Not sure how many calories I should be eating to lose weight?

[northwoods1995]

I am breastfeeding my 21 month old and I'm not sure how many calories I should be eating to lose weight. Most days she still nurses about 8 times a day for maybe 5-10 minutes at a time and she does still nurse at night too. But other days she might only nurse a few times a day. She eats a wide variety of solid food too but she stills breastfeeds quite a bit.

I found a recommended calorie amount calculator on a weight loss site but I'm not sure how I should factor in breastfeeding a toddler. I've seen average calories burned for breastfeeding to be about 200-500 per day. Is that for an exclusively breastfed baby though?

I need to lose about 40lbs. I'm 5'4" and around 175 for weight.

Thanks!

[e.naomisandoval]

I'm not sure what others will say but my guess is at 21 months, you don't factor it in much. It's just not a lot of calories. For example, I was factoring in calories burned when calculating how many calories I needed to eat and then not losing weight. The bottom line is, if you are not losing weight, eat fewer calories. There are so many calculators out there that base it off different things. I have had the best results basing my calories off lean body mass and activity level. Lean body mass is whatever is not fat. If you don't know your body fat, you can calculate using your target body weight. I just do not recommend using your current weight in calculations for how much you need to eat unless you want to maintain that weight.