Monday 25 March 2013

Exercising while breast feeding

Hey mamas!
Congrats on your new bundle of joy! So much excitement, joy, sleep deprivation and lack of laundry happening in your life right now I'm sure. You're doing great!

I have been a personal trainer for over 13yrs and just delivered my 4th baby girl 4wks ago, I have learned a lot about my body and how it copes after delivery when I introduce exercise.
The main thing I want to inform and warn you about today is how your breast milk production may decrease if you are doing too much and decreasing or expending too many calories.
In other words; if you are trying to drop your baby weight and start to exercise 5 days a week for an hour but don't feed your body properly it could make your body stop producing as much milk because breast feeding takes a lot of calories. Being pregnant, your body only needs 300 more calories/day to grow a healthy baby BUT when you are breast feeding, your body requires 500 calories/day!
So you are asking "how can I lose my baby weight & keep up my milk production?"...well here is how:
- exercise in moderation at first till you see how your body feels to make sure you do not exhaust yourself. Your baby needs you!
- eat a good meal/snack before your workouts, about an hr before and eat within 45mins after your workout
- eat lean meats, good fats, grain such as rice, quinoa, couscous, legumes and nuts/seeds
- drink LOTs of water! 2-3L a day!

Start off slow then increase the intensity of your workout each week as your body allows but don't expect the weight to drop off in a few weeks (depending on how much you gained), listen to your body and feed it healthy foods with reasonable portion sizes and the weight will take are of itself I promise!

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