Breastfeeding: How did you determine how many calories for your diary?
suzievv
Posts: 410 Member
If you're breastfeeding, how did you determine how many calories to enter as your goal in your food diary? MFP is suggesting only 1400 or so without breastfeeding; I could add 500 breastfeeding calories as "exercise;" but I think 1900 is going to be way too low. I'm soooooo hungry!!! I'm worried about it being such a pain to figure out that I'll give up on the food diary.
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What do you have your rate of loss set at? It is suggested that breastfeeding mothers shoot for a loss of no more than one lb per week. More than that is not only likely to leave you starving, but will sap your energy levels as well. Essentially that means eating at maintenance and using those 500 calories burned from lactation to create the deficit. And 500 is average; some women will burn more, some less. How old is your baby? Lactation seems to burn the most calories when the child is between 3 and 6 months old (growth is rapid, but they haven't started solids yet, or are only eating very small amounts). You can also try eating more filing foods (foods high in fat and protein, but keep the carbs, especially sugar and starch, lower).2
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Personally, I set my activity level at Lightly Active instead of Sedentary because its a different of 300 cals, which is what I've always read is about what you need to make up for breastfeeding. My baby is already 2 though and we've been down to 3 or less times a day, and just recently maybe only once or twice, so I probably have to go in and change my settings....0
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To be honest, knowing how many cals you burn breastfeeding is really trial and error, so you may have to play around with numbers until you get it right.
I use the TDEE method (or pretty much what my Fitbit tells me on average) which is about 2500 cals, then I add breastfeeding which is about 500 cals, then I create my deficit, so for me it's about 2700 cals. However while I am losing weight, it is very slow. Probably because I am tracking really loosely (not weighing or measuring, not logging on weekends, etc).0 -
Thanks, Ladies! I think it's a great idea to just start with my maintenance calories. Then I can use trial and error from there.
tlflag-- to answer your question, Baby is just 12 days old!! I'm at the very very beginning here... and I've got a long way to go!1 -
When I went to my 6 wks postpartum visit a couple weeks ago, I asked my doctor about weightloss... She said to consume at least 1800 calories& if no weight loss happens take away 100 and so forth.. 1600 calories a day is the minimum amount u can intake however.. So, don't go below there.. Also the dr said at 1800 calories, tht the weight will definitely come off...2
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Savedprincess, thanks, that is helpful. Right now I have my diary set to about 2,100, which should be my maintenance calories, without figuring in breastfeeding. (So 2100 - 500 BF calories = 1600 net ??) I need to get into the habit of logging in order to see if that's a good amount. It's been tough to do that... when I'm taking care of the baby, trying to help her to go down for a nap, and she's crying, and the house is a mess, and the rest of my family is needing me constantly, it can get stressful, and logging every calorie into the food diary falls WAAAAY down low on the priority list, and then I start stuffing my face with mass quantities of chocolate that I don't want to log anyway. But it's getting there... things are starting to fall into place.... we're starting to get a routine, so I think there's hope that I can log calories at some point. One goal today is to complete today's food diary.0
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It depends on you and your body. At 1800 calories, I didn't lose any weight. I was still 20 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight when my baby turned 1. I set my weight loss goal to .5 pounds and then added 300 calories to it (not 500 because I was no longer exclusively breastfeeding). I've had success with that -- 1500 calories per day -- without my milk supply being affected.0
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I'm sure u doing great! Sorry, jus saw ur response.... I have tht problem too, finding a balance between family, chores, school, and all.... But, what I've been doing is when I go to bed at night, I log in my food for the previous day. It also helps me to stay on target with knowing how many calories roughly I'm eatin... I'm finally losing weight now tht I've started login in too..Savedprincess, thanks, that is helpful. Right now I have my diary set to about 2,100, which should be my maintenance calories, without figuring in breastfeeding. (So 2100 - 500 BF calories = 1600 net ??) I need to get into the habit of logging in order to see if that's a good amount. It's been tough to do that... when I'm taking care of the baby, trying to help her to go down for a nap, and she's crying, and the house is a mess, and the rest of my family is needing me constantly, it can get stressful, and logging every calorie into the food diary falls WAAAAY down low on the priority list, and then I start stuffing my face with mass quantities of chocolate that I don't want to log anyway. But it's getting there... things are starting to fall into place.... we're starting to get a routine, so I think there's hope that I can log calories at some point. One goal today is to complete today's food diary.1 -
Yes, my midwife also told me to eat at least 1800-2000 calories a day. I eat between 2000-2200 a day. I am losing fast at the moment right now, but my baby is only 16 days old. I will probably re-evaluate once she gets older and/or I start exercising. I have successfully lost weight with MFP after my last three babies, including this one. The key for me has always been eating delicious but healthy foods. I make the effort to log most recipes, even if that means logging 10 or more ingredients. Once my recipe is saved, it is easy to log it the next time I make it.0
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I set my calories to maintenance but too early to tell if that was right or not (2 weeks tomorrow)1
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I set to half a pound a week and assume breastfeeding will bump it to around 1 pound a week (which still seems reasonable given I'm 195 lbs, 5'6") But if I feel hungry, I don't stick strictly to those calories, I just try to pick something healthy and plenty of extra water to make up for BF.
That worked for me with DD, but she was 2 when I started trying to lose weight and not nursing frequently, so I expect to adjust for the newbie to make sure my supply isn't hurt.0 -
Sadly, I maintain at around 1400-1500 total even if I exercise. To lose while breastfeeding I had to eat around my regular maintenance calories.0
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