[jebba]

I'd like to start tracking my calories in fitday. I am exclusively breastfeeding my baby, and have heard that my calorie needs go up 500 calories a day when I am nursing. I've also heard the 500 estimate is high.<br><br>
Here's my question. In the past, I characterized my lifestyle as sedentary, because I feel fitday is a little generous on the basal calorie estimate. Is it reasonable to change it to "sedentary, some movement" to reflect the breastfeeding? I don't want to give myself too many calories, but I also want to lose weight slowly in order not to damage my milk supply.

 

[sistergoldenhair]

How many calories does your basal rate go up when you change from sedentary to sedentary, some movement? Is it close to 500? What if you stayed on the sedentary setting but added 500 calories of some physical activity to count the breastfeeding in with your calorie expenditure?<br><br>
Take my advice for what it's worth as I've never breastfed, but you'll probably have to watch pretty closely and do some tweaking to see how your weight and milk supply respond to certain calorie levels. It sounds like a challenging balance. Drink lots of liquids, too.