The Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast
The Healthy Post Natal Body Podcast
"Activate your deep core" and "How much protein do you need post partum?
Today I talk about food and "the deep core"!!!
After being asked "Should I eat more protein postpartum?", which is an awesome question, we discuss that.
I talkabout how to set your plate up if you're looking to eat healthy.
Where should you start? Which macros matter.... How much protein is enough and is protein the be-and-end-all?
Then I talk about "deep core activation". You hear this a LOT from postpartum coaches.
I explain I don't tend to use the phrase "deep core" but talk you through how the core actually works.
How can you make sure it works properly and what the best way to ensure your core recovers as fast as it can postpartum.
As always; HPNB still only has 5 billing cycles!
So this means that you not only get 3 months FREE access, no obligation!
BUT, if you decide you want to do the rest of the program, after only 5 months of paying $10/£8 a month you now get FREE LIFE TIME ACCESS! That's $50 max spend, in case you were wondering.
This means you can sign up after your first child, use the program and recover and then still have access after giving birth to child 2 and 3!
None of this "pay X amount a year" nonsense, once you've paid..you've paid!
This makes HPNB not just the most efficient and complete post-partum recovery program, it's also BY FAR the best value.
Though I'm not terribly active on Instagram and Facebook you can follow us there. I am however active on Threads so find me there!
And, of course, you can always find us on our YouTube channel if you like your podcast in video form :)
Visit healthypostnatalbody.com and get 3 months completely FREE access. No sales, no commitment, no BS.
Email peter@healthypostnatalbody.com if you have any questions or comments
Playing us out this week "Me!" by Lucy Domino
Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with your postnatal expert, peter Lap. That, as always, would be me. Two things today, two things, two little questions. To get cracking with Deep core activation, talking a bit about that, you know, activate your deep core, work the deep core, build the deep core. You hear that's a tremendous amount from post partum coaches. I explain why I don't talk about it too much, but what they should mean by that, and I'm talking about this whole need for a sufficient protein postpartum and ask the question you know, should you eat more postpartum? Uh, for health? I'm not talking about for weight loss or weight management, anything like that. So that's where we are today. So, without further ado, here we go.
Peter:Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast With me. This is the podcast. For what are we today, the 1st of June 2025. And I hope you're well, I hope you're absolutely crushing it. I am rushing through it today. I am here with absolutely everybody. Bobby, the cat is sound asleep on top of the chest of drawers. Everybody else, from Kitty to Lola to Peggy, to Porridge and Buddy, are all in the room with me. So if you hear any battering about and all that sort of stuff, I'll try to edit as much as I can out, but I tend not to, so you know that's where all the noises come from. I promise I'm the quiet one. We have a lot to cover today, peter, at HealthyPostnatalBodydotcom, by the way, if you have any questions or comments or anything like that. And natalbuddycom, by the way, if you have any questions or comments or anything like that. And, of course, like and subscribe whatever you do on the internet.
Peter:Um, when it comes to this sort of stuff, uh, when it comes to podcasts, if you could leave a five-star review, that would not be nice. Would not be nice. Go on to, if you're listening on apple, click a little five star, don't even need to leave a full review, just a little five stars. Lovely, spotify, it would help, I suppose. Uh, I don't do, I don't check spotify numbers. Um, I barely check apple numbers, to be fair. Um, what are we doing? We're doing a little q a right, because I have to do a proper episode.
Peter:We're talking about how much protein should you eat, more protein postpartum? And how do I activate my deep core? That is the, the popular slogan these days. It's all about the deep core, uh, so what is it? How do you activate this? I talk about this a little bit in the program, uh, with regards to core activation and all that sort of stuff, but is there a deep core activation? Is that, is that a thing? Is that special? Should you? Should you know about this? Or is it just one of those phrases that that we like to use to to sound cool and impressive?
Peter:Right first, protein postpartum. I had an email from somebody who said hey, pete, I hope you're well, thanks very much for your program. Blah, blah, blah, just some general fluff. I appreciate, I appreciate the general fluff, don't get me wrong. I just don't tend to read it out on on the podcast.
Peter:Um, I recently came across an article that said I need to eat more protein postpartum. Uh, when you have a baby, you need to up the protein intake to what they said, and that's in in brackets to 2.4 grams per kilo of body weight. Um, is this true? Should I eat more now that I'm, uh, now that I'm postpartum? Um, that is fundamentally the question. Some stuff after that, but doesn't really matter. Um, and that is an interesting question because if you go on to threads or instagram or anything like that, right now and the start of start of the year, everybody's banging on about protein how much protein do you need, and how you need to eat more protein because it's better for you and all that sort of stuff. But is that genuinely true and is there a? Is there a need for even more protein than that postpartum? Uh, you know, should you add protein for the baby, so to speak? And it's. It's a fair question and I can see why the question is asked.
Peter:Now there's a couple of things happening with protein. First of all, we have to remember a little bit that a lot of the chat around the start of the new year tends to be about weight loss and weight management type posts, so these are not necessarily intended. You're not necessarily the intended audience for that if you're postpartum. Having said that, you know a lot of people, a lot of PTs, are big fans of protein and I kind of come down on that side of things because the evidence is fairly, fairly solid.
Peter:0.8 grams of protein per kilogram body weight, which is the standard recommendation that nhs still goes with, is just too low. All the science, all the research says that it should be near 1.8, that people function better, even if you're not exercising that much. Now, don't get me wrong, protein is obviously essential for building muscle and all that sort of stuff. But just on a basic uh, how the human body functions best, when the human body functions best, sort of level. You want to be higher than that 0.8, which is, uh, the, the current recommended, uh, the current recommendation, right, you want to be significantly above that.
Peter:Now where I tend to differ a little bit from other uh, personal trainers is that my focus isn't that much on protein consumption. It matters for waste manner, for for waste, for for weight management and and all that sort of stuff. Don't't get me wrong. You know, the satiety theory tells us that people stop eating when they feel full and that usually happens when they've had enough protein or enough fiber or both. Right, but I think it's a bit more complex than that. But that's fundamentally what it boils down to.
Peter:So, you know, from a weight management perspective, if you start by focusing on protein first, you know, anywhere, you know, depending on how you eat, your body can take up to 100 grams of protein per meal and digest that comfortably the old 30 grams of protein per meal and and and digest that comfortably the old 30 grams of protein per meal. Is that, thank god, has finally been properly debunked. Most of us already knew it was nonsense. But you know you can eat more. You can eat 100 grams of protein in in one go and your body will be quite happy with that. Um, the reason people tell you to start with your protein, especially a lean protein, is because it makes weight management significantly easier. Because you're fully easier, right, um, you're quicker, what m&s called fuller for longer, type, uh type stuff. But if you start with your starches and all that sort of stuff on the start, with your carbs, uh, when putting your your plate together, um, then you'll likely want a meal a little bit, a little bit sooner afterward, which is why most personal trainers and most dieticians and all that sort of stuff tend to tell you start with the protein.
Peter:I start with fiber, which is the second part of that satiety theory. You know that's the second half. It's the other half of the theory. If you have sufficient amount of fiber, then you'll feel fuller faster as well. The reason I say focus on fiber is because everybody is short on fiber in Western diet. I say everybody, I mean most people, is what I mean by that. You know, if you're getting enough, then well done. I think we should aim for around about 20, 24 grams of fiber, and most people tend to hit about six or eight. So that is low right and we know that for intestinal health and all that sort of stuff, fiber is just huge. Fiber is absolutely massive. So I say, start with your fiber, start with your vegetables and all that sort of stuff and then do the protein.
Peter:I firmly believe and I know other people disagree with me on this, but I firmly believe that a lot of people in the West actually get enough protein Because we can afford it. So we buy loads of stuff. I don't think we get enough good quality protein necessarily, but I think we get enough protein for for what we need. Um, you know, the issue that we get when it's from a weight management perspective and that's not what this bit is the question is really about, but I'll still want to address it is that a lot of the protein we consume comes with high fat content as well. We're not getting a lot of lean protein. We're very big on chicken wings and you know, 30 grams of protein in a portion of chicken wings or chicken legs or something like that is significantly higher in calories than 30 grams of protein coming from a portion of chicken breast. Right, that is significant because the fat is nine calories per gram. And if you get 30 grams, you say, say that's that's going to be. And the problem is that fat carries flavor. Right, as chef nigel uh used to be on the steve wright in the afternoon show, they used to have a guy on nigel chef. I don't know what his surname was. It was his big slogan fat carries flavor and that means that we keep eating. So, from a weight management perspective, lean protein is where you start. Most people tend to get enough protein, protein for their daily function, not bodybuilder level, but you know, normal people get enough protein for their normal function, but it comes with too much fat, it comes in a processed form, it comes in a hyperpalatable form and it comes with a significant order of salt and carbs and not enough fiber on the side. That's why I say start with the fiber and then focus on the lean protein.
Peter:Should you eat more postpartum because you have a baby and all this sort of stuff as in? Should you have more protein by itself? No, not really. You'll be fine if you um, if you want to eat more calories, and most people tend to eat a few more calories when they're breastfeeding or expressing and all that sort of stuff, or just you know, just postpartum In general, a lot of women will tend to eat a little bit more because of the way life is going, because life is so hectic and all that sort of stuff. And you know I've done episodes on Zaya Zhu with Dr Crystal Lau and Guangming Whitley and all that sort of stuff, so you know how much of a fan I am of that Taking a month of just bonding with baby and not doing a lot else and all that sort of stuff.
Peter:But even the period after that people tend to eat a bit more anyways, even just staying awake, staying awake having a coffee morning and all that sort of stuff. So, calorie wise, yeah, you burn two, three hundred calories a day breastfeeding. So do you want to eat a bit more? Yeah, and if you can stick to the same macro ratio, so the of fat, protein and carbohydrates, um then great. Then you will automatically get in more protein anyways. But do you need that for the baby? No, not really. Like I said, if you, if you hit your your 1.8 grams per gram per kilogram of body weight, which is. So for a 60-kilogram woman that would be roughly what is that? Say times two. Say times two, so that's 120 grams. So if you hit 110 grams of protein, then you'll be completely fine. If you add a baby to that mix, it doesn't change the price of fish, it? It really, really doesn't.
Peter:Start with fiber. That's that's meant. Instead of asking should I eat more protein, eat more fiber. That is the go-to should be fiber. Fiber is comes with all the nice little nutrients and all that sort of stuff as well. You know, if you up your vegetable intake, you get more nutrients as well, and of course, you get that from meat as well. I'm not saying that meat isn't nutritious, but I'm saying start with the vegetables, start with the stuff.
Peter:You're actually short, actually likely to be short, on uh, if you are a vegetarian and I do or or a vegan and I know I have quite a few listeners in uh in places are predominantly uh, vegetarian and vegan, because you know the healthy postnatal body program is free for three months and a lot of you sign up in in in india and uh, pakistan and all that sort of stuff, lots of Chinese members as well and God love you. I mean, I absolutely love that. Come in for three months and then you leave and all that sort of stuff. It's great. I absolutely love that. I have quite a few members over there. I think it's phenomenal, and a lot of you listen to the podcast, which is much, much appreciated. Lot of you listen to the podcast, which is much, much appreciated. Um, you know so, if you are predominantly vegetarian or vegan, as long as you're getting your whole foods in, you will likely get enough fiber.
Peter:Right in the west, a lot of vegans, uh, or vegans, find it much easier to eat loads of rubbish because we have a lot of meat substitutes available. You know, wendy, my lovely wife, she eats like the Wicked Burgers and all that sort of stuff and it's just highly processed. That's not all she eats. But when she has all of those meal replacement uh, meat replacement type things, I look at it and I I despair. Uh, just because you know, those wicker burgers are terrible, highly palatable, full of salt, full of shitty fats, very little nutritious value, high in calories. Um, you don't actually feel like you've had enough after you've eaten these two things, because there is nothing of substance to them. It's like having a Big Mac. It is that level it's just junk food, but vegan junk food. If you're eating whole foods and all that sort of stuff, then you're crushing it, then you're likely getting more than enough fiber.
Peter:The fiber problem is a predominantly western problem. Um, from from my understanding and again feel free to correct me on this if you happen to be a dietician mainly working in china and you're like, actually the chinese have the same problem, then you know, or certain areas of china have the same problem, then definitely point that out to me. I'll happily be corrected. I haven't looked into that bit that much, but I do know that it's, uh, from the last time I looked into it, it's predominantly a western problem. I know dietary habits are changing absolutely everywhere across the world anyways, right, uh, we're all, we're all eating worse, that's predominantly it. So get your fiber first, focus on fiber postpartum and then consider protein and leaner proteins especially, and all that sort of thing.
Peter:But the second question because now I've been waffling on it for the best part of 17 minutes already 17, 18 minutes the second question and this is a lovely, lovely question Was from somebody. Let me see if I can find the email here. You think I have it ready, but you know, for people who listen regularly. You know I don't, as Dinky snores in the background. Right, hi, peter, I have a quick question. Um, always listen to the podcast and you don't talk about the deep core very much. But I see a lot of deep core mentions online and I wonder whether I'm working my deep core enough to actually uh, heal my diastasis recti. And that is a lovely question. I like that a lot.
Peter:I don't use the phrase deep core as much as other people do. That is absolutely true. I use the individual muscle when I talk about the program and all that sort of stuff. I talk about core activation and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, I talk about that, but I don't, um, that is only after when I talk about the core breath. So when you start the Healthy Postnatal Body Program or when you start any recovery program, the first thing they should do is teach you how to breathe. I use the core breath.
Peter:Some people use diaphragmatic breathing and all that sort of stuff. I'm not a big fan. I've gone into this before. I'm not a big fan at all of diaphragmatic breathing for diastasis recta recover. To be honest, I don't think it hits the lower part of the core well enough, but that is just my personal opinion and I know I'm right on this, but. But I think the core, the core breath, is significantly better. Um, but it's one of those I know I'm right. There's no scientific evidence either way because studies don't get done on this type of stuff. As most of you again listening to the podcast regularly will know, women's health is not interesting enough to actually run a study on um, if you believe, if you believe the numbers, at least right.
Peter:So the core basically is from the perspective of deep core and and and and, non-deep course, outer core and all that sort of stuff. Basically you have the outer core and the and the deep core. The outer core basically are your abs, your six-pack muscles, your obliques and all that sort of stuff, the outer obliques and all that sort of thing, the muscles you can see when you have a really low body fat percentage. That's your outer core, everything else in the trunk of your body, so to speak. So minus say, you chop your legs, your head and your arms off. Every other muscle below that outer group of muscles is a deep core muscle.
Peter:For the purpose of talking about deep core, I was always taught that there are three layers to core, but now that you know that is how we used to say it. Um, but now we just do outer core, deep core, because it's just, it's easier. Except, like I said, I don't talk about deep core because I work. I work it slightly differently than what a lot of people do. So you will have heard of things like the transfers of dominance, that transfers is of dominance and all that sort of stuff. Um, because a lot of people bang on about that. And postpartum, you know you need to activate your TVA and all that sort of stuff. You'll have heard that a lot. Well, that is part of the deep core. Again, I work that less than other people do. I don't think it's nearly as important as people seem to claim it is. As some people seem to claim it is. I think the glutes are significantly more important.
Peter:Pelvic floor muscles are a part of this, which is awesome, right, we know we need to work the pelvic floor. They are part of the psoas. You know that Jessica Marie Rose Leggo keeps banging on the bat. That is part of the deep core. You know the multifidus muscles, the muscles in between your vertebrae, the muscles that help stabilize the vertebrae and all that sort of stuff help stabilize the spine. They are part of that. How do you activate? That is basically.
Peter:That is when I start by telling people to use the core breath. If you use the core breath correctly and again, if you've the the video is is on the youtube channel. It is so straightforward to do. It is frightening if you place your hand on your belly, uh, on your belly button. How about halfway through, pointing your fingers, pointing towards your pelvic floor, and you exhale by starting to use the fingers near your pelvic floor, first feeling them pull in and up, exhale, and there you go. So you tighten. Instead of breathing from the top down, which a lot of diaphragmatic breathing does, is starting to exhale at the top and then you collapse in on yourself again. The video is a much better explainer for this than than I can do. Um, that I can do with just just here. Um, but then that will teach you how your core should feel as you are doing any sort of exercises. Um, so that is uh, and that is not just postpartum. Right, that is how everybody should breathe at all times.
Peter:As far as I'm concerned, uh, not just postpartum, but just during any sort of athletic uh, athletic performance as well. In an ideal world you can get really good at this really really quickly. Uh, using the right muscles at the right time and all that sort of stuff. And that's what I mean by activation. But using the right muscles at the right time, that is good muscle activation. I'm not saying that the because a lot of people don't, you know, fall into a pattern. I'm not talking about squeezing the biceps and all that sort of stuff. I'm not talking about that. It's slightly. And all that sort of stuff. I'm not talking about that slightly more old school thing and I still like the phrase, but you know, mainly because it is what people understand.
Peter:But if you feel the muscles working in a certain order, then you can focus on that a little bit and that really helps when we do any sort of rehab stuff. A lot of rehab stuff will be about, well, for diastasis recta, you do things like that type of breathing and then you do glute bridges and you do some leg extensions and you do squats and lunges and all that sort of stuff. But the basis of that is learning to contract the muscles at the right time. Learning teaching the muscles to contract, to stabilize during the right movements at the right time, lengthening at the right time, all that sort of stuff. That is basically getting the muscles to do what they need to do. That is what activating the deep core is right.
Peter:Like I said, I'm not a big fan of saying, when someone's holding the plank, activate the deep core. I've heard that before when you say, engage the core and all that sort of stuff. But you can only do that if you're breathing correctly, so you don't need to overthink it. It is not massively complex, it's just exh extending properly and at the right time. So when I say extending at the right time, I mean usually when you do an exercise, I talk about extending on the effort. So during a squat, that's extending on the way up.
Peter:I'm not a big fan of people holding hold, people holding their breath at all during any sort of exercise, unless you're sitting like a squat personal best or deadlift personal best or something like that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about for most people, they should be able to breathe their way through an exercise, especially postpartum. You want to get into the habit of that because of the you know internal pressure on uh, on your core muscles and all that sort of stuff leading to diastasis recti. And if you're looking to recover from diastasis recti, you want to avoid too much internal pressure, right, that's a no-brainer. So if you exhale on the efforts on the way, usually when you're fighting gravity so the glute bridge is on the way up, leg raises it's when your legs are moving up, squats it's when you're moving up, and all that sort of thing, deadlifts, all that sort of stuff, it's usually when you're fighting gravity Then if you exhale through that motion properly and contract your core muscles at the right time, you get more bang for your buck.
Peter:And that is essentially all that deep core activation, deep core engagement, whatever that is. Um, it's the same as when you do a walking plank. So the low to high plank that we do as part of the healthy postnatal body program uh, it'll be in month four or something like that, maybe three. Um, you know, when you move from a high to a low plank, you exhale on the way up and you get a little bit more of a squeeze out of your core muscles because you're moving and you feel a bit more rotation. When you hold the plank, as long as you breathe through it, you kind of tend to squeeze all the muscles, tighten all the muscles, contract all the muscles at the at the same. Contract all the muscles at the same time right? A lot of muscles tend to be on the go, but then you add movement to that. That is the only time you really get any true grouping of your activation of your deep core muscles. You get very little of it in a static plank. Very little, because these muscles work more when they're moving.
Peter:Um, bracing of the core is important I'm not saying that it isn't, by the way, in case any anybody listening to this thinks that you shouldn't ever brace your core, it is, especially if I've athletic performance and all that sort of stuff. But I'm a much bigger fan of not just belly full of air, squeeze as hard as you can and calling that bracing of the core. Um, I'm not sure other people exhale their way through uh, food emotion and especially when it comes to rehab stuff. Um, if you have any questions on that, again, peter at healthy postnatal bodycom, I will more than happy explain and, like I said, the the the core breath video is on on the youtube channel. It's I'm still to reshoot that video.
Peter:To be honest, it's one I shot a long, long time ago, um, and I would like to, you know, throw a bit more money at the problem now that we have, because we have quite a few subscribers on the healthy postnatal body thing, admittedly, most by far. The majority of people either come to me through charities or they cancel after three months, right? So membership numbers are very high. Paying membership numbers numbers are significantly lower, to be honest with you, but that doesn't really matter much as long as it washes its face and all that sort of stuff. Right, the sales are doing, sales are doing okay, and you know I can pay the bills, so it's it's all good. But I mean, yeah, I might reshoot some videos and do some new videos and all that sort of stuff. Let me know, by the way, if there's any appetite at all in me doing any sort of youtube q and a's, because I've stopped the doing a lot of stuff on on the youtube channel because it's a pain in the neck, but we do have quite a few views and all that sort of stuff on YouTube. So I'm not sure whether, if you're thinking I'd rather watch this podcast on YouTube, then I'll throw it on YouTube. Just let me know. I hope that helps.
Peter:I think I'm about half an hour in, so I'm going to knock it on the head. I'm working on several interviews that I still have to edit and all that sort of stuff, so that's fun, right? We're talking a bit about gut health. That's going to be a fun episode. And then we're talking about perimenopause again. Oh yes, oh yes, it's coming up again, because?
Peter:So I thought it's nice to get another episode done on that because, like I said, there's some excellent questions with regards to becoming a mother when you're in the late 30s, early 40s, and all that sort of stuff. Postpartum life, early 40s, hormone-wise hormone-wise is a different beast from being pregnant and giving birth in your 20s and all that sort of stuff. That was not my original point. That was the point of the guest that I had on, and if I could remember her name, then I will tell you what it is, but I don't, because I'm old and I forget stuff. Right, that's the half hour mark. Peter at HealthyPostnatalBodycom, you take care of yourself. Here's a new bit of music, and I'll be back next week. Right, bye now.
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