How many calories am I burning each day by nursing my 12 month old son?”
If you’re only nursing a few times a day, the caloric requirement for lactation would be lower by proportion than if you were exclusively nursing. On average, exclusively nursing mothers burn about 500 calories per day above and beyond the requirement needed to maintain their body weight. And, on average, an exclusively nursing mother transfers 24 ounces of breastmilk to her baby per day. So, a good estimate would be that 20 calories are burned for every ounce of breastmilk produced. Going with that number (20 calories per ounce), and knowing that toddlers who are nursing 4x per day or more are taking in around 12-15 ounces per day, you could estimate that you’re currently burning about 280 calories per day above and beyond what your body needs to maintain weight. Of course, that estimate would be different based on several variables. See the information below for further details.
