Getting back to exercise postpartum can help you relieve stress, anxiety, and pain. It can get you back in touch with your body, help prevent injury and give you energy when you eat enough to support your workouts. If you’re ready and don’t know where to start go check out my blogs here and here. Getting sufficient nutrition becomes especially important if you exercise while breastfeeding. Some nutrient requirements for breastfeeding go up even more than they were in the third trimester.
Don’t stress though, eating enough to support your exercise while breastfeeding is very simple: ditch the postpartum diet mentality and trust your body to tell you what it needs. I know this is easier said than done when we are surrounded with messages to lose weight and get our bodies back. Our bodies didn’t go anywhere and they don’t need to be smaller for the sake of being smaller. They need to be nourished, healed, and made stronger!
After having my son it took me a while to recover and feel good enough to start strength training again. I knew that I would need to get the proper nutrition to fuel those workouts and keep my milk supply up. I didn’t have a lot of time to meal plan and I didn’t want to overthink it. Sitting down to eat a meal was a luxury I didn’t always have, but eventually, I did find ways to support both that I want to share with you. But first, let me explain what I mean by sufficient nutrition.
Nutrition For Breastfeeding
If you have ever breastfed a child you know how much your appetite increases. This is for good reason. Breastfeeding women require about 500 additional calories and an additional 25 grams of protein per day. I point this out to show that additional energy is needed not to encourage calorie counting, which is not necessary.
Requirements for many vitamins and minerals also increase for breastfeeding mothers. This is why it is usually recommended that women continue to take their prenatal vitamins postpartum. Luckily, breastmilk nutrient composition doesn’t seem to be affected by moderate exercise alone. So your breastmilk will still have all of the vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients your little one needs.
Nutrition For Exercise
Exercise is a type of stress on the body that is amazing for you when you don’t overdo it. Not eating enough and exercising more will only add more stress. No matter what type of exercise you decide to do you will be expending additional energy and will want to replenish your body so that your workouts make you feel good rather than depleted.
All three macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) are important for replenishing your body. Carbohydrates are the preferred metabolic fuel for nerve cells, red blood cells, and exercising muscles. Protein plays several important roles including promoting muscle growth, repairing damaged cells and tissues, and are the building blocks of enzymes and hormones. To build muscle you will want to eat sufficient protein. Fat is used as a primary fuel for lower intensity, longer duration exercise like walking and hiking.
Eating Enough Without Overthinking It
Exercise while breastfeeding requires additional calories and protein. I encourage you to honor your hunger and eat until you are satisfied. Again, I don’t think it is necessary or helpful to track your calories and macros, especially during this time. Here is what you can do to make sure you are getting sufficient nutrition:
Listen To Your Body
You are the expert when it comes to knowing what your body needs. Trust your body signals of hunger, satiety, and satisfaction. If you have been dieting or restricting calories for a long time this may sound like a scary concept. You may also be out of touch with your body’s signals. It is helpful to check in with yourself before, during, and after a meal.
Ask yourself what hunger signals you are experiencing before a meal. During your meal check in about the taste and satisfaction. Are you beginning to feel full? After a meal check back to see how satisfied you are. Are you still hungry? Are you overstuffed? These are good practices to get you back in tune with your body.
A quick note: If this is something that you struggle with or have/had an eating disorder in the past I encourage you to work with a non-diet health professional or intuitive eating coach. Steph Gaudreau is an intuitive eating counselor and has great content on the subject.
Eat Mindfully
This goes hand in hand with listening to your body. When you can sit down to eat your meals and don’t rush. Try to take away distractions and enjoy your food. Slow down and chew more. This brings out the flavor in the food and helps with digestion. If you are rolling your eyes right now because this seems impossible with children I get it. That doesn’t mean we can’t try!
Aim For Balance
Don’t exclude any macronutrients. Carbs and fat are just as much your friends as protein is! Try to get a good mix of all three with each snack or meal. Balance also means not labeling food as bad or off limits. When we do that, what happens? We want it more and eventually eat it, and maybe too much of it because why not, we already messed up. Then go on to regret it later. Try removing the moral code tied to food.
Here are some examples of balanced snacks or meals:
- Full fat cottage cheese (it is way better than low or fat-free) and some fruit
- Burrito (or bowl) with ground beef, rice, beans, bell peppers, onions, and avocado
- Roasted chicken (with the skin), rice, and veggies
- Chocolate pudding topped with honey roasted almonds
Notice how I didn’t put any portion sizes? That is entirely up to you and your level of hunger. Any diet, fitness tracker, app, or coach that tells you the exact amount of food that you should eat is wrong. Yea I said it. They have no idea what your body needs or how it feels.
Let Go of Perfection
No one in this world is perfect all the time. Some days you may have to eat all of your meals running after a toddler. There is no room there for listening to your body, mindful eating, and balance. Shit happens, at least you ate! There will also be some trial and error when you first start working out again. You will have to see how you feel, how your body responds, and adjust accordingly.
I hope this helps! Let me know how it goes in the comments.