how much to eat while breastfeeding and still loose weight?

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meepandbaby
meepandbaby Posts: 21 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I know I need to eat enough to keep my supply up but not sure how much exactly. I don't go back to the doc for awhile to ask either

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  • Golbat
    Golbat Posts: 276 Member
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    If you are exclusively breastfeeding, that will burn 500 calories a day. It takes about 6 weeks to recover from birth and for your milk supply to get pretty well established, so wait that long to start dieting if it hasn't been that long yet. Then use MFP to calculate how many calories you should have, but remember you need an extra 500 on top of that. I would only try to lose a pound a week so you don't jeopardize your milk supply, and MFP lets you set to lose .5 a week, 1 a week, 1.5 a week, or 2 a week. You should be fine to bump it up to 1.5 pounds a week after several months, but I wouldn't do that at first.
  • meepandbaby
    meepandbaby Posts: 21 Member
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    Oh ok guess I'm trying to jump the gun too early
  • meepandbaby
    meepandbaby Posts: 21 Member
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    I'll just walk and eat normally til after 6 weeks
  • Golbat
    Golbat Posts: 276 Member
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    You could look at what is suggested for maintenance on MFP, and then add 500 calories for breastfeeding, and get used to weighing your food and logging. And then when your beautiful baby (I see the pic) is 6 weeks old, put the calories back to what MFP recommends for 1 pound loss a week (but add the 500 for breastfeeding.) That might make it easier when you do start on the weight loss. Hopefully it'll be pretty easy for you, burning 500 extra calories! And you will lose weight over the next few weeks if you eat a maintenance amount of calories. Your body is holding onto a lot of stuff that won't be there in a few weeks.
  • alyangel123
    alyangel123 Posts: 41 Member
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    The MFP database has breatfeeding as something you can log. Search the foods for breastfeeding, instead of adding cals it minuses 500

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