Breastfeeding hunger. 

It’s like hunger, but intensified tenfold. 

Many women describe feeling extreme hunger breastfeeding - a ravenous hunger that is a whole other level than what you may be used to. It can hit you out of nowhere, turning you into a hangry mom that needs to eat NOW. If you’re experiencing this, it can feel scary and foreign in your body. 

If you’re experiencing constant hunger while breastfeeding, let me be the first to tell you that you’re not crazy and there’s nothing wrong with your body. 

I remember after having my first baby, I would wake up at crazy times of the night with intense hunger pains, even though I had eaten plenty of food throughout the day. 

I also remember feeling frustrated that I was eating large volumes of food and not getting to a place where I felt full, or satisfied in my body. Most days, I felt like a bottomless pit raiding the fridge and pantry for anything and everything that could possibly fill me up.

Can you relate, mama? 

Now, if you’re a new mom, breastfeeding and always hungry - you’re not crazy. 

Your body isn’t broken. It’s actually responding appropriately to the increased energy demands your body is experiencing after childbirth and to produce milk for your precious baby. 

Breastfeeding and always hungry may be a new and foreign experience in your body, and there are ways you can respond in order to help yourself stay nourished and satiated while postpartum. I’m going to share some ideas to help support you through this. 

But first, let’s talk about extreme hunger breastfeeding and why this can feel intense and scary.  

Why You’re so Hungry While Breastfeeding

You may have heard things said about breastfeeding, and there’s a lot of misinformation out there that can muddle the waters and make things confusing for new moms. 

A common myth floating around out there you may have heard is that your body needs an extra 500 calories per day for breastfeeding. But what we actually see from research is energy needs to sustain lactation and milk production are higher than this, on average. While every woman’s needs will be different depending on how much she’s nursing throughout the day/night, if she’s pumping, and her overall activity level, we generally see average energy needs to be much higher than the 500 calorie advice given to most breastfeeding women. 

I know a lot of breastfeeding moms who feel like they’re easily getting in an extra 500 calories each day, but this can feel like a drop in the bucket compared to the ravenous hunger they’re feeling. 

What research shows is that average energy costs to sustain milk production and lactation are upwards of 650 - 850 kcals/day, on top of what your body might typically need in a day. 

Wow.

Let’s put these energy needs into perspective here.

The energy demand on your body from breastfeeding is equivalent to doing high-impact aerobics for over an hour or like running 6 or 7 miles in a day. Hello?! That’s a LOT of energy expenditure on any given day. And while breastfeeding may not exactly feel like an intense cardio workout, your body is utilizing just as much energy to make milk for your baby.

I don’t know about you, but if I went out for a 7 mile run or did a high-impact cardio workout for over an hour, I’d be ravenous too. Increased hunger is present to cue your body to respond to this dramatic increase in energy needs that are being expended on a daily basis while breastfeeding. There’s no denying the energy cost of lactation and demands on the body that require increased energy intake to meet the energy stress of lactation. 

If you’re exercising or doing any type of physical activity while breastfeeding, your energy needs may be even higher to cover your body’s basis.

And let me just clarify: this is not about pinpointing the exact number of extra calories you may need in a day. There’s not a one-size-fits all approach to figuring that out, and every breastfeeding mom is going to be different. 

The point is, you’re feeling HUNGRIER while breastfeeding because making milk for your baby requires extra energy, like much more than you may be anticipating. It’s crazy expensive for your body to make milk to feed your baby AND to cover all of your basis for taking care of your own body. 

In order to get you to eat an amount of food more appropriate for your body’s needs while breastfeeding, you may experience increased hunger. This is your body’s way of prompting you to eat more food to cover all your nutritional needs. And the good news is that you can trust your hunger signals and eat accordingly in order to get a sufficient amount of energy for your body’s (and breastfeeding) needs. 

Why Breastfeeding Hunger Can Feel Intense and Scary

Now you know there’s nothing wrong with your body. Your body’s not broken or you’re not crazy for experiencing such intense hunger while breastfeeding. 

So why might this extreme hunger while breastfeeding feel scary and intense at times? 

For one, let’s take a step back and look at how our culture views women’s bodies and the feelings of hunger in general. 

Remember we live in a predominately dieting culture, which tries to manipulate women in particular, to change their bodies to fit an arbitrary standard of beauty and worthiness. 

So often, hunger is seen as a “bad” thing, or something that needs to be ignored or controlled. Many women fear hunger means they’ll eat more and inevitably gain more weight. There’s a lot of negative associations with hunger, and feelings of hunger are demonized as a bad thing. 

But here’s the thing to remember and keep in mind: Hunger is just a physical sensation in our bodies, it’s a cue from our body to our brain that gives us information on how to best care for our bodies. 

Hunger cues are similar to other cues in our body that tell us something’s off in our bodies, which needs to be corrected. Like feeling thirsty or having to pee. Hunger can go in the same category, in terms of it being a cue from our body. Information is being sent to our brains to tell us something needs attention to support our bodies. 

And while thirst and having to pee seem more obvious and neutral cues, hunger can have a lot of negativity associated with it. 

If you’re feeling fear around your hunger cues, it’s important to take a step back and ask yourself why this might be happening.

In other scenarios, breastfeeding hunger can feel scary because it feels like a different kind of hunger, much more intense and unquenchable. For many women, this is a new sensation. Any types of foregin experiences in our bodies can feel uncomfortable and out-of-the-norm. And sometimes, there’s a natural tendency to associate something different in our bodies as “wrong”. 

Here are some common reasons why breastfeeding hunger may feel scary for you: 

• It feels much more intense than ever before

• You’re worried about weight gain and body changes

• You’ve learned that hunger is something to control or ignore

• You have a history of chronic dieting

• You’ve struggled with disordered eating or an eating disorder

• You’ve been disconnected from your body (this could be due to many factors, including a history of trauma, birth trauma, or maternal mental health conditions, like anxiety or depression)

This can feel especially true if you’ve previously been out of touch with your body. 

Many women may find their hunger is something that can be ignored for a certain amount of time or pushed aside until it feels convenient to eat. Breastfeeding hunger can be so intense that it’s difficult to ignore and often feels like something that needs to be urgently addressed. 

Diet Culture’s Approach to Hunger

So while society may be screaming at you and telling you your hunger is out of control and wrong, or something that needs to be ignored, it’s important to shift your mindset and focus to help you honor what your body’s needing to thrive and feed your baby. 

This may start by challenging a past mindset around hunger that taught you to ignore your body’s needs, control it, manipulate it or find ways to get around it. 

You deserve to eat. Period. 

Especially when your body is telling you if it needs more food through your hunger signals. Your hunger signals are there to help you survive, not to trick you or somehow disrupt you. You don’t have to punish yourself for feeling hungry, nor do you have to do anything to earn your food. You’re a human being who just grew and birthed another human into this world. And now you’re making milk for your baby, and your body’s guiding you with how much you need to eat through hunger and fullness signals. 

It’s about unlearning how to ignore hunger in order to honor what your body is needing to care for yourself and your baby and to support your milk supply while breastfeeding. 

How to Respond to and Honor Your Hunger While Breastfeeding

Learning how to listen to and honor your body’s hunger and fullness cues can feel difficult at first, especially if it’s something you’ve ignored in your past. 

It’s also important to understand that being a postpartum mother brings a whole new set of challenges when it comes to caring for yourself and attending to your own needs. You may be listening to your body when you feel hungry, but logistically, it may be hard to eat when you’re breastfeeding, caring for your baby, and trying to keep up with life and general. 

This is where I encourage you to fall back on some general guidelines to help you navigate this beautiful and sometimes challenging postpartum season to ensure you’re taking care of yourself and staying fed and nourished, especially while breastfeeding and caring for a new baby. 

Just remember: this is not about perfection. This is about being proactive to intentionally care for yourself and your body, particularly during this postpartum season where your nutritional needs may be higher than usual. 

1. Set reminders to eat frequently throughout the day: 

With the increased energy needs you have while postpartum and breastfeeding, it’s important to fuel your body regularly and consistently. This can also help keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day, which can steady your mood and energy levels (both which are so important postpartum). 

Eating frequently throughout the day can also help prevent you from getting to a point where you’re feeling extreme hunger or even hangry. It may be tricky to get in the habit of eating every 2-3 hours, especially if you’re focused on caring for your baby. 

But remember, your needs are important too, and caring for yourself is also caring for your baby. 

Try setting reminders on your phone to help remind you to eat so that you don’t go too long without eating. Keep easy to eat snacks in places you frequently sit for nursing so you have quick things to grab and eat when you can. As much as possible, try to prevent going too long without eating, as this can create more intense hunger episodes later. 

2. Aim for satisfying and sustaining meals/snacks: 

Eating snacks that include a combination of protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats can have more staying power to help keep you satisfied. If you’re just eating one food at a time, it’s likely not going to sustain you very long, and you’re likely going to experience hunger again soon. 

Complex carbohydrates, including foods like whole grains, fruits and vegetables, have a higher fiber content, which breaks down slower in your digestive system. This equates to more sustained energy and satiety after eating. 

Healthy fats are also important for satiety as well. For some easy and satisfying postpartum snack ideas, be sure to check out this post here: “Nourishing Postpartum Meals: Easy Postpartum Recipes For New Moms”

3. Keep easy foods on hand: 

If you’re not prepared with foods to help you stay nourished throughout the day, it may be harder for you to feed your body, especially when hunger strikes. 

If something is too complicated to prepare or there are too many steps involved for meal prep, it’s just going to feel like more obstacles to eating and staying nourished. Just remember, it doesn’t have to be complicated to help you feed your body well. 

Having some easy foods on hand that you can grab any time of day are important for your postpartum recovery plan. This can include things such as trail mix, protein bars, fresh and dried fruit, crackers and cheese, yogurt and granola or dried cereal, grass fed beef jerky, hummus with veggies or crackers to dip, etc. 

You might also consider using a meal delivery service, just temporarily, so you can have food on hand and not have to worry about running out to the grocery store with your baby. Thankfully, there are many grocery stores offering home delivery, which can significantly cut down stress and work around grocery shopping. 

4. Lower energy expenditure when possible: 

If you’re finding it difficult to eat adequate amounts of food to sustain your hunger while breastfeeding, be sure to look at any extra places you may be expending energy. 

Are you doing any type of physical activity or vigorous exercise on top of breastfeeding? If so, this could be added fuel to the fire that increases your body’s energy expenditure, thereby, increasing your hunger to respond accordingly. 

You might feel pressured to get into high-intensity exercise, especially if you’re worried about postpartum weight loss. Just remember your body is already working very hard to support milk production to feed your baby, and the combination of breastfeeding and intense exercise can add a lot of stress to your body. 

Consider decreasing the intensity, frequency, and duration of your exercise routine to help you better support your body’s energy needs while breastfeeding.

5. Refrain from postpartum dieting: 

Many women may resort to dieting after having a baby in an effort to lose the “baby weight”. But dieting tactics, including cutting out certain food groups, refraining from eating certain foods, or restricting overall intake, can actually be problematic for physical and overall mental health. 

Postpartum moms who diet may have a higher risk of nutrient deficiencies, which can prolong physical healing from birth and increase risk of maternal mental health conditions, like postpartum depression. 

Not having enough energy can also make it difficult for a breastfeeding mom to support her milk supply and negatively affect the volume quality of her breast milk. 

Not eating enough postpartum can cause a woman’s breast milk supply to dip, which can make it harder to breastfeed. 

Dieting just makes it harder to listen to, honor and trust the signals your body is telling you. 

It gives a set of rules and guidelines that are often impossible to follow, making food more chaotic. It’s hard to listen to and honor your hunger when a dieting is dictating how much food you should or shouldn’t eat. Restricting or limiting your food intake can also wreak havoc on your metabolism, mood, and overall energy levels, which can make that new mom life unnecessarily difficult. 

Diets give you a set of external rules you should follow, versus listening to and trusting the innate wisdom your own body is giving you. 

If you need more support around your postpartum body image, be sure to check out this post here: “Postpartum Body Image Issues: How to Feel Better in Your Body Today”

Intuitive Eating and Breastfeeding

It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers, but that’s not the point here. What’s most important to understand is your body can be trusted, even when your hunger feels intense, foreign, or unfamiliar. 

This is where practicing intuitive eating while postpartum and breastfeeding can actually help support an intake that is appropriate for you and that helps you better meet your individual postpartum needs. 

Intuitive eating is an approach to food and eating that helps you become the best expert of your own body. Not a set of dieting rules or tips from your mother-in-law. Not a fad diet that your co-workers have jumped on or the latest detox being promoted on your social media feed. 

YOU are the only one living in your body and are the best expert of what you need. 

Your body has the ability to self-regulate your intake based on your needs and the changes you may be going through. And YES, even when going through dramatic changes such as pregnancy, postpartum and breastfeeding, your body is able to adjust accordingly and give you the signals you need to best take care of your body. 

The key is learning how to listen to and TRUST the information your body is giving you. This can be challenging for a variety of reasons, but no matter what your relationship with your body has been like, you can rebuild trust with your body to learn how to listen to what your body is telling you. 

Learning how to eat intuitively can be your north star during postpartum and new seasons of motherhood. Especially when you’re breastfeeding and dealing with extreme hunger, intuitive eating means you learn to lean in to what your body is telling you and respond accordingly. 

This means you can use the information and signals your body is giving you to help you navigate your food intake, including how much and what foods to eat, especially while breastfeeding.

Intuitive eating while breastfeeding might look like: 

• Letting go of the dieting mentality to create space to listen to what your body is telling you

• Being aware of the intensity and frequency of your hunger cues

• Releasing rules around food in order to eat the types of foods and quantities that help you feel satisfied

• Learning to trust your body as the best expert of what you need, even if that looks differently from what you see other people doing

• Building a peaceful relationship with food and your body

Ultimately, learning to align yourself with your body and trust the information it’s giving you to navigate your food choices can help you live a healthier life, both physically and mentally. Having a more peaceful relationship with food, especially throughout your motherhood journey, can be a strong foundation from which to care for yourself and your family. 

For more support around intuitive eating, be sure to check out this post: “Intuitive Eating For Moms: Honoring Your Hunger and Fullness”

Eating Disorders and Breastfeeding

Eating disorder or disordered eating can make it harder to tune into and respond to your hunger cues appropriately while breastfeeding. If you’ve struggled with chronic dieting, disordered eating, or an eating disorder, like anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder, it may be more difficult for you to navigate some of the changes that come with postpartum and while breastfeeding. 

Disordered eating, chronic dieting, and eating disorders can make it challenging for you to listen to the cues your body is giving you, respond to your body appropriately or to trust yourself as the best expert of what your body needs. 

Eating disorders often blunt hunger and fullness cues, and many women struggling with disordered eating can find it hard to even know what hunger and fullness feels like in their bodies. This can make it challenging to get adequate nutrition, especially while postpartum and breastfeeding, where nutrient needs are at an all time high. 

If you’re struggling with an eating disorder and breastfeeding, please know there is hope for you. There are resources to help you recover and to reestablish a peaceful relationship with food and your body.

As a mother myself who has recovered from an eating disorder, I understand how hard this can make it to trust your body, especially through challenging seasons of motherhood. Even in the most dire of circumstances, there is hope for you to rebuild a positive relationship with your body that brought your baby into the world in order to be more present in your life and for your children. 

Consider joining us inside Lift the Shame, a free virtual support group for mothers who are recovering from eating disorders or who need more support around food and body image issues.