C section, breastfeeding, and caloric needs of a second time mom

Congratulations on your baby! I recommend not attempting to cut calories or intentionally lose weight until your body is recovered several weeks/months from now. With a newborn immediately post-partum, your hormones are telling your breasts to make far more milk than your baby will ever need because the biological imperative is to keep the baby alive. That means you could be burning upwards of 1000 calories a day from breastfeeding alone. Let your hormones do their thing, and over time your milk supply will regulate. You will be losing various bodily fluids and fat stores without even trying, and will likely see a large drop in weight once you're six weeks post-partum.

Once you've been cleared for physical activity and feel sufficiently recovered to focus more on your diet, set your account to maintenance for your current weight and let breastfeeding create your deficit. No one can tell you how many calories breastfeeding burns because it's dependent on how your baby nurses. Five hundred calories is an estimate. Eating at maintenance will give you the best opportunity to determine how many calories you're burning from breastfeeding as you track your rate of loss, and you can adjust your calories accordingly. Breastfeeding mothers are advised to lose no more than one pound per week.

Of course, this all depends on how accurate you are with logging, and a food scale can help with that. It also depends on how much weight you need to lose. The closer you are to a healthy weight, the slower your rate of loss should be. Use a weight trending app (like Libra) to help determine your daily deficit from breastfeeding.