Not enough calories to account for nursing

I have a few opinions on this. I'm obviously not experienced but my wife and I just had a baby so I have discussed this. Not that this should matter since I'm just some random internet guy anyways.

You should err on the side of higher calories. I understand your desire to lose weight and be fit, but obviously your milk supply and the well-being of your child takes priority.

I think you should google this and check different resources. I also think you should consult your physician.

In the food diary, there is an entry for breast-feeding that adds 500 calories to your goal. Or, you can manually add an extra 500 calories to your goal.

Change your weight loss goals to a HALF pound a week. Then you can either go in and manually add 500 calories for nursing or if you search breastfeeding under the food database it'll give you entries with negative calories.

I know it's really hard to remain heavy after a child is born. And it really sucks if you have any level of postpartum depression going on. BUT if you don't eat enough your milk supply might drop and not be able to be recovered. Breast milk is of course best for babies but it's also WAY cheaper and more convenient then formula. When I was nursing my last child I was eating 2500 calories a day which is the same as I am eating now for body building.

I'm copying and pasting what I just typed out for a similar post:

Yes there are a couple of ways. :-)

One, if you don't mind doing this every single day, you can go into your food diary and click 'add food', search for 'breastfeeding' and several options will pop up. For example if you choose 'exclusive breastfeeding' and add it to your diary, it will bump your calorie goal up by 500 calories for that day. There are a couple of other different options that add different amounts. Pick one that seems good for your situation. For example if baby is breastfeeding but also uses formula or is eating some solids, you might choose an option that adds only 300 calories to your goal, as baby consumes less at the breast if he is getting other foods. Instead of acting like a regular food that counts toward your total consumed for the day, it acts by bumping up your goal so you have a higher allotment of calories for the day. Only downside is you have to go in and add it every single day. However, after you add it consistently a few times, it will start showing up in a lits of recently used foods so that you can add it more quickly in the future.

Another option is to bump up your activity level, basically since you know breastfeeding burns calories you would choose an activity level a bit higher than what it really is. When you choose a higher activity level, MFP generally gives you a higher calorie goal. This one is pretty good but there may be an issue of accuracy in some cases....

Yet another option is to set your profile goal to 'maintenance' rather than weightloss (or you could try out the 1/2 lb per week goal as someone suggested above). If you do this, MFP gives you a calorie goal designed to help you maintain your current weight. However, since breastfeeding burns calories it would basically be working as your exercise, bringing your net total down lower than maintenance and causing you to lose weight. The most you would lose by doing this is around 1 lb per week if your activity level is set correctly. But that is actually a GOOD thing especially while breastfeeding - you don't want to cut calories too far or lose weight too fast as it might affect your milk supply (I'm sure you already knew that though :-) ). If you choose to set your calories to 'maintenance' and basically use breastfeeding as your exercise, you could either log the breastfeeding calories just to know how much extra you could eat on days where you feel you need it (although on those days that you eat the extra breastfeeding calories, you would basically be maintaining your current weight) or you could simply not log the breastfeeding calories.

Different methods work for different people. Above all, listen to your body and pay attention to your baby so you can tell if you need to make any adjustments to keep up your supply.

nursing for me was the best weight loss ever! i lost 20 lbs no problem. i ate when i could and made sure i never ate unhealthy foods or processed foods. the weight just came off. we walked a lot also.