Q&A; Protein After Birth: How Much Is Enough? and "Does your personal trainer need to be a specialist?"

As it's been a while; a new Q&A!!

This week I answer questions on protein-levels for postpartum recovery (for athletes and non-athletes) and I explain why I think most people DO NOT need a Personal Trainer that specialises/has experience with a particular condition (AFTER rehab is completed, of course, because I'm not a maniac)

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Playing us out "Dresden the Flamingo".

Transcript

Welcome & Listener Housekeeping

Peter 0:00

Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with your postnatal expert Peter Lap. That, as always, would be me. This is the podcast for the 22nd of Feb 2026. And you know, I I usually say the day before music means I have a guest on, but today no, we're doing a QA because like I said last week, it's been a while since I've done one. We're talking uh protein, postpartum, protein levels. Should you really eat more, especially for postpartum recovery? Does it matter that much? Does it? That's it really. Um we're talking about when to work with a specialized personal trainer, when uh when will a normal as in general general yeah, I've done a PT course personal trainer suffice. And what health instances would you need? Um would I personally work with someone who has a bit more training in special in your specialized health issues? Or when would I just say nice to do that you're fine? Um because a lot of a lot of this stuff we tend to think we need a specialist for everything, and we don't necessarily. So that's what I'll be talking about a bit as well, and some general housekeeping stuff. I promise it it's it's more interesting and it'll be more fun than it sounds right now, right? So without further ado, here we go. Hey, like I said, welcome to the LP Post Native Body Podcast with your uh with your uh postnatal experts with Little Me, Little Old Me. I am here, joined by uh both the puppies. Like I said last week, Lola's no longer with us, but both the TCs still are, so that's great news. Kitty and Buddy sound asleep, all white, all fluffy. If you're if you're if on the off chance, on the off chance, I'll just throw it out here because we are looking, of course, we're down from three dogs too, and and three was already not enough. If you know someone who has a little hyperallergenic, low shedding type doggy in the UK within like 100-120 miles of Edinburgh, let me know. Peter at healthy postnatalbody.com. Um that's also where you can send all your comments and questions and all that sort of stuff, by the way, which which several uh several people obviously uh obviously have done. Um so I am going to answer a couple of emails. Uh or a couple of questions, and I have them in notes in front of me. So I'm not I'm not reading out emails because uh there were tidbits from emails um that were sent in with a lot of personal info in there. So I thought, okay, let me just summarize it into into into little bits rather than you know, I I don't give away identities of anybody who emails, and I don't want any um any personal information to to get out ever. And I I had no idea how to other than that, how to best do it. So we are talking how much protein should you eat postpartum? This is an this is an excellent question. I know I covered this before, and we've done a lot of on on post eating for postpartum recovery on the on the episode about you know sitting the month, the Chinese habit uh Say Yesu. Um and one of these days I'll pronounce that properly. I think I'm close. Um uh sitting the month um and all that type of stuff, but you know, within there is enough debate within the health and fitness industry about protein levels during training and all that sort of stuff that I had a question from someone who is an athlete who is a um professional, well semi-professional athlete. Um so they they make a bit of money from the sport, and that's awesome, and they're awesome, and and everything about it is wonderful. Um, but they were saying that okay, I need to add, um, I need to eat, sorry, um 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram body weight. Um by that is which is to be fair that that is true. That the the for for for them that that is about accurate, and all the studies say that that is accurate levels for like hypertrophy and all that type of stuff as well. But now that I'm postpartum, should I up that to two? And that's an excellent question, because of course we don't have the research on that. Fundamentally, there is very little research at that at that level into the recovery of postpartum athletes. I have not come across a single decent study that because it's it's so difficult to do, right? Especially if you you can do it, say say for tennis players, uh football players, um, but how does that compare to one another? And how does that compare to, I don't know, Winter Olympics around, so how does that compare to skiers and snowboarders? Right? So so we don't the thing is we don't rightly know, is the question. My initial instinct is to say no, you don't. Um I'm like I said, I'm on board with the 1.6. That is, you know, I've I've I've discussed this before. You don't need to eat two grams of protein per kilogram body weight for for hypertrophy and and um and all that type of stuff. There isn't a single study that shows this. This is more uh Jim Bro, easy to calculate, right? Uh one gram per pound, and therefore that's two grams per kilogram body weight, um or kilogram target body weight, however you want to measure that. Um which is more just easier because it's rounded up, right? And God loves us, but a lot of us that go to the gym regularly like uh like our calculations to be as straightforward as possible when it comes to meal prep and and all that type of stuff. We don't need two grams per kilogram body weight. Um and most athletes don't either. Right. So the 1.6 that that uh this lady is on, she was put on that by her sports uh dietitian, right? The dietitian of of that she works with. So I'm not gonna argue with that. It's also like I said, it's the top end of what the study says is is beneficial, but I'm not gonna argue with it, and also it's it's right. So the the science says this sounds so stupid. The science says the sports dietitian is correct. If you know what I mean. I'm and I'm not in the habit of of disagreeing with people who are experts in a certain field, uh, if um at the best of times, right? Unless they say something that is so far outside of anything that is uh that is widely accepted within let's say the scientific community, right? That we have papers on, right? If if you if a geologist comes to me and says the earth is flat, then we're gonna have an argument. That's what I'm saying. If a dietician says someone needs five grams of protein per kilogram body weight, we're gonna have an argument. If they say to this particular person, for you you need the top level of um of protein consumption, the protein uh the top level of protein uh that is been found to be beneficial, yeah. Okay, that's what we're doing, so that's what she needs to do. Um but there's now an element of postpartum recovery to that, and she is three months postpartum. Um again, I'm not gonna give too much away. She's three months postpartum, and um therefore she is not training at the level that she used to be, right? Because we have to take that kind of take that into account. Right, if you consume again a certain level of protein when you're very, very active and training a lot, and then you know you aren't moving as much, aren't training with the same intensity. But you have another activity, you know, feeding a baby and and just general recovery and all that sort of stuff, then you probably don't need to um up your protein levels, right? It doesn't make sense because your activity levels have have dropped rather dramatically in in in her case. Um so it doesn't mean that she's completely static, right? She just recently started rehab about four weeks ago, and um but rehab exercise is nowhere near as intense as full-on training for your sport is. Right? It's not as long and it's not as intense, so therefore, we don't really need to worry about that so much. Same from a calorific perspective, right? Yes, you need to eat a little bit more to make sure you produce enough breast milk and all that type of stuff, and make sure your body has the fuel it needs to recover. But if you're not moving as much, then you know that kind of offsets itself a little bit. So for most people, and this is and for athlete C doesn't need to go higher, and I would say for most people, just a little bit more protein is is fine, right? So if you say if you're not active, prenatal, um say you need I don't know, a gram of protein per um per kilogram body weight, so a lot less than the athlete, right? Um you can probably go up to 1.1, 1.2 and be completely fine. And the easiest way to do that is actually not even worry about how much protein you you take in, but just eat a little bit more, consume a few extra hundred calories, as long as your your split is roughly the same, you'll be fine. Right? Because uh if you consume an extra 300 calories of of food and protein makes up about a hundred calories of that, uh so a third, right? Uh which is ballpark about, right? For most people, um, for healthy eating and all that type of stuff, then you can just say okay, 100 calories, so that's 25 grams of protein more. And if you weigh 60 kg and you went from one gram of protein per kilogram body weight, so 60 up to essentially 85 because you're eating a bit more. There you go. Right? We're crushing it. You're up to 1.3 times 1.3 grams per kilogram body um body weight of that is your protein level. It's it's not rocket science. It's it's not that difficult. You don't need to worry, you don't necessarily need to single out protein as as the the most important macronutrient. Because you need a bit more energy, anyway. So you also need a bit more carbs, you need a bit more fat and all that type of stuff. So, you know, just eat a little bit more, and the protein per kilogram body weight thing will sort itself. Does that make any sense? So, for professional athletes, unless you're training as hard as you were, no, don't worry about it, don't eat more. Um you're probably stayed to the to the earlier levels, unless you need to drop your calorie intake, of course, right? If you're like an Olympic level rower or something like that, you're gonna need to eat a lot less when when you're rehabbing or swimmers, you need to eat a lot less than you are when you're training. But um, but you know, for normal people, for plebs like us, mere mortals, that don't go to the Winter Olympics. Just eat a little bit more and the protein levels will kind of measure out and will level out uh to to where you want to be, as long as you eat a reasonably healthy split, so not 40-30-30 thing, you know, 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat, or either way, doesn't really matter because as soon as you're 40-30-30, you're kind of ballparking the right figure, anyways. Um you're gonna hit everything, and you just have 40-30-30, it's just whatever you prefer, how you split that up. It's it's going to be fine. Uh, so don't worry too much about it. It's a 13 minutes in. That's what he said. After 13 minutes, don't worry about it. It's all good. Um, and this brings me to the next point, which is working with a specialist. So one of the one of the questions that comes up an awful lot is is when should I work with um with a specialist, with a specialist trainer? Um and and it's a it's an excellent, excellent question. So I had an email about this from someone who is a bit older and they had uh a new re um a knee replacement and had arthritis. And I say a bit older, not as old as you might think from the description. So early 50s. Um and not postpartum, anything like that, just early 50s. And they asked they they said they asked me if I'd worked with people with knee replacements before and arthritis and all that sort of stuff, and I have more by luck than by design, to be honest. Um I've I've dealt with some knee replacements, hip hip replacements, and all that type of stuff. But does it matter? Is is the question. It matters from a physio perspective, of course, right? Physio is um right for the early for the rehab stage of that of that knee replacement, it really matters that your physio knows what they're doing, what they're doing, and that your personal trainer doesn't screw anything up. So usually what I would say is if you're going to get a knee replacement, anything like that, you work with a physio um first, and then when they sign you off, you can work with a normal PT. Um whether that normal PT needs to know anything about knee replacement, no, I don't think so. As long as you have an ounce of common sense, and I might get one or two angry emails about this, Peter at healthypostnatobody.com by the way. After the rehab stage of anything. Right? They can so um for and for for a knee replacement, yeah, it really doesn't it just really doesn't matter much. Your knee functions fine, the the physio signed off saying everything is okay and and and good to go, then you can train as normal. Don't go too heavy too early. That's kind of all you need to do, right? Build up, build everything up, build the strength levels up and all that sort of stuff. Like so a normal PT can do that. It's the same with um things like chronic fatigue that come up regularly. I every now and again get an email saying, So do you know anyone in my area that can work with uh like ME or chronic fatigue or anything like that? And I was like, all you need is a good PT. The the point of a personal trainer isn't to beast you as hard as they can. It is to no, the clues in the title, right? Personal. It's to design a program and do your sessions according to your fitness levels on the day and in the moment. So if you don't have a lot of energy on a particular day, your PT should amend the session plan or tell you to take time off, right, if you need it. But this is why I always say that, especially with regards to taking time off. This is why I don't have a cancellation policy for, for instance, um, postpartum women. As long as I haven't left the house yet, I'm not going to kinda charge you for a session you cancel, because stuff happens. Right? Stuff comes up, and I work with with a certain demographic, and if your demographic yeah is new mothers, then you know, stuff will go wrong, and they will have to cancel every now and again because you know, baby gets sick, or baby throws up, or kids need to be, you know, taken out of school urgently, or or whatever, so then you don't charge for that. You shouldn't. Uh, and it's a little bit the same with when you're working with people who have like a chronic fatigue type situation, right? If they wake up in the morning and say, Yeah, I'm not gonna make it out of bed today, then you as a personal trainer who signed up the client with chronic fatigue of or that type of type of condition, shouldn't say, Well, I have a 24-hour notice period. No, you sign them up, right? So you shouldn't charge for it. But what's even better is if your client has the confidence that when they tell you, hey, my energy levels are a bit low today, that you will take that into account and give them a session which helps them feel better and if anything gives them more energy rather than destroying them completely and having them in bed for two days. Right? That and that is quite often where where it starts. I I have one client that's had had a tranchechemic attack, which is which is a mini stroke, right? As long as I know what I'm looking out for, it doesn't matter. We're not doing anything different. I just need to make sure that that guy doesn't stroke out on me. So don't be very blunt about it. Because the paperwork is horrific. No, uh do you know what I mean? It's it's if someone is recovering from an illness, then and they're going through the rehab process, then they should work with a specialist in that stage. This is why postpartum you work with a specialist, there's someone who knows what they're doing uh for the first few months. This is why I always say work with me for three months, right? Uh the the postpartum package that I do, and again, only face-to-face, I'm not selling you anything here because I don't do online stuff, is 24 sessions. Because for most people, 24 is enough. And then you go on your merry way, then you then you can train with absolutely everybody. Doesn't matter, they don't need to as long as you have a level of awareness then of what things should feel like and you know you can communicate that effectively to whoever your new personal trainer is. When there's something feels off or is too heavy or feels too much like hard work, feels feels like you're not in control. Sorry, as I yawned my way through that, um, then it doesn't really matter who you work with. Most of my clients go back to their personal train, most of my postpartum clients go back to their PT. Once they're done with me. The rehab stuff is done. I don't need to see anymore. I don't need to keep an eye on it, and your PT will get a little little uh briefing, a little bit of information on what to look out for. But then if they have half a brain, that'll be fine. Right? So so that is why I'm not a big fan of unless you need it for confidence or you have a really complex medical need, um I'm not a big fan of people only working with personal trainers that have experience with certain health conditions. Because the most important thing in a personal trainer, and whether you work with them successfully or not, is that you kind of get on a little bit as well. And if you narrow the pool, if you narrow the field so much that um not you um can only work with say three or four people out of three or four hundred, then chances are that you won't actually get along with the person you're working with. And if you see the two, three, four hours a day, uh a week, sorry, um then that's gonna be a struggle. And adherence is everything, right? Adherence is key when it comes to exercise and and all that sort of stuff. So just doing the right things repeatedly that is what matters. And if you don't get on with people, then you're gonna stop, you're gonna quit. And that I think is significantly worse than uh than just you know, working with someone who doesn't need to know that much about So there, that's what I was saying. During the rehab stage work with his patient, and afterwards, go work with whoever you like to work with. Just make sure to have a brain and they don't do anything to say. It's that simple. And it's not to be done for another week. Um Peter at healthy body.com. If you have any questions. Um H BMB is still free, by the way, for three months, right? Just throwing that out there. Fear when that's out there. Um and you can you can sign up to the HBMB program and give it to your personal trainer and say, hey, this is what we're following for three months. Most PTs are completely that is the level of guidance that a good PT needs. It's just someone explaining to them this is what we're going to be doing for three months. Um them using their brain a little bit and saying, Oh, okay, so this is why we're doing what we're doing. That's all it is. Anyway, so new bit of music. I'll be back next week with a wonderful interview with Becky Gleed, um who is an absolute machine. We recorded this interview three months ago. And Becky has been very kind and very patient. Um and we're talking the whole perinatal period and going back to work and the body image and all that type of stuff. But like I said, Becky's phenomenal, you're gonna love her. So um there we are. That's for next week. Here's a new bit of music. You take care.