Question about calorie intake

[Bluecarrot]

Probably a really stupid question but here goes!
I have 3st to lose, am breastfeeding dd (almost 1 but barely eats anything. 2 florets broccoli and half a tsp of yogurt on a good day) and am aiming at 1-1.5lb a week weight loss for now.

I'm trying to work out calories.
If I'm aiming at 1800 calories, but assume 400 calories needed for breast milk and I exercise 400 calories, should I actually be consuming 2600 a day?

[Bluecarrot]

Bump for evening crowd.

I'm using mfp but its taking off exercise/bf and showing that after dinner tonight I'll still have a defict of nearly 1400 calories. :/ if I just add on breastfeeding calories and not any exercise it's still about 1000 to go. :/

[2Warriorsandawish]

I am using it at the moment, it gives me about 1200 and then 500 for breastfeeding so 1700. I would add any extra for exercise onto that. That does sound quite a lot, does map calculate that you should have 1800?

[2Warriorsandawish]

mfp not map!

[Bluecarrot]

Thanks :) I set it to 1800 as I was wary about dropping too quickly then affecting milk supply.
However it appears I probably wasn't eating 2000 anyway as I'm struggling. Maybe I can drop it more. 1200 sounds v low. Think nhs guideline is 1600?

[bangersmashandbeans]

I did 1200 a day when I was exclusively BF and added 300 for BF but ignored anything burnt through exercise, so added no more calories regardless of how much exercise I did. Milk supply wasn't affected and weight came off easily.

[2Warriorsandawish]

The 1200 was what it gave me without breast feeding and it gave 500 for breastfeeding exclusively so 1700. I saw the min was 1800 for breastfeeding so when I first started I stuck to 1800. To be honest most days I go a little over anyway but as long as I am losing I don't mind.

[Bluecarrot]

Great. Seems its not as big a deal as I thought!

Will stick to 1800 after taking bf into account. Not sure about exercise part yet.

[SunnySomer]

Ignore the exercise from your calculations, as unless you're doing staggering amounts it makes relatively little difference to weightloss. It's obviously essential for your health and helps tone etc, and supports your weightloss, but generally the MFP calculations of calories burned lull you into a false sense of security and you end up consuming far more than you have actually burned.

[Bluecarrot]

Thanks Sunny. :)

[Bluecarrot]

Haha- today's mfp email answered my question. It's exactly as sunny said :)

(Still struggling to eat the calories I should count though!)

blog.myfitnesspal.com/ask-the-dietitian-should-i-eat-back-my-exercise-calories/?utm_source=mfp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly20150112&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoku6vMZKXonjHpfsX67OosXKC2g4kz2EFye%2BLIHETpodcMTsJkMK%2BTFAwTG5toziV8R7DBLM153N8QXRTg