How Many Calories/Nursing

  • How many calories are the cut-off for not compromising milk supply? Or does it vary wildly from woman to woman? I am so scared of messing up my supply, that I think I over-eat to try and prevent it.
  • It varies by woman. I know LLL recommends you not go under 1800 calories/day.
  • Cool, thanks.
  • Hello
    Makes me feel better and making dieting easier to know that you dont comprimise you milk supply based on what you are eating... what I mean is it is a quality and quantity thing.
    Quality is what you should be worried about with regards to what you put in your mouth and Quantity (which sounds like what you are worried about) comes from baby sucking.... ie supply on demand.... your supply will change and be right for your baby as long as she is sucking, it stimulates supply... so you dont have to stress about quantities you are eating for that side of things.
    I think we only have to stress about how much we are eating for the energy to produce milk of quality??
    I THINK!
    But it has made me feel better knowing that as long as my baby is feeding she will stimulate the supply and quantity of my milk and i just got to eat GOOD stuff to make sure the milk is of good quality... so it is kinda a win win situation...
  • I try to stay between 1800-2500. Sometimes I go over and sometimes I'm way under (around 1400). My average for the past month is just over 1900.
  • I've been losing on an average of 2300 (but I am very active), I try never to go below 1800 and not below 2000 for more than a day.

    Its not just about your supply, its also about maintaining your healthy body and not cannibalizing your metabolism
  • You need about 500 extra calories per day. I really like Weight Watchers for the reason that they tell you to add 10 points to your daily points - makes it easy to count them up.

    Depending upon where you are starting, you may need well over the 1800 mark.