How many calories should you intake if you are breastfeeding and want to lose weight?

Question

Say, I want to lose 15 pounds.

Answer 1

The average person burns 1800-2000 calories a day.

The average lactating person burns 2100-2500 calories a day (300-500 extra calories).

In order to lose a pound a week, you need to have a 3500 calorie/week deficit.  That's roughly 500 calories a day.  You need to take in 500 less calories a day than what you are using.  

So, if you are burning 2300 calories a day (average breastfeeding mom)- to lose 1 pound a week, you'd need to take in 1800 calories a day.

Don't lose more than that a week, though.  Your body will start to release toxins if you loose too much weight a week and those toxins *might* get into your milk.

Good luck, mama.  The weight will come off soon!

Answer 2

Sweetheart... we all have different body types.

The best site that I would recommend that you check out is:

http://www.llli.org

This site is the leche league for breastfeeding mommas.

I visit this site all the time.

You can speak to a nurse that you e-mail back and forth if you ever have questions for any reason concerning anything that has to do with your baby, yourself and breastfeeding!

I love this site.

I personally have my own nurse that I e-mail whenever something pops up.

Good luck and I hope all works out for you.

Answer 3

well, your supposed to eat about 2000 calories a day and my dr told me that i need to heat about 3000!!! its alot more but it burns alot more calories, even more then when you were pregnant! but just watch what you eat and just make sure you are eating enough to keep feedin the baby.....

Answer 4

Breastfeeding burns an extra 300-400 calories a day - a great way to lose the weight fast!

My advice is to pay more attention to the CONTENT of your diet, rather than the calorie count, and you'll see the weight start to drop off. Remember, after the initial weight loss, just after birth, you should only lose 2 or so pounds per week :)

Have fun!