Your body generally burns between 200 to 500 extra calories a day while you're breastfeeding. The actual amount of calories you burn will depend on how often you breastfeed, how much milk you produce, and your baby's age.
As I mentioned earlier, breastfeeding can cause your body to burn anywhere from 200 to 1,000 calories depending on your milk production level. The change in hormones in your body may also cause you to feel hungry.
This question comes up often as more breastfeeding moms are pumping and often times, exclusively pumping to produce breast milk. Another common related question that moms ask is does pumping burn as many calories as nursing? The answer to this helps answer the first question, which is a resounding Yes!
In an average fifteen to twenty minute breast milk pumping session, most moms express between . 5 ounces and four ounces of breast milk total. Some moms called “superproducers” are able to express four to eight ounces of breast milk per pumping session, but that is definitely not standard.
However, a number of studies have estimated that the average calorie content of breast milk is around 65 calories per 100 ml, or 19 to 20 calories per ounce (source). Taking all of these numbers and variables together, exclusive breastfeeding burns around 500 to 670 extra calories per day!
After that, breastfeeding may help people lose weight. People who exclusively breastfeed may use 400–500 calories daily to produce the milk a baby requires from 0 to 6 months. This is on top of their usual calorie requirements. People who consume fewer calories than their body uses may lose weight.
Breastfeeding burns between 500-600 calories a day. That means some moms might end up losing weight without any additional exercise. Breast milk is a living substance that contains live cells, including stem cells, which go on to become other body cell types like brain, heart, kidney, or bone tissue.
When is breast milk replenished? All the time, even while you're pumping or nursing. Your breasts are constantly making milk, so it's never possible to completely empty them.
All that happens during feeding is that your milk flow is reduced to the point where significant amounts can't be expressed. To put a number on it, it usually takes about 20 to 30 minutes after feeding to generate enough milk for your baby, and about 60 minutes to replenish fully.
A newborn should be put to the breast at least every 2 to 3 hours and nurse for 10 to 15 minutes on each side. But rather than worry about duration, it's important to know that the best way to ensure that the baby is getting enough breast milk is by feeding frequency, wet and dirty diapers, and weight gain.
Meanwhile, prolactin helps you make and maintain your milk supply. And, similar to our friend oxytocin, prolactin enhances relaxation and calm. Put all the pieces together, and you can see why you may feel relaxed, drowsy, or sleepy while breastfeeding.
The infant is often able to remove larger volumes of the milk from the breast compared to an electric breast pump [3, 6] and fares better at maintaining milk production in the long term.
Your body will almost always create milk for your baby even if you under-eat. But, the nutritional quality of the milk will be decreased. Your body puts baby first, so if you aren't consuming nutritionally dense foods, and enough of them, YOU will suffer the most.
Excess fluid intake does not improve milk supply. A common recommendation is to drink 1.5 to 2 L of water each day. If you are breastfeeding you could add another 1 L for a total of between 2.5 L to 3 L of water each day. You don't have to drink cow's milk to make human milk.
That said, it's not a guarantee that you'll gain weight after you stop nursing. “Some women actually lose weight after weaning,” Cording says. It's worth checking in with yourself if you're concerned about your overall health or feel like your eating habits haven't been the best lately.
Try not to go longer than about six hours without pumping if baby is eating during that time. That means, don't skip more than one breastfeeding without pumping. Note: If baby is sleeping longer stretches at night, you should be sleeping those stretches, too.
The Basics of Breastfeeding
Breast milk has three different and distinct stages: colostrum, transitional milk, and mature milk. Colostrum is the first stage of breast milk. It occurs during pregnancy and lasts for several days after the birth of the baby.
Your breasts feel softer
This happens as your milk supply adjusts to your baby's needs. The initial breast fullness reduces in the first few weeks. At around 6 weeks, breast fullness is completely gone and your breasts may feel soft. This is completely normal and has no effect on your milk supply.
As milk is removed from your breasts, your body is signalled to make more milk. The more frequently and thoroughly the breasts are emptied (though breasts are never truly 'emptied'), the faster they try to refill. Oxytocin – which promotes milk 'let-down' or the flow of the milk to the baby.
The maximum volume of milk in the breasts each day can vary greatly among mothers. Two studies found a breast storage capacity range among its mothers of 74 to 606 g (2.6 to 20.5 oz.) per breast (Daly, Owens, & Hartmann, 1993; Kent et al., 2006).
It's also been noted that the body produces the most milk when it is the most relaxed, and the middle of the night is the best example for this. If all of this isn't reason enough to love your 3:00am milk supply, remember that it is a special time and tends to be silent, dark, and just the two of you.
Research tells us that both more frequent breastfeeding and breastfeeding longer than six months increases maternal weight loss. While nursing, you should not consume less than 1500-1800 calories per day, and most women should stay at the high end of this range.
Low milk supply at night
But your body produces more prolactin (the lactation hormone) during night feedings. Therefore, your overall prolactin levels could drop if you skip on night feedings, leading to a low milk supply.