how many calories do u lose when u are breastfeeding?? is there a website where i can look this up?? i tried webmd but no luck.......thank you!!!
2007-12-18 15:04:25 · 8 answers · asked by jrs wife! 3 in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Newborn & Baby
i read this last night in my what to expect book... it's 450-700. i guess it depends on how much extra you eat, how much baby eats, etc. i plan on not eating extra to breastfeed. i have plenty of reserves to feed that baby!
2007-12-18 15:19:47 · answer #1 · answered by adcmtp 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I've read you need an extra 500 calories a day when breastfeeding. So, if you only eat an extra 250 calories than you'll burn off those additional 250 calories. If you're eating an extra 700 calories a day than you'll start gaining!
It takes time... I lost all my preg weight by 6 mths I think and then lost a bit extra since I continued on. Maybe I'm just a bit too thin now, but I've kept it all off since stopping a year ago.
2007-12-18 21:11:23 · answer #2 · answered by MaPetiteHippopotame 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think there is a set number. Doctors recommend you take in an additional 600 calories a day more than you did before you were pregnant.
Some women don't lose baby weight until they wean their infant.
Me on the other hand, I'm sure I ate twice the recommended extra amount of calories and ended up 12 lbs less than I was prepregnancy 8 months into breastfeeding.
2007-12-18 15:09:38 · answer #3 · answered by not too creative 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
kellymom.com is THE go-to site for breastfeeding info. I wouldn't even trust webmd or similar on it -- there's so much misinformation out there.
Anyway, here you go:
"An exclusively breastfeeding mother, on average, needs to take in 300-500 calories per day above what was needed to maintain pre-pregnancy weight. Since the recommended added calories during the last two trimesters of pregnancy is 300 calories/day, an exclusively breastfeeding mother will typically need either the same amount of calories she was getting at the end of pregnancy, or up to 200 additional calories per day. That's the equivalent of adding 1-2 healthy snacks per day.
Per Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (Riordan, 2004, p. 438), "The amount of energy needed by lactating mothers continues to be debated. The lactating mother need not maintain a markedly higher caloric intake than that maintained prior to pregnancy: in most cases, 400-500 calories in excess of that which is needed to maintain the mother's body weight is sufficient."'
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/mom/mom-calories-fluids.html
2007-12-18 16:24:22 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Breastfeeding burns an extra 600 calories a day! But even if you want to lose weight, you should still eat extra nutritious foods and don't forget to drink plenty of water!
Good Luck!
Jennifer
2007-12-18 15:10:35 · answer #5 · answered by NaNa Jennifer 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The answer that I keep hearing is that breastfeeding burns about 500 calories a day.
2007-12-18 15:10:20 · answer #6 · answered by rainwriterm 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Look into the La Leche League, here's an article about weight loss & breast feeding: http://www.llli.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVOctNov97p115.html
It doesn't answer the question directly, but all the calories you provide to the baby require an equivalent somewhat larger number of calories from your body.
Human breast milk has 70 calories per 100 grams, so if you express milk & weigh it you can estimate the calories.
2007-12-18 15:15:56 · answer #7 · answered by VirtualSound 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Studies have shown the average nursing mother burns 600 calories per day.
2007-12-18 15:12:09 · answer #8 · answered by Karen 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋