'm EBF an almost-3-month-old baby and have been logging and working out again the last couple weeks.
    I tried adding a food entry that would add calories to my allotment, as mentioned above, but it didn't seem to work on my phone. Maybe you would have better luck. I created a cardio exercise for breastfeeding and enter 500 calories for it every day.
    I set my deficit to 250 cals a day because I didn't want to do too much at once and hurt my milk supply. So far no issues and I have been losing weight faster than a half pound a week, though that might even out over time.
  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
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    I'm still breastfeeding my 1 year old and I'm in maintenance now. But I started trying to lose weight when he was 1 month old and I've lost 87 lbs since then. I started out by consuming 500 extra calories a day and gradually dropped as he started nursing less. There are options in the food data base for breastfeeding calories that give you extra calories to your day. Like the above person mentioned I had trouble getting it to work on my phone but it worked on my computer fine. I think I was eating over 2000 calories a day and losing weight quickly.

    It'll be really important for you to weigh your food to make sure you're consuming an appropriate amount. Also eat enough protein!! I started having a lot of issues early on related to not getting enough protein
  • LLT38
    LLT38 Posts: 172 Member
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    I'm breastfeeding my 1 year old and still losing weight. I started using MFP when my daughter was 7 months old and added 300 calories for breastfeeding. My goal is to lose 1 lb per week and I've lost 32 lbs since then. Now that she is 1, I add 150 calories a day for breastfeeding. I eat around 2000 calories a day, sometimes more. I also agree about getting enough protein to feel satisfied or breastfeeding can make you feel very hungry.
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
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    I'm breastfeeding my 15 month old. I do not account for extra calories at this time because he's only nursing 2-3 times a day. Last fall is when I started cutting calories. I was losing eating 2200 calories or more a day with no impact to milk supply. A good way to start is to just set your calories to maintenance. You should make enough milk still while getting all of your deficit from nursing. Eat back at least half of your exercise calories. If not losing and milk is okay, drop by 100 calories for a week. Reassess milk supply & weight loss. You want to find the right calorie level where milk isn't impacted but you are still losing. It might be that you can't lose as aggressively as you like (some women will just lose their supply if they have more than a tiny deficit), or the weight may fly off with no impact to supply. Each woman is different--find what works for you :).
  • lstauffer12
    lstauffer12 Posts: 12 Member
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    You women are great! Right now I'm eating 1800 calories a day for the last 5 days. I think I average about 30-35oz of milk a day as I exclusively pump. So that comes to about 600-700 calories burned from pumping. My milk supply seems to be ok so far, I'm hoping it continues to stay that way because I've already lost 3 pounds.

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