Breastfeeding mom

Anyone out there who is breastfeeding? How do you calculate your calories and macros? I'm exclusively breastfeeding.. I add about 440 calories to my calorie deficit, I feel pretty good so far.. am I doing this right? How do you guys do it? Share me some tips please! 😘

Replies

  • k8eekins
    k8eekins Posts: 2,264 Member
    A friend is a nursing 1st-time Mum, who eats above 2,800 calories for she's big and tall, heavily reliant on lactation cookies. My sister (@777Gemma888) and I prepared chocolate chip cookie dough in batches which she bakes for herself, for her cookie jar refills as needed. She insists that those very cookies have boosted her milk supply.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    I am breastfeeding. Although not currently tracking my calories. In the past when I just started (at least the first 4-6 months) I ate at maintenance and let breastfeeding create the deficit. Otherwise you can add 300-500 calories to your intake. Just keep an eye on your supply and how fast you are losing and adjust as necessary.
  • CarynMarie27
    CarynMarie27 Posts: 1 Member
    I read somewhere else that each ounce of breast milk is 20 calories. So my little one has about 32 ounces a day so that would be 640 calories that I burn per day. Seems about right.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited November 2019
    I’m breastfeeding. I set my goal to gain 1/2lb a week, and with the calories burned by breastfeeding it should end up being that I lose 1/2lb a week... at least that’s my hope. I’m eating about 2400 calories a day.
  • bl3ss3dmfp
    bl3ss3dmfp Posts: 43 Member
    I'm struggling with this as well. Last week was my first week back at MFP and it's going great... EXCEPT my milk is dropping :-/ She's only 9 months and I want to get to 12 months. I think I need to increase closer to 1800 and start back power pumping to see if that gets my supply back up. I think I made the mistake of lowering my cals too drastically.