Fitness pal and nursing

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sdmarso
sdmarso Posts: 2
in Introduce Yourself
When I entered my info, I did not see anywhere that asked if you were a nursing mom. I know that with weight watchers they ask and you get a lot more points, so milk supply is not affected. So I don't know if my recommended daily caloric intake will be enough not to affect my supply. Anyone out there have same issue?

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  • suzi67
    suzi67 Posts: 162 Member
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    The food database has a bunch of listings for nursing/breastfeeding. It reduces your caloric amount based on the entry. Check it out to see if that helps.
  • Shyloh07
    Shyloh07 Posts: 18
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    I am a nursing mom and I just changed my goals to .5 lb a week and it gave me about 350 calories more. That should work for you. :)
  • CallieDerenthal
    CallieDerenthal Posts: 170 Member
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    you may just log it as a cardio exercise. i'm an LPN and we were taught that nursing mothers burn between 300-500 calories per day depending on whether or not you supplement with formula. if you're breast feeding exclusively it should be at about 500 cals/day. hope this helps!
  • ashley0616
    ashley0616 Posts: 579 Member
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    I've seen a lot of diaries with "breastfeeding" as an exercise or negative caloric intake on the actual diary. You can google how much you burn while nursing, or ask your doc, and add it into your daily burn so you'll "earn" more calories for the day. I think it would be a good suggestion for MFP to try to add it to the exercise database, too, since so many seem to be using MFP and nursing.
  • SabrinaG1986
    SabrinaG1986 Posts: 135 Member
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    You can log it as food. If you search it (breastfeeding) it comes up and gives u a -500 cals.
  • onceiwasaturtle
    onceiwasaturtle Posts: 1 Member
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    Yep -- when you're nursing, they estimate you'll need an extra 500 calories a day. There's not anywhere here to check to get that added automatically, so here's the way I did it: First, I set my goals using the guided setting, then I went back through and used the custom settings. The calorie goal will still be there, so just add 500 calories to it and you're set! Recalculate every ten pounds or so (the site is supposed to prompt you at ten pounds) and you should be good. :)
  • chrissypops
    chrissypops Posts: 112 Member
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    Hi Hun, if you go to ur food diary and type breastfeeding where u would input food and it comes up with several options ie fully breastfeeding, just choose which one u think and it will ADD extra cals to your net cal intake like exercise does xxx I'm still nursing first thing in morning n last think at night which is around 100 cals a day but don't put them in my diary . If your fully nursing it's around 300-500 extra cals u need xxx
  • CMmrsfloyd
    CMmrsfloyd Posts: 2,383 Member
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    I am still nursing my 18 month old, but we're down to only 2 times a day most days, so I don't really take it into account for my own personal plan. I don't think it's having a 500 calories/day impact on me at this point since the bulk of his nutrition and fluids come from sources other than me. If I feel I need an extra snack on top of what MFP tells me, I just go ahead and have an extra snack. If I were still exclusively breastfeeding, I'd definitely look into the suggestions give by PP's to keep things more accurate. I know exclusively nursing you are burning/need about those 500 calories/day b/c I always find it fascinating that it's actually a *larger* need than the approximate 300 calories/day for pregnancy.

    I didn't know about the 'breastfeeding' option in the food category, that's awesome but it would be nice if MFP had a 'setting' you could choose instead of having to find out about it like this.
  • sdmarso
    sdmarso Posts: 2
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    Thank everyone, and yes it would be helpful if MFP would have BF as an setting.
  • chrissypops
    chrissypops Posts: 112 Member
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    I didn't know about the 'breastfeeding' option in the food category, that's awesome but it would be nice if MFP had a 'setting' you could choose instead of having to find out about it like this.

    I agree hun, would be a lot clearer x

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