Eat More, Not Less... ESPECIALLY for New Moms (even while br

Even though I feel like I'm eating what seems like large volumes of food all the time the calories of these "healthy" things just don't add up quick enough. So do I throw in some "unhealthy" things just to up the calories?

I do treat myself with the Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches and I love York peppermint patties, but I only eat so many so those only add 100 to 150 calories per day.

I completely agree that eating more calories is what I need to do, after reading SO many posts that say this, but I'm just not sure how to add more calories.

Some high calorie items you may want to try are nuts, cheeses, peanut butter, dried fruits, and liquid fats (olive oil for example) if you're having a hard time getting all your calories in. Try upping your calories at each meal also to spread out the calories. I was doing good but then I slipped up getting too few calories at breakfast and lunch, ending up with a very large amount of calories to still consume for dinner. It's hard to do sometimes, but you can definitely do it! :-)

wow,thank you so much iv been trying to figure this out and you just answerd all my questions:happy: i started very low at 1320calories and i bf adding the -500 plus im excercising and was not even getting close to my bmr, so a week ago i upped it to 1620 plus -500 my bmr is 2165 doing moderately active since im doing 30DS and my tdee is 2326 so do you think im doing my calculations good? so if i eat 1620 plus my 500 bf i would be consuming 2120 calories a day not counting excercise?? i did notice a gain but didnt mind since figured it would happen, im excited to see what happens since i havent lost nothing sticking with low calories and making my milk supply suffer,,, haha well thanx a million:flowerforyou:

You're welcome! :-) I always figure the numbers at sedentary because there may be a day that you might miss a workout for some reason or another, or you might get sick and aren't feeling up to working out, or you might really step it up a notch and do a really hard workout and burn more calories.. **AND** if I'm recording my exercise on MFP, it's adding those calories back for me to eat already, so if I have a higher goal set including the exercise, I could really be over-doing it calorie wise! That's why I prefer to leave it as sedentary and add the exercise calories "back" via recording my exercise in MFP. Also, exercise is just such a variable thing I think, at least for me it is. Also, what's moderate to one person, might be a great deal of exercise to another - it leaves too much room for error in my opinion. I guess if you're absolutely positively never going to miss your workouts and they're always the same, then select your level of activity to go by if you'd rather not bother "adding back" your exercise calories or logging your exercise on MFP, but then your daily goal will need to be set higher . :-) See how it gets to be a little confusing? :noway: I would still suggest figuring out "sedentary" and adding back, but that's me. If it were any other site tracking my calories, I might do it different, but since MFP adds back your calories for your activity entered, you don't want to over-do it!! :happy:

This is really helpful! Thank you!
I am still nursing my little one, but not exclusively anymore- so it's really difficult to figure how many calories I should add for that. I am on board with eating more to lose more, but I am kind of guessing at this point. I'd love to see

I posted more info on that subject - perhaps it will be useful to you! :-)

I wanted to post another update to further explain this concept because there may have been some confusion in how I worded the original post... Here's another few ways to look at this:

Maybe I could have worded it better!

I said: my TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure- TOTAL IT TAKES TO MAINTAIN MY CURRENT WEIGHT) is 1712 (sedentary) ***plus*** 20% for a grand total of 2054-

I probably should have said "My recommended calorie deficit of 1712 plus 20% is equivalent to my TDEE figure of 2054 (aka Maintenance calories needed at my current weight).

Keep in mind the average female needs around 2000-2100 calories (TDEE), so if your TDEE is not close to this, your figures are likely wrong. (maybe not so in extreme situations like morbidly obese or close to goal weight, but it helps to have an idea of what figures make sense)

Again, how I arrived at TDEE in the original post was by taking my recommended deficit amount to eat according to fat2fit's calculator and then adding 20% to that figure to arrive at my maintenance or TDEE calories. It's kind of a backwards way to do it - a very confusing method if you ask me... I was so proud that I figured it out that I wrote that post. haha!!

You could use probably any calculator and enter your current weight, and ask what it would take to "maintain" that weight... it should spit out your what people call your TDEE or maintenance calorie requirement at your current weight (keep in mind as you lose weight, you'll want to recalculate this, especially if you're stalling)- freedieting.com has a calculator that will recommend your maintenance (aka TDEE) and your recommended fat loss calories (aka in my example appx 1700) and if applicable your "extreme" level of fat loss, which I found to be close to the BMR figure.

The only thing with the freedieting.com calculator is it doesn't take into account your body fat percentage, so the figures may be off a tad.

More simply put, getting a 500 calorie deficit from 2000-2100 should put you in a range of 1500-1600 calories equaling about 1 lb/week loss.... and if you look at it even another way being 20-30% deficit from recommended maintenance levels) you arrive at the following:

2000 - 20% (400) = 1600
2000 - 30% (600) = 1400
2100 - 20% (420) = 1680
2100 - 30% (630) = 1470

Given these figures, the typical female should "normally" be within these ranges **(net)** to lose weight at a healthy level, retaining muscle mass as much as possible: roughly 1400 to about 1700. And, these figures are based on **sedentary** activity level. This should also help you avoid plateaus!

Any way you look at it, you should be close to those figures. Does that help??

Now, for breastfeeding, add 500 calories to these figures if you're breastfeeding a younger baby (1-6 mo's old), and possibly less as you wean. * I have a theory though that as your babe starts "getting into things and walking" you'll be naturally increasing your activity level... so maybe not reducing your calories as they wean is key here - just a thought. In other words, you may need MORE calories. It's an idea worth entertaining! see this calculator for calories burned taking care of baby (light effort): http://www.fitday.com/webfit/burned/calories_burned_Child_care_standing_dressing_bathing_grooming_feeding_occasional_lifting_of_child_light_effort.html

I also want to add a note on exercise: if you're working out, you should allow yourself extra "fuel" to be sure not to double up on your deficit... and keep in mind inches rather than pounds will fall off when adding activity- don't get discouraged with the scale not moving downward if you're exercising!!!! Just use a more appropriate measuring method, such as progress pictures and body measurements... even a caliper to measure body fat. It is entirely normal and a good thing to gain weight while you're exercising - therefore, the scale is often not the best tool to keep you motivated! Weight loss/changing your body composition is such a gradual process that you or others may not even notice the difference right away. It's incredibly helpful to "see" the difference instead of getting discouraged with the scale number. You may be tempted to further reduce your calories below the recommended levels (1400-1700) but trust me when I say cutting calories further is the last thing you want to do. If anything, adding "heavy" weights vs cardio is the best tool for losing fat and retaining muscle to supercharge your metabolism / keep it high!

Hope this helps! :bigsmile: