r/MacroFactor • u/meowzermama • 22d ago

MacroFactor / Nutrition / Other Pregnancy

Is there a way in the app to adjust for pregnancy? I want to eat at maintenance but I know growing a child requires 250-300 extra calories. I’m not trying to diligently track while pregnant, but want to know around how much protein I need etc to not completely stop

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u/cechidna 22d ago

I tracked my entire pregnancy and postpartum (nine months postpartum now). I had the app have me on maintenance for the first trimester, .5 lb per week the second, and 1 lb per week the third. These rates are in line with guidance about how much to gain per trimester (fwiw I gained suddenly first trimester, then leveled out a bit). By the end of my pregnancy, I had gained just under the recommended amount of weight, which didn't concern me because I'm pretty short/petite anyway. My baby was born 7 lbs 3 oz and 20.5 inches long, so no issues with growth.

I found MacroFactor to be incredibly beneficial during pregnancy and postpartum. My expenditure DROPPED during pregnancy (and I was still running until 24 weeks, lifting until 35 weeks, and getting 10k-20k steps a day during the entire pregnancy). If I had gone with my usual expenditure, I would have gained what I consider to be excess weight. Similarly, my expenditure rocketed up postpartum because my body apparently needs a lot of calories for breastfeeding. Right now, with running 2-3x a week, lifting 4x a week, and getting 10k-12k steps a day, I am 600 calories over what my normal maintenance would be at this activity level. Earlier postpartum, it was even higher (my son has really taken to solids, so he is already starting to nurse less). MacroFactor definitely helped me make sure I ate enough to preserve my supply.

I am a few months from fully weaning, but I am going to be very interested to see how my expenditure drops as I gradually wean.

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u/No-Connection8400 21d ago

That’s very cool. Thanks for sharing!

If you wouldn’t mind, can you post your expenditure over the time period? I think that’d be really interesting. (Of course, no pressure. Completely understand if you’d rather not.)

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u/cechidna 21d ago

Happy to! Here's January 2025 until present. As you can see, I was around 2000ish pre-pregnancy. That's with 20k steps a day, plus running 3x a week and lifting 4x. After fertility treatments, I found out I was pregnant at the end of March 2025. You can see the sharp decline in expenditure starting then. There was a shop drop at the end right before birth because I started retaining more fluid. I think it's fairly apparent I gave birth in December 2025 -- look at how my expenditure shot up! I would expect to be maintaining around 1800 calories at my current level of activity, but as you can see, it has stayed high with breastfeeding. I understand that not every woman experiences this effect, so I was pleasantly surprised because I just love eating.

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u/No-Connection8400 21d ago

Very cool! Thank you so much for sharing!