?'s for those dieters... JULY 2008

Are you still bfing? Do you count calories? If yes and yes, how much do you give yourself for bfing at this point. I know I've heard the whole 300-500 for bfing. I'm tracking my calories/food/excercise on the daily plate and I usually put in 300 calories for bfing. I am exclusively bfing--minus one meal of about 1/4-1/2 cup solids at dinnertime (still nurses before or after the solids). Am I allowing myself enough calories for bfing? I so far have not noticed any decreases in milk supply.

ETA: I just started tracking my food again after the holidays last week. I started in early Nov and lost 6 lbs by Christmas, and havent' gained it back thankfully, but now I'm starting up again--got 20-25 to lose by July.

Congrats to you on your weight loss so far!

Yea, DH and I have been counted calories for years now. He has kept 50 lbs of weight loss off and I had lost all my baby weight (just 8 more to go this time around). I eat 2200 calories and walk around 2 miles a day (I give myself the weekend off from exercising).

I think 300 calories sounds like a reasonable number. I thought I read some where that if your baby needs more milk/calories they pull it from your calories. So your milk supply shouldn't suffer.

Good luck!

Yeah, we've been counting on and off for years as well. When dd was 6 months we started a diet and both lost a ton of weight. I got to where I was running up to 10 miles (average was 5 though) 4-5 days a week. But I felt like my milk supply suffered from my weight loss and that's a part of why dd stopped nursing at 10 months. I nursed ds until 14 months and I felt like I had lost out on that time with dd, and I don't want to do that again.

So dh has put some weight back on (20 lbs, but he lost 60) and I put on 26 during pg (that didnt' come off in the initial loss after birth). So we are both now starting again being extremely good with our food and calories and I got a treadmill to start running regularly again (since I used to run with a double stroller but have 3 kids at home now).

So I guess I'm just scared my milk will do the same thing as with dd.

And wow, 2200 seems like a lot to me! I know you said you were tall though :) Good job for getting the baby weight off! My goal is 125 since that is what I was at my lowest after losing it 3 years ago (after dd was born), but I settled in at 130. I'm 5'3", and I've always stuck around 1400 calories--not nursing. Dh sticks around 1800 when hes working out hard--running 7+ miles--and 1600 when he doesn't.

Wow that is impressive running you can do! DH is good at running long distances too. We have a treadmill so he uses that in the winter and then gets outside the rest of the year where he runs 3-7 miles four times a week. I on the other hand exclusively use the treadmill and only walk (3.5 mph) while I read my magazines! :)

Yea I'm tall, 6 foot and my pre-preggo weight was 167 (size 10) but did get down to 161 before TTC. I had 12 baby pounds to lose this time (31 total pounds gained during pregnancy) so I'm making good progress. In high school I graduated at 147 and can't fathom getting that small again. :) Being in a size 10 seems like a reasonable goal to have and any more would be an added bonus. I've got a bridesmaid dress to fit in the beginning of April. :)

I eat 2200 calories with or without nursing. I can't imagine only eating 1400 a day. :D My calories break down to:

400 for breakfast
100 snack
700 lunch
100 snack
800 dinner
100 snack

Some days we go out and eat so I just make sure I rearrange my calories that day or walk a bit more on the treadmill.

We used to be pretty anal about counting calories but now it has just become a way of life and more about portion control with better food choices.

I hope you get to your goal very soon.

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Originally Posted by BigRed79

We used to be pretty anal about counting calories but now it has just become a way of life and more about portion control with better food choices.

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this is us too...mostly we know what kinds of things we can eat to make up enough calories for the day, but right now while I'm actively trying to lose, i'm going to be more anal about keeping track.

Oh, and I'm totally jealous of how far you run. One day...

Didnt read the responses but it takes an average woman 500 calories per day BFing so Id allow more.

I do WW, and now that Noah is eating 2 solid meals a days I've cut back to 5 extra points instead of the 10 extra points. I was noticing my weight loss stalling, so I cut those points out and it helped. No change in my supply.

I just started logging food (again) 3 weeks ago. But I took a couple days off from it because of birthdays here. I need to get back into it.

I'm using SparkPeople - anyone else using a website for food tracking?

I'm allowing about 400 extra calories for nursing. I'm only 2lbs from pre-pg, but I'm 10lbs from where I was before I got pg with Natalie (who just turned 3). I'm still trying to find the right calorie amount to help with weight loss while not impacting the milk. Right now, I'd say I'm at about 1800 calories/day. And I'm only 5 feet tall.

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Originally Posted by coolmama72

I'm using SparkPeople - anyone else using a website for food tracking?

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I use the daily plate on www.livestrong.com. I LOVE IT!! You can put in your height/weight, goals (+/- x lbs/week etc) track calories by searching for foods (so many foods are already in their database and you can add what you can't find there), create meals that you eat often (turkey sandwich, for example), then you just have to save it in your meals and click "i ate this". You can also track excercise. I even manually count my calories burned nursing by using the manual and putting in 300 (may up it to 400). Oh, and I swear I don't work for this site :lol: I just love it! There's probably more you can do that I haven't figured out yet. But mostly I put in my foods I ate each day and my excercise. Oh, and you can track how many glasses of water you drink--same page as your food/excercise. Just click on add a glass and it adds water. So great!