Just how important is post-partum protein REALLY? Should it really be your focus?

In the most waffliest of waffling episodes I have EVER recorded (and I have done my fair share over the past years) I talk about the importance of protein postpartum.

Or actually, I talk about many things and point out that protein isn't the be-and-end all that people claim it is..Or at least it shouldn't the main goal if your increase your calorie consumption.

We often tend to focus on the wrong things when it comes to nutrition and the clue is pretty much in the title there "NUTRITION"..should be about nutrients, rather than macros.

Anyways, that point takes me 20 minutes to get to..but at least I also include some information on the type of nutrients people often forget about (Like Choline) in the run-up to it.

A few links; The Study I mentioned that shows that a lot of breastfeeding women do not increase their calorie intake by the recommended amount, compared to women who use formula (IOW, this is something to pay attention to)

And a very handy spreadsheet by the BDA (British Dietitian Association) with some awesome information.

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.

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, comments or want to suggest a guest/topic   

Transcript

Welcome And Topic Setup

Peter 0:00

Hey, welcome to the LP Post Natal Body Podcast with your postnatal expert beat on up. That as always will be me. This is the podcast for the 17th of August 2026. And today, after apologizing for last week, I will be talking about uh what am I talking about? That's an excellent question. The postpartum protein debate. Is protein as important as we read? Uh as we're often told uh it is. Is it the thing that we should be focusing on postpartum? Um that's pretty much it. It'll be a relatively short one, but there will be a lot in it. So without further ado, here we go. With little

Puppies Plus Apology And Context

Peter 1:04

old me. I am joined here by uh absolutely everybody, um Luigi and Vicky and Peggy and Cookie and Kitty. Everybody's here, so I'm going to try to keep it nice and mellow because you know seven puppies um make uh it's easy for one or two of them to make a noise if I if I get too excited, they get excited. Apologies for last week. Last week everything went wrong. Everything went wrong. In the episode that was supposed to come out last week, which is today's episode, didn't go out. And I meant nothing went out because you know it was not supposed to be a from the vault episode last week, and therefore everything just went up in the air, and nothing nothing happened, which is you know, it's uh it's not good enough and not acceptable. So apologies for that. Um I hope you're well. I hope you're well. I'm uh here on Little Edinburgh. Um it's halfway halfway through the fringe, the through the uh festival. So, you know, busy times in Edinburgh. If you haven't tried to get anywhere, then you know, good luck. We're also in the middle of all the heat waves, so I hope you're uh hope you're safe and your house isn't burnt down and all that type of type of stuff. It's all rather messy. Um

Why Protein Dominates The Conversation

Peter 2:18

I'm gonna keep it simple today. I get a lot of emails about protein, and I've done a lot of emails about diet, postpartum diet already. Um and uh, you know, I've done uh I've published episodes on on Red S where you basically don't get enough nutrients and it affects your menstrual cycle. Um we've spoken a lot about breast milk production and and all that type of stuff. Um and yet I get a lot of emails, and I've done interviews and interviews with dietitians and and some all amazing, right? Um but I still get quite a few emails about this. Um and it's always relating to protein. And and and it does show you, it does show you, as I also clean my glasses, by the way, um, it does show you how dominant this one little macronutrient really is. Protein is is now the the buzzword for almost anything to do with diet. Um and that's a bit of a pickle. It's a bit of it's it's a little bit problematic. Um so I'm gonna have a just take you through it very quickly. Is because is pro is increasing protein postpartum important? Yes, but right, it's it's that sort of thing.

Postpartum Calories And Guideline Reality

Peter 3:46

So I'm a but we all know, we've all been told that once you've given birth, and once you're breastfeeding or expressing and and all that type of stuff, you need to consume more calories than you do when you're not breastfeeding uh post-part, uh breastfeeding or expressing, right? So when you're when you're prenatal, you don't need as many calories as postnatal, right? So you increase, and the official guidelines all say between three to four hundred calories um a day more is what you should be consuming more. So the average recommended daily allowance, and this is average, right? This is always always complete, this should always be completely personalized and individualized, but average calorie intake for uh most for most women, they stick to like 2000 a day, and they say you should opt out by three to four hundred. Now, a lot of websites, a lot of information and a health line and all these sort of things, they have it significantly higher. They say eat 500, 550 a day more if you're breastfeeding, and again, this is all dependent, completely dependent on your personal circumstances. So take all of these as like just a rough indicator um of what you should be doing. Don't take these things as gospel, don't think in the same way that most people don't do with RDA on on the side of uh on the side of food, right? That 2000 calorie a day requirement for maintenance levels for most which they recommend for for for the average woman, so to speak, whatever that means, right? Is nobody takes that seriously, right? You shouldn't. You really, really shouldn't take that seriously, because that is not well just to just to indicate, it's not it doesn't take into account what your uh individual activity level is, it doesn't take into account what your age is, right? Whether someone is 60 or 20, uh doesn't take into account what your activity levels are, it's just the average meh women need roughly that much. Doesn't take into account what your weight is and uh what your what your muscle mass is, and all these type of things. So what your lifestyle is like, so you know these things are just blah figures, they're just yeah, ballpark. So taking that into account gives you some ideas what you should do with the you need three to four hundred calories more per day if you're breastfeeding or express and postpartum, right? It's they're saying, basically saying, listen, it's it's it's a 25% increase between um between 25 years. Um you're waffling Pete. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm waffling because I'm trying to do the trying to do the math quickly in my head and I'm failing spectacularly between 18 and 25 percent um a day more is is roughly what everybody's saying. Now that's obviously a huge margin, right? And like I said, some some sites will say you need to um you need to eat even more than a three to five hundred. Now, that is a lot more. You know, 25% more a day is is a lot more, and most women don't eat anywhere near that much more postpartum than they do uh prenatal. Now, part of the benefit of that is that most, and this is again, this is completely average, most people overconsume calories anyways, right? So the benefit of so to speak of overeating is that postpartum you don't need to lose to eat that much more because you're already in a calorie um uh overload, right? You're already eating in in uh you're already eating at at a calorie surplus when you do uh on if if you do that on the Jesus P. If you're already in a calorie surplus prenatal, then postpartum you don't you can don't need to increase your calorie intake by that much. And this is where a lot of women uh find that they lose weight postpartum uh as an unintended consequence. That doesn't necessarily mean that losing weight is a good thing. Uh, it also doesn't necessarily mean that your baby is short of nutrients. But what we do know, and this is important, is that studies show that 53% of women don't eat 400 to 500 calories, three to four hundred calories more postpartum than they do prenatal?

Study Findings And Undereating Risks

Peter 8:51

And I will link to the study. It's a study that was uh published in March of 25. Uh basically, does maternal diet vary during the postpartum period according to infant feeding type? Um basically, does is there a difference between how much women eat postpartum, uh between those who breastfeed, those who express, and those who bottle feed? Um those who use uh use uh formula? And the answer is no. 53% of women who breastfeed don't actually eat more than women who or haven't increased their consumption calorie consumption by more than um women who are um who are using formula. Um and that does become a little bit problematic, right? If you're not already in a calorie surplus. So if you find how to phrase this, if you find, because I hate BMI as well, it's uh again, this stuff should all be individualized. If you find that you are at a good weight for health reasons, uh and you and you're healthy, and you're not obese morbidly obese, right? Those are the those are the things I would uh say. I mean you find out post uh prenatal, you find out, um you do need to eat more post-vital to make sure that you don't harm yourself when uh when you're breastfeeding, right? Because your baby will get the nutrients from the breast milk, right? And that means that those nutrients come from you. The breast milk comes from you, and and if you don't consume enough to keep yourself healthy, then that very quickly becomes problematic. Um, I wrote about this a long, long time ago in an article um where I basically said clickbait headline, rage bait headline, to be fair, your baby has a parasite. Right? By that I mean, don't mean if you're wrong, I got a lot of emails, so I got I got the response I wanted. Right, it was a it was a jackassy title, but fundamentally the article explained that it's it's the baby will get the nutrients from the breast milk, uh, and that means that if you don't consume enough, you will be nutrient deficient, and at some you can keep that going for a little while, and at some stage, and you will also not pass on enough nutrients to the baby, and that becomes then becomes problematic. But as you know, I focus on the mother's health much more than on the baby's health, right? So that is the focus of everything I do post Python. Um that is that that is an issue, right? You need to be healthy for yourself, for your partner, for the baby, right, for your children. You need to be healthy. So for you to make sure you get enough nutrients is is essential. But that doesn't all need to be protein. Right? Protein is just one of those. So when when when I say official guidelines say you should eat between three to four hundred calories more, and like I said, others say four to five hundred, just ballpark it, right? Um not all of that should be protein. You shouldn't consume like an extra 80 grams of protein uh a day, which is um a decent increase in the amount of protein. Um carbohydrates are still very important. There are there are certain benefits. So I I think the the most important things we try to get our our micro splits right, sure. Right? Your carbs, your proteins, your fats, and you keep 40, 30, 30, or 30, 30, 30, or whatever, however you want to do it. I don't really care that much. Most people get more than enough protein. But there are some micronutrients, your vitamin C's and all that type of stuff that are in certain types of food that are actually really important, uh, things like choline and all that type of stuff.

Choline And Overlooked Nutrition Basics

Peter 13:32

Right? Choline is is one of those things that is it's actually it's it's uh I will link to this from the British Dieticians Association. Um they have a very clear um clear definition, right? So as they will say, choline is it's one of those essential nutrients that you know uh isn't included in standard postnatal multivitamins. Um but it is really important in in your nutrition, especially for new mothers who are who are breastfeeding, um or expressing, right? When I say breastfeeding, assume I include expressing with that. I don't want to continue, but it's it's breastfeeding or formula feeding. Those are the two things, um, just for clarity. Now, you don't need a supplement coding if you're formula feeding, usually, right? If again, if again, everything is average, ballpark, vague, not individualized, because not tailored to you. But you do when when you're breastfeeding, you need to basically give um take enough choline uh uh to provide basically to put it in your breast milk to pass it on to your baby, and that's for baby's brain health. Choline is one of those building blocks that supports like memory, mood, brain function, um and ensuring adequate intake of it will help, well, you of course, right? Uh, but also your baby's brain health. Um for it for like for your child's development, it's really important. Like for the first six months, of course, your baby relies on your milk for your uh essential nutrients, uh, essential nutrients being things that we don't make, right? Um, and choline supports healthy growth and uh neurological development. Now, when you're breastfeeding, you will need roughly five to five fifty milligrams of choline a day. Um, and to give you an indication as to as to how much that actually is, an egg has about 150, so you need free eggs worth. Now, a lot of your protein needs are uh so your your your eggs, your chicken breasts, your fish, uh salmon and cod and pork and even plant-based things like soybeans and kidney beans, shiitake mushrooms and broccoli, they all have choline in them. So if you have a healthy, varied diet and you see there are mushrooms and broccoli, but then then you will find that you get enough choline. So, again, even though you find it in a protein source, like beef and chicken and eggs, that doesn't mean you need to increase your protein intake for the sake of protein intake. The egg is beneficial for more than just um more than just the protein.

Iron Deficiency Or Newborn Exhaustion

Peter 16:56

The choline is beneficial, iron is another thing, right? I iron is one of those, and everybody, everybody's already had a kid will know this, right? Iron is one of those important minerals, you know, for your energy and your wound healing, and and you know, iron deficiency really can happen. It's really easy to uh to happen, especially if if you're if you're as one of my clients used to say, if you're just popping kids out, boom-boom, right back to back, so to speak, it's very easy to become uh iron deficient, right? It can you store enough iron. Most people have have enough iron and you store it, but if you have a couple of kids close together or you had a lot of blood loss during childbirth loss during childbirth and all that sort of stuff, it's very easy to become uh iron deficient, and just the whole part of that are part of the symptoms of iron deficiency are the normal things that people always associate with postpartum life. So constantly being exhausted, uh low mood, which comes from being exhausted, you would think, breathlessness, you know, just being out of breath a little bit, um your nails being a bit brittle and all that type of stuff. That type of thing, uh, wound healing, poor wound healing, all that type of stuff. Now, they're all symptoms of an iron deficiency as well. So, again, iron-rich foods, usually meat and fish, um, pulses, your dark leafy greens, and all that sort of stuff. Um and you can you pair that with other like fruits, uh vitamin C rich foods, so fruits and vegetables and all that type of stuff, or indeed your vitamin C supplement, um, can help iron, um help enhance iron absorption. But um basically again, one of the reasons um it's beneficial to up your intake of um things like pulses and and fish and all that isn't again not just for the protein levels but also for the iron. Um if you are feeling very iron deficient and you know your Tesco doesn't your Tesco supplement isn't doing the trick, speak to your GP, of course, right? You might need there's loads of iron medication that that that uh supplementation medication that that that you can get, right? As in there's a there's a lot of that, and it's very easy to describe and all that sort of stuff is very easy to fix. Um because it's very easy to mistake the symptoms of being an em being being iron deficient, uh uh with just being tired because you have a baby and the baby doesn't sleep as well, and you're up several times and you're breastfeeding and all that type of stuff, right? So it's it's an easy one, it's an easy one to miss. And apologies, and I I I I know I'm rambling this episode. Um I'm distracted. Um but I hope it does make kind of kind of make sense. So

The Real Takeaway On Protein

Peter 20:32

to get back to the protein point, right? So we know we there are there are proteins, there are sources of protein, foods that are sources of protein that are beneficial for other reasons, choline and iron and all of being one of them, uh, being some of them. Um but that does not mean you need to eat more protein from muscle. Right? You you eat those foods because the foods themselves are beneficial when it comes to micronutrients. They're not necessarily you don't necessarily need to increase that that's that's a point that I should have gotten to, admittedly, like 20 minutes ago, 15 minutes ago. Um you don't need to increase particular micronutrients, fats, carbs, and proteins, postpartum. You want to increase your overall food intakes so that you make sure you get enough of each micronutrient. That is the point I was trying to make. Which, like I said, took me 20 minutes to get there. But we got there eventually. This is the joy of having had seven, eight dogs all week. I'm absolutely shattered. Um, you know what I'm talking about. How you know how that feels. Right? So that is the point. We're focusing on the wrong thing by focusing on protein. That is That is the point I was trying to make. Focus on the micro Focus on getting enough food in and it being overall a healthy mix of food. And you'll be al you don't need to worry about whether you need uh whether you had your protein micro. Most people are fine. I've I've always said this. I've said this for absolute ages. Most people in the West are are uh over consuming protein in in in my opinion. There's a lot of uh you need two grams of protein per kilogram body weight, that type of stuff. And and you don't, you're not a bodybuilder. You don't need that much of unless you're a bodybuilder, which is you don't you don't need that much water, right? But most of you aren't um if you're not a professional athlete, then you don't need to focus that much on uh what your carb or fat or protein tablet is or you want to focus on uh an overall diet that's enough that is enough to sustain you and give you all all the nutrients you need or the energy you need to to function and to function well. And then when you put a button on your breath, you need to eat a bit more because you need a button of those nutrients on to the baby on the data. I could have said in 20 seconds, but I got there. Apologies

Wrap-Up And What’s Next

Peter 23:33

in a terrible podcast, but you know, it's it's we're 23 minutes on one episode of 370 odd. So I'm tired. I need to shave an either now. I love you all. Thank you for listening. Peter at healthyplosnatal body.com. Next week from the vault, the week after that, I have interviews coming out again. So thank you for listening. I'll be back next week. Bye now.