How many calories are expended while breastfeeding. Feeding a nursing mother

After childbirth, a woman's body and she herself experience severe stress. Often, worries about your appearance are added to your worries about the baby and your new role.

After all, it is so important for a mother to look good in order to be a worthy example for her child. But at the same time, one should not forget about the need for breastfeeding. Losing weight and breastfeeding can be successfully combined.

Rules for losing weight while breastfeeding

During breastfeeding, a woman's body works in a special mode. Nutrients are required not only for the normal life of a woman, but also for the production of milk. A large number of useful elements the female body gives to the child through milk. Therefore, for weight loss while breastfeeding, a woman needs to follow a number of simple rules:

By following these rules, the weight goes off easily and without harm to mother and child. After all, the most important thing is to keep breastfeeding and provide the baby with enough milk.

The diet of a nursing mother with examples

The menu of a young mother should include foods rich in protein, macronutrients and microelements to synthesize the most healthy milk. Mommy's food obeys the rules proper nutrition.

How to eat for a nursing mother to lose weight:

Here is one example of a menu for a whole day for a losing weight mom:

Another menu option:

• breakfast: buckwheat soaked in kefir at night, chicory drink with milk;
• lunch: toasts with curd cheese and boiled chicken breast with a lettuce leaf and a tomato (2 pcs.), a drink from a lemon poured with boiling water;
• dinner: boiled fish fillet with vegetable salad(dressing - white yogurt), weak black tea.

Another option for a daily diet:

You can think of many more various examples delicious and healthy meals, it all depends only on a person’s desire to eat right and lose weight, as well as on his imagination. This diet will help you get rid of extra pounds without prejudice to the health and mood of a woman and a child.

Safe calorie intake for a breastfeeding woman

A nursing mother needs more calories than an ordinary woman. But it is necessary to ensure that the number of calories does not exceed the norm for nursing, otherwise weight loss will stop. A nursing mother, like any person, needs to spend more calories than she receives. For this you need to consider:

1. Amount of calories a typical woman needs: 2000-2500 kcal, depending on height, weight, age and level physical activity. Usually, due to long walks with a child, the level of activity in a young mother is quite high.
2. To this must be added the number of calories that the body spends on the production of milk. This is about 500 kcal.
3. Another point is the calorie content of the milk itself. For this, the body spends the fat that it accumulated during pregnancy. As a rule, about 300 kcal goes into milk. They do not need to be considered if the weight is greater than it was before pregnancy.

So how many calories does a breastfeeding mom need to lose weight? The result is 2500 + 500 = 3000 kcal.

This energy is needed by the body to maintain normal life. It is better to fit into this figure when planning your diet. Then the body will have an incentive to burn stored fat.

Accelerated weight loss at home with exercise

Sports activities can help you get back in shape faster. A woman who is breastfeeding is prohibited from active physical exercises and heavy loads. In addition, she is unlikely to have the strength and time for this.

But there are exercises that you can do at home. They do not require special skills and training, and are allowed when breastfeeding.

The following exercises will help a nursing mother lose weight quickly at home:

These simple exercises will help you quickly deal with excess subcutaneous fat after childbirth.

But you can give the body a sports load only a month and a half after childbirth. Before starting the transition to physical activity, you should visit your gynecologist.

Lose weight without restrictions on food and exercise

If, for some reason, mommy cannot limit the use of products that are harmful to the figure, and there is not enough time and energy for physical exercises, there are alternative ways to lose weight.

Here's how you can lose weight after giving birth to a nursing mother without limiting yourself in food:

Without proper nutrition and exercise, you can also lose weight. But it won't be as fast or efficient.

How to lose weight after a caesarean section

Since a caesarean section is an abdominal operation, two doctors at once must be allowed to play sports: a gynecologist and a surgeon. The gynecologist will assess the condition of the internal suture, and the surgeon will evaluate the external one.

Admission to sports is made 6-8 weeks after delivery in this way, if the healing was successful.

But even without admission to classes, moms after cesarean can lose weight. For this you need:

• control the amount of calories in food;
• eat properly;
• establish a sleep and rest regimen (at least 8 hours a day);
• walk more with the child;
• establish a diet.

This will help moms lose weight even after giving birth by caesarean section. And with admission to physical exercises, weight loss will be even more rapid.

A nursing woman should avoid large amounts of carbohydrates (pastries, pasta), spicy and fatty foods with lots of pepper. You should eat more dairy products, vegetables and fruits. It is better to switch to wholemeal bread. Unloading diets during breastfeeding are highly discouraged.

Nutritionist, Ph.D. A. S. Polyashova

If a nursing woman has a desire to eat any food, she should get it and eat it, but within reasonable limits, since for successful and happy breastfeeding, the woman’s well-being and psychological comfort are most important. When a woman is happy and calm, as well as full and satisfied, the quality of her milk produced is higher than that of a hungry and unhappy woman.

Candidate of Medical Sciences, doctor of higher qualification category E. O. Komarovsky

And a couple more useful tips about losing weight - in the next video.

Breast milk is your baby's only source of nutrition until they are six months old. And when a new mom breastfeeds her baby, her body needs more food and energy to produce breast milk and meet her baby's nutritional needs. However, did you know how many calories you can lose if you breastfeed? Find out how many calories are burned while breastfeeding and more.

How many calories are burned while breastfeeding?

If you feel exhausted after a breastfeeding session, it is because even without moving most of your limbs, your body has lost a significant amount of calories, and this is all due to breastfeeding. Average calories burned while breastfeeding per day can range from 300 to 700 calories. Shortly after your baby is born, you may be burning approximately 300 calories per day due to your baby's limited milk requirement, but as your baby grows, your milk supply increases and thus you can burn up to 700 calories per day. In other words, the number of calories you can burn may depend on your feeding stage. The milk your body produces is in direct proportion to your baby's needs. Your body can burn calories to make milk, and if your baby is a big feeder, then you can burn more calories compared to a mother whose baby of the same age doesn't breastfeed as much.

Why does breastfeeding burn calories?

Breastfeeding is great for getting rid of excess weight during pregnancy. If you think that breastfeeding makes you lose weight, then you are greatly mistaken, because this is a difficult milk production process that requires such great work. Many women may wonder how something that doesn't involve physical exertion is causing them to lose so much weight. This is because to make an ounce of milk, your body burns approximately 20 calories, and if you feed your child approximately 20-30 ounces of milk per day, then you can easily drop 400-600 calories, which is a pretty significant amount of calories. Therefore, to compensate for the loss of calories, a breastfeeding mother must consume additional calories.

Not only do mothers burn calories from breastfeeding, they also reap many health benefits from breastfeeding. It can be seen that mothers who breastfeed for more than six months have a lower risk of developing breast cancer later in life. In addition, mothers with gestational diabetes are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life if they breastfeed soon after birth.

How many extra calories should a nursing mother feed?

A breastfeeding mother requires a lot of calories because she is producing milk for her baby and this is very depleting of her body. So the question here is how many calories per day does a breastfeeding mother need? From the section above, we learned that the average breastfeeding mom burns between 300 and 700 calories per day through breastfeeding. This means that in order to replenish the lost calories of her body, she needs to consume excess calories. The typical woman who is not breastfeeding or pregnant consumes approximately 1800-2000 calories per day, although this may vary depending on her age, height and how active she is. However, once a woman becomes pregnant, her doctor may advise her to include approximately 300 calories in her diet per day, and this may further increase to 500 calories per day when she begins breastfeeding her child. So when you start breastfeeding, you should consume between 2200 and 3000 calories per day. When you feed a newborn 8 to 10 times a day, your body needs more calories, and then you can gradually reduce your calorie intake as your baby grows and can begin solid foods or formula.

Will breastfeeding help you lose weight?

When you breastfeed your baby, it is not only protected from respiratory diseases, allergies, tooth decay, etc., but also helps your baby improve immunity against various deadly diseases. Breastfeeding also offers huge health benefits to the mother, as it not only reduces postpartum depression, but also reduces the risk of diabetes, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and certain types of cancer.

On top of all that, breastfeeding a baby is a natural way to make a mother lose all that extra pregnancy bulk and get back in shape, but there isn't enough scientific evidence to support the same. In one study done on breastfeeding mothers, it was noted that mothers who were exclusively breastfeeding and those who were partially breastfeeding lost a significant amount of weight after pregnancy compared to mothers who breastfed their children. Also, if you rely solely on breastfeeding and don't control what you eat and don't get enough exercise, your health can be adversely affected. So, in order to lose all those extra pregnancy pounds, you need to not only stick to healthy diet, but also to train healthy weight loss. On the other hand, if you notice a trend towards weight gain, meaning you may be gaining weight despite breastfeeding, this may indicate that you need to reduce your calorie intake.

Breastfeeding requires a healthy diet

A breastfeeding mother must make healthy choices when it comes to adding calories to her diet. Eating unhealthy foods and snacks is not only bad for your health, but also for your baby, there may not be enough food for him to grow and develop optimally. You should be eating 300 to 400 high calorie snacks every few hours to replenish your body's energy resources. A cup of unsweetened yogurt, a glass of milk, fruit, or a handful of nuts are great snacks between meals. Also, keep yourself adequately hydrated because breast milk is mainly water. If you don't consume enough water, not only will your milk supply become difficult, it will also dehydrate you. Hold drinking water and other fluids on a regular basis. Watch the color of your urine, in case it becomes a darker shade of yellow, you may be suffering from dehydration. In addition, your doctor may recommend several multivitamin tablets to help you meet your additional nutritional needs.

Breastfeeding requires you to consume more calories than you may have consumed during and before your pregnancy. Contact your doctor to learn more about ideal calorie intake while breastfeeding.

Please read this!

Women who are underweight or who have not gained enough weight during pregnancy should not use this calculator. Due to the insufficient amount of stored calories in body tissues during pregnancy, a special diet should be followed during breastfeeding. For such women, enhanced nutrition is recommended.

This calorie calculator best used to get a general idea of ​​what how many calories you need to receive on time breastfeeding, this calculator is not completely accurate due to the individual differences of each woman. Please consult a qualified nutritionist while breastfeeding.

How the formula works

It is generally believed that a woman gains 12 kg in weight during 9 months of pregnancy. Part of this reserve is spent on the needs of the development of the child, the rest goes to prepare the body for the process of breastfeeding.

Let's assume you stick to proper diet during pregnancy(see ) and have gained the weight indicated in the paragraph above. The energy reserve deposited in the tissues of the body during pregnancy is partially spent on the process breastfeeding child. The remaining calorie costs will be covered through a special diet.
The calculator will calculate a basic level of metabolism, then will be added calories necessary for the process of breastfeeding. This implies that a certain amount of energy has already been stored by the body. Thus, a gradual weight loss and its return to the indicator that took place before pregnancy will be achieved.

How many calories?

Early research:
Additional calorie expenditure for breastfeeding woman calculated and amount to 670 kilo calories per day. In the event that weight should be reduced, the rate of additional calories is reduced to 500 calories per day.

Studies of healthy women during the breastfeeding period have shown that during breastfeeding, the body burns more calories (approximately 2718 kilocalories), and at the end of the lactation period, calorie expenditure decreases to approximately 2528 calories. This change in energy costs is associated with the process of producing breast milk. At the same time, the basic metabolic rate remains at the same level.

If the amount of calories received from food is not sufficient for the body, then the reserves deposited by the body during pregnancy in the tissues will be used.

Modern research
Most latest research of this topic took place in 2005-2007. The following conclusions were made:

For the purposes of breastfeeding within 5 months after the birth of a child, the energy expenditure of a woman's body is an additional 454 kilocalories per day relative to the level of a non-pregnant and non-lactating woman. This figure already implies that a certain part of the calorie expenditure will be carried out at the expense of the body's reserves carried out during pregnancy.

Weight loss

A study of about 17 studies on this topic revealed that weight loss during the 6 months following childbirth was most pronounced in women receiving enough calories and nutrients (decrease of about 0.8 kg per month), compared with those who "underdone" calories and nutrients (decrease of about 0 .1 kg per month).

Changes in basal metabolic rate

Studies of changes in basal metabolic rate have produced highly inconsistent results. However, most studies have shown that the basal metabolic rate ( need for calories for vital important functions) is the same for a woman regardless of whether she is breastfeeding or not.

If you, approaching the mirror, turn on the internal aesthetic surgeon (“I wish I could remove it here, but tighten it up here!”), Then there are two good news for you. First: these are just complexes. In fact, you are beautiful, even if you put on weight after giving birth. Second: if you really want it, you can fix it. Diet for weight loss for nursing mothers is not at all what you think. Before the eyes of some women, at the word “diet”, days of exhausting hunger strikes with a ban on all their favorite foods immediately pop up. However, not everything is so scary. A balanced diet can bring not only benefits, but also pleasure.

Why isn't she losing weight?

But some young mothers during breastfeeding, even after many months, still fail to lose weight. There may be several reasons:

• The habit of "eating for two." Sometimes a woman continues to allow herself the excesses that have become a habit during pregnancy.
• psychological factor. These include sleepless nights, the same extra pounds and lack of time for self-care. A young mother can become depressed, withdraw into herself, refuse to enjoy walks and communicate with other people. By eating their stress in four walls, a nursing mother causes even more harm to her mental and physical health.
• The introduction of strict diets. Despite all the contraindications, some mothers begin to follow diets literally from the first days after childbirth. Especially negatively on the body of a woman is affected by strict diets with the restriction of any food groups. Under such conditions, mommy can achieve the opposite effect - extra pounds will not go away, but only multiply, being deposited on the hips and waist.
• Incompetent or overly cautious advice from a pediatrician. Not all doctors who consult a nursing mother have sufficient knowledge about the intricacies of the nutrition of a woman who has recently given birth. In the old fashioned way, the doctor may forbid the mother from consuming dairy products, fruits, and other delicacies. A woman who is limited in her favorite products can diligently “pounce” on other dishes. And it is unlikely to be steamed broccoli or fat-free kefir.

"Slimming" nutrition with HB: basic principles

The diet for weight loss while breastfeeding involves the following recommendations.

On GW, the same products are useful as always.

• Drink a glass of water 30-40 minutes before your first meal. This technique will help start the digestive and metabolic processes.
• Nutrition should be fractional - the number of meals should be 5-6 times a day. Portions should be small (no more than 250 g). Chew incoming food should be slow and thorough.
• The priority is fish dishes, but they can be introduced no earlier than 3-4 months of age of the baby in order to eliminate the risk of allergies. If the child has a pronounced tendency to allergic rashes, wait until he is one year old. From meat it is better to choose turkey, beef, lean veal.
• Avoid consumption of fried foods. Boil, bake or steam all food.
• Limit your intake of fatty foods as much as possible.
• Sweets and flour products should be replaced with dried fruits and nuts.
• Eat as many vegetables and fruits as possible (it is better to give preference to seasonal plants and those that grow in the area where the mother lives). You can start trying exotic fruits when your baby is six months old.
• Enter into the diet dairy products. It is better to use them after heat treatment in the form of casseroles, lazy dumplings, cheesecakes.
• If a nursing mother tastes dishes during cooking or is used to eating leftovers after her children, the number of regular servings should be reduced.
• The best option would be to keep a food diary. This will help calculate the number of calories consumed. In addition, this way you can determine which foods the baby is allergic to and further eliminate them from the diet.
• Eliminate highly allergenic foods (nuts, fish, honey, citrus fruits, etc.) until at least 4 months of age of the baby. In some cases, you may have to wait longer. If the child shows a tendency to allergies, then introduce any new foods into your diet with particular care. Watch the child's reaction: if there are any changes in the stool, if the tummy hurts, if there is a rash. Many dishes will have to be removed altogether.
• Fresh vegetables and fruits can be introduced after 2-3 months after the birth of the baby. In the first months, the menu should be thoughtful and careful.

Count calories, drink water

Not every mother knows how many calories are spent while breastfeeding. For the production of 1 liter of milk, a mother spends from 600 to 900 calories, beks - 14 g, fats - 35 g and carbohydrates - 70 g. These reserves need to be replenished. Based on these data, a young mother should consume at least 120 g of protein per day (70% of which should be of animal origin), 120 g of fat (20% should be vegetable) and about 500 g of carbohydrates. The daily calorie content of meals should not exceed 3000-3200 kcal. But this is the maximum. If you want to lose weight, eat less.

An important assistant to mom on guards is considered drinking regimen. It should be followed with any diet, including for a nursing mother. Depending on the age of the baby, the mother's body produces about 1-1.5 liters of milk. For its "production" it is necessary to replenish fluid reserves in the body.

The basic rules of the drinking regime are as follows:

• Consume clean drinking water. The amount of fluid is individual for each woman and depends on the metabolism in the body, the time of year and the degree of sweating. The optimal amount is from 1 to 2 liters of fluid per day (but not less than 800 ml).
• Mineral water without gas is allowed. However, you should not drink it constantly. Otherwise, certain elements may accumulate in the body, which can affect the condition of the crumbs. Also, when breastfeeding, a mother can drink weak tea, compotes, fruit drinks.
• Carbonated drinks (kvass, mineral water, lemonade, etc.) are banned. Of course, the consumption of alcoholic beverages is unacceptable. It is also better to give up coffee for a while - this drink can have an exciting effect on the child. If there is no strength to resist Arabica, it is best to consume it before dinner, so that by the evening you do not get a nervous and excited baby.

What diets are prohibited

A diet for weight loss during lactation should be selected especially carefully. Not all options for common diets are suitable for a young mother and her baby. So, you need to abandon these types of diets:

1. Express diet (sharp and fast weight loss will not benefit the mother's body);
2. Mono-diet: purely vegetable, dairy, etc. (while feeding a child, a product or a group of products should not be excluded from the menu and only one nutritional component should be consumed);
3. Protein diet (the menu of a nursing mother should include proteins, fats and carbohydrates);

The postpartum diet should never be too strict. The best option for a nursing woman would be to count calories, consume the right foods, maintain a water regime and periodically fast days.

Unloading days with HB

Some experts (pediatricians, nutritionists, etc.) speak sharply negatively about fasting days during lactation. Nevertheless, a properly organized fasting day will benefit a young mother, especially if her diet is far from correct. Doctors recommend fasting days even for pregnant women, subject to the necessary indications ( overweight, preeclampsia, edema).

Since nursing mothers are a special kind of losing weight ladies, they should also treat fasting days in a special way. As a rule, such days include the consumption of not one, but several products.

A diet for weight loss does not exclude such options for fasting days:

1. Only fruits. A young mother is supposed to eat 1.5 kilograms of green or yellow apples a day.
2. Only vegetables. 1.5 kilograms fresh vegetables in females (at the choice of mother). Vegetables should be consumed in the form of salads, dressing them with unrefined vegetable oil or 10% sour cream.
3. Only kefir. Assumes the consumption of 1.5 liters of kefir, low-fat yogurt or fermented baked milk per day.
4. Only rice. Boil 150 g of dry rice (preferably brown) in water without adding salt. Ready rice can be eaten with the addition of any fruit.
5. Only buckwheat. Boil or steam 150 g of buckwheat in a thermos overnight. You can eat buckwheat with the addition of any vegetables.
6. Only cottage cheese. 500 g of low-fat cottage cheese combined with 1 liter of kefir.
7. Only meat. 500 g of lean poultry or beef eat all day with 1 kg of fresh vegetables.
8. Only fish. Combine 500 g of low-fat fish (pollock, hake, perch, pike, hake, bream, etc.) with 1 kg of fresh or boiled vegetables.

When choosing a fasting day, mom should be guided by her tastes. If she does not like cottage cheese or buckwheat, you should not force yourself and spend such days. It is best to choose products that are acceptable to you. Such days should not be spent more than once, a maximum of two times a week.

It is not worth counting on losing weight only on fasting days. Nutrition at the rest of the time should also be correct and balanced.

Menu for weight loss for every day

It is most convenient to divide the consumed products into a week. For these purposes, a daily diet is perfect. Sample Diet for a nursing mother for weight loss menu for every day.

Various fruits, marshmallows and marshmallows, wholemeal pastries, cheese are suitable as snacks. From time to time, you can treat yourself to sweet pastries or dark chocolate, the main thing is not to overdo it in consuming such products.

Diet is one of the simple and effective ways return to its former shape after the birth of the baby. The main thing to remember is that the menu should be balanced, the products should be healthy, the drinking regimen should be sufficient. If these conditions are met, mommy will very soon begin to notice improvements in her appearance, which will also be confirmed by the scales and the mirror.

When breastfeeding, a young mother is simply obliged to monitor her diet so as not to harm the baby. The article takes a detailed look at a woman's nutritional tips and tricks to conserve milk and maintain good health.

Proper nutritional habits during breastfeeding ensure sufficient milk production, which is essential for the healthy development of a newborn baby. Previously, grandmothers advised to lean on fatty foods to keep your breast milk rich. Doctors dispelled these myths, proving that in order to establish feeding, the mother's diet must be complete with enough fluid.

How many calories should you eat per day

Up to 2 liters of milk are produced per day in the mammary glands, so the body spends a lot of energy. To make up for its deficiency, it is enough to increase the total daily calorie content of products by 300-500 calories, but not by 1000-1500, as advised in some Soviet manuals. The slight increase in daily allowance is due to the quality of the food, not the quantity. Boiled meat with a small energy value, but containing a lot of vitamins and protein, can saturate mom and baby. Therefore, when breastfeeding, it is enough to eat food with a total calorie content of 1500-2000.

What can you drink and how much

For normal milk production, a nursing woman must drink enough fluids. If she does not have kidney problems and does not develop severe edema, daily rate fluid intake is 2-2.5 liters, including water, soups and drinks.

It is advisable to limit the consumption of black and green tea, diluting it with milk. It is recommended to drink no more than 2 cups per day. Coffee should be completely eliminated from the diet. If this is difficult to do, it can be replaced with a coffee drink, which promotes strong milk production.

Another myth left over from Soviet times. Young mother must drink a lot cow's milk and dairy products. This setting is bad for the baby. A large amount of milk in the diet causes increased gas formation and intestinal colic.

To avoid problems, milk should be diluted with warm water or added to tea. Be careful with kefir. For nutrition, it is better to take a product with a fat content of no more than 3% and drink one glass a day. To replenish the amount of lactic acid, you should choose low-fat natural yoghurts and low-fat cheeses.

What foods should be excluded from the diet

Among the older generation, there is an opinion that colic in a baby is a natural and natural process of intestinal maturation, so maternal nutrition does not affect their occurrence in any way. This position is fundamentally wrong. A large amount of milk, legumes, pearl barley, mushrooms, watermelons cause strong fermentation and provoke increased gas formation, which increases the manifestation of colic. To facilitate the maturation of the baby’s gastrointestinal tract, you should remove or limit the following foods from your diet as much as possible:

• it is advisable to remove black bread up to 4 months, replacing it with yeast-free bread for breakfast;
• legumes should not be present in the mother's diet until 6 months;
• vegetables and fruits for better absorption should be boiled, baked or cooked in a double boiler;
• eggs should be completely removed before 1 year, sometimes allowing yourself a protein omelet;
• cabbage is completely excluded, from 6 months the use of a stew is allowed;
• replace fatty meats with lean;
• completely remove from the diet, chocolate, nuts, melons and watermelons up to 1 year.

By removing these foods, you will reduce the risk of intestinal colic or reduce their manifestation and duration.

Video - Nutrition of a nursing mother and colic

In addition to colic, a young mother may face another serious problem. Some newborns suffer from severe allergic reactions. It can be provoked by classic allergens contained in citrus fruits, sweet, sour foods, fish and eggs. Sometimes there is a strong allergy to chicken. To protect the health of the child, the following products are completely excluded:

• oranges, tangerines and lemons;
• sweet and rich foods, it is allowed to eat 1-2 marshmallows;
• fish, low-fat varieties can be eaten when the child is 5-6 months old;
• mushrooms should not be eaten until the end of the breastfeeding period.

Chicken can be eaten boiled or baked in the oven. It is important to monitor the reaction of the child to the products. If you have eaten fish or eggs without any reaction, you can start introducing forbidden foods into your diet in small doses at any time. But with the appearance of the slightest rash and suspicious symptoms, you should consult a doctor.

Video - Breastfeeding: Mom's nutrition. General principles

How to eat with a diagnosed allergy

If you have an allergy, colored vegetables are completely excluded from the diet. You can enter them again only 1-2 months after the removal of all symptoms. Green vegetables, potatoes, cereals, soups and lean meats are allowed.

Allowed ready-made products for mom and their calorie content in 100 g

*Calorie content depends on the products taken, the recipe and the manufacturer.

Sample menu for a nursing mother

If the baby has no allergies

For an allergic baby

Using the above tips, a nursing mother will easily establish proper nutrition and successful lactation for the period she needs, and the baby will grow up healthy and cheerful. Remember, excessive nutrition and a large amount of fluid intake will not increase the quality of milk in any way, but will only add extra pounds and problems to you.