Diet / counting calories

hmburchell

This is going to sound dumb but I have no idea how many calories a day I should be eating. They say if you eat about 500 calories more than "normal" then you'll lose weight breastfeeding (slowly). The problem is that I don't know what my normal need is... My weight has stayed constant since about 2 weeks pp. I'm also paranoid about cutting too many calories and hurting my milk supply. Any advice?

chelseajeanene

I know the average is 2000 a day but you can look up online with a BMI calculator and put your weight in and it can tell you

jlawson23

Have you looked into the IFYM method? If you google it you will come up with calorie counters. Counting Calories aren't nearly as important as counting macros and monitoring the breakdown of your caloric intake. It is fairly easy and really forces you to pay attention exactly what you're eating. I've loosely followed this method for 2 years and overall have lost 90lbs even postpartum. I actually weigh 25 pounds less now than I did when I got pregnant. Don't stress too much though on loosing weight you need your fat stores if you're breastfeeding exclusively!


Okay but to answer your question I would say without knowing your current weight or height... You could safely eat between 1800-2300 calories a day!

jen83mn

You could try downloading the My Fitness Pal app ... it helps calculate your caloric need by taking into account your height, weight, and activity level. It's not perfect, but should give you a ballpark. I'm not sure if it takes breastfeeding into account, so I would just add 500 calories onto whatever it tells you.

For instance, I'm only 5'3" and not working out on a regular basis, so pre-pregnancy I needed to stay around 1,400-1,500 calories a day or less to lose weight (sucks being short!). Now that I'm breastfeeding I could probably get away with eating 2,000 calories a day and still lose weight (case in point, I haven't been watching what I'm eating and am still losing weight while breastfeeding, but I'm probably eating 500 calories or less than I usually would eat pre-pregnancy). I'm also more active now though since I'm up and down with my huge 18-lb baby all day